The subtitle of Predator: Killer of Killers comes from the Yautja Codex — a cultural document of the extraterrestrial species movie lovers know as Predators. Hunting and collecting trophies from dangerous prey — including humans — is a societal imperative for a young Yautja who is encouraged to become a “killer of killers” as a path to honor and glory. In his latest addition to the Predator-verse, director Dan Tracthenberg follows-up on the success of 2022’s Prey with an R-rated animated anthology of Predator films that’s as broadly creative as anything we’ve seen in the Predator cinematic universe. And it’s another winner for Tracthenberg, who single handedly revitalized the filmic world of the Predator by transporting its iconic alien monster to the historic action genre.
The film’s three chapters all involve lots of violence and bloody action. The movie is soaked in crimson and numerous sequences are filled with severed limbs and heads tumbling through the film’s frames. Killer of Killers earns its R-rating, but it also features some of the best fight choreography I’ve seen this side of John Wick. And Trachtenberg excels at bringing his cartoon characters to life and delivering real emotional ballast to these brutal stories about troubled heroes facing their most deadly challenges.
“The Shield” begins the triptych of terror on the longboat of a 9th-century Viking raider named Ursa whose quest for vengeance gets brutally interrupted by our favorite dreadlocked trophy collector. The animation here channels the look of the Netflix animated show Arcane and several artists from that series contributed to Killer of Killers. The style and design transform Nordic brutality into artful savagery. “The Shield” is a revenge saga, wrapped in space horror, that references Beowulf and takes place in an animated world designed with video game software, Unreal Engine. The results are sometimes mesmerizing.
“The Sword” shifts the setting to feudal Japan, where a ninja’s family betrayal becomes exponentially more complicated when a samurai-hunting Predator pays a visit. This segment leans hardest into the franchise’s core theme, the lesson from the Yautja Codex – that honor in hunting transcends species. Some of the most fun details in these stories are the portrayals of the title monster. In “The Shield” the predator is almost like a Hulk creature, massive and powerful. In “The Sword” the interstellar hunter more closely resembles the villain from the original film. The samurai segment here can’t help but recall the katana battle in the Predators film by Robert Rodriquez, and it’s a great example of how Trachtenberg celebrates the best of the Predator universe while simultaneously remaking and revitalizing the brand.
“The Wing” closes the trilogy with a WWII fighter pilot whose aerial investigations turn into a dogfight for the ages. Here the Sci-Fi historical action film feels like Top Gun meets The Thing, and watching a P-51 Mustang duke it out with Predator tech is the kind of absurd spectacle that reminds you why this franchise endures, and why Trachtenberg’s genre-jumping films have done so much to unleash the monster’s latent box office potential.
Like any anthology film, Killer of Killers offers something for everyone: You don’t like war stories? How about ninja pictures? Everybody loves Viking films. I love movies like New York Stories and Paris, Je T’aime. Criterion Collection will release 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould at the end of the month. Anthology movies/omnibus films, featuring multiple movies within the context of a greater cinematic project, are the chocolate box movie experience — you won’t like them all and you’ll always pick favorites. It’s all part of the fun. “The Sword” is my favorite tale among these three great shorts, and there’s even more to Killer of Killers that I’ve left hidden with my cloaking device. I wouldn’t want to spoil one of the best movies of the year.
Predator: Killer of Killers is streaming on Hulu
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.