Warning: This post contains major spoilers!
Predator: Killer of Killers is a sprawling, interlocking anthology tale that also manages to bring the Predator franchise’s most classic Easter egg into the story. Killer of Killers focuses on a trio of human warriors – Viking leader Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy), master Ninja Kenji (Louis Ozawa), and World War II-era U.S. Navy pilot Torres (Rick Gonzalez) – and their respective battles with a Predator hunter within their respective epochs. Killer of Killers devotes one section of the film to each of its human protagonists before bringing all of them together in a final showdown in a Predator arena lightyears away from Earth.
As an animated anthology and a franchise appetizer to this year’s theatrical Predator movie, Predator: Badlands, Killer of Killers takes viewers through several exhilarating stories while also building upon the Predator mythos in numerous ways, including officially canonizing the Predator species’ name. Additionally, Killer of Killers also includes a surprise Easter egg deeply rooted in the Predator series: the famed flintlock pistol previously seen in Predator 2 and Prey.
Flintlock Pistol’s Appearance in Predator: Killer of Killers Explained
In the fourth and final segment of Killer of Killers, the movie’s three human warriors, Ursa, Kenji, and Torres, find themselves brought out of cryogenic stasis and forced to battle to the death in a Yautja gladiatorial arena, with the winner facing the highest-ranking Predator warrior. In the interest of a balanced fight, the Predators present each of the three humans with a weapon of their individual “tribe.”
Ursa and Kenji are respectively granted an axe and a katana, while Torres receives a far more modest tool of combat, in the form of the flintlock pistol featured in (the underrated) Predator 2, and later seen in Prey. In terms of the gladiatorial showdown, the flintlock pistol has a minimal role in the actual fight, with Torres trying to load the archaic firearm with powder and a pellet, but never gets a chance to fire a round. Nonetheless, the flintlock pistol’s presence ties Killer of Killers in directly with both Predator 2 and Prey.
Flintlock Pistol’s History in the Predator Franchise Explained
The flintlock pistol was first seen in the final showdown of Predator 2, right after Detective Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) successfully slays the sequel’s Predator warrior inside the trophy room on the Yautja’s ship. Moments later, Harrigan finds himself surrounded by several other Predators, but as he prepares to fight them with an exhausted “Okay, who’s next?” the Predators carry their fallen comrade away. Meanwhile, the elder Predator shows respect for Harrigan’s skill in battle by tossing him the flintlock pistol and saying “Take it,” as a token of his victory.
Prey brought the flintlock pistol back into the Predator franchise by going back to the weapon’s original era: the year 1719. The movie’s Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) has a dual conflict with both the “Feral Predator” Yautja and some vicious French Fur Trappers pillaging the American Great Plains region. Prey gives Naru an ally in the pistol’s original owner (and the Fur Trappers’ English interpreter) Ralph Adolini (Bennet Taylor). Following a campsite battle with the Feral Predator, the wounded Adolini gives Naru his flintlock pistol while she treats his wounds. With centuries of separation occurring between the flintlock pistol’s three appearances in the Predator franchise, there is plenty of room to theorize how it eventually made its way into Killer of Killers – and the movie provides at least a partial answer to that question.
How Did the Flintlock Pistol Make It Into Killer of Killers (& Will It Be Seen Again?)
The end-credits scene of Killer of Killers shows a comatose Naru as one of many human warriors kept in cryostasis by the Yautja, presumably with the intent for her to eventually be thawed out and battle other humans in the gladiatorial arena (theoretically in Prey 2). This heavily suggests that Prey‘s cave painting-style end credits, alluding to a new Yautja ship’s arrival at the Comanche’s encampment, is when Naru was abducted and placed into cryostasis. In turn, the Predators presumably confiscated the flintlock pistol from her in order for it to be utilized by human fighters thrown into the Yautja gladiatorial games. However, this also leaves a big gap in how the flintlock pistol eventually finds its way to Mike Harrigan in Predator 2.
Theoretically, after Torres and Kenji escape on a commandeered Predator ship (Ursa sacrificing her freedom to give them a chance to get away), the flintlock pistol could have been recycled as a weapon wielded by another human in the Yautja gladiatorial battles. However, this warrior may not have been as fortunate as Torres, being forced to fight an Elder Predator and presumably losing, with the Elder Predator then taking the flintlock pistol as a trophy of its victory, before eventually passing it on to Mike Harrigan. Then again, with no definitive timeframe given from when Torres was abducted in the ’40s and when he was thawed out to enter the arena, Killer of Killers could take place well beyond the 1997 timeframe of Predator 2 and closer to the futuristic setting of Badlands. Given how long Ursa and Kenji were in cryostasis, the final segment of Killer of Killers could plausibly take place anywhere from a few days to several centuries after Torres was beamed up. This opens the possibility that the flintlock pistol has been traded among humans and Predators multiple times throughout the Predator franchise’s timeline. At any rate, the usage of the flintlock pistol in Predator: Killer of Killers is an Easter egg of the most tantalizing sort, one whose presence answers some questions while raising plenty of others.
Predator: Killer of Killers is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+, and Predator: Badlands will be released in theaters on November 7th.
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