It would seem that I cannot get away from the Vikings, or at least that is true for the first quarter of Predator: Killer of Killers.  If you are confused by this statement in light of what I am guessing is a familiar franchise, then this review will clear that up for you.  Still, even I am unsure what to make of it because, as you will see, grammatically speaking the title makes no sense.  The same cannot be said for the movie as a whole, even if the ending is ambiguous.  Unsurprisingly, it has little to do with Christian behavior, although our three main characters find a way to show mercy to one another.  If you are intrigued by any of this, please continue reading.

Since I watched How to Train Your Dragon (2025) yesterday, I was struck by how the animated feature that is Predator: Killer of Killers is more historically accurate than its cinematic cousin.  Okay, they each deal with fictional monsters, and in the case of Predator: Killer of Killers, it is those stealthy aliens from outer space that come calling to Northern Europe in the ninth century.  This particular Predator lands on our planet as Ursa (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy), a Viking shield maiden and self-proclaimed scourge of the North Sea, is leading a raid against Chief Zoran (voiced by Andrew Morgado).  This is about more than loot for these infamous sea raiders.  For Ursa, this is vengeance for Chief Zoran forcing her to kill her own father when she was a child (voiced by Cherami Leigh).  Now she has come to settle the score, bringing with her own son, Anders (voiced by Damien Haas).  Ursa and her warriors are successful in accomplishing their mission, but they are visited by the Predator.  It plows through those with Ursa with ease, mortally wounding her in the process.  She manages to dispatch the alien before finding Anders, but the boy dies in her arms.  This all is played as a memory she is having as the scene dissolves into her being held captive in a Predator spaceship.  In the cell with her is Kenji Kamakami (voiced by Louis Ozawa).  He has come here from seventeenth century Japan after fighting his brother, Kiyoshi Kamakami (voiced by Louis Ozawa).  They had grown up together, but their father had expected them to duel to the death to see who would be his heir when they were boys.  Kenji had been the first to sheath his blade, not wanting to strike his beloved sibling.  Fearing the shame of his father, Kiyoshi charges, managing to cut Kenji’s face before the latter flees.  Twenty years later, Kenji returns for retribution.  As with Ursa’s story, the clash is interrupted by a Predator.  This time, though, the feuding brothers put aside their differences to take on this strange attacker.  Like Anders, Kiyoshi is mortally wounded, but not before being able to help kill the Predator.  With Kiyoshi dying in Kenshi’s arms, we get a similar dissolve back to the cell.  As it turns out, Kenji and Ursa are sharing with one other occupant, John J. Torres (voiced by Rick Gonzalez).  He is a pilot from Florida who is drafted into the United States Navy (USN) during World War II.  He had always had a love for airplanes, and inherited an affinity for machines from his father (voiced by Felix Solis).  While aboard an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean, which was one of the stranger historical choices, one of the fighters comes back with a strange metal object lodged in the engine and no idea as to its origin.  His commanding officer, Vandenberg “Vandy” (voiced by Michael Biehn), takes the squadron into the skies while John stays behind to work on his own vehicle and tinker with the odd object.  His investigations make him realize that there is something in the sky they do not understand, and he manages to get his plane off the deck to warn the others.  Of course, it is a Predator taking out pilots from its spaceship.  Using his intuition, John finds a way to destroy the alien craft.  We then cut to after the war with him back home, working on a car.  In case you are wondering how these different people separated by hundreds of years might be related, we see another Predator ship come down and beam up John.  He is then held in suspended animation until he is reanimated and put into confinement with Kenji and Ursa.  Being the talkative one, we are shown the obvious language barrier through him.  This is going to prove a problem when they are brought before a giant Predator that Ursa appropriately dubs the “Grendel King” (voiced by Britton Watkins).  Using the devices attached around the human necks, the Grendel King communicates to them that they need to kill each other for the right face him in one-on-one combat.  It is John and Kenji that recognize the need for them to work together, even if he cannot make this idea understood.  Ursa only wants blood, though eventually she comes to identify John as being like her beloved Anders.  To cajole the humans, the Grendel King unleashes a massive beast on them that swallows John.  Kenji and Ursa are able to disable it from the outside, while John uses his cunning to tear it open from the inside.  From there, John commandeers a sort of Predator scooter, disables their neck bombs, and makes a mad dash for the nearest spaceship.  While he works on getting it into the air, Kenji and Ursa fight the Grendel King.  Once John gets the hang of the controls, Kenji and Ursa board, though Kenji loses an arm in the process.  The Predators do not let them leave easily, shooting a chain and anchor into the ship to keep it in place.  It is Ursa that jumps off to free the aircraft, sacrificing herself so that the others may escape.  The final scene is of her being put into a giant warehouse with other beings with which the Predators have apparently tangled.

One of the figures you see at the end of Predator: Killer of Killers is meant to be a reference to the most recent entry in the franchise, Prey (2022).  If you have seen that movie, then you will note that it is the main character Naru (Amber Midthunder).  It is not important to Predator: Killer of Killers’ plot, but rather meant to firmly tie it to the rest of the series.  What I would rather do is tie some aspect of the story to Catholicism.  As I indicated in the introduction, that is a tricky proposition.  The film deals with three people who are abducted by aliens that have no concept of a Judeo-Christian culture that might honor their actions if they behave in a selfless manner.  One could say that they could opt for martyrdom, and that is something that Kenji and Ursa appear open to doing.  Their willingness to lay down their lives for others is a Christian ideal that balances their earlier desire for vengeance.  Rather than launch into a discussion of how the Church frowns on revenge, I will instead discuss its wish for unity among Christians.  This is an idea discussed in the episode I listened to today of Father Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a Year podcast.  The main point made in it is that God had not originally planned that there would be such diverse expressions of worship.  At the same time, we should celebrate diversity, but in a manner that also leads to unity.  The film has a brief moment that supports this notion.  As Kiyoshi lies dying in Kenji’s arms, he remarks about how leaves of a tree grow side-by-side, but fall alone.  Kenji reminds his brother that he is not alone, but the sentiment about trees is a good one with Christian comparisons.  It is a metaphor Jesus uses a few times, like in John 15:5-11.  There he refers to himself as the vine and us the branches, but the point is that we are all part of something that is stronger together than any of its disparate parts are on their own.  By realizing this unity, any monster is defeatable.

While there is a monstrous amount of blood in Predator: Killer of Killers, it does speak to the need for unity.  This message is sweetened by the fact that three people who do not speak the same language figure out how to work together to stay alive.  Such an idea is sorely needed in this day and age.