A mysterious alien species known as the Predator returns in Prey, along with their habit of collecting the skulls of their victims. Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) must find a way to survive the advanced hunter while figuring out both what it is and how to kill it. The task seems even more daunting when Naru witnesses the Predator defeat a grown bear single-handedly and bathe in its blood. Since their first appearance onscreen in 1987’s Predator, the Predators with green blood have been killing their victims, sometimes in theatrical skull-and-spine removing fashion, without giving many indications as to why. The Predators pick an inhabited world and hunt their way up the food chain until meeting a formidable match or killing their fill.
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Throughout the film, the Predator skins a snake with its hands, kills a wolf and removes its head with the spine still attached, and has the bloody altercation with the grizzly bear. Upon meeting humans for the first time in Prey, the Predator loses all interest in the former foes and begins to track Naru and her brother Taabe’s (Dakota Beavers) hunting party. Identifying the apex predators of Earth by the weapons they carry, the Predator uses every weapon in their arsenal to stalk and slaughter an entire party of hunters; beheading Wasape (Stormee Kipp), who dared to challenge the Predator with a spear. The only other victim they make a point to behead is Big Beard (Mike Paterson), who had managed to bait the Predator into a confrontation with his own party of hunters.
The Predators have always been mysterious, but they do have an honor code when it comes to hunting. They take the skulls of victims that they deem to have been especially worthy or brave opponents in combat. The wolf was a formidable fighter and managed to wound the Predator, so the hunter claimed the wolf's skull as a trophy. Predators, or Yautja species, lives for the hunt, so trophy seeking is a big part of their reason for traveling to distant planets and slaughtering all they can. Wasape stood his ground and challenged the Predator, when almost every other human the Predator encountered shot at them from a distance first. Big Beard was the leader of the group of trappers and hunters that baited the Predator and survived the Predator’s bomb. Both people qualified to have their skulls collected, given the chance, which explains why the Predator made a point to decapitate them.
The Predator’s Hunting Rules Explained
The Predator’s code of honor goes beyond taking the skulls of the worthy. Only the toughest of opponents are chosen for their prey, such as the Green Berets in the original Predator. Noncombatants like Anna are left alone, while the Predator returned to Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) multiple times. The Predator in the original film also removes all his equipment in the final battle with Dutch to give them a fairer fight, and a more honorable kill for the Predator if he succeeded. When the Predator is defeated by Dutch, who refuses to finish the alien hunter off, the alien sets a timed explosive, allowing Dutch to get away and give himself a more honorable death.
In Predator 2, the list of conditions grows as they make sure not to hunt sickly or pregnant people while turning their sites on two warring gangs in Los Angeles. The Predators turning the city into a hunting ground attracts the attention of Lt. Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover), and his partner Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), who both end up in one-on-one combat with a Predator. The latter ends up losing his confrontation and Harrigan finds Lambert’s skull in the Predator trophy room before defeating the alien hunter in close combat. The remaining Predators appear after the fight, following their custom when one of them is defeated by an equal opponent, their leader gifts Harrigan an antique pistol assumed to be a trophy from another hunt. This is very possible since the pistol gifted to Harrigan in Predator 2 is the same pistol that Naru received from Raphael (Bennett Taylor), which she used to kill the Predator hunting her people in Prey.