Ryan Phillippe and Mena Suvari play Andrew and Sue, Christian missionaries living in the remote Kalahari Desert region of Africa. Andrew is a doctor working to help the local community, but militant extremists threaten their safety. With few options available, the couple accepts a flight out with shady pilot Grun, portrayed by Emile Hirsch. Yet tragedy strikes mid-air as the overloaded plane crashes in a game reserve full of lions, leopards, and hyenas.
Sue suffers injuries in the wreck, leaving Andrew reluctant to leave her side. As Grun leads the other survivors to find help, Andrew stays behind to care for his wife. But with night falling and the reserve teeming with predators, their situation grows dire. Both man and beast now imperil the couple, who must summon every reserve of strength, skill, and faith to survive against the odds in the vast and volatile African wilderness.
The film gears up for an intense battle between humans and nature. With a talented cast and the thrilling premise of being stalked by deadly wildlife, Prey! promises edge-of-your-seat survival action. Whether it can deliver the goods or fall prey to its own shortcomings is another story. But for fans of gritty wilderness survival tales, this setup presents potential for vivid scenes of courage and peril on the vast and unforgiving African plains.
Facing Fear and Fallibility in the African Wilderness
Christian missionaries Andrew and Sue are forced to flee their remote medical outpost as militant extremists close in. With few options remaining, they accept passage on a small plane piloted by the unscrupulous Grun. Several others, including Thabo, who aids the village, crowd on board for evacuation as well.
Yet disaster strikes mid-flight as the overloaded aircraft loses altitude. It crashes in the Kalahari game reserve, home to prides of lions and lethal predators. Sue endures injuries in the wreckage, leaving Andrew conflicted as Grun insists the fittest must march on for help. Nightfall brings more than the danger of dehydration; it also heralds the hours when lions roar free.
As Grun’s party pushes forward, Andrew stays behind, tending to his wife. But the remaining strangers squabble and unravel in the intense heat. Grun’s true nature emerges too as he openly traffics black market goods. Meanwhile, the isolated couple faces their own threats as scavengers creep closer under the cover of darkness.
Through it all, Andrew clings to his faith that divine providence will deliver them. Yet as comrades fall prey to desert and beast, even his hope starts wavering. And when the extremists finally catch their trail, all bets are off in the ensuing clash. Survival rests on individuals abandoning pretense and pulling together, overcoming flaws, and finding fortitude where least expected.
In the end, only cooperation can conquer the primal perils of the wilderness. But whether the missionaries and their unlikely allies discover that truth in time remains unseen. With lives on the line against the deadliest hunter of all, nature, only courage and compromise may let them cheat destiny once more in the African wastelands.
Facing the Wilderness Within
In Prey, no threat posed by lions or militants compares to the inner struggles of the characters. Each arrives broken in their own way, yet the unforgiving bush somehow brings out both the best and the worst in their coping.
Grun seems cutthroat, caring only to settle old scores. But beneath bravado lies buried pain, as we see when dehydration strips others of their vulnerable core. Though he schemes, Grun also stubbornly shields the ailing. His streetwise guise masks deep wells of empathy.
Andrew too remains in crisis, clinging to faith yet finding it faltering. Wracked by a boy’s death and his wife’s injuries, reality shakes the foundations of this healer’s world. Yet in darkness comes light, as protecting Sue becomes his solace and reason to persevere, one breath at a time.
Even the minor characters intrigue. Thabo shelters steady composure—until we learn his steady hand stems from duties long fulfilled. His quiet strength steadies others when hope wanes. Though strangers, bonds form, each life having worth to the group.
More than thrills, it is this inward exploration that engages. Stripping social niceties leaves only our humanity, equally flawed and magnificent. With life at stake, true colors surface. Courage, fallibility, and even redemption—qualities we all share—take center stage.
Through simplistic characters, Prey reveals layer upon layer of universal struggles. Its message remains long after the final frames, a reminder that our greatest battles lie within and that the true measure of ourselves emerges when faced with our own wilderness.
Facing Harsh Realities
While adventure tales often glamorize risk, Prey offers a grittier view of human nature under duress. Through its survivors’ ordeals, deeper themes emerge around faith, cooperation, and confronting uncomfortable truths.
Andrew clings to the belief that Providence will spare him, yet each crisis chips away at hope. As friends fall, even his calling is questioned—must this healer now take life? His struggle mirrors humanity’s search for meaning in the indifference of the natural world.
Cooperation too is tested, as each looks to self-interest amid danger. Grun assumes the pack mentality yet proves his mettle in protecting the vulnerable. Together, their motley band becomes a makeshift family, showing our shared stakes and promoting solidarity in strife.
Perhaps most striking is how Prey shuns romanticizing the colonial past. Where thrillers glorify conquering the wild, these missionaries find themselves the hunted—a stark reminder that humanity is not apart from but integrally tied to our environment. Even good intentions earn no special protection from nature’s indifference.
Through its characters’ inward journeys and refusal to sugarcoat hardship, Prey delivers cultural commentary as vivid as its brushland scenery. With unvarnished realism, it reveals our primal struggles endured despite technology and faces us with the challenge of confronting reality’s unpleasant realities with grace and courage, as these souls strive to do.
Facing the Wilderness
These actors faced quite a challenge in Prey. With little more than suggestions and sounds to convey danger, their performances had to sell the suspense. And sell it they did, for the most part.
Phillippe as Andrew walks a fine line—his character’s spiraling faith leaves little to grasp onto. At times, it’s hard to stay with a man who loses himself so thoroughly to fear and doubt. But credit is due for braving such a complex inner journey on screen.
By contrast, Suvari imbues Sue with quiet strength, even in injury. Her deep caring for Andrew and the others presents a still point as the world tilts around her. You feel her struggle to keep hope alive through sheer force of will.
Hirsch, too, rises to the occasion. Grun’s roguish bravado masks real compassion and hurt from his own past. Hirsch lends him layers that make his decisions resonate beyond simple survival tactics. His dynamic with Phillippe’s Andy, in particular, sparks fascinating tensions.
As Thabo, Tardy provides stable support. He brings just the right balance of realism, fearfulness, and calm in emergencies. You believe completely in his character’s sound counsel and steady presence for the group.
Together, this cast breathed humanity into roles that, on the page, could have been shallow archetypes. Facing adversaries both inner and outer, their raw performances anchored an intense psychological survival story amid the scenery. Even without flashy attacks to drive the plot, they engaged your mind in the group’s desperate plight and difficult moral choices in the wilderness.
Survival on the Savannah
Well, I can’t say Prey was the edge-of-your-seat thriller I’d hoped for based on the premise. While the setting and cast suggested excitement, the execution failed to really deliver. That said, it wasn’t all bad.
On the plus side, I appreciated that Dewil didn’t take the easy route of cliched characterizations. None of these folks were one-dimensional by any means. And placing viewers in the characters’ shoes, facing relentless pressure and dwindling options, gave the story weight. It built a plausible desperation you could feel coming off the screen at times.
Some of the themes also struck meaningful chords. Its unvarnished look at how colonial mindsets break down in reality resonated. And exploring the nuances of cooperation versus every-man-for-himself in a crisis added layers. Plus, it took courage to leave the big cat, which reveals mostly to the imagination—an artistic choice, though a risky one for genre purposes.
On the downside, much of the dialogue and certain plot turns strained credibility. The underwritten supporting players came and went without meaning. And that lack of tangible danger, especially for the stated man-eater premise, seriously blunted the tension. Some also found the religious messaging a bit heavy-handed.
Ultimately, I can’t say I’d rush to revisit Prey or recommend it without caveats. But I admired Dewil for attempting more than a standard-issue scarefest. And some haunting imagery may linger with me from this flawed but earnest African odyssey. With better execution and fewer missed opportunities, it could have been a memorable survival yarn. As is, it offers just a glimpse of what might have been on the savannah.
The Review
Prey
Prey showed glimpses of an engaging psychological survival drama with solid themes and committed performances from its leads. However, flawed execution and a failure to generate genuine tension undermine the promised man-versus-beast premise. Ultimately, it offers too little payoff for the setup.
PROS
- Features the compelling premise of plane crash survivors facing lions.
- Explores nuanced themes of colonial mindsets and cooperation in crises
- Committed performances from the leading cast members
CONS
- Fails to deliver on promises of tense man versus beast action
- Much of the dialogue and certain plot points strain credibility.
- Underdeveloped supporting characters come and go with little impact.
- Lacks genuine tension and doesn't make the most of its setting.
