‘Prey’: The Meaning of the Pistol – ScreenCrush

One would assume aPredatorprequel set hundreds of years before any of the previous installments in the franchise would only feature glancing connections to the earlier (technically later) films. But the new moviePrey actually spotlightsan object with direct ties to theother movies, and knowing where that object winds up is key to getting a handle on whatPrey is doing, and where the franchise could be going next.(SPOILERS to follow forPredator 2and forPrey, somewhat obviously.)

The object in question is an old flintlock pistol, which becomes an important weapon inPreys battle between a new Predator and a young Comanche warrior named Naru, who is the films hero. WhilePrey takes place in 1719, centuries before Arnold Schwarzenegger first declared that if the Predator bleeds, he could kill it, this pistol has been seen in one of the previousPredatorsequels.

InPredator 2, hard-boiled LAPD cop Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) winds up in a mano-a-mano battle with a Predator in the bowels of the creatures ship. With some luck and ingenuity, Harrigan manages to kill the Predator with its own weapon. At that point, a whole crew of Predator creatures appears from the foggy interior of the ship.While the group collects their fallen brothers body, their leader tosses Harrigan an antique flintlock, apparently as atrophy of his kill.

Take it, the Predator hisses. Harrigan inspects the gun, which reads Raphael Adolini, 1715.

The pistols age hinted at the Predator race having a long history of hunting on Earth a dangling plot thread that was basically left unexplored for 30 years (at least in Predatormovies, its come up in Predatornovels and comics) untilPreycame along to tell the story of the alien creatures first hunt on Earth.

To further connectPreyto those earlierPredatormovies, theAdolini pistol fromPredator 2 is the same one that appears inPrey.In the new film, Raphael Adolini himselfshows up as the translator for a group of French furtraders. The traders slaughter a pack of buffalo and later capture Naru to use her as bait against the Predator. After the Predator slaughters most of the Frenchmen anyway, the badly wounded Adolini offersNaru his pistol in exchange for medicine for his wounds.

Naru then uses the pistol, along with the knowledge shes gained in her other encounters with the Predator, to defeat the creature.

Ironically, while the movieinserts the Adolini pistol into theearly days of thePredator mythology, it doesnt actually explain how the Predators fromPredator 2 wound up with it. The Predator inPreydoesnt survive to become one of the aliens we saw in that film; Naru kills it inPreys final scenes.And there are no other Predators in the movie to take the flintlock. It remains unclear how the pistol went from Naru back to the Predators so that they could then give it to Harrigan centuries later.

WhatPreydoes imply is that this pistolis more than just some random object. The fact that it wound up in hands of the so-called Elder Predator fromPredator 2after it ends this movie in Narus possessionwould have to be either the greatest coincidence in history, or it means the Predators came to believe that the Adolini pistol was an extremely valuable and important weapon because it was used to kill one of their own, and thus theytracked it down and intentionally reacquired it. Which, given the peculiar moral code of the Predators and their love of hunting, would make a certain amount of sense.

Perhaps more importantly, it would give aPreysequel a ready-made premise. Preysanimated closing credits strongly hint at exactly that, with Narus tribe watching as several Predator ships arrive on Earth, ready for another hunt.

Prey is now available on Hulu.

These iconic films almost had some not-so-iconic titles.

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'Prey': The Meaning of the Pistol - ScreenCrush