Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey was one of our favorite films of 2022, full stop. A pitch-perfect prequel to John McTiernan’s immortal 1987 classic, Predator, Trachtenberg’s film starred Amber Midthunder as Naru, a young Comanche woman whose village comes under attack from an iteration of the Predator we’d never seen before, and featured some of the most thrilling sequences ever to appear in the long-running Predator franchise.
But could it have used another one?
You’ll have to decide after watching the following clip, a deleted scene (rendered in pre-viz CGI) which shows off a “treetop chase sequence” that didn’t make its way into the movie. The deleted scene is included on the recently-released 4K and Blu-ray versions of Trachtenberg’s film, and it’s a doozy.
Take a look:
Pretty neat, right? So, why didn’t it make the cut? Trachtenberg explains in a new report over at Polygon:
“The pre-vis sequence … I was so stoked on. But I was worried about [the treetop chase] being too fancy for the movie. And we really had to nail the execution for it to not feel goofy when so much of the movie and its action is quite grounded. As excited as I was for that kind of physicality, of Naru and that style of chase to be on screen, I was quite nervous. But I loved the way that the cut clamp was used in that sequence, and thought it was quite a clever thing for Naru to be doing. So I’m happy that can exist now.”
It’s fascinating to see what Trachtenberg had in mind for this sequence. Shot in the back of the head and then felled by one of his own doo-dads, the Predator really takes a beating here … and Naru’s ingenuity and resourcefulness comes through loud and clear. While we’re a little bit bummed that this sequence never made it past the pre-viz stage, we agree with Trachtenberg: it’s awesome that we can at least see it in this early, rough form. Yet another reason to pick up Prey on 4K or Blu-ray!
As for the future of the Predator franchise: so far, nothing’s been made official, but the overwhelmingly positive response to Prey (which includes six Emmy nominations) suggests that we shouldn’t be surprised if a follow-up gets announced. Stay tuned for updates on that front as they roll in, folks!
