13. HOLLYWOODLAND BACK: Made by an indigenous filmmaker or has featured indigenous cast members.

How is this movie, directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison, the best Predator in, well, maybe ever?

The Comanche Naru (Amber Midthunder, a citizen of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe) dreams of being a warrior like her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). She’s a healer, and the tribe would be upset to know she’s tracking deer to improve her hunting skills. That night, she sees strange lights in the sky, just as she’s called to service, as a member of the tribe has been attacked by a cougar. In her head, she wishes she were at the party sent to hunt the beast. Soon, she forms a hunting party to fund them and is brave enough to face off with the cougar, which knocks her out. Her brother hunts it and comes back with it as a trophy.

Those lights bother our heroine, so she heads out with her dog, Saril. When her grandmother hears of whatever is out there, she believes it is Mupitsi, the mother owl of her ancestors. Her brother is taken by French traders, whose translator Captain Raphael Adolini (Bennett Taylor) is the last to be killed by the Predator (Dane DiLiegro) that is waiting in the woods.

Yes, the same Anolini whose name is on the pistol that Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover)has at the end of Predator 2.

What I love most about this movie is that its heroine is just as fierce as any of the men. She’s not a damsel to be rescued; in fact, she is one of the few who has ever bested a Predator. Sorry, I know I should call them Yautja, Hish-Qu-Ten or Skin Thieves.

Plus, it has roles for indigenous peoples like Michelle Thrush (Canadian Aborigine), Julian Black Antelope (Cree and Métis by birth, adopted by the Kainai Nation), Stormee Kip, Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat (Cree), Stefany Mathias (Squamish Nation), Skye Pelletier, Ginger Cattleman, Samiyah Crowfoot, Seanna Eggtail and Samuel Marty (Plains Cree and Nakota Stoney). According to IMDB, “The script was rewritten by two Comanche activists to ensure its depiction of Comanche culture wasn’t inaccurate or stereotypical, and the movie was praised for the results of their efforts. Among their changes, they insisted on giving every character (Comanche and French) a name in their language, even if it wasn’t stated onscreen.”

Plus, Billy Sole from Predator is a reincarnation of Taabe, and in that film, he is “reframing his last stand with that film’s Predator as being due to subconscious memories of a past life.” Trachtenburg said that as a kid, he was told that in the original, Billy “stood on a bridge over a waterfall and fought the Predator. But when I eventually saw the movie, that scene was not in it. The beginning of it is, but then it cuts away. So the seed was planted, and then I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a movie that focuses on that character’s story?’ And Prey isn’t exactly that, but it is, spiritually.”

I just read a review of this on IMD, B and it said, “Not bad, except for the teeny bopper stuff.”Yes, men, sometimes you have to watch women as the hero of your movie. That said, “Naru would have an easier time proving herself before her peers as women warriors, being among the various Great Plains Nations was actually very common and would sometimes even lead other warriors into battle.”