It has brushed aside machine gun fire and explosives lobbed by some of the most highly trained elite soldiers in the world, and come August, the fight against the dangerous Predator alien will be done with knives, tomahawks, and bows and arrows.
And instead of having Austrian-American bodybuilder Arnold Schwarznegger facing off with the grotesque alien hunter, the latest sequel to the hit franchise, Prey, pits pint-size (comparatively) Amber Midthunder as the protagonist.
It’s also the first Predator film to revisit the past and takes place almost 300 years before the first film’s events. But the danger is no less apparent to the 25-year-old, who wasn’t aware she was auditioning for the role to begin with.
“Literally, the first thing that [director] Dan Trachtenberg said to me was ‘You’re the Arnold Schwarzenegger!’ and that concept I immediately was like ‘Haha!’ and never thought about it again because that’s crazy,” said Midthunder in an exclusive interview with Geek Culture.
In fact, Midthunder confessed that she didn’t even know she was auditioning for a Predator movie, let alone be expected to fill the shoes of the famous former California governor who, along with Carl Weathers, Shane Black and Jess Ventura, made the original 1987 film a cult classic for fans of sci-fi and gore.
“When I originally auditioned for this movie, I did not know that it was a Predator movie. I would often forget that and I think that really helped me because that’s not what Naru was going through either. She wasn’t thinking ‘This is about the Predator’,” shared Midthunder.
Set to premiere on Hulu in the US, and Disney+ in other parts of the world, Prey sees Midthunder take on the role of a young Comanche woman named Naru, a great tracker who is skilled with knowledge of medicine. She joins her tribe’s group of hunters for the first time, and is on the hunt for prey, but becomes one herself when she unknowingly picks the most dangerous prey of all. In a way, both Midthunder and Naru have a shared premise where they both sign up for something completely wild and dangerous, without knowing the consequence. But lucky for them both, they manage to make the best of things.
Explained the actress who previously starred in TV’s Roswell, New Mexico, “The thought (of being Schwarznegger) would come into my mind and then it was too much to wrap my head around and it would immediately leave.”
“But now, it’s exciting to look at. I think I added something, in my opinion, valuable to this franchise.”
And frankly speaking, she did.
Rather than another man versus alien take on the property, Prey brings audiences back to a time before colonisation and modern technology. It focuses on the Comanche tribe, who have lived fearlessly and perfected a society of their own – the hunters of that time period. From establishing leadership and rites of passage for hunters to creating medicine, Prey sheds light on indigenous communities that for a long time, have not had a chance to be part of mainstream media, let alone be a part of a major franchise spanning 35 years.
Being able to bring that to screen is something Midthunder is incredibly proud of, especially being Native American herself, and an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe.
“That to me is my favourite part of this movie that we get to talk about. I think in a period piece, to have Native people be represented like this is so unusual. I can’t think of many other or any other period pieces where you see Native people have fully fleshed out personalities or social dynamics or anything like that,” said the actress.
“And in our movie, you have those things, you have different personalities, you’ve human desires and things that you can relate to, and I’m really proud of that.”
Midthunder also has other elements to be proud of. Aside from taking over the mantle from Schwarznegger, fighting a 7ft creature way more advanced and accomplished than humans and bringing Native American representation to screen, she performed her own stunts and braved difficult conditions whilst she was at it too.
Out of all the scenes, the river sequence was the most challenging for the actress. For starters, it was horribly cold, and instead of filming it on a set, the actress was thrown into an actual river.
“It was a real river! We were in the mountains, we drove to a place, hiked down a hill and then took a boat across the river to get to another place where they had built a dam in the real river,” explained the actress. “And the river was Arctic, like glacial runoff water from the mountains in Canada, even though it was summertime the water was not warm. I love water, but I’m also very scared of it at the same time but it was so fun to see the finished product.”
“And then obviously the end sequence fight was very daunting,” teased Midthunder. “You’d know.”
Prey premieres on 5 August exclusively on Disney+ and on Hulu in the US.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Natalie
Trinity Sun
