The first Predator was a cross-genre between slasher films and action movies. Instead of your typical slasher movie monster that kills teenagers for being horny, The Predator kills people for their violent tendencies. Hence why he always spies on his targets doing violence before he strikes and kills them. In every movie, aside from the Aliens Vs. Predator timeline, The Predator’s opponents are people in professions that allow them to be monsters: mercenaries, criminal scums, cops, soldiers, and so on.
Prey‘s stripped-down and period-piece approach to the material opens the doors to a new can of worms. Now that we’ve seen The Predator fight the Comanche, what other warrior groups in history can they battle in the next movies?
1. PREDATOR VS. CAVEMEN
As the earliest ancestor of man, cavemen are the most primitive warrior imaginable on this list. The contrast of seeing cavemen go up against a technologically advanced warrior beyond anything they could comprehend has the makings of a great underdog story. If they thought lightning is a god being angered, what would they think of the intergalactic hunter?
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Cavemen have a more powerful physique than modern men, but that would be useless to a creature that can manhandle a bear. Then again, time and time, we see that the secret to beating the Predator is stripping down and using the jungle surroundings. Spoilers for this movie’s ending: life finds a way.
2. PREDATOR VS. THE SAMURAI
Imagine a Predator movie in a style of an old Akira Kurosawa samurai film. If the filmmakers were really ambitious, it would be in black-and-white. Seven Samurai homage, anyone?
The Samurai is all about the code of honor when fighting duels to the death, and The Predator has that in common with them—at least in the case of the sequels. If its prey wants to fight in close combat, The Predator will usually strip away projectile weapons and fight in its preferred way of combat for the sake of honor.
If the only available weapons are swords, then it is possible that we could be watching a movie filled with Samurai vs. Predator duels to the death. Remember when the Yakuza member had a duel with one back in 2010’s Predators? Yes, more of that, please.
3. PREDATOR VS. NINJAS
While the samurai is all about full frontal combat, ninjas are all about blending with the environment and taking out the opponent by stealth before they know what hit them. Sound familiar? Ninjas have all sorts of weapons designed to specifically kill. Again: sound familiar?
This battle will be all about who really is the ultimate assassin. There will be tension as audiences find out whose stealthy method will catch the other off guard first. Are smoke bombs and shurikens enough? Theatricality and deception are powerful weapons for the uninitiated, and The Predator is the uninitiated one in this scenario.
4. PREDATOR VS. GLADIATORS
The Predator has been captured and is participating in death battles in the Colosseum. One by one, worthy competitors fall on their feet, until the end when its weaknesses have been revealed from numerous battles for our hero to take advantage of. It can even be a commentary on how the movie audience hungers for The Predator to kill in brutal ways, as the crowd of the Colosseum cheers it on.
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Of course, there is this eerie feeling that the battle-hungry extraterrestrial did not get caught, but wants to be in the Colosseum.
5. PREDATOR VS. PIRATES
When the pirates are done fighting amongst themselves for who will get to keep the treasure, they must contend with the invisible god of the island killing them one by one.
What makes the pirates different is that we can have naval battles aside from jungle battles. Imagine human pirates trying to outmaneuver an invincible and invisible Predator pirate ship. Just as with previous movies, the key to beating the ship would be familiarity with the surroundings. The human pirates should muster every ounce of their naval navigation skills on this one in order to lead The Predator towards storms, foggy areas, and tidal pools.
6. PREDATOR VS. COWBOYS
The story of the Cowboy is about people trying to bring the law to a lawless desert. A potential hero of this story would be the Sheriff, who has his hands full in a town with the worst scum of the desert. Then one day, he finds that these scums are dropping like flies. In the Sheriff’s mind, this is not the law, and it is up to him and his men to find out what is happening. This town ain’t big enough for two of them.
If a film like this plays its cards right, we may even see a duel by sundown, with pistols versus shoulder projectiles.
7. PREDATOR VS. SPARTANS
The Spartans prided themselves on being warriors among even warriors. The best of the best. A warrior bloodline trained from youth, expected to fight from birth to death. Now we witness them fight the real badass of the planet; the real best of the best warrior race. Will the lights raging in their eyes disappear when they see what real warriors look like?
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This can be a throwback to the first Predator. In the original, the off-world hunter was pitted against ’80s action movie muscle hero archetypes, and we saw them become just as helpless as teenagers from a slasher movie. We know they hardly stood a chance against the monster, and now we are at it again with different kinds of muscle men.
If the Spartans just so happen to be The 300, it would be a joy to see a single being slicing through all of them like butter.
Prey can now be streamed on Hulu. What were your thoughts on Prey? Are there other warrior groups in history The Predator can battle next? Let us know all of your thoughts and theories on our Twitter!
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