For the first stretch of Prey – the new film from 10 Cloverfield Director Dan Trachtenberg – you’d be forgiven for not realising that it was in any way connected to the Predator franchise.
The film’s setting, in the Comanche Nation tribe in 1719, is quite unlike any previous entry in the series – and it’s only when the iconic alien hunter rears its famously ugly head that it becomes clear this is very much a franchise film.
But how does the prequel actually connect to the other films in the series?
Well, the honest answer is that aside from a few nods – and of course the presence of the beast itself – the film does not largely concern itself with much franchise mythology.
We know that this is the one of the first visits of the vicious extraterrestrial species and that it took place almost 300 years before the famous encounter with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, but the film doesn’t necessarily aim to explore how things developed between those two battles.
Regardless, given the time period between the two films, one of the key duties for production was in ensuring that this seemed like a slightly less developed version of the Predator than the one Arnie famously dispatched.
“There was a very tricky balance in needing to make this movie feel like it’s 300 years prior to the original, but also still feeling like it’s very technologically advanced,” explained Trachtenberg.
“They devised this bone mask that feels more ancient and archaic and more brutal, but still interweaving organic and tact to feel cool and imposing.”
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Meanwhile, one nod that does specifically link back to a later Predator film concerns the pistol that lead character Naru (Amber Midthunder) picks up during her adventure.
When she returns to her tribe having defeated the Predator, we discover that this weapon bears the name Raphael Adolini – making it the very same pistol that was handed to Danny Glover’s Lieutenant Mike Harrigan at the end of Predator 2.
And while the plot might not contain that many other overt links to the other films, there are scenes and lines of dialogue which deliberately recall previous moments in the franchise, something which Trachtenberg spoke about in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.
“It’s a lot of fun having this movie have an interaction with fans of the franchise,” he said.
“Obviously the mud pit sequence has an interaction layer there, there are other things that a number of our characters say that are very relevant to what they’re experiencing – and you wouldn’t know that they are allusions to previous moments in the franchise, but if you’re a diehard fan, you will recognise them.”
Read more:
- Prey review: Pared-down Predator prequel works a treat
- Prey’s Amber Midthunder on whether she’d return for future films
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