Warning: Contains SPOILERS for PreyPrey's final battle between Naru and the Predator is made even better thanks to one detail added to the Predator prequel. Prey is the much-anticipated prequel to the Predator series by 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg. The movie centers around Naru, a young Comanche who tracks down and discovers a Yautja Predator that she must fight to defend her tribe. Prey has captivated audiences with its visual storytelling and breathtaking fight sequences. Still, one detail also reveals Trachtenberg is a master at setup and payoff as Naru and the Predator face off in the tense finale.
Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, has been trained as a healer in her Comanche village. Although she is desperate to become a skilled hunter, Naru is discouraged by the other, all-male Comanche hunters in Prey and also by her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers), who believes in her but also wants to protect her. Early on, Naru fails to bring home a deer she is hunting and is also wounded by a mountain lion, losing a tense battle and needing rescue. Naru, determined to prove herself a worthy hunter, is not discouraged by these setbacks and tracks down the Predator she suspects to be lurking nearby. She continues to practice her skills and overcome obstacles before eventually facing off against the deadly Yautja.
One detail in Prey that makes Naru's battle against the Predator even more fascinating is that she is not the only young warrior who is learning to adapt to become the ultimate hunter: the Predator is, too. When the Yautja first lands on Earth it begins its hunt by killing various animal predators. The feral Predator seems inexperienced, with Trachtenberg confirming this is the first time a Yautja has come to Earth. The Predator must also learn through its mistakes: it is spotted through its camouflage by a snake, must learn to use the trees as an effective hunting environment, and almost loses to a grizzly bear. Through each encounter, the Predator improves its skills so that when it later faces troops of fierce Comanche hunters and French trappers it defeats them with ease.
How Naru Defeats The Predator in Prey
Predators are notoriously difficult to kill, as proven by previous movies where the likes of Dutch Schaefer and Mike Harrigan lead entire squads of skilled fighters to their doom against the extraterrestrial foes. Naru ultimately defeats the Predator in Prey, but not through her strength as a fighter nor through having more advanced weapons than the Yautja. Instead, Naru puts together all she has learned through her trials and failures throughout Prey's first two acts. The Predator, on the other hand, shows its naivety in underestimating Naru as a true threat, even scoffing at her pickaxe in an early encounter it could have easily won.
Naru uses the plant orange totsiyaa, which the Comanche uses for medicinal purposes to cool down her blood, meaning the Predator's heat-seeking mask fails to spot her. She then steals its hi-tech mask by shooting it with the pistol she acquires from Raphael Adolini, a callback to Predator 2. Finally, Naru lures the Predator into the bog of quicksand that almost drowned her earlier in the movie. The Predator, stuck in the bog, shoots at Naru with its homing missile, unaware that she has figured out how to use the stolen helmet to point the homing device back at the Yautja, killing it with its own weapon.
Naru and the Predator are two young, inexperienced warriors seeking the ultimate foe to defeat and prove themselves as hunters. Both characters have gone through the same arc and must prove themselves worthy in their final test. Prey's Predator fails to learn from its inexperience, assuming its superior weapons and strength are enough to defeat Naru. Naru, on the other hand, learns and adapts from where she has stumbled along the way, ultimately proving herself the superior warrior and rounding off Prey's thrilling conclusion.