Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, “Prey” is the story of a young woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the Predator and Comanche.
“Prey” bills itself as an origin story of the first Predator alien to appear on Earth. This one is fitted with slightly retro versions of the weapons wielded by the late actor Kevin Peter Hall in the first film. The Predator’s modus operandi is the same, it is a hunter and it’s looking for trophies of prey. This gives the creature a kindred spirit of sorts in Naru. Naru is teased by the guys, who state that hunting is men’s work, but we learn she can hold her own in a fight. She’s twice as tough as she looks, and three times more observant than the others. Naru is the one who first notices that there’s a new creature on their land.
During an interview with SlashFilm, director Dan Trachtenberg mentioned the film’s creative team struggled with what he called the “‘Hunt For Red October’ thing,” where the characters speak Russian before transitioning into English. He said they never quite came up with a way to make that work, so instead, the film was shot in English and Comanche. “Both languages are spoken, but when you hear English, it’s as if it’s Comanche,” he said. “But what Jhane is speaking to is on Hulu, there will be a Comanche dub of the movie, so you can watch the entire movie in Comanche with the original actors returning to perform their roles. In an interview with Empire, Trachtenberg went on to say “There’s a lip-match (choosing words to match the actor’s mouth movements as closely as possible) that we do now. It won’t be like watching old kung fu movies.”
