John McTiernan’s 1987 Sci-Fi/Action Film/Monster Movie, Predator, kicked off a popular and enduring film series. Thirty-eight years later, 2025 gifts fans with two new films featuring different versions of their favorite, “One ugly motherfucker” hunter aliens. The first to arrive is the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, and it is everything a Predator movie should be.

The original film was an exciting genre mashup that benefited from McTiernan’s tight direction, Stan Winston’s creature design, and a fun script performed by a game cast of macho-posturing actors who leaned into the film’s badass vibe. The film’s success led to the inevitable sequel. While Stephen Hopkins’ undervalued Predator 2 didn’t fare as well with critics or fans, the film was exciting and filled with big action sequences that were quite thrilling. The sequel was something different, as this time the Predator was in a futuristic L.A. where violence flooded the streets. Such a clever twist to the story also worked for Nimród Antal’s Predators from 2010. In the series’ third film, a group of killers and mercenaries find themselves on the Predators’ planet being used as sport.

All that glitters is not gold. The two Alien vs. Predator movies were junk and (surprisingly) the combined talents of Fred Dekker and original film alum Shane Black couldn’t save the disastrous, derivative, and goofy, The Predator, in 2018.

It took director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) to inject new life into the saga. 2022’s Prey was a breath of fresh air, as it was the first of the series to set its story in the past. Trachtenberg’s film found the Predator landing on Earth in 1719 and fighting a tribe of Native Americans in the Comanche Nation. The director kept the Predator lore intact while pitting it against new foes in a unique historical setting. Crisp, tense, and full of interesting characters, Prey was the best of the Predator films since the original.

Co-directing with Josh Wassung and co-writing with Micho Robert Rutare, Trachtenberg returns with the first animated entry, as his three segment anthology, Predator: Killer of Killers enters the arena to become one of the finest Predator movies yet.

Set in the time of the Vikings, 841 AD, “The Shield” opens the film with a commanding story of Viking warrior Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) preparing her son Anders for manhood and a life of battle. She is on a bloody quest to find the man who killed her father. Fueled by “the monster that awakened” inside her, Ursa’s trail of blood and bodies attracts the Predator, who throws itself into the middle of her battles until she must come face to face with her foe in a gripping fight to the death.

Segment two is titled, “The Sword” and this is the film’s best. Set in feudal Japan, this is the story of two brothers who become divided by their father’s brutal training in the hope of choosing the family’s worthy successor. There is no time for them to absorb the privilege of youth, as the siblings are pitted against one another both mentally and physically.

One brother becomes a skilled and ruthless samurai, as the other leaves his family and spends 20 years training to become a skilled ninja warrior. For two decades, the brothers never saw one another. Their combined exiles end when the ninja returns for revenge and to take what was his birthright.

Again, this path of blood and death attracts a predator. Nodding to more than a dozen (or more) samurai pictures, the two brothers are in a duel where there can only be one left alive, yet they stop long enough to fight against their enemy from another world.

With almost no dialogue, the segment is rich in character and tension while the final moment becomes something unexpectedly moving.

“The Bullet” closes out the film with a WWII-set tale of a Latino fighter pilot, Torres (Rick Gonzalez), who must fly a rickety plane to save his fellow soldiers (including his commanding officer, voiced by Michael Biehn) from a “mysterious” foe that is attacking from inside the clouds. Of course, this is our beloved Predator who lays waste to the planes and their pilots in a thrilling dogfight.

Steering clear of spoilers, the three tales are cleverly linked. By the finale, the film comes full circle, immersing viewers into the mythos of the Predator world.

Each of the three segments have their own visual character and unique design. The animation is beautifully rendered; capturing the feel of the three respective stories and their eras.

“The Shield” has the gritty aura of Viking lore, as the segment is immersed in the powerful reds of blood and fire. “The Bullet” has an incredible, sun-lit, design, as the animators take their audience to the skies in a collage of clouds, airplanes, bullets, and blood.

“The Sword” achieves the film’s most gorgeous visual tone. With its cherry blossoms, soft wind-blown trees, and stunning mountains, the beauty of Japanese nature permeates every frame.

While some may balk at an animated Predator outing, the visuals and action are as good as any film in the series. Trachtenberg and his team create inventive battles that are full of gripping tension.

The filmmakers outdo themselves on the creature design. Each segment has its own different style of Predator, with every new monster one-upping the last. It is always fun to see the different types of Predators each new movie gives us. To get three (maybe more?) in one film is a gift to dedicated fans of the series.

This November will see the release of Trachtenberg’s third series entry, the live action Predator: Badlands. With the artistic triumph of his first two, there is no doubt the film will be another feather in the director’s Predator cap.

Exciting and inventive, Predator: Killer of Killers more than solidifies that the series is in capable hands with Dan Trachtenberg at the helm. 

Predator: Killer of Killers

Writtten by Micho Robert Rutare with a story by Trachtenberg and Rutare, based on characters created by Jim Thomas & John Thomas.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg with Josh Wassung, from animation company The Third Floor

Voice Cast Michael Biehn, Lindsay LaVanchy, Rick Gonzalez, Damien Haas, Doug Cockle, Felix Solas

R, 90 Minutes, 20th Century Studios, Davis Entertainment, The Third Floor