The Predator prequel Prey is like a sports movie, according to the director

Thirty-two years ago, 1990’s Predator 2 It ended with a tease. It confirmed that the eponymous alien seen in 1987’s Predator was just one member of an alien race of ruthless hunters, and it ended with one of those hunters giving the film’s hero a flintlock pistol as a trophy for defeating one of their kind. It was a small but exciting tidbit, strongly implying that Predators have been coming to Earth and hunting humans for a long time — and that all sorts of movies could be born from that premise.

Strangely, however, the next few decades of the Predator franchise never focused on chronicling humanity’s secret history with the Predators. That’s the first exciting thing about PreyThe latest installment of the franchise is titled. Co-writer and director Dan Trachtenberg (Cloverfield Lane, 10The film is set in 1719 and features what may have been the first Predator hunting on Earth. It’s also the first time a Predator got more than they bargained for from a human, thanks to the film’s protagonist, a Comanche woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder).

In advance of the movie’s launch on Hulu, Trachtenberg spoke with Polygon about the movie’s real inspiration: sports movies. Other things. However, sports movies are the most popular.

Polygon: With how big a swerve can you make? Prey? How do you define the Predator franchise?

Dan Trachtenberg: It’s about survival. It’s about who is the alpha, who is the strongest, because the Predator is sort of looking for the most competent hunter on whatever planet he’s arrived on. In the original film, it was about masculinity and how ineffective or effective that can be. Think about how it feels to dig into a few layers. [the original]The movie’s opening and how it feels. What we know about Arnold [Schwarzenegger’s character, Dutch] — we see all [the characters’]We see the ineffectiveness of big guns and what crass and inefficient that attitude can be.

Photo: David Bukach/20th Century Studios

[Prey]The opposite is true. But it’s still about what strength means and how to achieve that. It’s also about adaptability and dealing with doubt: self-doubt and doubt from those around you. It’s an underdog story, and I think that’s what sets it apart from the others. Predator films have a tendency to follow the slasher-movie style template. The movie, however, is more in line with a sports-movie or adventure-movie format.

Naru is unique among Predator protagonists in that she isn’t the top of her class, the undisputed best warrior. You were trying to get across something with her.

As you said, it was like watching someone not considered to have reached the top, trying their best with sweat, tears and blood to get there. I think that’s something all of us can relate to much more than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I think represents more of a wish-fulfillment for all of us. Amber symbolizes empowerment.

I’m not an athlete, I don’t participate in sports. I don’t watch sports. However, I do love watching sports movies. And so giving this movie that soul — giving Any action movie the soul of that kind of movie — I think allowed it to be more thematic. Even if the movie had no Predator, this theme would still have been interesting. It is even more powerful and thematically relevant because it’s there.

Was there anything you hoped for when setting the film among the Comanche in the 1700s?

Before this film, the Comanche were often portrayed either as villains or sidekicks. They are never seen as the main character. The story of Naru’s journey was linked with the film, making it a true rise-to the-occasion moment for those who feel less important or are able to do so in real life.

Photo: David Bukach/20th Century Studios

I am able to relate to the movie in my unique way. However, Native American, First Nations and Comanche can also have a strong connection with this film.

A period sci-fi movie can be very entertaining, but that’s not all. It’s something we don’t get that often that I’ve always been seeking after.

Predator movies are sometimes so dissimilar from one another, it can feel as if they reflect the era in which they were made. Do you think that’s true of Prey?

Perhaps I was inspired more by GravityAnd The RevenantAnd 1917. Action films tend to be more survivalist than movies about survival. You know, there’s Marvel and DC and what they’re doing. And there’s John Wick and some of the imports we’ve been getting from other countries. And the American action movie hasn’t had a lot of room outside of those spaces. I found it exciting to experience many types of action.

The movie has intense suspense, horror moments, predatory moments and slasher film moments. And there’s also great, exciting choreography, wielded by Amber and Dakota [Beavers, who plays Taabe]In their scene. So I really wanted to go all out and deliver on a lot of different kinds of thrills, rather than being one genre’s kind of action.

Frankly, the other thing I’ll say is that the first movie is much more a mashup of action and horror, for me. This movie was more of a mashup of adventure and suspense, and that’s the kind of movie that has gone away. My favorite movies growing up were the ones like The Last of the Mohicans, Legends of the Fall, Braveheart — real The adventure movies. Movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean are the most famous. That kind of movie doesn’t get made that often. This movie was so much fun to make.

PreyHulu streaming will begin on Aug. 5