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00:00I love that the opening line is in Comanche, and while the majority of the dialogue is in English,
00:14this film has a Comanche dub. Let's get this right out of the way, this film is gorgeous.
00:18You might think it's easy to capture beauty when it's just, like, there, but it's not,
00:21and every establishing shot is stunning. So I assumed her brother did this, but later she
00:26gets kicked awake again, and he's sleeping in there with her. I think the mom is the jerk.
00:33The slow push-in on the door, a 15-second one-er introducing us to Nadu's life with the score
00:38picking up a little. This movie knows the weight of my heart.
00:46Showing us she's got that accuracy, also for any skeptics with practice who really can get
00:50super accurate with a tomahawk or hatchet. First lesson, it's not all in the wrist.
00:54That's a good dog.
00:56Love this entire chase scene, letting Nadu show us some of her skills and quick thinking,
01:03which might just come in handy later. This is when Julia and I checked doesthedogdie.com,
01:08because I'll watch all her human friends be skinned and gutted or whatever, but this is
01:12about as much pupper pain as I can handle.
01:16I love that Sari's so pissed at the trap. And now my history buff fans know the Comanche
01:20aren't going to be the only humans, because they didn't use metal traps like this, and based on the
01:24way she's examining it, I assume the rest of the buff's figured it out too. Also feels like a good moment for a classic
01:29pointing scene.
01:30No more snares on bulls, guys.
01:32That's a good dog.
01:35What an awesome title card and transition. You thought you were just watching a little slice of life movie? No, here comes business.
01:46Tabe dropping the hawk so fast just to stick it to his little sister proves he's both an older brother, but is also genuinely skilled, even if...
02:00I was waiting for it to circle back. Now you're going to have to cross the river to get it.
02:05Yeah, Nadu proves to be smarter at tactics.
02:07Also, I was surprised, so I looked it up and they might be hunting the hawk just for its tail feathers, but it's perfectly in line with this story for hunters to be hunting a bird of prey.
02:15Especially one that they outmatch in every conceivable way, even though red tails are like no slouches, but you get it. Predator shadowing.
02:22You really think you're ready? You want to hunt something that's hunting you.
02:26Well, I mean, also, also that. Don't get your bowstring wet.
02:30This sass of the bowstring breaks shadowing.
02:37Goodness, Sarah Shackner's incredible score.
02:40And this perfectly paced, minute-long wonder with Nadu coming back to camp? Hooked.
02:44This film involved indigenous people at pretty much every level, including being shot primarily on Stony Nakoda First Nation land in Alberta, Canada.
02:51I think Tabe let her keep the fish the hawk was carrying.
02:53Good things come to dogs who wait. And no, the dog does not die. Yet another reason this movie rules.
02:58You are good. But so many other things. Why do you want to hunt? Because you all think that I can't.
03:05Fair.
03:10Love the cut here that makes it feel like the echo of her grinding grew louder because of the valley between the mountains.
03:15There is something special about the first Jungle Predators camo, but dang, we've come a long way.
03:19Even from 2010's Predators, this cloaking is an upgrade. Like you can see each little mirroring device.
03:24She should stay. She tracks well. And if we find Puyi alive, she knows medicine.
03:29All right. Sometimes big bros are all right.
03:39What a superb little sequence, simply showing the progression of Predators, each becoming prey, up the food chain.
03:42And if you didn't previously know that Yautja is looking for the greatest warrior or apex predator, that means you probably haven't seen the AVPs, which is a travesty.
03:51And you know, classy. I just rewatched Predator for this, and the first thing we see skinned are humans, and it's not blurred through the cloaking.
03:59Tabe said Nadu's a good tracker, so it makes sense that she's leading with Sari, even if dogs track by scent and humans by sight, meaning they can accidentally trample sign we need, but Nadu clearly knows how to use her dog without losing the trail.
04:11And even though they're clearly proficient at treating his wounds, making the stretcher, creating torches, setting up a defensive perimeter, it still all realistically takes a lot of time, and it's dark by the time they're ready to leave.
04:20The cold is good. The medicine slows his blood. If he gets warm, he'll bleed out. Do you want him to be comfortable or alive?
04:27Chekhov's acetaminophen, maybe it's more of an NSAID, Chekhov's fever reducer.
04:35Jump scares that happen in real life get a win.
04:38The thing about killing animals is that many times the muscles, blood, and nerves are still firing long after the animal is dead.
04:43Sort of the prey's way to get that final laugh by scaring the poop out of its killer.
04:46Relying entirely on torchlight gives this scene a raw, terrifying realism. It's like the knight itself is hunting them.
04:54Well, whatever it was, we're in the cat's den now. We have to deal with it first.
04:59Love that Tabe doesn't dismiss Nadu or say he doesn't believe her. He knows she knows her stuff.
05:04They're just very near a mountain lion, and those are, as far as they know, the most dangerous things out there.
05:08The lion don't think that we're hunting in here. It'll think it's hunting us.
05:13We get some bait and climb up and wait for it.
05:15A hunter doesn't wait. He hunts.
05:18If you're too afraid to hunt, go back to camp where you belong.
05:20We'll try it in Nauru's way. We'll bait it. It'll eat the cat to you.
05:24And it's so edifying to have Tabe constantly stick up for Nadu in front of the others, especially given that she's always right.
05:30And if you want a reason why, she hasn't been trained and indoctrinated the same way the hunters have,
05:34so she'll be able to think outside the box of this is how you hunt.
05:37So far, my favorite thing that Dan Trachtenberg and his DP, Jeff Cutter, do is use this almost awkward and slow focus pull to alert us to things.
05:48Is it the wind? The lion? Grimace? We'll never know.
05:51I mean, feels pretty straightforward. He was talking smack. Now he's a snack.
05:55Also, mountain lions notoriously like to attack their prey from behind.
05:58It's part of the reason you're supposed to make eye contact with them if you encounter one.
06:01Just a badass shot.
06:04Oof. As soon as Nadu's distracted and breaks eye contact, the lion attacks.
06:08Yep. Badass good guy. I'm using the inky darkness like he's emerging from a black hole.
06:12And again, holding back on the gorge is giving us a silhouette of the lion's head.
06:16Also, establishing spreading the blood of their prey on their face.
06:22The silent ceremony, only some traditional-sounding score, setting the mood as a solid setup for the rest of the story.
06:27She's not just being pouty because she didn't get the lion. There's more going on here.
06:31And like I said earlier, it isn't her brother that kicks her awake.
06:39But this morning is almost identical to our first morning with her.
06:42The baby crying, it even seems to be the same tribe's people.
06:45But the first time, Nadu had a look of disappointment that this was her life.
06:48This time, she chooses something different and literally walks in the opposite direction from the rest of the women going to forage.
06:57And the score takes us there.
06:59Goodness gracious, a new score is about to take the top spot on my record pile.
07:04You shouldn't stack your records. Record shelf.
07:06Nah, see, easy tap out for me.
07:08Second I see alien blood, I'm moving.
07:10Resourcefulness.
07:10For one, she can compare it to the other tracks around and make sure it's an accurate size and not a smear.
07:15She can compare it to known bear or lion tracks and attempt to guess its relative size.
07:18Also, if she comes across similar tracks, she can compare its size to see if there are more than one of whatever it is.
07:23And finally, she can use it for its intended purpose, Sari's fetch stick.
07:27It's quick, but you can see the Invisi-Predator coming in from the right and whomp the wolf.
07:31The Predator's green blood on the wolf's teeth?
07:33This shot is fantastic because we have just barely enough time to find the Predator.
07:38First things first.
07:39Yes, awesome.
07:40Rope-a-Hawk is awesome.
07:42This is so awesome.
07:43And the second she started making the cordage, I thought, please tell me this is going where I think it's going.
07:47Second thing second.
07:47Shhh, you don't know what's impossible.
07:50This is a movie about an invisible alien species comprised entirely sport hunters.
07:54Learning to make cordage is an underrated skill that is so important in survival and it rarely ever gets shown in films.
07:59Proof of concept.
08:00Look, I know that I have a pretty covetable job sitting in a chair and watching movies all day,
08:04but whenever I see something like this falling asleep next to a fire after some rabbit with my best butt on the edge of the world like this,
08:11I have to question every decision I've ever made in my life.
08:14I mean, sometimes I think the same thing about long-haul truckers.
08:15How is this score so good?
08:17A few pieces have really given me Last of the Mohicans vibes,
08:19which feels like mistaking random people of color for literally any famous person of color,
08:23but you hear it, right?
08:25It's the drums, but it's also the strings and slow build.
08:28And that's one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, so it's generally on my mind.
08:31And I found out I'm not alone.
08:32Sarah Schachner even said it was an inspiration.
08:40I appreciate that the bottom jaw didn't stay attached.
08:42More realism.
08:43Seeing this, my gut reaction is, no way they actually did this.
08:46It's just so insane.
08:48And yet I know for a fact that they did.
08:50The waste is just mind-boggling.
08:58Interestingly, when you turn on the Comanche captions, there is an English translation.
09:01But the truth is that sometimes there just isn't a perfect one-to-one translation.
09:04And so I appreciate that even though I think we're supposed to assume they're always speaking Comanche,
09:08sometimes we hear the actual Comanche.
09:10English-only speakers know what she's doing and the importance of what she's saying comes through.
09:14Aw man, Dutch did this?
09:16Love the way anything he touches sort of makes the invisibility blink out for a second like it's trying to readjust.
09:23Getting some real Artax vibes here and I don't care for it.
09:27Getting this bird's eye view makes her predicament even creepier.
09:30Hey, it's the thing I was talking about before.
09:32Neat.
09:32I actually love how quickly she realizes she's about to get winded.
09:35Hey, it's the thing Tabe was talking about before.
09:37Neat.
09:40That's a good dog.
09:44That jump kick off the tree to immediately have her bow drawn is sick.
09:50I mean, Sari warned you.
09:52I think it's so interesting that the predators always pick humans as the apex species to kill.
09:56And they're not wrong, but so far in this movie, and realistically,
09:59his cloak hasn't worked on a single animal.
10:01Whether it's because they're smelling them or using one of their other highly attuned senses,
10:05the only animal the cloaking seems to work on is us.
10:08And so, was he toying with the bear a little?
10:10Maybe he just didn't know how hard he had to go,
10:12because Revenant was not ready for that Mike Tyson one-punch knockout.
10:19And the predator's new musical trill, like the bow being scraped across the strings
10:24while she looks at the pure insanity and terror.
10:26This whole scene is perfection.
10:31The wonder of the bear being dragged away and then her escape.
10:34Reminds me of those dreams where you need to run away from something,
10:37but your legs won't move or you're stuck in slow motion.
10:39Pure anxiety and dread.
10:41And of course, he wouldn't bother following her.
10:42She's shown no aggression yet.
10:44The irony is that if Nadu had the knowledge she gains later of the predator's whole thing,
10:48this might have been the best moment to try to take him on.
10:50After that fight, he's barely standing.
10:53Getting smacked in the schnoz probably would have done it for me,
10:56but if not, this would be the moment that I might think,
10:58huh, maybe Nadu is serious about this monster thing.
11:01And even though Asape is kind of arrogant and dismissive of Nadu,
11:04it doesn't mean he's incompetent.
11:06They still can all sense when S is F'd, so to speak.
11:09Brilliant shot.
11:10We know what's coming, Nadu doesn't.
11:12So hearing it is enough as we see Nadu's reaction.
11:15I mean, we end up seeing the body too, but still, great shot.
11:17Cordage, bro.
11:18Good cordage is tough, bro.
11:21Cordage.
11:21Also, I had a guess at what fell first since Wasape had his hand up,
11:24but I love that we spend no time on it.
11:26We're moving right along.
11:27And I love that even though we knew the three dots meant death,
11:30I think this is the first time the laser-guided weapon hasn't been plasma.
11:33I know they've used bolts and projectiles before,
11:35but it was a surprise to me and totally fits with Feral Predator and the 300-year gap.
11:39This film has so many longer shots, and it absolutely helps build the tone.
11:42A 16-second shot where we have the moment the arrow hits,
11:45a pull around to see the search party's view,
11:47and then finally the real reveal of the predator all in one shot.
11:49Once again, focuses on Naru,
11:51which makes this awful and disturbing moment a little easier to watch.
11:55Dude is tough.
11:56Got tossed so hard he Wilhelm screamed,
11:58and he still came back for a jumping attack.
12:00Yeah, that was a sick bindings cut.
12:02John Wick would have been proud.
12:03You know, three centuries, give or take.
12:05But yeah, this is a smart move.
12:06Really, this dude is the smartest.
12:07He was squatting when the predator showed up and just pieced out.
12:10Hats off.
12:11This scene is just so expertly executed, slow-paced, but somehow so intense,
12:15and the lasers are just barely visible,
12:16but the grass and dust and dirt in the air catches them.
12:19No, he has us.
12:21Just like the lion, they weren't hunting him, he was hunting them.
12:25Dang, that quick shot of how much faster he is.
12:27The invisible predator leaving a blood trail is gnarly.
12:30Say what you will about the tenets of predators only going after other apex predators,
12:34but at least it's an ethos.
12:35As someone with French and French-Canadian heritage,
12:39I can only assume these guys are the heroes and are here to save the day, right?
12:43Right?
12:44Right?
12:45Also totally off topic, but does anyone ever wonder how many people have been straight up
12:48murdered because they were slammed with the butt of a gun just to knock them out
12:52and they got a brain bleed?
12:53Just me.
12:55You killed the buffalo.
12:57Nothing like thinking the monster you saw take a shower with bear innards
13:00and absolutely wreck four of your friends also slaughtered a herd of buffalo
13:03only to find out it was just a bunch of gross humans.
13:07What did you say?
13:09I speak a lot of languages.
13:11You are Comanche, yes?
13:12I enjoy that there are no subtitles for their French because Nauru doesn't speak French,
13:16but when the trapper speaks a little Comanche, we hear it as English.
13:19I think this creature is a hunter looking for the strongest beast.
13:25Us non-French speakers are finding out what the French speakers already knew.
13:28For a façon that courage, what I've seen.
13:31That they were already hunting the predator.
13:32You know they part their appetite, they should walk.
13:35Uh, duh.
13:36The thing the white men are trying to catch.
13:38That's what you went out after?
13:40Yes.
13:40And that's what you chose for Kutatami.
13:43Nauru goes hard.
13:44Catch up, bro.
13:45That's rarely a good sign.
13:47Hell.
13:48I know that one.
13:53I need to give me a horse.
13:55It's such a nonchalant little side thought as he's being used as monster bait.
13:59Nice little twist at the ash in the air is making his cloak more of a liability
14:02with all the sparking.
14:03He blends into the landscape here way more without it.
14:07I didn't think I was a threat.
14:09The entire story hinges on that line and I love both the English version
14:12and the translated Comanche version, which is I didn't frighten it.
14:16I don't know that this thing can be killed.
14:18If it bleeds, we can kill it.
14:22A plus and appropriate callback to the OG.
14:24Honestly, a pretty dope plan.
14:26It almost works.
14:27Almost.
14:28That rise is pretty epic and scary.
14:30It's never a good time when you get net gunned.
14:32The second he picks up the bear trap, you know.
14:34You can't believe it, but you know that's going on that guy's head.
14:38The what's your plan with that look?
14:40Oh, shield capitation.
14:41I saw a beaver that had its legs pinned between two rocks.
14:44I didn't know it was going to die.
14:46I saw it chewed off its own leg.
14:48Wait.
14:49Not her.
14:50Not her.
14:50Stop.
14:52I'm smarter than a beaver.
14:54One of my favorite moments, the way she's leading us and both of them to the badass sacrifice,
14:57but then she was just messing with him, proving again that her intelligence is her greatest weapon.
15:02He's definitely a jerk for not saying anything, but I'm glad that at least one of them thought,
15:05huh, that seems like alien stuff.
15:07Probably from the monster.
15:08I'm a backup.
15:09Hey, Lucia.
15:10I'm Lucia.
15:11Same, brother.
15:12We've seen that Nauru is smart and that she can fight, but even her fight with the leader
15:16of her search party was with someone who is ostensibly a friendly, so it's not until now
15:19that we see her not holding back at all, slicing and stabbing and wrecking all these chumps.
15:24Not to mention, I'd like to thank Dan Trachtenberg for following through with the Ropeahawk.
15:28Just so awesome.
15:30And while I have no idea how much is actually Amber Mid-Thunder and how much is a stunt double,
15:34when it clearly is Mid-Thunder, she is selling the heck out of it.
15:37Badass good girl.
15:37Classic juxtaposition of the two warriors using their own techniques to heal.
15:41Help me, and I'll show you how to use it.
15:45Huh.
15:46That pistol looks familiar.
15:48Eh, just gonna hold right on to that cutie little limb isolator.
15:51What is it?
15:52Oh.
15:53Ah.
15:53Incredible bedside manner.
15:55Oh, so close.
15:56The predator doesn't seem to step on him intentionally.
15:58He was just walking away.
16:01That's a good dog.
16:02Tabe just saved Nadu's life because this is how she figures out what the helmet actually
16:12does.
16:14Oh, he ugly.
16:16Woo!
16:16Heck yeah, Tabe.
16:22I know it's the Nadu show, but he ain't no slouch.
16:24I'm sure we all made the safe assumption that Tabe wasn't going to make it out alive, but
16:27I'm stoked they gave him this pretty dope hero moment.
16:29Yeah, that's fair.
16:34We do think of the Gaucha as being honorable, but active cloaking is, like, pretty cheater-rific.
16:39This is as far as I go.
16:41Heartbreaking callback.
16:44Self-sacrifice.
16:46This is a surprisingly emotionally resonant scene in the middle of the buff alien tries
16:49to kill everyone movie, and unfortunately, Tabe's death is really the only way this movie
16:53comes to a satisfying conclusion for us.
16:55If Tabe and Nadu had walked away together, I don't think Nadu would have cared to hunt
16:59him down.
17:01See?
17:02We've all just learned incorrect lessons about what happens to brains during blunt force
17:05drama.
17:06Yes, I know Archer constantly addresses it, but if you go unconscious, your brain hit the
17:10inside of your skull, and it's not good for you.
17:14Yike.
17:15Brutal.
17:16You can't see, but I'm killing you.
17:22And it won't either.
17:24Oh, that's amazing.
17:25We can still see her standing there, but Feral Boy cannot.
17:27There's a lot about old boy that she didn't expect the skull blast to kill him and was
17:31planning to grab the mask.
17:32We know that he knows he just walked into a trap.
17:35They're never the smartest, but they're also never dum-dums.
17:38Yuppity-yup-yup-yup.
17:39This is one of those tests about enjoying things.
17:42This rules.
17:43You don't have to love it, but your life would be happier if you did.
17:45I think my initial reaction was, oh yeah.
17:48And this is really showing us what a leg up that helmet gives him.
17:51That's a good dog.
17:55Took me a bit to realize that the predator actually cuts his own arm off to protect the
17:58vital stuff.
17:59Just like that beaver.
18:01Nadu's still smarter.
18:02Katabe was right.
18:03She sees stuff that others miss.
18:09I'm sorry.
18:10Did she just rip off one of his mandible fangs and stab him with it?
18:13Heads up!
18:18Teamwork?
18:19Teamwork?
18:25And his motif one more time to really sell the terror of seeing him stand where Nadu
18:29almost drowned earlier.
18:36The little head nod is perfect.
18:38Also comeuppance, you did the same thing everyone else did to Nadu her entire life.
18:42Underestimated her.
18:43It's brief, but the look on Aruku's face is perfect.
18:49She's happy Nadu is alive, even prideful that she clearly won, but I feel like that
18:53little moment of sadness is the realization that Tabe is definitely dead.
18:57Goodness, she looks badass.
18:58I know it's the poster, but heck yes, fluorescent green blood face paint!
19:01And yes, that is the pistol gifted to Danny Glover at the end of the second film.
19:05It's all coming around.
19:07Just gonna once again mention how absolutely incredible this score is.
19:16And that's a good dog.
19:19You know I love some rock art credits retelling the story.
19:21Also how ginormous the predator is depicted.
19:23Ha!
19:24Just when you think it's safe to go in the woods again.
19:27And I guess that answers how the Predators got the pistol back.
19:29Hey, headcanon is that they traded it for something dope.
19:33What an absolutely gorgeous horror action film and score.
19:36With Dan Trachtenberg at the helm for both the Predator anthology movie, Killer of Killers,
19:40which is awesome, just watched it, and the next film, Badlands, for the first time in
19:43a while, I'm pretty stoked about the direction of this franchise.
19:46This movie shows how important and valuable the involvement of actual native folks in the
19:49production can be.
19:50The portrayal of the Comanche feels authentic and never devolves into the stereotypes or othering
19:54of past representations.
19:55And because of that, Comanche life becomes the film's norm in a way that feels real and
19:59lived in.
20:00That said, what really works for Prey is that at its core, it never tries to be anything
20:03more than what it is, a Predator movie.
20:06And a Predator movie it is.
20:08While I didn't notice it when it was released, there's definitely a contingent of, let's
20:12say, people confused and upset that a woman beat the Predator this time.
20:16And here's the truth, I agree.
20:18No human should ever be able to beat a Yautja.
20:21And they don't.
20:22At least physically.
20:23Dutch, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, considered the peak of masculinity at the time, was manhandled
20:27like a newborn puppy by Jungle Predator.
20:30The Yautja was winning so easily, he took off all his armor and taunted Dutch.
20:34Ultimately, Dutch beat him the same way that Nauru did.
20:36A boatload of luck in exploiting Predator's one weakness, heat blocking, and by eventually
20:40outsmarting him.
20:41I know that addressing this stuff is like spitting into a hurricane, but hey, sometimes
20:44I feel like getting wet.
20:46I'm excited for Badlands, especially since I didn't expect to enjoy Killer of Killers
20:49as much as I did.
20:50Watch it if you want to see the most tipped scale Predators.
20:53Like it confirms some stuff I said in this video and also proves some other stuff I said
20:56wrong.
20:57That's all I'll say.
20:58You can watch it on Hulu.
20:59It feels like new life has been breathed into the franchise, and I know I usually do these
21:03things in order, but we'll be going all the way back to the beginning in November when
21:05Badlands hits theaters.
21:06Although technically, chronologically, this one was first, so hey.
21:10Next week, uh, possibly this one that I promised two weeks ago.
21:14The reason for that one has passed, but I still want to do it, so we'll see.
21:291715.
21:301715.