No one forgets the first time they come face to face with a Predator. For Amber Midthunder, the 25-year-old star of Prey, the moment came a few days into production on the film’s Calgary location shoot, when she stumbled on a lighting and costume test in the woods so secretive even she wasn’t aware what was happening.
"There was a humming, and I saw a big group of people," Midthunder tells Total Film in the new issue, featuring Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on the cover. "I walked further, and then I saw [the Predator]. I was lasered in. The first thing I said was: ‘I can take it.’ And then I got in my regular brain, and I was like, ‘That’s terrifying!’ But the first thing that came out of my mouth was: ‘I can take it.’"
Midthunder’s confidence in the moment – misguided or otherwise – spoke to the mettle of her character, young Comanche hunter Naru. As an indigenous woman, Naru represents something radically different for the Predator series, which has traditionally put all-American men with biceps the size of basketballs in the extraterrestrial hunter’s tri-laser crosshairs.
"I believe it’s the first time there’s been an indigenous female protagonist in an action movie ever," Midthunder grins. “That is historic, and an extremely big deal.” You can see an exclusive image from Prey above.
For director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg, the idea to drop a Predator into the middle of a Native American tribe dates back to his earliest encounter with John McTiernan’s ’87 action classic. Too young to have seen the film in cinemas, his imagination was ignited by secondhand whispers. "I have this distinct memory of being on my way to a karate tournament in a minivan, and all of the sixth-graders had just seen [Predator]," recalls Trachtenberg, a third grader (eight-nine years old) at the time. "They spent the whole trip describing the entire movie to me. And they described this moment where Billy, the Native American tracker, stays behind on a bridge over a waterfall, and fights the Predator. I saw that scene in my head. And then when I saw the movie, and that scene is not in the movie, there was the moment where I was like, ‘Oh, what’s that movie?’"
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Read more from the cast and crew behind the movie in the new issue of Total Film, featuring our huge TV preview on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, House of the Dragon, Andor, The Mandalorian season 3, and so much more.
The magazine reaches shelves on July 26 and will be available to order through this link. Or subscribe and never miss an issue again and receive magazines with exclusive cover images and insider secrets. Prey is on Disney Plus from August 5.
