When the prison transport Prometheus crashes on an uncharted planet, there are three surviving guards: Commander Karza (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), Centauri 7 (Damion Poitier), and Logan (Simon Potter). The one prisoner survives as well, escaping in the process. They are under orders to take the prisoner Jericho (Clark Bartram) alive, so they have no option but to catch him. This desert planet has 33 hours of light, 5 hours dark, and is 116 degrees. This doesn't sound like fun for either the prisoner or the guards, but they all have no choice but to keep moving. The guards must capture the prisoner before their rescue ship arrives. Once they take off their helmets though, we find out that things aren't really how we thought they were. The guards have the advantage of Clea (Erin Gray), their computer system that helps quite a lot! The prisoner only has his wits and determination to survive.
After some incidents between the groups, we are left with one guard, Centauri 7, and the prisoner Jericho. For some reason, at this point, I was expecting the movie to end up like Enemy Mine where the human and the alien come to an understanding about each other and accept that even though they're enemies, they can have a level of respect for each other. There is just a bit of that in Hunter Prey, but really it is more a movie about survival, of the entire race on both sides. One side has already had their home planet wiped out and is the last of their kind. They are determined to repay the favor to the other side. Who will end up winning is anyone's guess!
I did have one major problem with Hunter Prey. The conversations in the beginning when they had their helmets on were very hard to understand. That was the reason that I just couldn't get into it the first time I started the movie. It would have been really helpful to have subtitles, but instead I just turned the volume up and paid really close attention. Having the volume up is a good thing though. The background music in Hunter Prey is absolutely wonderful. Christopher Hoag did an amazing job with the score. The makeup and effects were really nicely done as well. After watching the making of featurette, I'm even more impressed as everything was done on location in Mexico with very little comforts! The desert scenes, the mountains, even the bones, were all real and filmed perfectly.
There is only one special feature other than the director's commentary. It is the "Making Of." It's almost 30 minutes and really very interesting! You learn a whole lot more about the cast and crew and what they went through to get this movie made. Honestly after seeing that, the movie is even better.
Hunter Prey is a really great sci-fi movie in the vein of the late 70's sci-fi. If you're into the genre, you'll really enjoy it!
