This piece contains spoilers for the endings of Prey, Predator 2, and Iron Man 2 from its very first line.In the final scene of the excellent Prey, released this month (a sort-of prequel to Schwarzenegger’s Predator from 1987), Naru (Amber Midthunder) returns to her tribe. Having killed the Predator creature and revealing a trophy of its severed head, she hands over a weapon retrieved from the French settlers: a 1715 flintlock pistol. Having just bested a far more advanced and alien being, but in reference to other French-speaking invaders, she warns her people “There is danger nearby. We need to move to easier, protected ground.”
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A close-up on the weapon itself reveals one thing: it’s a nod to the similar finale of Predator 2, and Danny Glover’s character discovering the trophy room of the Predators where he too is handed the same weapon after vanquishing a monster of his own. (The gun itself had been expanded on in the comic books with its roots in pirate captains, but Prey has seemed to abolish that now.)
It’s a moment that doesn’t suggest anything more than that. No lead up to it. No beating around the bush, telling us how incredible this five second MacGuffin is. It’s simply a wonderful callback to the series’ own legacy, and serves Prey’s story entirely: A grim warning that, yes, these people are on our land and have proven already that they have the firepower to kill us.
Prey is its Own Beast
Hulu
In another nod, Naru and her brother, Taabe (the fantastically named Dakota Beavers), are tied together to a tree as bait. Facing an unknown and invisible monster, Taabe reasons, “If it bleeds… we can kill it.”
As a throwback to the original Schwarzenegger line, again, this reference feels entirely earned. This heart-in-mouth moment of Are They Going To Say It? is realized by a character whose main role is to hunt.
It actually makes sense for the character and the film’s story, and at no point feels like a tired sequel that is ticking boxes merely to please the fans. Prey is so strong in its own independence and vision that a callback line like this one doesn’t feel like one of many shots down the hatch in a referential drinking game. It stands alone.
On Easter Eggs specifically, director of Prey Dan Trachtenberg said to Digital Spy:
Too Old For This Sh*t
20th Century Fox
Revisiting Predator 2 today reveals a movie that has not particularly improved with age. It remains a gimmicky and rubbery follow up to a genuine classic. Its characters are thinly sketched and its casting (albeit an 80s film fan’s dream, with Gary Busey and Bill Paxton both heavily featured), comes off more as a distraction than a genuine plea for the film’s existence.
Frankly, there was no Easter egg – maybe except for one in particular – that we had the preconceived notion of trying to jam it in. We really were embracing the lore that was present and telling a story that is somewhat similar to the story of the original film in its structure.
That led us through encountering little obvious moments where Easter eggs would arise. There was never any moment where we were like, ‘We’ve got to put this in the movie’. I think that can hamper the intention.
Predator 2 continues Predator’s legacy without improving on it, and Danny Glover is a poor excuse of a replacement for Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Prey toes the line. It recognizes the series’ own no-hope sensibilities and declining history, and yet still treats what had come before and the series’ fans with respect - but importantly without feeling like it is ever appeasing diehards for cheap points.
And it’s telling that this is a movie that does not opt for an end credits scene (although includes a cute animated Indigenous-style fable that does hint at more to come…). Now so common in major movies across the board, when Marvel Studios was making a name for itself in Hollywood they established end credit scenes as their own means of hinting at follow-up films.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about a possible sequel, Trachtenberg said:
Prey Doesn’t Need Infinity Stones
Paramount Pictures
Like Marvel’s films, its Easter Eggs have become a radioactively loud aspect of its stories, noisier than just a neat throwaway moment for uber-fans. Take the ending of Iron Man 2: a character discovers Thor’s hammer - a character with zero relation to the story at that point. Once the credits have rolled, it’s clear that these disconnected nuggets and glimmering shout-outs don’t serve the story.
The nerd in me looked that far ahead, as far as he could look, before we started writing this movie, but the adult in me said, ‘Don’t count your chickens and just be careful. Try and make the best movie possible, straight away.’
End-credit sequence aside, there is something refreshing about seeing a movie that is not really intended to be just a part one to something else. There’s something nice about seeing a complete thought."
While intriguing and even tantalizing for fans, this kind of constant pre-amble and connect-the-dots to future toy sales has watered down any impact that Easter Eggs may have once had. These have become endless foreplay advertising whatever their next title is in a multiverse of by-the-numbers factory-made features. Disney’s take on its Star Wars series and its arguably unnecessary spin-offs are even easier to spot for its overt fan-pleasing that compromises the storytelling.
Prey, however, is a movie that respects its own wobbly (and often downright disappointing) legacy, without strangling itself in doing so. Like an actual predator, Prey has the element of surprise on its side. The surprise that no one expected to get another good Predator film ever again, following increasingly poor box office returns after the first (and arguably only good) film way back in ‘87.
Prey’s director has kept schtum on sequels so far, but with the film’s incredible success on streaming and universally positive reviews, the Predator series looks fit to hunt again.
