Prey

The Predator franchise is the ugly step-child of horror monster cannon. Fans know about it, are aware of it, but don't necessarily give it the credit it ...

The director puts his faith in a relative newcomer to shoulder the movie. At every increasing moment of this journey, Naru experiences a change in front of the camera, and it’s not just talked about in passing. Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a Comanche woman who aims to become a warrior by embarking on the “kühtaamia,” a rite of passage ritual where the hunter hunts the hunter who hunts them.

If it bleeds, we can kill it. But how does Prey connect to the bigger Predator franchise, and is there an end credits scene? Let's discuss!

So just like in other installments of the Predator franchise, the victorious hunter has to figure out how the alien tech works and how to find ways to defeat it. It’s this pistol that Naru tosses to the elders… It's really cool, but the last thing we see is a shot of the Predator ships emerging from a group of clouds... And in fact, the basic story in Prey is also pretty standard Predator-style stuff, in a good way – a fierce human warrior uses their wits and their environment to hunt down and kill a deadly alien warrior whose sole purpose for being there is to hunt and kill. As our hero, she’s the one who starts to figure out that there’s something out there in the forest that could very well be hunting her tribe. Hulu’s Prey takes The Predator way back in time, pitting one of the greatest hunters in the galaxy versus Comanche warriors in the 1700s.

For a striking film like Prey, a highly anticipated entry in the Predator series, to be relegated to streaming is a grave disservice to cinema.

The closer and closer the film was to its release, the more strange of a decision this became. While it certainly seems like Prey will thankfully get some sort of physical release later this year, it is hard to shake the feeling of how quickly this could change if a streaming service decided to prohibit that. While you should absolutely still take in the viciously vibrant experience of Prey, its lackluster release serves as the most present and profound example of why solely streaming is not the best path forward. While this is by no means the first time that something like this has happened in the streaming age, there still is the unshakeable feeling that this was a missed opportunity. Lean and mean with a sharp eye for striking visuals, it is a genuinely outstanding work that demands to be seen on the biggest canvas possible. It features a riveting performance from Amber Midthunder as Naru, a resourceful hunter who is seeking to somehow track down the infamous Predator and kill it.

A film saga that began with Arnold Schwarzenegger machine-gunning a jungle in search of an invisible enemy has a new instalment – and shines an insightful.

but we have people within the Comanche nation that have that knowledge, so we were really able to hone in and really get everything really accurate for that time.” This ranged from the colour palate of the wardrobes being dependent on plant pigments that would have been found in the area in the 1700s, to the hairstyles and makeup, and fight tactics and weaponry. Brando is one of only three actors to decline the award in its 94-year history – and the only one in protest to events depicted onscreen. “Even the hide-art [drawn on animal skins] that you see at the very end of the film… and laying that message with the Creator.” and on television, and movie reruns.” Littlefeather also namechecked ‘ recent happenings’ at Wounded Knee, where Federal agents were in a standoff with activists who had occupied the town in protest over high level corruption and government mistreatment of Indigenous people’s civil rights. That was Sacheen Littlefeather, a White Mountain Apache actor and the President of National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. The lead belligerents in the film pivot between the predatory alien, and a repulsive camp of French fur traders – who value the life they find on the plains even less than does the alien creature in their midst. By the time cinema started interpreting history to the masses in the late 19th century, it was immediately guilty of prejudice. Amongst others, director James Young Deer (also known as James Young Johnson) who identified as Winnebago, made some 150 silent westerns between 1910 and 1913 for major French studio Pathe Frères. Young Deer’s protagonists were often heroic Natives who held the moral high ground in the movies, enjoyed interracial marriages, and lived authentic lives free of oppression. that does affect you,” says Midthunder, adding that few of the faces she saw on TV growing up were representative of her culture. An opportunity – and threat – arrives in the shape of a mysterious killer who leaves unfamiliar traces on the ground. It’s the story of an alien humanoid brutally hunting an enemy-by-default that fights back on its own terms, all amidst the beguiling mists of 18th century rural America. But beneath this subversive, hunter-becomes-hunted storyline – which began with 1987’s Predator – the film’s depiction of North American Indigenous people, and their representation both onscreen and behind the camera, sets Prey apart.