‘Prey’ Ending Explained: What Does the Pistol Mean?

***SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses the plot points and ending of Prey. CLICK CLICK CLICK.***

Prey, the highly anticipated prequel to the Predator franchise, has finally landed on Hulu, and the film is earning rave reviews, with a 93 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), Prey takes place in Comanche Nation in 1719. Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce young Indigenous woman is desperate to prove to herself and her tribe that she is a worthy hunter. And she gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a Predator (Dane Diliegro) lands in the Northern Great Plains in search of a worthy hunt.

The film follows Naru and her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) as they track and hunt the Predator, facing off against French trappers and natural threats (mountain lions, storms, and mud bogs, oh my!). Naru uses her healing skills and eats an orange flower, which lowers her temperature enough to be invisible in the Predator’s heat vision. The Predator decimates the trappers, with surviving translator Raphael Adolini (Bennett Taylor) trading his pistol with Naru in exchange for medical assistance. He shows her how to load and use the gun as she tends to his wound. Using one of the French trappers as bait, Naru is able to sneak up on the Predator and use Adolini’s pistol to shoot it in the back of the head, knocking off his helmet. Naru then snatches the helmet and escapes into the forest.

She then sets up a trap for the Predator in the mud bog, where she uses his projectile-tracking helmet to cause the Predator to fire upon himself, using his own tech to defeat him. Naru then returns to her tribe, bringing the Predator’s severed head and Adolini’s pistol.

Eagle-eyed Predator fans will recognize the pistol from 1990’s Predator 2. After LAPD officer Michael R. Harrigan kills the Predator in the film’s finale, fellow Predators disembark from their ship to retrieve the body. As a trophy, one of the Predators gives Harrigan the same flintlock pistol, engraved with  “Raphael Adolini 1715”.

It’s a fun Easter egg for Predator fans, but it leaves us wondering how the Predators retrieved the weapon. The answer may lie in the animated credits sequence at the end of the film, which retell the story. The final shot of the sequence shows three Predator ships arriving on Earth and heading towards the tribe. It seems likely that the predators returned to seek revenge, taking claim of the pistol as a trophy of their own.

Prey and Predator 2 are currently streaming on Hulu.

(featured image: Hulu)

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