By all means, Predator: Killer of Killers had no business being as exhilarating as it is. On paper, the premise read like the (very real) sandbox fantasies of a twelve-year-old freshly chancing upon a dusty DVD with the cool, gun-toting muscle-man on the cover: What if the Predator fought a Viking? Or a samurai? Or a WWII pilot? In the deft hands of Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung, however, this page off an AskScienceFiction subreddit thread has instead shaped into a richly imagined R-rated animated spectacle that is ferociously stylish.Structured as a triptych of ultraviolent vignettes, Killer of Killers sidesteps the predictable bloat of franchise expansion. Clocking in at just over 80 minutes, each chapter feels like a beautifully illustrated poem of death, framed in a moody chiaroscuro. There’s a sort of austere theatricality to its construction. A bit of Assassin’s Creed meets Heavy Metal, with the gorgeous aesthetic sensibilities of Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai.Predator: Killer of Killers (Multilingual)Director: Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua WassungCast: Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Rick Gonzalez, Michael BiehnRun-time: 87 minutesStoryline: A Viking raider, a ninja in feudal Japan, and a World War II pilot encounter the titular intergalactic hunterThe three chapters — “The Shield,” “The Sword,” and “The Bullet” — each pit a member of humanity’s warrior class against one of the universe’s most militant tourists: the Yautja, or what the less-unhinged fans commonly call “Predators.” They are apex hobbyists, slicing their way across centuries in search of worthy opponents.“The Shield” begins on the windy coasts of Scandinavia. Ursa, a shieldmaiden fueled by a Hamletian bloodthirst, storms an enemy stronghold in pursuit of revenge. Just as she triumphs, a cloaked interloper enters the stage, dispatching her comrades’ heads from their bodies. The carnage is operatic, and choreographed with a balletic rhythm. Ursa’s duel with this armour-less behemoth with a bionic sonic cannon is the stuff of legends.

A still from ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’
| Photo Credit:
20th Century Studios
Rendered in Unreal Engine, the style blends 3D depth with hand-painted 2D textures, creating a look that hovers somewhere between graphic novel and moving fresco. The Viking sequence alone feels like Frank Frazetta’s sketchpad sprung to life, full of fog-drenched fjords, flailing limbs, and the glint of bloodied steel.From there, we move east to feudal Japan. “The Sword” follows twin brothers trained in the art of war, who find themselves entangled in a duel for succession. The Predator in this segment is stealthy and precise, cutting through shadows with a chain-sickle and cloaking tech that makes even a shinobi nervous. The storytelling is sparse and nearly silent, which lends it the air of a Noh play, though one in which the masks are eventually ripped off and the faces underneath are cleaved in two. The chapter comes to a beautiful, poetic bookend with the same haiku that opens it.Then, in “The Bullet,” the film takes to the skies above the Pacific during the second World War. A chatty Navy mechanic-turned-pilot’s cocky optimism is tested when his dogfight with Nazi planes is interrupted by something otherworldly. The Predator here is like a space pirate, complete with a cybernetic eyepatch and a ship that spits alien harpoons. Of the three stories, this one takes the longest to get airborne, weighed down slightly by its earnest backstory. But once it lifts off, it does so with a gory Top Gun-like panache.

A still from ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’
| Photo Credit:
20th Century Studios
These segments are not connected by plot so much as by theme. Each hero is fighting their own war that’s just as much against their interstellar enemies, as it is against the crushing weight of expectation, legacy, and self-worth. This makes Killer of Killers feel, unexpectedly (and unpretentiously), like a meditation on the cost of proving oneself. Even the Predators’ motives are encoded in the title. They’re hunting killers, to become better killers themselves, and that logic feels aptly circular.The final act brings these disparate warriors together for a last stand on Yautja Prime, and the tone pivots slightly toward the absurd. The physics get looser, the pacing accelerates, and the final battle is a delirious jamboree of swords, shields, and alien tech. But even here, the film never loses sight of its confidence.Perhaps the real shocker here is that Killer of Killers never once feels like a commercial for something else. Granted, there’s a little nod to Trachtenberg’s Prey, and a breadcrumb or two pointing toward his upcoming Predator: Badlands. But for once, the fan-service feels exciting, and that’s only because Killer of Killers is a full-course meal under the guise of an animated amuse-bouche for bigger things to come. It knows exactly what kind of lean, mean and mercifully self-contained franchise extension it is, and like a perfectly executed decapitation, it’s all the more satisfying for how clean the cut is.Predator: Killer of Killers is currently streaming on JioHotstar Published – June 06, 2025 07:25 pm IST