Here’s a survival tip: if you’re going to Africa, load up on caffeine. It’s not a good omen when people keep dozing off in a survival scenario. There is a lot of talk about using real animals in the movie, but that’s all talk and no show. It’s rare to not care about one single character in a survival movie, but Prey never quite understood the assignment.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
Andrew and Sue are American missionaries living in a rural village in Africa. Andrew is a doctor, and his inability to save people due to the lack of medical supplies is killing him slowly. Things turn worse for the couple when they’re told to make a quick exit. The Boko Haram soldiers are on their way. The jihadist organization doesn’t give Andrew much of a choice but to leave. They manage to catch a plane that looks like it’s been through a couple of wars at least. Grun, the pilot of the plane, allows Andrew and Sue a seat each for 10 thousand rands, without luggage. Desperate for a way out, Andrew agrees. There’s also a group of White teenagers (Tyler, Max, and Chrissy), along with their guide Thabo, who boards the plane. The plane doesn’t stay in air for very long, and it crashes in the Kalahari desert. Chrissy doesn’t survive the crash, and the rest of the characters are stuck in a desert that is famously known as “Lion Country.”
How Does Sue Die?
After the crash, Andrew finds his wife’s legs badly stuck under a seat. Grun suggests that the Kwana village is a day’s hike, and they shouldn’t stay put in lion territory. Grun is an idiotic egomaniac who wouldn’t look out for anybody else but himself. Andrew decides to stay with his wife while the rest of the group goes to the village and sends help. Grun takes the group in the wrong direction while everybody is exhausted and severely dehydrated. Max had warned Grun before about the wrong turn, and seeing he was right, he loses it. Max snatches Grun’s pistol and leaves the group to find the village on his own. The first lion attack takes Sue, while the camera focuses someplace else entirely, because why show something that can add life to the movie? The group returns to find a shattered Andrew almost choking Grun to death, blaming him for the death of Sue. Thabo uses the only flare gun to separate them, which also means that the chances of getting rescued are even less now.
How Does Grun Help To Survive The Lions?
Andrew is dismayed and in too sullen a state to think of anything else but Sue. Grun figures out that if they were to survive the lions, the pilot’s cabin is the only way. With a room for only two people, he and Thabo decide to take Andrew in too. Tyler, the rich brat, offers Thabo a million dollars to let him in. Thabo sees the vanity of White people and rejects the offer. Grun helps Tyler by setting him up with a campfire. The repeated use of the word “fire” makes for a good laugh. When the night comes, Tyler is drowsy and struggles to keep himself up. A snake makes its way into the pilot’s cabin, and that’s the only seemingly real animal, along with a scorpion, we see in this movie about lion attacks. However, Tyler sleeps while his life is in danger, and three pairs of shining eyes indicate he doesn’t have much time. While the lions rip Tyler apart, Grun, Thabo, and Andrew hold on to the door. The snake bites Thabo, and Andrew’s low-effort treatment couldn’t save his leg from going almost paralyzed.
Ending Explained: What Happens When The Terrorists Catch The Survivors?
A limping Thabo and Grun try to move on from the death of Tyler and find the way to the village. Andrew had given up hope, and he stayed back. Grun sees a beacon of hope when a jeep comes towards them. The joy and hope don’t last for long; it’s the Boko Haram terrorists. The terrorists capture three of them without paying much attention to their words. Thabo tries to reason with them, being the only one who can speak Zulu. The terrorists consider Thabo nothing more than a servant of the Whites and shoot him in cold blood. They find the rhino horns Grun used to smuggle and hold Grun and Andrew as hostages while their people arrive with a truck. After hours of absolutely nothingness, the terrorists decide to take a nap while the hostages are a few meters away, unrestrained. Grun decides to try his luck, and with the timely assistance of Andrew, they manage to kill both terrorists. Funny how I wished that the terrorists would kill our protagonists and put this awful experience to an end.
Does Anyone Make It Out Of Kalahari?
After surviving a plane crash, stock footage shows lions and three amateur soldiers of Boko Haram. Grun and Andrew try to make their way out of the desert. Grun’s change of heart was apparent when he took responsibility for the smuggling instead of letting Andrew die. Grun carries a weak Andrew to a safe place surrounded by rocks. Now I’m not sure why the lions would not climb a few feet to get their brunch, but the lions in Prey don’t want food unless it’s on a flat surface. A scorpion walks all over a sleeping Andrew. A loose rock falls down the blowing wind gives the lions a whiff of the prey. Grun’s abrupt personality change is established by this point, as he tells Andrew that he admires how helping Andrew made him feel good after a long time. Grun rubs blood all over himself to be a distraction and a bait for the lions, and it’s one of those scenes of sacrifice where you don’t feel bad or any emotion, if I’m being honest. The lions get the brunch they were looking for in Grun, and a half-dead Andrew tries to find his way.
Andrew keeps going back to a place where it looks like he’s lost faith in God. Another prolonged nap ends, and he finds himself waking up to “creepy hyena laughter” (don’t blame me, it’s the actual subtitles). Just when Andrew is about to bash a couple of hyenas with a piece of wood he found on the ground, a miraculous thunder strikes right in between them. The hyenas are gone, and it starts raining, only for Andrew to fall asleep again. He’s eventually saved by the same people he once tried to help—people from the village where he used to be the doctor. Andrew meets Sue in a dream just before he’s rescued, and the credits roll.
By the time Prey ends, I’m jealous of the fact that these people are getting sleep in the toughest conditions I could think of, but not me in my snug little abode. This movie leaves you with a bitter aftertaste, especially because of the promise it had. A lion vs. human story should be way more than a literal snoozefest. I’d suggest the use of better CGI lions instead of pranking the audience with an underwhelming experience. Quoting Grun for once, “Is faith just the absence of common sense?” It makes sense, as the audience is supposed to leave common sense in the drawer before clicking play on Prey.