When Prey was officially revealed to the world it came with a surprise, the next Predator movie would dial back the clock and be set hundreds of years in the past. Most of the films in the series at large have been set in the present day, with sequels like Predator 2 and The Predator taking place in the city and the suburbs, respectively. Prey however is set in 1719 in the Comanche Nation, not only making it a franchise prequel but making the potential for its connectivity to the other movies seem unlikely. If you assumed as much about Prey though, you’d be wrong. Spoilers Follow!
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About midway through the events of Prey a new threat emerges. Not only is Amber Midthunder’s Naru forced to fend off an alien trophy hunter from another planet, but a group of French fur trappers are also making their way across the land, and killing just as indiscriminately as the Predator. Eventually Naru is captured by the trappers who go on to use her as bait to lure the Predator in for the kill. Naturally that doesn’t exactly work, but that scene also reveals on of the trappers has a bit of a change of heart and works to help Naru, especially after all his friends have been massacred. That trapper a man by the name of Raphael Adolini.
When you just read the name it might not mean much, but hardcore Predator fans should recognize it. Let’s rewind to the conclusion of 1990’s Predator 2. After killing the City Hunter in a battle aboard his ship, Danny Glover’s Detective Harrigan is given a prize by one of the Elder Predators to celebrate his kill, a flintlock pistol with a brass plate that reads “Raphael Adolini 1715,” the same pistol that Naru uses and takes with her in the events of Prey. In Predator 2 the pistol is meant to show the history of the Predators on Earth but its place in Prey seems to be setting the stage for another movie.
The use of the Raphael Adolini 1715 pistol in Prey not only firmly plants the movie as being in continuity with the original films but also sets up the potential for a Prey sequel. At the end of the film Naru still has the pistol in her possession, which naturally begs the question, how did the Predator tribe get it from her to later give to Danny Glover almost three hundred years later? Luckily Prey‘s animated end credits set up the next adventure, teasing the arrival of more Predator ships to Earth.
The arrival and use of the pistol here also marks a bit of a retcon on the big screen as the story of Raphael Adolini has previously been told in the pages of a comic book short story in 1996. Fans that have only watched the feature films however will no doubt love to see the live-action synergy playing out.
Prey is now streaming on Hulu.
