Prey ending explained – how it links to Predator mystery

Prey ending spoilers follow.

Taking predator back to the 18th century, Prey revitalizes the series with the best movie since the iconic original.

The new movie centers on Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche warrior who dreams of being a hunter, only to be denied the chance as she’s a woman. However, the arrival of the Predator near her home gives Naru the ideal opportunity to provide her worth.

While it is set in 1719, Prey does feature references and Easter eggs to the predator franchise and the biggest one comes in the finale. It’s a nod to a long-running mystery in the series that goes all the way back to predator 2.

But if you weren’t aware of the significance, we’re here to help. We need to go into some major spoilers to do that though, so don’t read on if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Prey ending explained

During the hunt for the Predator, Naru and her brother Taabe (Dakota Beevers) get captured by a group of fur trappers. The trappers intend to use the two as bait to lure the Predator so they can kill it, but that turns out as well as expected.

Naru and Taabe escape, and when she goes back to the trappers’ camp to fetch her dog, she comes across one of the trappers. He’s still alive, but barely, and he gives her a pistol to protect them both. Again, it doesn’t go well and the trapper is killed.

Unfortunately for Naru, Taabe is also killed by the Predator. However, she’s worked out a way to outwit the predator. Using an orange flower that cools her blood, Naru sneaks up on the Predator and lures it into a trap where she manages to remove its helmet, which she then uses to get the Predator to target itself. Bye-bye Predator.

Naru returns to her camp, reunites with her mother and is made a hunter after she presents the War Chief with the Predator’s head and the pistol. As the War Chief looks at it, we see an important inscription “Raphael Adolini 1715” on it that tells us this is no ordinary pistol.

predator fans will know it has a history in the series, but we’ll refresh your memory if you weren’t aware.

At the end of predator 2Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) is given a flintlock pistol, inscribed with “Raphael Adolini 1715”, by Greyback after he’s provided himself by killing the City Hunter.

It wasn’t quite clear how the Predator got its hands on an ancient pistol or why it was treasured enough to be given as a gift to a worthy foe. Prey adds another interesting element into the mystery, which was addressed in a comic book short story released in July 1996 called predator: 1718.

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The story – set in 1718, obviously – seemingly solved the mystery about how Greyback ended up with the pistol. In it, Adolini faced a mutiny over a case of gold that his crew stole from a church, much to his anger.

Adolini battled his crew, and a watching Predator decided to join the battle and fight with Adolini. With most of the crew dead, the Predator turned his attention to Adolini and prepared to find out if he was a worthy warrior, only for the last alive member of Adolini’s crew to shoot him in the back.

The Predator killed the remaining crew member and as Adolini was dying, he gave the Predator his flintlock pistol. It’s how two centuries later, the pistol ended up in Greyback’s possession to give to Harrigan.

However, it now seems unclear whether this story is officially canon in the predator franchise. We’d assume the pistols are one-and-the-same (after all, that’s a big coincidence if not), so it’s unlikely a fur trapper would have possession of it in 1719 in order to give it to Naru.

It’s possible that the trappers came across the same Predator who fought with Adolini, killing him and taking the pistol. The trappers didn’t seem to be much use against the Predator in Preyso if they knew how to kill a Predator, then how come they struggled so much in the movie?

A cleaner explanation would be that the story is no longer canon and the trappers got it from Adolini in 1718 or earlier (either gifted or stolen, doesn’t matter). But whichever story you believe, it doesn’t bode well for Naru’s future.

If it was the same pistol, it would mean that a Predator gets its hands on it after the events of Preyin order for Greyback to give it to Harrigan in 1997. The bleakest answer would be that another Predator returned to Earth in the 18th century, battled with Naru and killed her, taking the pistol back.

We’d prefer to think that a Predator just comes across the pistol long after Naru has lived a healthy and long life. But perhaps that’s a story a potential Prey sequel can tell…

Prey is available to watch now on Disney+ in the UK and on Hulu in the US.

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