There was a bear, but there was something else, and it was huge. I couldn't see it until it was covered in blood, but it looked like -- like a mupitsl.Naru regarding the Feral Predator.
The Feral Predator, known to the Comanche as the Mupitsl, is the main antagonist of the 2022 science-fiction action film Prey, the fifth installment of the Predator franchise. He is a member of the Yautja race who came down to Earth in the 18th century, where he began his hunt within Lawton, Oklahoma.
During his hunt, he would come across various animals and add them to his collection before coming in conflict with the Comanche Tribe and eventually facing battle with a Comanche warrior known as Naru, later becoming her archenemy.
He was portrayed by Dane DiLiegro, who also played Chauncey the Bear in Imaginary.
Appearance
As with other members of his kind, the Feral Predator/Mupitsl is taller than an average human and sports a muscular build befitting to his status as a trained hunter. He displays more distinctive features, owing to his background as a member of the Yautja hailing from desert biomes of their home planet: he has a rather obtuse head with long wiry dreadlocks, yellow eyes in larger eye sockets, and a wider mouth with insect-like mandibles and fangs larger than his previous specimens.
He also wears minimal armor (such as wrist gauntlets, a chain loincloth secured by a belt, a back piece to carry his bolt gun, and wears a Bio-helmet fashioned from the skull of an unidentified creature he previously hunted and killed) and carries minimal hunting gear in his disposal.
Personality
Taabe: We're the bait. He's coming for us.
Naru: No, no, it doesn't want the bait. It doesn't hunt that way. Before the trappers captured me, it saw me. It came right up to me, and then left. (finally realizes something) It didn't think I was a threat.Taabe and Naru's brief discussion about the Feral Predator's modus operandi.
True to his namesake, Feral Predator is a savage and bloodthirsty warrior who enjoys close-combat over stealth and actively engages in up-close skirmishes frequently, as demonstrated while dueling a bear, Wasape and his cohorts, and Big Beard's voyageur group. Nevertheless, he is no slouch in stealth tactics and using hi-tech armaments in disposal in taking out foes.
As shown in his activities up until the encounter with humans at Great Plains, Feral Predator displays curiosity towards the dynamic between local fauna there. In his search for worthy prey on Earth, the Yautja builds up his repertoire of trophies out of formidable creatures he encountered each larger and deadlier than the last.
Though it remains to be seen whether his clan's honor code being same as that of Jungle Hunter's clan, Feral Predator nevertheless displays honorable side, only _targeting preys and formidable foes who truly adequate for his collection hence ignoring Naru until she eventually posed a threat to him. Such trait has its limits however, as he would resort to his cloak whenever necessary; he engages a wolf and a grizzly bear while fully cloaked on separate occasions and even uses his cloak to recover from Taabe's relentless assaults and subsequently delivers a counterattack while it still activated. Similarly, he resorts to use his Bolt Gun against Naru upon being trapped in a quicksand despite appropriately handicapped himself in dueling her prior.
Biography
Arriving on Earth
In early 18th century at the middle of Comanche territory, Earth, Feral Predator arrived with his ship and began his search his search for worthy prey to hunt. He started by claiming his first trophy out of a snake he skinned upon noticing it seeing through his cloak, then a wolf whom he ambushed and challenged while hunting a rabbit. His arrival didn't go unnoticed by Naru who witnessed his cloaked ship among stormy clouds in the sky which she mistook as a thunderbird and later, flayed rattlesnake and the Yautja's large footprint.
Settling into a nearby cave, the Feral Predator examined the newly acquired wolf skull he cleaned up of its flesh and fur with a special gas when he heard Naru's pet dog Sarii barking on the distance, prompting him to continue his hunt. The Yautja soon discovered the first clue of possible worthy prey in form of burnt cigar and flowers near skinned remains of bufallo herd before moving on and subsequently confronted a grizzly bear he soundly defeated with a single blow that broke its neck while partially cloaked. Celebrating his victory by holding his new kill before gutting it and soaked with the dead bear's blood in the process, the Feral Predator noticed the fleeing Naru, much to his curiosity that he decided to give chase.
Hunting Naru
The pursuit led to the Yautja witnessing Naru being subdued by Wasape and his cohorts who begrudgingly joined her brother Taabe as part of a search party sent out to look for her, with Naru dubbing the Feral Predator "Mupitsl" after the Comanche demon of legend. The newly renamed Mupitsl soon ambushed the group starting from sniping Wasape with his bolt gun before engaging his cronies who attacked him up close with his Separable Combistick. Soundly defeating them, the Mupitsl noticed Naru who just released herself from her bonds and considered to engage him before fleeing once again. Killing Itsee at the plains, the Mupitsl cornered Naru who got incapacitated by a bear trap. Instead of finishing her off, the Mupitsl concluded that she was no longer a threat and left, but not before examining said trap. This in turn, led to Naru's capture by the owner of said trap, a group of French Voyageurs led by Big Beard.
It's evident that the Mupitsl encountered the same voyageur band at some point afterwards because one of them, Raphael Adolini, questioned Naru about what she knew regarding their unexpected interloper during her captive.
The voyageurs used Naru and Taabe, whom they had also captured, as bait within a scorched meadow in a bid to lure the Mupitsl into a trap. But the Mupitsl already expected this, silently dispatched several lookouts who were in charge of the Frenchmen's horses to strip them of their means of quick escape all while ignoring Comanche siblings thus confirming Naru's assumption of their enemy only _targeting those who truly a threat to him. Even so, the Mupitsl overlooked bear traps Frenchmen prepared to incapacitate him, resulting them momentarily subdued the Yautja with their net. Outraged, he silenced one of voyageurs with a wristblade stab through his jaw before skewering another and then tossed his netball at the third, reducing the unfortunate Frenchman and the log he pinned against into a pile of splintered wood and minch meat. Freeing himself with his cut-clamp, the Mupitsl engages the rest of attacking voyageurs with his wrist shield on before eventually dispatched most of them with proximity mines, unimpressed by their subpar combat prowess compared to grizzly bear and Wasape's gang, more so because one of the Frenchmen he butchered ended up killing himself in a humiliating manner (his flintlock shot got deflected back to his skull by his Bio-mask).
After patching up his wounds he sustained from the fight with his medicomp, the Predator makes his way to the voyageurs' camp to search for survivors, unaware that Naru is there too. Searching the area, he stepped on a wounded Raphael Adolini, causing him to scream and prompting the startled Predator to kill him in reflex. Still recovering from the shock, the Mupitsl then sees Sarii and aims his bolt gun at her, only to be ambushed by Taabe before he could shoot the dog.
As a duel ensued, Naru, struggling to properly load the flintlock pistol Adolini gave to her, noticed how the Mupitsl's projectiles are tracked toward where his Bio-mask's _targeting lasers were pointed at. Overwhelmed by Taabe's relentless assaults, the Mupitsl activated his cloak to distance himself from his opponent and then impale and mortally wound Taabe from behind with his wrist blades shortly afterwards. Moving onto Naru, he observed that she was wielding a weapon, and slowly approached her. With the last of his strength, Taabe distracted the Mupitsl by stabbing his leg with the teeth of an animal skull, causing the enraged hunter to deliver the killing blow with his combistick, buying Naru and Sarii enough time to escape.
Final Battle
Figuring out the creature's weakness, Naru used Big Beard as bait to allow the Mupitsl to reveal himself. After killing the Frenchman leader, Naru subsequently shot the creature in the back of his head and stole his Bio-mask so she can use it against him. Luring the Mupitsl into her chosen field of battle, a violent and ferocious clash between the two ensued, with Naru managing to sever the Mupitsl's right arm by knocking it against his activated shield. The fight culminates when Naru pulls the battered Mupitsl into the area's quicksand to drown him, only for the latter to emerge and aims his bolt gun at her with his remaining strength as a last attempt to finish his opponent. Goaded by Naru, he fires his weapon which narrowly hits her. Confused by the sight of the launched projectile curiously flying around them, the Mupitsl realizes too late that its laser _targeting system linked to his stolen Bio-mask is still active and that Naru had placed it nearby in order to exploit its quirk against him. The projectile subsequently bursts through the Mupitsl's skull, killing him and putting an end to his hunt. With his death, Taabe and his people the Mupitsl had killed are avenged.
Afterwards, Naru severs the Mupitsl's head, paints her face with his green blood and brings the head back home, succeeding her brother as the next war chief of her tribe. However, it is somehow revealed that her efforts had attracted the attention of several Yautja ships, presumably thanks to the Mupitsl's Bio-mask that had recorded the whole thing.
Powers and Abilities
- Yautja Physiology: The Feral Predator/"Mupitsl" is a Yautja, a race of formidable head-hunters.
- Physical Conditioning: Thanks to intense training he undergone in order to become a proper hunter, the Feral Predator's attributes which already superior to normal humans have been honed further so he can keep up with most formidable of prey and foes alike in combat.
- Skilled Combatant: The Feral Predator is a formidable combatant ever faced by Naru and other humans in her time, skilled in hand-to-hand and armed combat.
- Skilled Martial Artists: The Feral Predator displayed great hand-to-hand combat skill which, coupled with his honed physiology, enables him to overcome a grizzly bear on ease and even break its neck with a single punch despite the latter being too much for a mere human to overpower physically.
- Spear Mastery: The Feral Predator displayed great skill with his Separable Combistick.
- Wrist Blade Mastery: The Feral Predator displayed great skill with his Wrist Blade.
- Shield Mastery: The Feral Predator displayed great skill with his Wrist Gauntlet's collapsible shield, able to use it in both defensively and offensively.
- Skilled Marksmanship: The Feral Predator can fire his Bolt Gun with remarkable precision even without being backed by his Bio-Mask's _targeting laser system. The reason why he failed to headshot Naru in his last moment was because his frustration and wounds hampered him as much as made him forget the fact that the latter stole his Bio-Mask in order to turn its _targeting laser system linked to his said weapon against him.
- Stealth Mastery: The Feral Predator is trained in the art of stealth like other Yautjas, able to remain out of sight as he moves around his foes and prey alike with his cloak back him up.
Equipment
- Bio-Mask: A mask that provides protection in addition of vision modes to better perceive the wearer's surroundings in different spectrums and _targeting laser system linked to either Bolt Gun or Plasma Caster. The Feral Predator's was fashioned from the skull of unknown alien creature (possibly a River Ghost) and houses standard systems along with interfaces to see through due to lacking visor or eye sockets.
- Wrist Gauntlet: Left gauntlet with built-in computer and other technologically advanced features.
- Cloak: A system which envelops the wearer's whole body in an energy field that warps the light around them to the point of invisible to the naked eye and various electronic scanning. The Feral Predator's cloak appeared to be among unique models since its invisibility effect being better than standard ones used by other Yautjas in previous installments, less susceptible to short-circuiting upon contact with water yet moreso with other disturbances such as ashes carried by wind during the skirmish against French voyageurs, and generates red field disruption if the wearer got struck.
- Wrist Shield: Built-in collapsible shield for defense. Thanks to the sharpness of its individual pieces, it can also be deployed as sort of hand guillotine to behead opponents within addition of deflecting enemy blows.
- Wrist blades: The Feral Predator carries wrist blades as his signature melee weapon as with other Yautjas.
- Separable Combistick: The Feral Predator carries a combistick, telescopic spear of Yautja design where his can be separated into a short javelin and a club.
- Bolt Gun: The Feral Predator's signature long-range weapon. It fires up to 3 bolts where each guided by the _targeting laser system of his Bio-Mask not unlike Plasma Caster.
- Netball: A spherical throwing weapon which, upon being triggered and thrown like a grenade, expands into a net that both pins a _target and tightens to reduce them into mushed meat. The Feral Predator carries at least one which he uses to reduce a trapper and a log he pinned at into a pile of mushed meat and wood splinter.
- Cut Clamp: The Feral Predator carries a segmented device that can cut through anything it coils about and even thrown like bolas as seen when he cut himself free from a bear trap during the fight against French voyageurs.
- Disintegrator Gas: A device containing special gas that can dissolve flesh into nothingness yet leaves bone intact. He uses this to clean up his newly acquired trophy.
- Medicomp: A set of first aid kit to tend wounds while on a hunt.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Feral Predator is said to be the first Predator who arrives on Earth.
- As hinted and later confirmed by the filmmakers, Feral Predator hailed from a desert-dwelling Clan which explained his physiology that evolved to better adapt in such biomes (major Yautjas before him such as Jungle Hunter and City Hunter hailed from clans who live in jungle biomes of their home planet). The same clan also supposedly held a reverence towards bones in both armor and equipment as reflect on Bio-Mask's design as well as their diet.
- According to the director, Dan Trachtenberg, it was confirmed as a God of War fan, he based the Predator's new shield gadget off of Kratos' shield, Guardian Shield, from the 2018 reboot, which features a similar retractable function.
- The concept revolving collapsible shield had been used prior to Kratos' Guardian Shield however. Earlier examples include Wristwatch Shield from Riordan's novels and Temujin's Retractable Shield from Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel.
- The Comanche refer the Feral Predator as a Mupitsi, which is based on the Pia Mupitsi (Mother Owl) monster from Comanche folklore.
