Prey (2022) / Characters

Character page for the 2022 film Prey.

For the other character pages of the Predator franchise, see here.

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The Comanche

Naru

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pry_02731_r.jpg

"This is as far as you go."

Played By: Amber Midthunder ^{Other Languages}

"You think that I'm not a hunter like you... That I'm not a threat... That's what makes me dangerous."

A Comanche hunter struggling to prove herself.

Action Girl: She naturally fits this trope for being the Feral Predator's opponent for the film. Hell, she's shown as an effective fighter before she even fights the Predator, winning a one-on-one fight with a fellow Comanche tribe member and killing the surviving members of the French hunting party on her own.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Naru's main strength as a hunter is her ability to learn things about her prey simply by observing them in the field. She learns multiple things about the Predator simply by watching how it interacts with the environment, namely how it only goes after armed/dangerous prey after it passes by her and Taabe when they're tied up, how it sees via heat due to how it initially can't see Raphael because his body heat has been lowered by her medicine, and how the spears fired from its gun will always follow the red dots on its mask.
Badass Boast: Naru proclaims that no matter what is threatening her village, she will kill it. She also gets a pretty kickass line when using the French tracker leader as bait, monologuing as he tries going for the gun.
"You think that I'm not a hunter like you... That I'm not a threat... That's what makes me dangerous."
Badass in Distress: She gets caught in a trap by French trappers and spends a good amount of the second act in a cage and tied to a post to be used as bait.
Badass Native: She's a highly cunning Comanche hunter, quickly adapting to various drawbacks and improvising on the fly, such as creating a grappling system for her tomahawk that later saves her life in a quicksand-like bog.
Batman Gambit: Her specialty. When it comes to hunting dangerous prey, she takes note of her prey's behavior and tactics and strengths so that she can counter all of them to even the playing field. She does this against the mountain lion which Taabe admits worked and was the only reason he had been able to kill it after she weakened it. She then does it again to kill the Predator in a much more in-depth case of it.
Blood Knight: Deconstructed. Naru wants to prove herself as a hunter to her tribe and desires to take part in the kühtaamia rite of passage, which involves hunting an animal that is just as capable of killing her. Naru's mother tries to convince her that hunting isn't about proving yourself or gaining glory or esteem, it's purely about the survival of yourself and others. After seeing the Predator slaughter a number of Comanche and fur trappers, she takes the fight much more seriously by analyzing the predator for weaknesses and killing it by using its own technology against it.
Brains and Brawn: She's the Brain to her brother's Brawn. Taabe's not an idiot by any means, but he admits that Naru sees what he misses, and that she always has. While he's more skilled than she is, she anticipates and learns the pattern in order to make a plan of attack against her prey.
Combat Pragmatist: Naru is not nearly as big as either the Predator or the other Comanche hunters, but she makes up for it with smarts and guile. She modifies her tomahawk with a rope to make it easier to retrieve and usable as a grappling hook, she uses bait to hunt predators, she uses ambush tactics against the French trappers, and she makes use of other weapons (including the Predator's own discarded weaponry and Raphael's pistol), as well as unconventional tactics (like using a medicinal flower to lower her own body heat and render herself relatively invisible to the Predator). Late in the film, she details just this, saying that others perceive her as not a threat because of her size, which is exactly what makes her so dangerous.
Damsel out of Distress: Naru rescues herself from many sticky situations, including escaping the Predator multiple times and ultimately killing it.
David vs. Goliath: The David to the Predator's Goliath. She's depicted as very skilled in combat but far more skilled in her planning ability and anticipation that allows her to get the upper hand on her prey by using her prey's own behavior to give herself the biggest advantage.
Decomposite Character: She is one half of Billy Sole from the original film, as a Distaff Counterpart.
Defiant Captive: When the French tracker leader pokes her with a stick while she's locked in a cage, she bides her time before snatching it out of his hands and attacking him right back.
The Determinator: Nothing will get in her way of her dreams of becoming a hunter respected by her tribe. Not even the alien Predator.
Doomed by Canon: Quite possibly. The flintlock pistol she wields eventually becomes a trophy for the Lost Tribe, so presumably, one way or another, the Predators take out Naru.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Naru is a competent hunter and very skilled tracker even at the beginning of the film. However, only her brother indulges her desire to hunt, with the other male hunters disdainful toward her and her mom worried about her ambitions. She proves herself by the end of the film, however, by killing the Predator, which kills all the male hunters, returning to her tribe with the reward of being made war chief.
Final Girl: Naru is a young woman who's hunted by the humanoid monster Predator, first alone, then as part of a Dwindling Party of Comanche hunters. Then she's captured by another Dwindling Party, the French trappers. Finally she stands alone, and defeats the Predator through a combination of grit, intelligence, observational skills, stealth, trickery, and guile.
Guile Hero: Naru beats the Predator not by frontal assaults, like her brother and the rest of the male hunters attempt to disastrous results, but instead using tricks and ambushes based on her keen observation of its behavior along with the equipment it uses, which reveals weaknesses she capitalizes on.
Hunter Trapper: Toward the end, she uses several traps to injure and eventually kill the Predator.
I Shall Taunt You: Naru taunts the Predator while it's stuck in the quicksand, forcing it to use its arrows, which she has specifically anticipated and set a trap for. She also taunts the French captain when she's using him for bait to lure the Predator to her.
Made of Iron: Over the course of a few days, Naru is knocked unconscious fighting the mountain lion, beaten and sucker punched in the head by the Comanche hunters, caught in a bear trap, knocked out again by the trappers, and then fights the trappers to rescue Sarii. Then she fights the Predator one on one in a scrambling final battle, including being choke-slammed by the Predator and being restrained on the verge of decapitation with the Predator's shield, freeing herself by ripping its fang out of its mandible and stabbing it with it.
Meaningful Name: Naru means "fight" in Comanche.
Oh, Crap!: She has an outright terrified expression when she sees the invisible Predator tackle and kill a bear with a single punch before lifting the carcass above its head with ease. Bear in mind, bears were seen by indigenous peoples as semi-legendary creatures that are very, very difficult to kill...
Only a Flesh Wound: Naru gets her leg caught in a trap, but is none the worse during the next scene, with no limp or any other impediments. The most it does is leave her with a small cut that she easily patches up.
Outside-the-Box Tactic: Naru's other main strength as a hunter is her aptitude for using innovative tactics based on the observations that she has made. Her brother eventually admits to her that it was her plan that allowed him to kill the lion, and it's using tactics like this, as opposed to frontal assaults, that allow her to down the far stronger and more advanced Predator.
Pint-Size Powerhouse: Zigzagged. She relies most on the tools at her disposal and exploiting weaknesses to gain a footing over her enemies. Near the end, however, she's able to pull the gargantuan Predator into a pit of quicksand despite having a short, slim build and being heavily dwarfed by it. At the very least, she wraps the narrow rope around its neck, well above its center of gravity.
Rite of Passage: Naru is eager to have her "kühtaamia", a rite of passage involving hunting something which is hunting you, that will have her be recognized as a full-fledged hunter. She finally achieves this when she brings back the Predator's head to her tribe.
Scarily Competent Tracker: She's able to easily track deer, rabbits, and even a bear over the course of the film without much strife apart from having to improve her actual killing tactics.
Tap on the Head: Naru gets knocked senseless by a lion, the male Comanche hunters, and later a musket butt with no ill effect aside from a mild headache.
This Means Warpaint: Naru methodically applies campfire ash as warpaint in the beginning and for the final battle, her previous paint having washed off in the river during her first encounter with the Predator.
Uncertain Doom: The flintlock pistol she obtained from Raphael is later shown in the possession of an elder Predator, though how the weapon changed hands and what became of Naru is unknown. However, Word of God from Dan Trachtenberg is that it's intended to be an open invitation for future films to explore how the pistol ended up with the Predators in the centuries that followed rather than implying that Naru herself was later killed by a Predator.
The Unfavorite: Compared to her older brother, Taabe, due to her persistence in trying to become a hunter, which is frowned upon by the other warriors.
You Go, Girl!: Naru is treated contemptuously by the male Comanche hunters/warriors (aside from her brother, who's indulgent of her to a point), putting her down as a potential hunter and warrior. This is not completely unjustified, as Naru constantly failed her hunts before encountering the Predator. Over the film, however, she proves herself equally adept using weapons, a superior tracker and overall a much smarter combatant, as Naru studies everything the Predator does carefully, unlike the rest, who are more prone to foolish frontal assaults which get them killed. This allows her to kill it when everyone else fails.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While she is determined to prove herself, she does leave the camp unnoticed, forcing her brother to send a rescue party after her. When she's found, the entire party is already in the middle of the Predator's hunting ground.
Waif-Fu: Naru is a slender young woman who uses acrobatic moves to take down significantly larger and stronger opponents, even coming out ahead in grappling exchanges with the Predator, who is strong enough to break a grizzly bear's neck with a single punch.
Weak, but Skilled: What she lacks in physical strength, she makes up for in resourcefulness, quick thinking, and combat prowess.

Sarii

Played By: Coco

Naru's dog who helps her in her journey.

A Dog Named "Dog": The name Sarii literally translates to "dog" in Comanche.
Badass Adorable: A cute little canine who isn't afraid to attack the alien Predator to help Naru.
Canine Companion: Sarii accompanies Naru throughout most of the movie.
Heroic Dog: Sarii has a borderline Big Damn Heroes moment where it fetches Naru's tomahawk and passes it to her in a move that leads to her killing the Predator. It also leads the bear away from Naru and charges the Predator several times at key moments.

Taabe

"You wanna hunt something that's hunting you?"

Played By: Dakota Beavers

Naru's brother and a fellow seasoned warrior.

The Ace: He is treated by their tribe very favorably, being trusted to lead the tribe's hunts, and is an extremely capable and accomplished warrior who can handle himself just fine. So much so that Taabe is the first person in the entire film to actually put up a substantial fight against the Predator that results in any meaningful damage to it, forcing it to take a cheap shot In the Back by cloaking to defeat Taabe after he proves to be able to keep up with it.
Big Brother Mentor: He helps Naru with her hunting techniques and archery, even getting other, more antagonistic members of their tribe to back off when she insists on joining their hunt.
Big Word Shout: He outright bellows the word "Cheater!" after the Predator activates its cloak and retreats, taking an unfair advantage over the hunter, who has no such ability.
Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to his sister's Brain. He's no idiot by any stretch, but he openly admits that Naru sees what he misses and always has. Between the two of them, he's the more skilled in combat but less skilled in planning ahead and anticipating like his sister is.
Broken Pedestal: He becomes this initially after deriding Naru's belief of something more threatening than the lion being nearby. It's eventually built back up, however.
Decomposite Character: He is the other half of Billy Sole from the original film, along with Naru. At one point, his chest is even cut like Billy's was before his fight with the Predator.
Fragile Speedster: Compared to the Predator; Taabe is quick and can land several hits on it, but nothing that can cause lasting or debilitating damage, and he goes down quickly once the Predator can land some hits on him.
Heroic Sacrifice: After the Feral Predator has dispatched him and turns on Naru, he tries to draw its attention to allow Naru a chance to escape. It works.
Improbable Weapon User: He grabs the coyote skull from the Predator's belt and uses it for a final strike, sinking the fangs into the Predator's leg.
Knight Templar Big Brother: No matter what, he never lets up in trying to help and protect Naru. Even going as far as to give his life to help her escape from the Predator.
Worthy Opponent:
- Subverted. Despite being easily the biggest threat and a worthy trophy to the Predator in the entire film once he goes up against it, and well able to keep up with it, the Predator sees Taabe as more of an annoyance and pulls a cheap trick to fatally wound him In the Back rather than give him an honorable duel.
- Another interpretation could be that, due to the Feral Predator being more preoccupied with winning trophies than testing its mettle, once it sees that Taabe may win it immediately falls back on its technological advantages. It doesn't want to risk losing against its first worthy opponent.
  - Debatable, as it could just as well have used its surprise attack to disarm him of his weapon instead of get an immediate fatal wound. Instead, it refused to follow through on its first (or second if the bear counts) worthy battle, and cheats its way to victory with technology. Any other Yautja that witnessed this would likely curl its mandibles in disgust at such a display of weakness.

Aruka

Played By: Michelle Thrush

The mother of Taabe and Naru.

The Medic: She seems to act as this in the camp, with her being introduced developing a remedy for the Chief's knee, and she is revealed to be the one who taught Naru how to make the orange flower medicine that she uses throughout the film.
Outliving One's Offspring: She outlives her son, Taabe, as she learns from a scout who reports back after his death.
Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears in a few scenes, but it's ultimately the lessons she taught Naru on how to make medicine that give her the idea to use it to cool her body heat, granting her an advantage over the Predator.
Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: A mild case, but she doesn't understand why Naru is so set on being a hunter, rather than staying a medicine woman like her. Naru just insists that it's her calling. She doesn't seem really opposed so much as worried about Naru because of her ambitions, which put her in danger.

Wasape

Played By: Stormee Kipp

A Comanche hunter who is antagonistic toward Naru.

Asshole Victim: He has no qualms about belittling and attacking Naru purely because he thinks she can't be a hunter because of her gender. It's not hard to grin as we see him die at the hands of the Predator's projectiles. Unlike the other hunters, he doesn't even go down fighting.
Eye Scream: One of the Predator's three arrows hits him in the eye.
He-Man Woman Hater: He absolutely will not even consider that a woman can be a hunter like him.
Jerkass Has a Point: While his and his group's treatment of Naru is definitely abusive and misogynistic, they aren't entirely wrong about Naru not being ready to be a hunter, given how she nearly dies three times in the first half of the film. The raw wilderness is unforgiving.
Miles Gloriosus: He thinks highly of himself as a skilled hunter, but is cut down with ease by the Predator due to his hubris.
Paper Tiger: He clearly aspires to be The Ace like Taabe, but lacks the actual skills to back up such aspirations. He's the first of the hunters to be killed by the Predator, dying without even putting up much of a fight.
Politically Incorrect Villain: A misogynist who has a strict Stay in the Kitchen attitude toward Naru.
The Rival: To Naru.
Smug Snake: He thinks he's The Ace like Taabe and above Naru, but is all talk and no bite.
Stay in the Kitchen: He staunchly believes in this custom in regards to Naru.
Straw Misogynist: He's a He-Man Woman Hater who believes that all women should Stay in the Kitchen.
Would Hit a Girl: He's perfectly fine with kicking the crap out of Naru with no incentive.

The Trappers

In General

The French Tracking Party

A group of French trappers hunting in the Great Plains.

Asshole Victim: They're all (save for Raphael) racist and demeaning toward Naru and Taabe, and use them as bait for the Predator. It's hard to feel bad when they all face messy and horrific deaths.
Beard of Evil: A lot of them sport bushy facial hair, and are extremely racist trackers who massacre a field of buffalo simply for their hides, leaving their rotting, skined corpses behind.
Bilingual Bonus: With one notable exception, virtually all their dialogue is in unsubtitled French, meaning only French-speaking audiences will be able to understand them, and everyone else is in the same boat as Naru and Taabe.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Plenty of them suffer extremely gruesome deaths, from one getting a bear trap thrown at his head, to one getting diced into meaty cubes from the Predator's netgun, to another getting his head cut off by the Predator's shield.
Death by Racism: They engage in the despicable practice of slaughtering buffalo in unnecessarily large numbers, then taking only their fur and tongues while wastefully leaving the rest of the remains to rot, as a deliberate final insult to the Comanche who hold said animals sacred. Fortunately, their participation in cultural genocide does not go unpunished, as they get to experience firsthand the humiliation they inflicted on the buffalo courtesy of the Predator.
French Jerk: They slaughter the buffalo en-masse for their hides while leaving the rest to rot, behavior that in Real Life led to the species becoming endangered, and are racist assholes toward both Naru and Taabe. One of them also comes close to killing Sarii.
Villainous Valour: Despite being jerks, with one pointed exception, they're no cowards, and they go down swinging against the alien threat.
Wrong Genre Savvy: They had rather ingenious tactics used against the Predator. They burned down a large part of the forest to deny cover along with using Naru and her brother as lures to draw it out. Unfortunately, they underestimated its weapon capability that proceeded to make a short work out of them.

Big Beard

The Tracker Leader/Big Beard

Played By: Mike Paterson

The leader of the French trapping party.

All There in the Script: The name Big Beard is only seen in the end credits.
An Arm and a Leg: Naru uses a stolen Predator tool to sever his whole leg and use him as bait.
Bad People Abuse Animals: He traps animals and slaughters a whole herd of buffalo.
Bald of Evil: He's the main human antagonist, and he rocks a skullet.
Beard of Evil: He sports a big bushy beard throughout the film, and is a pretty monstrous asshole. It's even in his name!
Big Bad Wannabe: His trapper crimes on the Comanche land would make him a threat in works like The Last of the Mohicans or Dances with Wolves, but he is easily upstaged by the Predator.
Dirty Coward: He abandons his men on the battlefield when it becomes clear the fight against the Predator is extremely one-sided.
Fat Bastard: A heavy-set guy who's a sadistic racist with a cowardly streak.
French Jerk: He's French and an obnoxious racist to the Comanche who also abandons his men.
Hate Sink: Racist, demeaning, murderous, cowardly, cruel to animals — let's be honest, you're begging for the Predator to finish him off.
Hunter Trapper: A more classic example, as he's seen draped in the fur of his kills.
Laser-Guided Karma: Less than a day after capturing Naru in one of his bear traps and injuring her leg in the process, knocking her out, and using her as bait to draw out the Predator, she returns the favor in nearly the exact same order, although she’s more successful in baiting the Predator.
No Name Given: Even in French among his people, his name is never stated.
Politically Incorrect Villain: He keeps Naru and Taabe locked in a cage and abuses them for no other reason than For the Evulz. He later outright calls Naru an "idiot savage".
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His leering taunts towards Naru as he shambles towards her cage imply this was his initial intention for imprisoning her, until she stabs him in the leg in retaliation.
Wrong Genre Savvy: He thinks he's the Big Bad of a run-of-the-mill Native American versus trapper story instead of the Action Horror film he's really in, and is way in over his head when he tries his luck against the Predator.

Raphael

Raphael Adolini

Played By: Bennett Taylor

A multilingual trapper tracking bison in the plains of America in the 1700s, who lends his flintlock pistol to Naru, a weapon that will one day find its way into the hands of an Elder Predator.

Adaptational Wimp: In the short comic Predator: 1718, Raphael Adolini is a pirate captain who duels with the Predator Greyback and even earns the creature's respect. However, this incarnation is far less skilled and even ends up dying a rather undignified death after the Feral Predator steps on him.
Ambiguously Brown: It's possible that Raphael might be of mixed Native American and European heritage. His complexion is a fair bit darker than the other trappers (on the other hand, French people can certainly be naturally swarthy), he can speak Comanche (although he claims to be a polyglot in general), the other trappers seem to dislike him for unknown reasons (this could just be because he's shown to disapprove of their cruelty and racism), and he wears various trinkets made out of animal parts along with a bead necklace and an ornate buckskin satchel (which wouldn't necessarily be out of the ordinary for a European hunter). His surname and his accent imply he's of Italian or Corsican descent, which complicates things even further.
An Arm and a Leg: He loses his leg in the trappers' failed attempt to capture the Feral Predator.
Canon Character All Along: Unless you're paying attention to the French (the trappers call for him by shouting "Raphael!" as they're tormenting Naru in the cage), his name will go unnoticed for a good span of the film until his gun is inspected further at the very end of the film, with the camera showing his full name engraved in gold on it. Naturally, this clues fans into the reveal that his pistol is the same as the one that ends up in the hands of Greyback, the Elder Predator.
Everyone Has Standards: The main tell he's the Token Good Teammate of the hunting party is how frustrated and indignant he is with their treatment of the captive natives, as he physically yells and fights off Big Beard from Naru when he jabs at her repeatedly and looks sincerely uncomfortable about their treatment and plan of the siblings while trying to communicate with her in hopes of working together to beat the Predator.
Playing Possum: When the Predator checks out the trapper camp, Raphael pretends to be dead due to his missing leg preventing him from running away. The herbs Naru gave him lowered his body temperature, so the Predator's thermal vision doesn't pick him up. It appears that Raphael is going to survive until the Predator steps on his leg, causing him to scream, and is immediately killed for it.
Token Good Teammate: Out of the entire French trapping party, Raphael is the only member that treats Naru with some form of decency and is willing to communicate with her. Even after being near-fatally injured, upon seeing Naru again, he willingly supplies her his flintlock pistol, which proves instrumental in allowing Naru to defeat the Predator in the end.

Others

The Feral Predator

The Predator

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fxfy5kzvsaar2wb.jpg

Played By: Dane DiLiegro

An alien hunter on Earth to find the best sport to hunt.

Always a Bigger Fish: Far and away the biggest fish of the film. Snakes, coyotes, bears, and Comanche warriors, all tried and true hunters in their own right, bite off way more than they can chew when the Predator steps onto the scene. Even the French trapping party, numbering in the dozens, are slaughtered to a man while only inflicting minor injuries on the Predator. It's not until the climax where Naru, and to a lesser extent Taabe, become the bigger fish to it.
An Arm and a Leg: It loses its gauntlet arm after Naru redirects its own collapsible shield into it, which doesn't even slow it down.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: While the Predator, like many of its kind, is a rather accomplished hunter who takes the idea of Hunting the Most Dangerous Game as both an art form and a way of life, this Predator is particularly prideful of its game, as it is willing to engage in some slightly uncharacteristic behavior to collect its prey because it's far more interested in saving face than being a Fair-Play Villain like other Predators when push comes to shove, as the French trapping party and Taabe learn the hard way–killing the former in uncharacteristically flashy and brutal ways as if to vent its anger at them. It also is rather reckless for a Yautja, given how it not only lets itself become a pincushion repeatedly for all kinds of damage, but it doesn't really change its tactics much at all once it's finally pushed into a corner, which ultimately spells its death, as it mindlessly fires one of its tracking spears in a moment of wounded pride despite not having its mask, which it clearly knows will seek whatever the laser is pointed at, only realizing too late that Naru had pointed it at its own head before its head explodes. Tellingly, the director indicates that this was this Predator's first time on Earth, and it seems it was one of its first hunts in general.
Ax-Crazy: Even compared to others of its kind, this Predator comes across as especially bloodthirsty. For the most part, it retains the typical Predator sense of honor, but otherwise relishes in fighting and killing anything it comes across, be it snakes, coyotes, bears, Comanche warriors, or French trappers.
Big Bad: While there are other threats present in the film, the Predator proves to be the most dangerous, as it hunts any and all worthy prey it can find.
Blood Knight: It guns after the predators of the Great Plains, killing a rattlesnake, a coyote, and even a bear, the latter of which it chose to fight and killed with its bare hands. This is acknowledged by Naru and Taabe, who both state that it's after the biggest threats.
Boom, Headshot!: Twice, by Naru. The first time, she gets it in the back of the head with a flintlock pistol, though this only seems to agitate the Predator. The second, lethal moment comes from its own tech; trying to use its speargun on Naru backfires when she uses the Predator's own laser sights (which the spear is programmed to follow) to direct the spear through its own head.
Combat Pragmatist: Unlike other Predators, who stuck mostly to their equipment, this Predator is as frighteningly crafty as it is powerful, as the French trappers learn all too well, thinking they had finally got the drop on it until it overpowers them and retaliates by chucking a bear trap at one's head and redirecting another's axe back at him.
Combat Sadomasochist: Previous Predators tended to retreat when wounded and unless their prey earned it, would rather pick people apart silently. This one charges bear and gunfire head-on and clearly enjoy showing its strength by savagely tearing preys.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Compared to previous Predators, especially the first one, this one doesn't exclusively hunt humans, its technology (either by design or by time period) is far less advanced, and it shows a definite preference for melee combat even before its prey starts fighting back. It's also portrayed as far less invulnerable; while other Predators have certainly bled from fighting humans, this one visibly draws blood in almost every fight it gets into, though it remains a fearsome foe despite this.
- It also serves as one for the City Hunter. Like that Predator, this one is clearly a younger and more inexperienced hunter, prone to making mistakes and taking unnecessary hits. Unlike its Los Angeles counterpart, however, this Predator is notably much angrier and brutal, preferring to rip its enemies apart with its bare hands rather than use its tech. Bonus point: both Predators lose an arm to their own technology.
Cool Mask: Its mask is entirely cased in bone, with the lower half left open to allow it to roar and intimidate its prey.
Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite severely overmatching its opponents and winning, the Predator is shown to bleed or struggle in fights; its leg gets chewed on by a coyote, the bear manages to floor it for a brief time, the Comanche warriors impale it through the foot, the French trappers tag it with several gunshots, and Taabe manages to hit it several times with arrows and its own spear through its shoulder. Although the Predator still comes out on top, these injuries are a reminder that it is mortal.
David vs. Goliath: The Goliath to Naru's David. It's depicted as a towering, nigh-unstoppable behemoth that easily butchers anything and everyone it comes across, including local apex predators and human hunters, making it the ultimate challenge for Naru to overcome.
Dirty Coward: A subdued example, at least by Yautja honor standards. The Predator appears to value honor when facing prey it's confident it can win against, but when Taabe lands some decent hits during their fight at the camp, it cloaks itself and stabs him from behind in a rather unsporting move.
Fair-Play Villain: As per usual for the Yautja, but only to a point. As its fight with Taabe shows, it will forgo its kind's typical behavior to save face.
Even Evil Has Standards: As with others of its species, it doesn't attack any unarmed prey. This extends to prey that has been trapped and wounded by something other than itself, as Naru learns after getting caught in the bear trap, with the Predator simply inspecting the contraption with curiosity before leaving.
- When the Predator comes across the buffalo that the French traders killed and skinned, he merely eyes their corpses with curiosity, wondering why anyone would attack any creature that wasn't a threat.
The Faceless: Its skull-plated helmet gives this impression, not even having anything resembling eyes on it.
Gonk: Predators were always ugly motherfuckers to begin with, but this one is particularly gnarly and unsettling to behold once the mask comes off.
Hero Killer: It fatally wounds and then brutally kills Taabe in a rather cheap display.
Hoist by His Own Petard: How it's ultimately done in, thanks to Naru stealing its mask, setting a trap with the homing projectiles of the Predator's speargun so they'll fire right into its own head, killing it instantly. Earlier, it also amputates its right arm with its shield while using it to deflect Naru's attack.
Honor Before Reason: The laws of its hunt and code of honor actually end up backfiring, despite the absence of the plasmacaster. The clearest sign of this is its sense of morals, as it spares Naru right before killing Taabe, even as Naru held a gun to its head. This indirectly results in Naru getting the chance to properly use the pistol and maim the Predator later, further leading to its death.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: It's implied the Predator wasn't aware of humans when it first arrived on Earth, as it initially targeted local predators like snakes, coyotes, and a grizzly bear. Once it does encounter humans and discovers them to be more worthy prey, it starts hunting them exclusively.
Invisibility Flicker: Its tech is far more prone to buffering and flickering compared to its future descendants, perhaps justified given the fact it uses far older tech.
Major Injury Underreaction: Not only does the Predator shrug off every injury that it suffers until the last, it also doesn't react much when its arm is amputated. In comparison, both the City Hunter and Ultimate Predator are clearly in pain when they lose their arms.
Mirror Character: It is strongly implied to be a reckless young adult seeking to prove itself, like Naru.
Multi-Melee Master: Unlike most previous cinematic Predators, this one has a preference for melee combat, and a number of its weapons reflect that; in addition to the iconic gauntlet blades, the Predator wields a dividable spear/maul hybrid, a whip-like cutting tool, and a razor-sharp shield for offense and defense, in addition to its brief use of a trapper's hatchet, and using a bear trap as an improvised flail. All told, this Predator only uses ranged weapons when it's backed into a corner or outnumbered, and even then, it seems to prefer getting up close and personal whenever possible.
No-Sell: This Predator shrugs off wounds from a coyote and a bear, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, arrow wounds, and even getting its arm cut off. It's probably one of the most durable Predators ever depicted onscreen.
- Hilariously enough, the one and only time in the entire film that the Predator visibly, and violently, reacts in any measure of pain that actually hinders it is when Naru pulls out one of its mandible teeth to free herself, severely disorienting the Predator in the process.
No Waterproofing in the Future: Surprisingly subverted compared to the Yautja's usual cloaking technology, as while substantially more primitive such that rapid movement or trace particles can dispel regions of the Predator's cloak easily, water does not short-circuit its cloaking, instead only making it slightly more visible than usual when exposed to it for a longer period.
Oh, Crap!: It tilts its head and yells in a shocked fashion after it seems to realize its spear projectile is getting redirected to its head instead of Naru.
Outside-Context Problem: People living in 18th-century North America certainly never would have expected to see an extraterrestrial armed with a wide array of gadgets.
Planet of Hats: Averted, as its hunting style is far different than previous Predators, forgoing the franchise's signature Plasmacaster. It's even hunting in a different season than usual, as most Predators hunted during heat waves in the summer, not during the late fall/early winter as this one is doing. The concept artist gave a detailed explanation of the design: if the prior ones we saw were "Jungle Predators", this is essentially a "Desert Predator" - a subspecies that evolved in a harsh desert region of their homeworld (though the production team calls it the "Feral Predator" due to its savagery). All of the design changes from the "classic" look weren't just for the sake of changing things, but rooted in this biology:
- Moisture retention: thinner, waxier dreadlocks; scalier skin; thicker oral tissue; smaller casque (ridges). It also breathes through two small "spiracles" (nostrils) high on the forehead, so it doesn't lose moisture breathing with an open mouth.
- Thermal vision: to discern heat signatures in a particularly hot desert environment, its internal heat sensing organs are bigger — thus the forehead is much more prominent (though the ridges are smaller). Thus, while Jungle Predators have an almost sloped face extending forward with their mandibles, Desert Predators have a flatter look to their face, because the larger forehead extends almost as far forward as the mandibles.
- Diet: due to the need to use every last food resource in a harsh desert environment, animal bone became a major part of the Desert Predators' diet. Thus, it has a larger jaw focused on a crushing bite, and on closer inspection, its molars are thick and adapted to osteophagy (bone eating). Bone went on to become a major part of their culture, explaining why its bio-visor has a skull mounted over it.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: This Predator has an intensely deep red skin tone — in contrast to the more fleshy yellows of the usual breed — with what little clothing it does wear that isn't its bone-white mask being black, and is intensely vicious even compared to other Predators.
Scarily Competent Tracker: It's able to keep track of Naru over the course of at least a day, always aware of every single one of her steps.
Silent Snarker: This Predator has shades of this, especially during its massacre of the French trappers. At one point, a trapper it pins to a tree pulls out a small knife, and the Predator just looks at the knife and then back at the trapper as if to say, "Seriously?"
Super-Toughness: A more pronounced example compared to others of its kind, as this one takes damage from a coyote, a bear, French trappers, and Comanche hunters before it's ultimately killed. Played realistically, however, as it needs more time to tend its injuries before getting back to the hunt.
- However, upon losing its right arm, its durability becomes simply ridiculous compared to other Predators as it just shrugs off all the injuries Naru keeps inflicting onto it up until she blows its brains out with its own speargun. However, it can arguably be inferred and justified that it's running off their equivalent of an adrenaline rush, given how intensely it throws itself after her despite all of its injuries.
'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Naru shoots it in the back of the head at point-blank range with a flintlock pistol, but the Predator, although bloodied, is only enraged by the attack.
Too Dumb to Live: Despite being well aware that its speargun will track wherever the laser of it's mask is pointed and prioritize that movement trajectory immediately upon leaving the barrel, it still attempted the shot to kill Naru. It only realizes far too late that the laser was pointed straight at their own head.
Unskilled, but Strong: Like Celtic, this Predator is more reliant on brute force, and falls back on its tech when that doesn't work. Against local animals, Comanche warriors, and French trappers, it doesn't need much else. In its fight with Taabe, however, the Predator finds itself outmaneuvered by its smaller, more spry opponent until it foregoes any pretense of fair play and cheats with its cloaking device.
Worthy Opponent:
- Subverted with Taabe. Most of its kind would have regarded him as one for his skill and tenacity, but this Predator gets fed up and uses its cloaking device to stab him In the Back in an uncharacteristically cheap move.
- Played straight with Naru at the end, especially after she takes off its arm, foregoing its pragmatic style to intentionally draw out the fight — even though it could have killed her immediately with its shield when it had her pinned down — which in the end ultimately spells the Predator's doom when it falls into Naru's final trap.
Wrestler of Beasts: One of the first things we see this Yautja do is kill a bear in melee combat.
Your Head Asplode: How the Predator finally bites it, with its own homing spear violently ripping through the entire back of its head, resulting in a messy pop of its skull.

Characters / Prey (2022)

The Comanche

Naru

Played By: Amber Midthunder ^{Other Languages}