Prey is a 2022 American science fiction action horror film based on the Predator franchise. It is the fifth installment and is a prequel to the first four films, being set in the Northern Great Plains in North America in 1719. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison. It stars Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Julian Black Antelope, Bennett Taylor, and Dane DiLiegro. The story revolves around Naru, a skilled Comanche warrior, who is striving to prove herself as a hunter. She finds herself having to protect her people from a vicious, humanoid alien that hunts humans for sport, as well as from French fur traders who are attacking her people and destroying the Buffalo they rely on for survival.
Development of the film began during the production of The Predator (2018), when producer John Davis was approached by Trachtenberg and Aison, with a concept that they had been developing since 2016. In late-2020, the film's title was revealed to be the codename for the fifth installment in the franchise. Filming took place around Calgary during summer 2021, with the entire film shot in English and some sequences shot in Comanche as well. The remaining sequences were dubbed into Comanche by the cast, reprising their roles.
Prey premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2022, and was released by 20th Century Studios as a Hulu original film in the United States, It was also released on Disney+ Star internationally on August 5. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences, Midthunder's performance, Trachtenberg's direction, and the Indigenous casting, with many critics calling it the best Predator installment since the first film.
Plot[]
In 1719 in the Great Plains, Naru, a young Comanche woman trained as a healer, dreams of becoming a great hunter like her brother, Taabe. While tracking deer with her dog, Sarii, she witnesses the lights of an alien Predator's spacecraft, which she interprets as a Thunderbird, taking it as a sign to prove herself. At the village, one of their tribe's hunters has been taken by a mountain lion. Taabe says Naru can come on the search party, but only so she can provide medical treatment if they find the hunter alive. They retrieve the wounded hunter and depart, though Taabe stays behind to find and kill the big cat. Finding large unusual tracks and a meticulously skinned rattlesnake, Naru circles back with Paake and finds Taabe. Together the three set a trap for the mountain lion but it kills Paake.
Naru faces off with the big cat on the branch of a tree but, after being distracted by the strange sounds and lights of the Predator in the distance, falls and strikes her head. She wakes up in her family home, having been carried back by Taabe. He later returns to the village carrying the dead mountain lion, earning him the title of War Chief. Convinced of a greater threat they've never seen before, Naru departs with Sarii. She comes across a herd of skinned bison left to rot on the plains. She is baffled by the wasteful slaughter, and says a prayer for their spirits. Eventually, she stumbles into a mud-filled bog pit, which nearly swallows her before she escapes. Naru and Sarii are later attacked by a grizzly bear. As they flee for their lives, the bear is killed by the Predator, giving Naru time to escape before running into a group of Comanche sent to find her. The Predator ambushes and kills the men in combat, while Naru is caught in a foothold trap; the Predator leaves as it no longer sees her as a threat.
French voyageurs, responsible for slaughtering the bison, come to check their trap, find Naru, and cage her. Their translator, Raphael Adolini, questions Naru about the Predator, who the Frenchmen have encountered before. When she refuses to talk, the lead voyageur reveals that he has Taabe captive and tortures him before using both siblings as bait for the Predator. While tied to a tree, Taabe admits to his sister that she had weakened the mountain lion, enabling him to kill it. The Predator kills most of the Frenchmen while Taabe and Naru escape. Naru rescues Sarii from the camp and stumbles across a dying Raphael, who teaches her how to use his flintlock pistol in exchange for medical treatment for his severed leg. Naru gives him herbs that reduce his body heat to stanch the bleeding. When the Predator arrives, Raphael plays dead, and Naru realizes that, due to his reduced heat, the creature cannot see him. After it steps on Raphael, he screams, and the Predator kills him.
Taabe arrives on horseback to rescue Naru. Together they weaken the Predator, but it kills Taabe. Naru flees and finds the surviving lead Frenchman. She knocks him out, severs one of his legs, and gives him an unloaded gun before eating the herbs to hide her body heat, baiting the Predator to kill the voyageur. She uses Raphael's pistol to ambush the creature, knocking off its mask, which she has previously seen to hold the targeting system for the Predator's spear gun. She steals the device and flees into the woods. Naru uses the Frenchman's severed leg to lure the Predator into the area with the mud-filled bog pit, where she has positioned the creature's mask so that it targets the creature stuck in the pit. Without the mask, the Predator is less effective, so Naru injures it significantly before dragging it into the bog. As the Predator rises from the pit, it fires the spear gun at Naru and misses; the projectile bounces around and homes in on the Predator, killing it. Naru severs its head and paints her face with its glowing green blood. She brings the head and the flintlock pistol back to her tribe. They honor her victory by declaring Naru as the new War Chief.