This Week in Video Games: Prey Arrives on 4K Blu-ray

This week, 20th Century Studios’ breakout 2022 hit Prey arrives on 4K Blu-ray. While it may be a surprising turn of events for Prey, which was originally produced for and distributed on Hulu, it is also a glimmer of hope for physical media buffs. With Disney renewing its focus on physical releases, Prey joins the wave of Blu-ray releases, featuring special features that were beginning to disappear.

The Tricked-Out Disc

Now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and as a sleek Steelbook edition, the Prey disc offers an array of exciting features. Fans can enjoy a behind-the-scenes documentary, audio commentary, a panel with below-the-line creatives, an alternate opening scene, and multiple deleted scenes. While it may not reach the level of the legendary Fight Club paper-bag DVD and other iconic home-video releases, it is certainly a delightful surprise for a film that was initially expected to be limited to streaming platforms. Director Dan Trachtenberg expressed his surprise and appreciation for the physical representation of his Predator movie, complete with fancy box art.

“It’s super cool,” he said over the phone in September. “Who knows… if the cloud is destroyed one day when Skynet takes over, at least there’s some physical representation of something that I’ve made that exists in the apocalypse. You could throw it as a deadly weapon or [watch it] as entertainment!”

Unveiling a Deleted Scene

To coincide with the release, 20th Century Studios has shared one of the deleted scenes from the Prey disc. This pre-visualized version showcases a spectacular action sequence in which Naru (Amber Midthunder) engages in a thrilling chase with the Predator through the treetops of the Great Plains. While Trachtenberg had reservations about including the scene in the final cut, he is delighted that it can now be enjoyed by viewers.

“The pre-vis sequence… I was so stoked on. But I was worried about [the treetop chase] being too fancy for the movie. And we really had to nail the execution for it to not feel goofy when so much of the movie and its action is quite grounded. As excited as I was for that kind of physicality, of Naru and that style of chase to be on screen, I was quite nervous. But I loved the way that the cut clamp was used in that sequence, and thought it was quite a clever thing for Naru to be doing. So I’m happy that can exist now.”

Inspiring the Future

While Trachtenberg remains tight-lipped about the potential for a Prey 2, he is not concerned about revealing his best ideas through the 4K release. In fact, he hopes that deleted scenes like the treetop chase will serve as a source of inspiration for a new generation of filmmakers, just as the special features of yesteryear inspired him.

“I grew up wanting to be a filmmaker, and wanting to know as much as I could about movies. And special features were an access point to that,” he said. “So having a pre-vis sequence, which is something we see all the time working in movies and TV, and that fans on the outside don’t get to see… I thought that that was really fun to be able to include on the disc.”

Prey is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.