Franchise media often builds most of its cultural cache off of continuity, callbacks, and winks to older material. Bad versions of this technique rest the entirety of a story on stuff fans remember in a desperate attempt to succeed off nostalgia alone. Good versions build an interesting story and find fun ways to tie it into what came before.
Preyiseasily the best iteration of the popularPredatorfranchise since the first, possibly even stronger than the original. It’s a prequel that explores the first encounter between the human race and the iconic Yautja hunters almost 270 years before the first film’s events.
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Preyfollows the adventures of Naru,a skilled Comanche warriorwho seeks to prove herself in a hunt against a deadly foe. When a new threat emerges from the depths of space and begins to demonstrate its lethal capabilities, Naru finds herself against something much tougher than a wild animal. Through her hunts, Naru comes across simple metal traps, outside the typical techniques of her people, yet well beneath the alien’s capabilities. As she struggles against multiple threats, she discovers that violent settlers have set up camp just outside the bounds of her people’s native land and set to work devastating the local ecosystem. As if their many crimes weren’t bad enough, onceNaru comes across them, they take the young lady hostage and begin tormenting her. Except for Raphael Adolini, a bilingual translator who is slightly less cruel.
In short order, the Predator arrives and lays waste to the settler camp, easily butchering the armed crowd. Their theoretically superior firepower still pales in comparison to Yautja technology, their tactics break down almost immediately, and their insistence on combat leaves them ample targets.Yautja code strictly prohibitshunting an unarmed or incapacitated foe, so this film’s central threat walks past Naru and her brother without issue. After the hunter easily eviscerates the settler crowd, Naru discovers Adolini wounded and swiftly bleeding out. He offers her a trade, if she’ll use her skills in medicine to save his life, he’ll give her a gun and teach her how to use it. The bargain goes reasonably well, but Adolini still winds up dead at the Predator’s hands. That leaves Naru armed with a flintlock pistol, which she later uses as a key part of her ambush against the powerful Yautja hunter. At the film’s conclusion, whenNaru rejoins her tribeand is awarded the rank of warchief, she does so with two trophies; the Yautja’s severed head and the firearm engraved with its previous owner’s name.
The flintlock pistol is an important part of Naru’s attack on the Predator, but it’s also an important part of the franchise’s history. It’s a callback to theending of 1990’sPredator 2. Though that film is notably less well-regarded than its predecessor, it’s still a part of the franchise and this unusual Easter egg drop is a great way to bring it up.Predator 2follows a fairly similar narrative to most films in the franchise. It pits an LAPD cop and a DEA agent against a new Predator playfully referred to as the “City Hunter”. As is typically the case, the hero, in this case, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan portrayed by Danny Glover, bests the Predator and comes away the victor. Harrigan hunts the Yautja down and slays it with its own weapon in its own spaceship. It’s a complete victory, but when a handful of fellow Yautja emerges from cloaking, there’s a tense moment in which Harrigan is stunned in terror. To his shock, they don’t attack,they give him a trophy. Specifically, a flintlock pistol engraved with the words “Raphael Adolini 1715”.
When this moment occurred on the big screen in 1990, audiences were a bit confused. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character didn’t get a trophywhen he killed a Predator, what changed? The obvious implication of the scene is that the Yautja have a longer history with humanity than we previously knew. Some joked that perhaps the City Hunter was a black sheep amongst the crew, and his peers were happy to see him killed. It’s fairly clear that the pistol is a trophy for a human who was able to beat a seemingly superior species in combat. The 1996 comic bookPredator: 1718offered an explanation. In that work, Adolini was a pirate captain who found himself fending off a mutiny over gold. A Predator saw him fight and decided for unclear reasons to join him in slaying his crew. After Adolini is shot dead by a hidden foe, he gives the Predator his gun, which is later passed down to a successful hunter.
The explanation offered byPredator 1718doesn’t make a ton of sense when examined with the rest of the canon.Prey’s explanation makes far more sense. Though it’s unknown exactly how the Predators of the future will get their hands on Naru’s engraved pistol, the fact that it’s the first man-made weapon ever to be used toslay a Predator is huge.Preysaw a great moment in the franchise and weakness in the original canon and used it to tie the excellent fifth film deeper into its history. This is the perfect kind of callback for franchise media, fixing an issue with a crowd-pleasing Easter egg, and other long-running IPs should take notes.
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