Dan Trachtenberg tells us why Prey is like a sports movie
Thirty-two years ago, 1990’s Predator 2 ended with a tantalizing 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 Prey, the latest installment in the franchise. Co-writer and director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) sets the film in 1719, presenting what might be the first time a Predator hunted 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. And other things, of course. But mostly sports movies.
Polygon: How big of a swerve are you hoping to make with Prey? What does the Predator franchise mean to you?
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. The original movie talks about masculinity, and about how effective or ineffective that is. If you dig down in a few layers and think about the way [the original] movie opens and the way it feels, and what
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