Prey continues the Predator franchise's biggest tradition with the Predator's mask removal. In Prey, young Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) faces a new hunter from the Predator's home world in 18th century America. Prey does many new things with the famed alien beast, but it does maintain a few traditions within the Predator franchise, most notably that of the approach to the Predator's mask being removed.
Throughout the entirety of the Predator series, the removal of the Predator's mask is treated as a big surprising reveal, showing the face of the alien hunter underneath. While it is a somewhat bigger reveal for Prey with the very new design of the particular Predator it features, the approach might seem a bit odd to some viewers. After all, since fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Predator is so readily recognizable as a movie monster that even viewers who have never seen a Predator movie are likely to go into a movie like Prey with a basic conception of the Predator's look already in their minds.
However, the makers of the Predator movies are well aware of this, and their reasoning behind treating the revelation of the Predator without its mask as a big shock is rooted in the spine-tingling suspense and the core concept of humans being hunted that the films are based on. Moreover, the universal concept of what an encounter with alien life would be like is right at the center of why the Predator franchise treats the unveiling of each Predator's look (retooled from its original conception) with such build-up to a shocking reveal. Combined with the important logistical reasons for the Predators wearing their masks every time they arrive on Earth for another hunt, it becomes easier to understand why the Predator series treats the Predators unmasking or being unmasked the way they do, including in Prey.
Why The Predators Wear Masks
The masks worn by the Predators serve a key function in focusing their infrared vision within Earth’s atmosphere. As seen in the Predator franchise, the quality of a Predator’s vision gets greatly distorted on Earth due to the heat of the environments they hunt in. With their masks on, the Predators are able to focus on their targets more clearly as their masks filter out environmental heat, making it much easier for them to hunt their prey.
Why The Predators Removing Their Masks Is Always A Big Reveal
While the general look of the Predators is known, the franchise makes the perspective of its characters central, including the characters of Prey. In every Predator movie, the humans in the story are encountering alien life for the first time, and the Predator movies frame each Predator mask removal through that point of view. The Predator films have also included enough cosmetic differences from one Predator to the next to differentiate them, while Predators and Prey both introduce completely new versions of the Predator. In this way, the Predator removing its mask is consistently shocking for viewers, who are always seeing some kind of new Predator look, and the characters who are coming face-to-face with an alien.
The Real Meaning Of The Predator Removing Its Mask
With the surprise factor for both viewers and protagonists, the Predator franchise represents an encounter with the unknown in every installment. The Predators wearing their masks, while having a functional purpose in their hunting methods (and getting a new design in Prey's case), add another layer between humans and Predators. Their invisibility cloaks add one more layer still, with the Predator movies strategically keeping the Predators as mysterious and unexplainable visitors to Earth.
The Predators being fully revealed always happens gradually, with first their cloak being pulled back and then their mask taken off, usually near the end of the movie. Each step brings the audience and the humans in the story alike closer to another form of intelligent life from another world, a major event in any human’s life. That is ultimately why the Predator’s mask removal is consistently presented as a surprise from Predator all the way to Prey. To meet a Predator is to meet a creature not of this world, a staple of the Predator franchise that Prey continues to remind viewers of, with Prey 2 likely to do the same.