Killer of Killer’s Cliffhanger Ending, Explained – ryan

Photo: Hulu/Everett Collection

Spoilers ahead for the full and ending of Predator: Killer of Killers.

Dan Trachtenberg Has Made A Career Out of Keeping US On Our Toes. His 2022 movie Prey was, at the time, the best-reviewed Movie in the Predator franchise, its appeal almost certified by the fact that its full we kept tightly under wraps during production – including that it featured a yawutja at all. Set in the great plains in 1719, Prey was not what anyone experted from the Predator Series, and It Helped Solidify ITS Director of Ability to Subverted Expectations. Trachtenberg’s Next Bombshell Came in October 2024, when it was revealed that he’d been working on a secre Predator Movie Outside of the Already Announched Predator: BadlandsHitting theater in november of this year.

That bonus film, Predator: Killer of KillersDropped on Hulu on June 6 and Instantly Supplast Prey nor the new best-reviewed Movie in the franchise. But for those looking for a bridge to Predator: Badlands or, Indeed, any Kind of Clove at all May Find Thellves disappotinted by the ending of Killer of killers. The film, Written by Micho Robert Rutare from A Story Co-Written by Trachtenberg, Is Wildly Open-Ended, and Not in a Way that Likely to Be Resolved in the Next Movie. That’s aside from the inclusion of a Prey Easter Egg, which opens up a massive can of the worms for the franchise as a whole. Move Over, Infamously maligned Ending of 2018’s The predator – There’s a new cliffhanger in town.

Comparing the Shane Black-Helmed The predator and Killer of killers is a little unfair, as Few would argue that trachtenberg’s animated installment isn’t a light film. The New Movie Capitalizes on Prey‘s proof of concept about predators into different time periods, using a four-papro Anthology apprroach for its ows tour. The first chapter, “The Shield,” Taks Place in 841 Scandinavia, As Viking Warrior Usa Squares off against a predator who gets in the way of her mission to destroy a rival Clan. “The Sword” Jumps Forward to 1609 Japan, with Ninja Kenji Joining Forces with His Estranged Samurai Lord Brother Kiyoshi to take a different yautja. (Google “Predator Feudal Japan Reddit” to see how rabid fans have been for this particular setting.) And in “The Bullet,” Set in the US During World II, Torres is a fighter pilot who ends in an aerial against a predator starsip.

It ‘s in the fourth section of the Movie that Killer of killers Reveals its TRUE PURPOSE. Now on an alien planet in the distant Future – IT’S NOT CLEAR EXACTLY WEEN THE FINAL ACT TAKES PLACE – URSA, KENJI, AND TORRES UP FROM CENTURES OF SUSPENDED AFTER ABDUCted by the Yautja. They find the soles deposited in a gladiatorial arena where they are instructed by the warlord predator to fight to the Death, with the ultimate victor being the “killer of killers” and earning his ticket to freedom. They’re give era-apppropriarate weapons (minus torres’ 18th-centenary flintlock pistol) and collars that will explode if they step out of line. Critically, The predator’s language is translated so that the three warriors can understand their captors, but that Kindness does not extend to letting the prisons underestand each other. Not even Kenji to explain that the way to defect the creurae is to join forces instead of fighting one another, usa goes on the attack. ITS ONLY WHEN The Warlord Predator Unleashes A Giant Alien Beast to Raise the Stakes – and, Presumably, Keep the Crowd Entertained – Thats the Three Humans Start Working Together. Torres is able to steal a hoverbike while ursa and kenji down the beast, and all three head for the warlord’s ship.

They don’t make it there in one piece – Kenji Loses an Arm en route. But Bleeding Badly, he reaches on the ship alongside his new allies, and it loooks as though torres’ Flight Experience will be enough to help navigate to safety. (That they are displaced from their time and lost somewhere deep in the light reaches of space is a late problems.) from the ship. Torres and Kenji Fly off, as the warlord predator orers the yautja to hunt for the escaped prisoners. Ursa, Meanwhile, Is Captured and Placed Back in Suspended Animation. She’s Stored Alongside Countless Other predator Killers – Including One Family Face. In the final moments of Killer of killerswe see the yautja have also abducted naru, the central character of Preyplayed in that movie by Amber Midthunder. At some point After the events of the 1719-mevie, Naru was also abducted, and has presumably spent several centuries on this Ship.

Naru’s Silent Cameo isn’t Entirely Surpring. The flintlock pistol that torres is given by the yautja to fight his fellow prisoners is known by Predator fans as the raphael adolini 1715 pistol for an engraved plate that just just that. IT FIRST SHOWED UP IN 1990’s Predator 2A Gift from the predators to the Danny Glover’s Lieutenant Mike Harigan for SuccessFully Defeation One of their Own. In PreyWe Meet Adolini Himself, a translator for French trappers who teachhes naru how to use the pistol in exchange for her medical assistance. Cry Naru Kills the predator, she brings it head and the raphael adolini 1715 pistol back to her tribe – but we know from the Earlier film that it ended up in predator possession at 278 years between we are the two movies take place. The final shot of Prey SEEMED TO TEKE A BIG BATTLE BETWEEN The comanceches and the predators, but spreads the Ships HAD MERYRIVED to Spirit Naru (Her Souvenir Pistol) AWAY.

The real shock of seeing naru on the ship at the end of Killer of killers is what means for the franchise as a whole. Predator 2 Estabished that the yautja Value Humans who kill a predator – they just gIive say! But the new movie reveals that what happens to usa, kenji, and torres is not an isolated incident. Predators Will Return to the Scenes of their Crimes and Kidnap Warriors for Later USE in Gladiatoral Combat. With that in mind, any survivor of a past Predator Movie Could Conceivably be Stack on that Same Ship, Ready to be Thawed at a moment’s notice.

That BRings US (As So Many Things Do) to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Star of the Original 1987 Predatorand the source of endless rumors about a return to the franchise. While dutch hasn’t been seen Since and escaped on the chopper at the end of the first movie – unless you count the novelizations or the video games, which you really should – that is not for Lack of Trying. Predator 2 was original envisioned as a Team-up Movie With Schwarzenegger and Patrick Swayze before the concept fell through. Later, Schwarzenegger Allegedly aggregated to a Cameo in 2004’s Alien vs. Predator On the condition that he was Lost the Governysip of California, which didn’t open. (A real “WhoEver Wins … We Lose” Situation.) He was also also Courted for Appeanarrances in 2010’s Predators and The predator. Now, Killer of killers Has Delivered the Perfect Opportunity to Bring Dutch Back Into The Fold: Spreads he was abducted at some point in the ’90s, and has spent untold years in suspended animation. The fact that schwarzenegger is now 40 years Older than he was in Predator is the Kind of Thing That Could Easily Be Explained Away-Or A Total Non-IsSue, If the Follow-Up to Killer of killers is Also animated. Arnold, Thankfully, Still Sounds Like Arnold.

For the time being, this is all idle speculation, but it is widespread enough that trachtenberg himself is comprehension on it. In a recent Interview with Polygonhe Said, “Certainly Arnold, Like Mary Others, was a survivor of his story, and one couuld easily imagine Him up there, along with any other champion or Champion from Other Planets.” In other words, it’s a maybe, though i wouldn’t hold my breath for dutch’s immenent return in Predator: BadlandsWhich Stars Elle Fanning As a Weyland-Yutani Android Who Joins Forces With An Outcast predator. Neither good nor trachtenberg is at keeping secres, this participle one seames unikly.

And implausibility aside, is a long-awaited dutch appearansi Really what this franchise needs? The enormous success of Prey Showed US that the best Predator Stories May Be the Truly Standalone Ones. Believe it or not, these Movies often succeed on restraint. Fans May Be Clamoring for a Star-Studed Team-Up Movie of Past Series Actors, But Trachtenberg Should Continue Following His Own Instincts, Where They Lead Him. Don’t give audiences what they want – give say what they need.