Hulu’s new Predator prequel film Prey is out now, and it returns the series to form with a bloody vengeance. Created by 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg, Prey is set 300 years before the iconic 1987 original movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This time around, the titular alien faces off against Naru (Amber Midthunder), an aspiring warrior of the Comanche Nation. The film honors the classic sci-fi franchise as well as breaks new ground by setting the story against a vivid depiction of Native American culture during the 18th century. It’s easily one of the best Predator movies of all time.
But making a sequel to a long-running series like Predator comes with certain challenges. There’ll always be the temptation to shoe-horn in easter eggs; we’ve certainly seen that done in Predator movies past, as when different characters say they have to “get to the chopper” or they “don’t have time to bleed.” It’s easy for that kind of thing to feel forced.
Fortunately, Prey has a bit more restraint. “There were lots of jokes on set about maybe we call a horse Chopper or the fur trappers say let’s go chop… I think that would have been a little too far,” Trachtenberg told Digital Spy.
"Frankly, there was no Easter egg – maybe except for one in particular – that we had the preconceived notion of trying to jam it in. We really were embracing the lore that was present and telling a story that is somewhat similar to the story of the original film in its structure. That led us through encountering little obvious moments where Easter eggs would arise. There was never any moment where we were like, ‘We’ve got to put this in the movie’. I think that can hamper the intention."
This approach helps the finished film. Prey nods to every other mainline Predator movie at one point or another, but it always feels justified in the moment, and far more likely to make fans cheer than groan.
Now that the film’s out, let’s hit on six ways that Prey pays homage to the rest of the Predator franchise. Note that there will be SPOILERS for Prey beyond this point.
1. “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”
One of the most famous lines from the original Predator comes when Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team of commandos first learn that the Predator’s blood has fallen in the jungle after one of their scuffles. “If it bleeds, we can kill it,” he proclaims.
Prey has this line as well, delivered by Naru’s brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). This could have easily been cheesy, but instead is a fist pump moment as Naru and Taabe realize that they have a chance against the extraterrestrial Predator.
2. The blood-soaked Predator
Though Naru catches fleeting glimpses of the Predator (Dane DiLiegro) or its ship early on in Prey, it’s not until it goes head to head with a grizzly bear that she finally sees it fully for the first time. After it kills the bear with its bare hands, the Predator lifts it triumphantly over its head while Naru watches in horror. The bear bleeds out all over the Predator, revealing the alien despite its invisibility cloaking.
This same thing happens during the opening sequence of 2018’s The Predator, when Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) accidentally uses a Predator’s gauntlet to disable one of the creatures and eviscerate a body hanging from a tree above it. As blood covers the Predator’s prone form, its cloaked shape is revealed in gruesome fashion.
3. The Predator’s physical appearance
If you went into Prey expecting the Predator to look similar to the classic design used in the first two films, you likely got a pretty big surprise when its mask came off for the first time. The Predator in Prey has a very different look from the one that stalked Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover back in the day.
“For this one, I really wanted to make this version of the Predator so much more feral and ferocious and animalistic, from its movements to its silhouette and its design,” Tratchenberg told Digital Spy. “That was something that we looked at the other iterations and tried to zig where they zagged a little bit.”
The Predator in the new prequel film certainly does feel much more aggressive and nimble than any we’ve seen before. But though it has many features that are brand new, the actual creature design is something we’ve seen before in 2010’s Predators. The Berserker Predator that Adrian Brody’s Royce faces off against in that film looks reminiscent of the Predator in Prey, with a similar facial design and skin texture.
4. Taabe’s cut
At one point in the film, both Naru and her brother Taabe are captured by European pioneers. Naru refuses to tell them what she knows about the Predator, and as a result they torture Taabe by slicing a deep gash diagonally across his chest.
The placement of the cut is a very subtle nod to the first Predator film, when the half-Native American tracker Billy (Sonny Landham) cuts his own chest with a knife as he waits to face the Predator. Taabe’s cut is in the exact same place. Trachtenberg has talked previously about how the concept for Prey came about as a response to Billy’s character in the original Predator, and this was a cool way to pay homage to him without making it too obvious.
5. The final showdown
The final showdown between Naru and her alien adversary has a lot of references to the original Predator film. To start, she ingests a pinch of a flower called orange totsiyaa, which cools her blood and hides her from the Predator’s infrared vision before facing it. While Dutch didn’t have any orange totsiyaa on hand, he achieved the same effect by covering his body with mud right before his own date with the Predator.
Then, once the alien approaches, there’s one scene where it’s directly behind Naru as she stands frozen and invisible to it. Amber Midthunder’s eyes go wide as it nears, looming over her just before she steps quietly aside to let it pass. In the 1987 film, Dutch and the Predator play a game of cat and mouse through the trees before he’s eventually cornered in a rocky outcropping, where the Predator comes up behind him in a very similar fashion and he’s forced to remain perfectly still to avoid being seen. There’s even a similar emphasis on Schwarzenegger’s eyes in the moment.
Lastly, after Naru knocks the Predator into the quicksand pit, she lays back against a tree and attempts to goad the Predator into one last trap, saying “c’mon, c’mon…do it!” This mirrors one of the final moments in Dutch’s confrontation with the alien in the original movie.
6. The flintlock pistol
The final reference we’re going to discuss is also by far the most important. One of the most iconic moments in the entire Predator franchise comes at the end of 1990’s Predator 2 when Lt. Harrigan (Danny Glover) defeats a Predator in single combat aboard its ship, only to find himself surrounded by a whole group of its companions. Rather than kill Harrigan, the eldest Predator gives him a flintlock pistol as a trophy to commemorate his victory before the ship blasts off back to outer space. On the pistol is an inscription that has been the source of fan theories for more than three decades: “Raphael Adolini 1715.”
Remember when Trachtenberg said there was one particular easter egg that had been intentionally planned for Prey? I’d be willing to bet quite a lot of money that it was this flintlock pistol, which Naru acquires during the movie. After the Predator slaughters the pioneers in spectacular fashion, their translator begs Naru to use her herbalism skills to help him with a grisly wound. In exchange, he gives her his flintlock pistol — the flintlock pistol, with the very same inscription. That most likely makes that translator none other than Raphael Adolini himself.
Thirty-two years after Lt. Harrigan was given the 18th century flintlock pistol, we have finally gotten to see it in the hands of its original owner. This is sure to fuel even more speculation about how the pistol goes from being in Naru’s possession to another Predator’s…but for now, this is a pretty huge moment in the Predator mythos.
Prey is available to stream now, exclusively on Hulu.
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