5 Historical Periods For PREDATOR Sequels
To put it simply: PREY, the latest entry in the Predator franchise, kicks ass. It’s a lot of fun and shows a way of reinventing the premise by stripping it down to its bare essentials. There’s been a long tradition of putting the alien hunter into past eras in the Dark Horse comics of the ‘90s and early ‘00s. And while placing it in such a context isn’t the key to why PREY is as dope as it is, it does present a way of keeping the series fresh by adding new complications, dynamics, weaponry, and interesting cultural differences. Obviously, there are many other avenues and directions in which the sequels could go. Personally, I would love to see a basically all silent one on a different planet with a different species. Or a post-apocalyptic scenario—MAD MAX vs PREDATOR? Yes, please.
Put the myriad of possibilities in history where the extraterrestrial weekend warrior can appear and cause carnage is a pretty strong blueprint for compelling storytelling. The basic ingredients—as determined by the good Predator films—is that the human protagonist needs to be a fighter of some sort (mercenary, detective, hunter, etc.); there needs to be enough cannon fodder so that the Predator can amass a nice body count; it should be in the middle of another conflict (of some sort), so it’s easy to dismiss the murders as just casualties of animals or a gang war or colonizers. So, out of the whole of recorded human history and in no particular order, here are my pitches for five historical eras in which to place the next PREDATOR movie.
(Quick note: these are all brief synopses of the historical contexts, so they are overly simplified versions of events. But all are fascinating and worth looking up for more information!)
1. Tortuga Island, 1665
No, not the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN location. Well, not exactly as it wouldn’t be that fictional version.
Tortuga was a real place and sanctuary for pirates in the 17th century. There were a few other pirate ports and such around the world, but it seemed like Tortuga was the happening spot.
But it’s a perfect setting for our “pussy-faced” antagonist because it’s full of unsavory types who are ready to fight and usually armed. It boasts the possibility of a wide range of weapons including cannons, muskets, side arms, swords, daggers, fishing equipment, and more. It’s probable that most people wouldn’t even notice if someone goes missing—maybe they shipped off already or simply died from drinking or crossed the wrong pirate. It also would allow for a sequence with Predator on a boat. At sea! The water would affect his cloaking tech, but then that would just be a great reveal. Or you could have the alien monster continue the legacy of ZOMBI and have a Predator fight a shark! Plus I would love to hear the Predator repeat a sea shanty.
2. Stalingrad, December 1942
Admittedly, this may be dicey territory. Sure, we’d all love to see some Nazis/Axis soldiers get flayed alive and deboned. That’s just a good time at the movies. But it wasn’t like the Soviet forces were exactly Boy Scouts either in this time period—especially at this horrific battle that lasted months. But the mercenaries in the first PREDATOR are arguably not great people either as they have enough firepower to at least hinder local governments. The gray morality of the USSR soldiers may add a new layer to the Predator series; PREDATORS had criminals and other deplorables square off with the aliens, but this sort of badass savagery may make for a darker confrontation (sacrificing fellow countrymen, or laying traps using the enemy as bait, or what have you).
But the other selling point is having the Predator fight in the cold. Again, this has been explored in the comics (particularly the Cold War series), but that proves its viability.
This may sound like a superficial differentiator, but simply changing the climate and conditions on the ground can lead to whole new host of inventive changes—new weapons and tactics.
Add onto that the setting of a decimated city under siege and the previously mentioned murky morality of the characters involved, and there are enough possibilities for innovations that keeps the basic story in place but adds something new to make it engaging.
So much of the battle of Stalingrad involved isolation, desolation, starvation, and brutality. That’s the perfect place to make the horror aspects of a Predator film shine while the figures involved are readymade for action sequences.
3. Jerusalem, 1099 (Siege Of Jerusalem/Crusades)
The Crusades are fascinating backdrop for any story. Obviously they are a terrible (and incredibly long) chapter in history, but there’s a convergence of multiple facets to make it especially intriguing.
There’s the obvious East vs West aspect, but also aspects involving religion, control, race, wealth, fanaticism, class, and much more. This particular event was a protracted battle with many casualties that included innovations in warfare.
Setting a Predator sequel in this time and place would take advantage of all of these intersections. Each side could see the alien as a demon or god’s wrath, maybe as a sign of support in the fight or a punishment for the bloodshed. The lack of technology and pure chaos of an 11th century war would allow for a high bodycount and a plausible reason why it take the characters a while to figure out what’s happening. The language and cultural barriers between the the combating parties could complicate working together to kill the monster. It’d be like a bloodier ENEMY MINE but with less pregnant Louis Gossett, Jr.
4. Mongolia, 1227
Arguably one of the fiercest and most impressive fighting forces that the world has ever known, the Mongol Empire stretched incredibly far from Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, all the way to the Danube River and the Middle East. This offers a wide variety of landscapes in which our Ugly Motherfucker can cause damage while facing off against a massive threat. It could even cross all of these settings from the frozen tundra to the deserts as the two forces pursue each other.
This setting would also probably invite multiple Predators—maybe it’s a bunch of adolescents that are going through a rite of passage—as they square off against some of the most fearsome warriors. Perhaps it’s a peaceful villager whose home is about to be decimated by the Khan’s forces and he pits these brutal badasses against each other. It would produce some fantastic fighting that could even reflect the influences some of the historical epics of John Woo and other Hong Kong period action films.
5. China, 1900 (The Boxer Rebellion)
For those unaware, The Boxer Rebellion is a long (and fairly complicated) period of strife in Chinese history. Certain areas in China blamed foreign missionaries for a terrible drought and sought to kick them out of their country. Literally as most of the people were unarmed and used martial arts to beat the crap out of the foreigners. Obviously the missionaries had nothing to do with these weather conditions…but also maybe you don’t have to be peddling your religion in someone else’s home? Just throwing that out there.
This aggression was eventually seized upon by various local governments who backed the movement and sought to expel all Westerners from the country. Not all politicians/leaders agreed, of course, but there was a lot of fighting in the streets. Then the British started marshaling their troops and the violence got much worse.
This incident takes the social upheaval and anger as the ultimate maelstrom in which Predator can slip in and start messing with people. It’ll be great to watch the creature mess up a bunch of colonizers and British soldiers who will have superior weaponry (compared to many of the Chinese fighters involved). Again this could tie in to a metaphysical element as The Boxer Rebellion initially sprung from superstitious beliefs—so maybe the Predator is another plague brought on by the British or perhaps it’s an aid in fighting back the foreign meddlers. The story could also include a sympathetic religious figure who recognizes the error of getting involved where they aren’t needed/wanted, similar to the alien hunter interloping in the affairs of others. Then when that guy dies after learning the lesson too late, the protagonist can show off even more badassery as it squares off against the extraterrestrial bully.
