Predator: Killer of Killers Ending Explained: The Main Links to the Saga?

From today, exclusively on the Hulu and Disney+ streaming platforms, it is available the new acclaimed Predator: Killer of Killers, directed by Dan Trachtenberg for the Predator franchise and the first of his career linked to animated cinema. Predator: Killer of Killers is an ambitious animation installment that presents us with three different timelines, in which we follow Ursa, Torres, and Kenji facing different Predators. What looks like an anthology structure ends up converging on an unexpected final twist: all three have been captured by the Yautja and taken to an alien world where they are forced to fight in a kind of interstellar coliseum. And there begins the true climax of the film.

We have already made you read our review of Predator: Killer of Killers, the animated film directed by Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung that streams on Disney+ three years after Prey and a few months in advance of Predator: Badlands. The latter, unlike those already mentioned, will bring the Yautja saga back to the big screen seven years after The Predator, Shane Black’s 2018 feature film. In the analysis we mentioned, inevitably making sibyllic to avoid any kind of spoiler, like this Predator: Killer of Killers is both a sequel (of Prey) and a background (of Badlands). In addition to, in a broader sense, a new addition to a science fiction lore inaugurated in 1987 with John McTiernan’s masterpiece interpreted by Arnold Schwarzenegger in its heyday. Now it’s time to go much clearly into what the main links are of Predator: Killer of Killers to the other chapters of the franchise.

Predator: Killer of Killers Ending Explained: The Main Links to the Saga?

The outcome leaves us with the three protagonists finally reunited, although not as expected. They have been chosen as “Killer of Killers“, warriors who managed to defeat Predators in their respective times. The planet where they are taken is ruled by King Grendel, a colossal Yautja that dominates an alien society with hierarchy, fleets, and a culture based on combat and hunting. Ursa, Kenji, and Torres must face each other in a gladiator-style match, part of a brutal tradition that celebrates violence. Amid the chaos, Torres and Kenji manage to escape, while Ursa is recaptured and placed back in cryogenics. Something shocking is revealed in that huge camera: they are not alone. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of frozen humans and aliens, all of them former victors of clashes against Predators.

Naru’s Return and the Link with “Prey”

The last shot is one of the most surprising for fans: among cryogenized bodies is Naru, the Comanche heroine of “Prey“. This confirms that after his victory in the 17th century, he was captured and preserved by the Yautja, which opens the door to his return in future aftermath. Are you still asleep? Have you already fought in the coliseum and survived? Could you join Torres and Kenji on a rescue mission? Everything is open, but his appearance is not accidental: he makes it clear that no character is really out of the game, and that the * Predator * universe is expanding more than ever.

What Does All This Mean For The Future of The Saga?

The film not only expands the mythology of Predators, but it also paves the way for multiple sequels. With Kenji and Torres fleeing through a trapped Yautja and Ursa world (and other survivors), there is scope to explore stories on new planets, impossible rescues, and fighting among the best warriors in the galaxy. And if the nod to Naru wasn’t enough, it is suggested that other classic characters like Dutch (Schwarzenegger), Royce (Adrien Brody), or Quinn (Boyd Holbrook) could also have been preserved for future use. The franchise, at last, launches without fear of the big, embracing the space science fiction component with all its consequences.

Story Wise Explanation

Yautja Prime

The alien hunters who give the title to the saga originate from a planet known as Yautja Prime. It was mentioned for the first time in the novelization, or the version written in the form of a novel, by Predator 2, released in 1990 in cinemas, directed by Stephen Hopkins. It was not yet known as Yautja Prime and was simply mentioned as “home world”, the world of origin of space predators. Even in the subsequent iterations of Predator, between cinema, comics, and video games, Yautja Prime has never been explored in depth. On the big screen, he was fleetingly shown in Aliens VS Predator 2 of 2007, but only in 2022, thanks to the collection of short stories contained in the book Predator: Eyes of the Demon, he was baptized in the way he is now known.

The Predator: Badlands trailer released by Disney a few weeks ago confirmed that the film will explore the planet in a more complete way, but, in reality, Predator: Killer of Killers, in the final act, takes us by surprise there. And that’s why we defined this successful animated feature as an “Antifact”. But now we have to move on to the concept of a sequel. Of Prey, of course.

Raphael Adolini 1715

When the three terrestrial warriors find themselves, despite themselves, in the arena on Yautja Prime, in their struggle for survival, they can employ a weapon that is granted to them by predators. A weapon that comes straight from the time and geographic context from which they were taken … well, more or less.

The young driver of the Second World War touches a flint gun made in Spain and dating back to the early 1700s. As we can see in the frame, the engraving Raphael Adolini, 1715.

It is a reference that is made to both Predator 2 and Prey. It’s what Detective Mike Harrigan, played by Danny Glover, gets as a gift, or perhaps it would be better to say as a prize, from the old Predator after taking out the City Hunter in the first film mentioned. In Prey, which takes place in 1719 on the Great Plains, the young Comanche Naru (Amber Midthunder) becomes the new owner of the gun after receiving it from the dying Raphael Adolini.

But how did it end up in the hands of the Yautja?

We’ll get there.

In a little while.

First, curiosity: in the comic of Predator 2, a different origin was narrated for this weapon in its iconic way. In the strips of that comic, Raphael Adolini was the captain of a pirate ship and not a French translator as in Prey. He donated the gun to Yautja Greyback, the one who would later hand it over to the character Danny Glover in the feature film 35 years ago. Both in the comic version and in the adaptation in the form of a Predator 2 novel, the engraved writing was different: “Vito de la Mirandella Anno Domini 1640”.

The Fate of Naru

A few lines ago, we asked ourselves: but how did Raphael Adolini’s gun end up in the hands of the Yautja?

The answer to this question comes to us thanks to the final scene of Predator: Killer of Killers. Aliens transport the hibernated Viking warrior inside a sophisticated sarcophagus that is brought to a kind of warehouse chock-full of hibernated warriors taken, presumably, from every corner of the universe. The film closes on a face that we met just a few years ago: that of Naru.

The young Comanche was therefore also taken and “put in the pantry” as a form of recognition of its warrior value.

Just in Prey’s final jokes, in the credit scene made with a graphic style inspired by native art, we discovered that, after the elimination of the Yautja at the hands of the girl, other alien spaceships had arrived on the Great Plains.

The answer to what they had come to do comes from the Predator: Killer of Killers finale.

In November, perhaps, we will be able to find out if all this will have further developments or if we will be told more about the fate of Naru.