I’m hesitant to admit this because it usually bites me in the ass, but Prey is my most anticipated movie of the year. The Predator franchise means a lot to me, they are my favorite action films, and this chapter, which takes place in 1700 as a female Comanche warrior (played by Amber Midthunder) defends her tribe from the alien hunter, looks incredible. It’s such a cool idea that I wondered where director Dan Trachtenberg came up with it. In an interview with Empire, he pretty much says exactly what a fan like me wants to hear: that it was inspired by a key death scene in the original 1987 movie.
Well, sorta.
“I was dying to see it, but I was not allowed. In third grade, I was on the way to a karate tournament with these [older kids] who had seen it, and over the entire trip they described the whole movie. I vividly remember them saying there was this character, Billy [played by Sonny Landham], a Native American scout who fights the Predator on the bridge over a waterfall.”
Okay, now this scene definitely did NOT happen. In the movie, Billy separates himself from the rest of the group, ready to fac the Predator one-on-one atop a bridge. He cuts himself deep in the chest to attract the creature’s attention, but we never actually see the fight. The action cuts to the rest of the team, and all we hear are Billy’s anguished screams as he dies. It’s one of many memorable scenes in the movie because of what it doesn’t show. The rest is pretty graphic.
So for young Trachtenberg, this was a huge disappointment.
“I just thought, ‘What?!’ But that image captured my imagination.”
And so Trachtenberg was taken with this idea of a Native American warrior battling the Predator, and dwelled on this premise until 20th Century Studios allowed him to make the movie.
“I wanted to shift the focus to someone who would normally be a sidekick,” he continued. “In “Predator,” Billy was just one of the men on the team. In “Prey,” we’re watching someone lead this movie that has never lead this type of movie before. I wanted to make a survivor’s story about someone who was really up against the impossible, to make it feel even more severe than those we had seen before.”
He’s not kidding. On paper this is an overwhelming mismatch: a young woman with primitive weapons facing an elite, high-tech foe. But then, it’s those underdog odds that have fueled every Predator story, so Prey fits right in.
“The key was I never wanted it to feel ‘easier’ for Naru. The premise is David versus Goliath — I didn’t want to make Goliath smaller. [The Predator] doesn’t have its plasma caster, but it does have heat vision and other tools.”
The Predator has a shield which it can use for defense and as a weapon. Still, the odds are pretty long for Midthunder’s Naru and her tribe.
Prey hits Hulu on August 5th. The film will have a pretty big presence at Comic-Con and I’m hoping to catch every bit of it, possibly a screening, too. Fingers crossed.
