The Predator franchise is packed with fantastic action scenes, with one of its most recent standing as easily its best. The alien hunter known as the Yautja first arrived on Earth to collect human skulls in 1987’s Predator, battling Arnold Schwarzenegger and a platoon of special forces soldiers in the jungle. Since then, the main Predator series has spawned four sequels, along with crossing over into the Alien vs. Predator franchise.
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As a hybrid of action, horror, and sci-fi, the Predator franchise strives to excel at all three, but when it comes the action component, 2022’s Prey tops even the original 1987 classic. Indeed, Prey concludes on what is the best Predator action sequence to date.
Prey’s Final Showdown Is The Best Predator Action Scene
2022’s Prey culminates with a tradition commonplace in the Predator franchise, that of the movie’s human protagonist facing the alien hunter alone in a final showdown. In the case of Prey, Amber Midthunder’s Comanche warrior Naru has already proven herself to be an opponent worthy of the Predator throughout the movie (this Predator is specifically classified as the “Feral Predator” in official canon), and Prey‘s finale shows how much strategy she brings to the game with her fighting skills and the punji stick trap she devises for the Predator to encounter.
Prey also greatly heightens the stakes of Naru’s final confrontation with the Predator by having their fight take place during a snowy night. Naru has already picked up on the Predator’s infrared vision, and was able to circumvent it by consuming an herb to lower her body temperature when she lures the Predator in to take down Big Beard (Mike Paterson), the vicious leader of the French fur trappers. However, with the temperature of the environment around her taking a plunge, Naru has no such advantage, but she doesn’t let that stop her from giving the Feral Predator the fight of its life.
Following a superb human vs. Predator fight sequence, Naru manages to trap the Predator in a mud pit she was caught in earlier in the film. Naru has another trick up her sleeve; having snatched the Predator’s mask from it earlier, she utilizes the mask’s laser sighting against the creature. Positioning the mask so that its laser marker points to the Predator, Naru tricks the hunter into firing on her, causing the laser-guided projectile to circle back around and fatally hit the Predator itself. While Prey‘s final battle of Naru and the Predator is an excellent action sequence in and itself, what really makes it the best of the franchise is how rooted it is in the franchise’s core identity.
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Prey’s Finale Is Built On The Predator Franchise’s Most Essential Elements
Throughout the Predator franchise, one of the most common themes is that of the human heroes – typically well-armed and trained modern-day soldiers, cops, or mercenaries – having to put aside their contemporary tools and methods and fight the Yautja hunter on more basic terms. Prey shows Naru as the first Predator protagonist to not only be a skilled warrior more than capable of holding her own against the monster, but one already onto the Predator’s game. Because of that, Naru is able to anticipate how to beat the Predator much sooner than any other hero or heroine.
The 18th-century setting also makes Naru better equipped to adopt the guerilla warfare tactics that every other hero of the franchise eventually must, because she’s already well-accustomed to doing so under the warrior methods of the Comanches. For Naru, laying traps and using her enemy’s weaponry against them is as natural as anything, but in the interest of delivering the most dynamic showdown possible, Prey also makes sure to present her as a highly skilled hand-to-hand fighter. All of these are elements seen in past Predator movies, but never have they been combined so effectively as in Naru’s final smackdown with her Yautja adversary in Prey.
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Why Future Predator Movies Should Follow Prey’s Example
While the Predator franchise took a major dip with the release of 2018’s The Predator, Prey electrified it into new life, and 20th Century Studios quite clearly isn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth, with two Prey follow-ups, including the future-set Predator: Badlands, arriving in 2025. With the property more alive than ever and Prey director Dan Trachtenberg remaining actively involved, it seems that the lessons of the franchise’s 2022 revival have been wisely heeded, and that should hopefully extend to future Predator fight scenes.
With the right combination of stakes, fighting and hunting prowess on the part of both combatants, and an emphasis on guerilla warfare tactics to get the job done, Prey‘s final fight exemplifies the best of every preceding Predator showdown all rolled into one excellent action sequence. While there will always be a need to add as many new elements to future fight scenes as possible, Prey has shown the way with the best blend of tools to use as their foundation.
Prey is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
