Prey Predator (2022): Cast, Plot, Ending and Where to Watch

Prey (2022) is a survival story set in 1719, in which a Comanche healer called Naru decides she is ready to hunt and discovers that something far deadlier is already hunting on her land.

Naru wants to prove herself as a hunter, although her brother Taabe and the other men doubt her. She sees strange lights in the sky and reads them as a sign from the Thunderbird. When a mountain lion attacks a hunting party, Taabe's success against it earns him the role of war chief. Naru, sure that something dangerous is out there, heads into the woods with her dog to find proof.

If you are new to the series, Prey (2022) works as a standalone story, since it is set centuries before predator 1987 and needs no earlier viewing. The full order of the saga is laid out in predator movies in order.

Naru is a healer in a Comanche camp who dreams of joining the hunters and is held back by her tribe's expectations. She reads a bright streak in the sky as a sign, but Taabe and the others brush it off. After a mountain lion injures a hunter, Naru is knocked out and Taabe kills the cat, which makes him war chief.

Naru then finds odd tracks and kills in the wilderness and realizes a far more dangerous hunter is stalking the land. She survives a bog and a bear, and is then taken by French fur trappers, who also hold Taabe. The alien Predator, which cloaks itself and uses advanced weapons, slaughters most of the trappers.

A trapper named Raphael teaches Naru to use a flintlock pistol, and her herbs help hide his body heat from the creature, but it kills him. Taabe is also killed fighting the creature. Naru uses the last trapper as bait and lures the Predator into a bog. She turns its own mask and weapon against it and kills it.

She takes its head back to her people, is named a war chief, and tells the tribe it is time to move on.

Prey (2022) premiered on Hulu on August 5, 2022, as a Hulu Original. Outside the United States it streamed on Star+ and on Disney+ through the Star hub.

According to ComicBook.com, the world premiere took place at San Diego Comic-Con, though no exact date has been published for that screening. Prey (2022) was a streaming release, so Box Office Mojo and The Numbers show no theatrical grosses for it.

Three days after launch, 20th Century Studios announced that Prey (2022) was the No. 1 premiere on Hulu to date, across both film and TV series debuts, based on hours viewed. That claim comes from the studio itself, so it is best read as the distributor's own figure.

Naru wins by turning the Predator's own equipment against it, and in my opinion the finale of Prey (2022) works because the film has already taught her every trick she uses. She lures the creature into the same kind of bog she survived earlier, and she uses the last trapper as bait rather than trying to outfight a hunter that is bigger and better armed. Compare that with predator 1987, where a squad of mercenary soldiers goes into the jungle with rifles and loses. Here the hunted party is one healer, so the film has to win by cunning.

The herbs are the clearest piece of setup. Naru's healer skills help hide Raphael's body heat from the creature, which is a direct answer to the thermal vision the saga established in 1987. Raphael still dies, even after Naru has taught him to shoot the flintlock pistol and he has taught her to shoot it too, and that scene matters: it shows the cloak and the weapons can be beaten but not casually. It could be argued that this is the film's central idea, because the healer who was told she could not hunt wins through plants and terrain, not strength.

The creature's design supports the same reading. Dan Trachtenberg has said he wanted something more feral and animal like than the 1980s suit look, and Dane DiLiegro, who is 6 feet 9 inches tall, gives it a physical presence that reads as a predator in the animal sense. Den of Geek also reports that most scenes used natural light and the night scenes only torchlight, so the bog fight stays dark and tense without the neon gadget glow of later entries such as predators 2010.

The homecoming closes the arc. Naru returns carrying the trophy, is named a war chief, and then tells the tribe it is time to move on. Perhaps that last line is the real ending, because she advises her people to relocate in case more danger comes. The end credits point the same way, with ledger style art of several Predator ships descending toward the tribe.

As a prequel, that image links the film to Predator (1987) and to the anthology predator killer of killers, which sits first in chronological order and, according to Gizmodo, reveals Naru in stasis at its end. Prey (2022) sits second, as covered on predator timeline. Compared with predator badlands, which follows a Yautja hero, this is the one entry where the human is the protagonist and the creature stays an unexplained threat.

Prey (2022) has no separate live action post credit scene confirmed, but the end credits carry ledger style artwork showing several Predator ships descending toward the tribe. The artwork hints at future visits and sets up the idea that Naru's warning to move on was justified.

Prey was filmed in Alberta, Canada, with principal photography beginning in June 2021. Most of the main shoot took place on Stoney Nakoda Nation land west of Calgary.

Additional exteriors were shot at Moose Mountain, and the river scenes were filmed on the Elbow River in Kananaskis. Trachtenberg said the Elbow River was the first time he had to ford a river to get to set, a detail reported by Narcity Calgary.

Prey (2022) carries several production details that set it apart from the earlier films in the series.

The film was shot in English, and Hulu also offers a full Comanche language dub. Producer Jhane Myers called it the first time the language has been used in a full dub.

Most scenes were shot with natural light, and night scenes were lit only by torchlight. Dane DiLiegro, who is 6 feet 9 inches tall, played the Predator.

The Numbers lists a production budget of $65 million. Prey (2022) is certified R in the US, 15 in the UK and MA 15+ in Australia.