Get to the (Stone) Chopper

Finally got to see Prey (2022), the best Predator movie yet. 

The opening title gives the time as 1718, Northwest Plains (looked kind of foresty to me, but never mind). A young Comanche woman (OK, Comanches were more southwestern, but that's not important), Amber Midthunder wants to be a hunter, although this is not really allowed. When she should be gathering medicinal plants, she is practicing tracking and throwing her stone tomahawk. Later, she joins a party hunting a mountain lion. It woumds a member of the party, and she uses her medicinal skills to help. But she notices some huge tracks that aren't mountain lion, bear, or anything else she knows.

Split from the party, she is attacked by the lion. She has a chance, but gets distracted by something she can't quite see. Guess what?

Fortunately, her brother, Dakota Beavers, kills lion earning himself the position of War Chief. But Midthunder is worried about those huge tracks. She takes her dog off to track it down. She falls into quicksand (quick mud, I guess), and narrowly escapes, using her axe with a rope tied to the handle as a hook. This leashed ace makes a cool native weapon. (Not really practical, as a stone edge is quite fragile, but still cool). 

She runs into a grizzly, but that's not her worst problem. The predator shows up (mostly invisible) and fights the bear, letting her escape. But another enemy appears: European trappers, who capture her and her dog. Boy, are they going to be surprised.

I've mentioned a few unlikely or inaccurate events or settings, but again, they don't really matter. Overall, this feels like an authentic story of am almost pre-contact tribe, fighting a monster (from outer space rather than supernatural in this case). The dynamics of the tribe and their surroundings feel real, and so do the hunting and fighting tactics (even with the leashed axe). They hunt as a team, and work together evemn when they disagree. We even have Beavers counting coup on the predator - "counting coup" is to touch an enemy without killing it, or being killed, disgracing him. In this case, it distracted the him from Midthunder. 

It was also a real Predator movie, full of lore - the semi-invisibility, non-aggression to noncombatants, parrot guns, three laser dots, etc. Even the mud bath that Midthunder takes. Her final fight with the monster is great, showing her skill and cunning. Truly a grea warrior.

My only complaint is that they didn't refer to the stone axe as a chopper.