If Twitter buzz is anything to go by, director Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey (available now on Hulu) is way bigger than anything currently playing in movie theaters. The movie is a Predator prequel, set in 1719, that follows a Comanche woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder) who wants to be a hunter (but is constantly dismissed, despite her obvious talent and enthusiasm). Wanting to prove herself, Naru sneaks away from home and eventually crosses paths with an invisible alien hunter with a wide array of high-tech weapons—a Yautja, or “Predator” if you’re not up on the lingo.
Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original Predator, Prey’s Midthunder carries huge chunks of the movie all alone, not counting the Predator and her loyal dog Sarii (played by frustratingly lovable dog-actor Coco), and also like Schwarzenegger, she comes away looking extremely awesome. Not only does she hold her own in some good action sequences, but her story requires more emotional work than you get in the average Predator movie. Really, nobody has emotions in that first movie except for Bill Duke’s Mac.
But don’t take it from us: Take it from Jesse Venturawho played sexual tyrannosaurus Blain in the original Predator and therefore knows a thing or two about fighting one of these ugly motherfuckers… or at least dying to one, since he got slaughtered pretty early in that movie. On Twitter, Ventura welcomed Midthunder to the “Predator family,” saying, “you definitely ain’t got time to bleed.” (A nod to his famous line from the first movie.) He also tagged Trachtenberg to thank him for making “such a thoughtful, creative, and wonderful film.”
Midthunder seems very touched by Ventura’s praise, and she’s spent the last day or so sharing fan art and endearingly reacting to big-name Hollywood people who have nice things to say about Prey on Twitter (she retweeted Bryan Fullerfor example, who said that he wants a Naru action figure and that he thinks she can “hold her own” against Sarah Connor and Ripley).