Representation Is Rad, Even When It’s In The Form Of Human-Hunting Space Monsters

Welcome to the table,

I’m a disabled person. I feel like typing that out puts me on a list or something, but it is what it is. My disability is very visible. There is not really any way for me to hide it. I’ve been disabled since birth, and in all my years on this beautiful chaotic spinning space rock, I have seen very little in the way of radical representation of disabled characters that I feel like I could connect with.

When I say radical, I’m not talking in political buzz words or social media spark points. I mean radical in the way the Ninja Turtles would describe a really well executed skateboard trick or the perfect slice of pizza. When I say radical, I mean something that inspires awe and joy that is so big it makes your heart feel like it’s swelling up in your chest. You can’t help but smile because it inspires a sense of wellbeing that is intense and uplifting.

What I’m talking about, friends, is something that inspires hope regardless of the seemingly constant stream of despair and anxiety-inducing worry that flows from every pixel that bombards us on the day to day.

20th Century Fox has recently released Predator: Killer of Killers on Hulu, and it has that kind of radical representation I’m talking about.

Killer of Killers is a Predator-themed animated anthology directed by Dan Trachtenberg and Josh Wassung. It follows three humans from various points in human history as they are caught up in a Yautja (the generally accepted name for the species of space hunters from the Predator films) hunt.

The humans are delightfully different and charming in their own ways. There’s a Viking mother wielding duel bladed shields, a feudal ninja attempting to infiltrate his brother’s stronghold, and a mechanic farmer turned World War II pilot. The pilot feels like he’ll probably be the glue that holds a rag-tag-team together, which is a role that will be necessary when the Yautja bring them all to a gladiatorial fighting arena on some far flung planet to fight each other for the amusement of a crowd. The point is to eliminate all but one of the humans, who will go on to fight the Yautja lord.

It’s honestly a very convenient way to bring these three humans from vastly different parts of Earth’s history together in the same space without having to deal with time travel or reality bending technology.

What delighted me most about this whole thing, though, is the first Yautja we get introduced to in this story. They are not only a hulking member of the species (I suspect it could even be the fabled Berserker or “Super” Predator due to its larger physical characteristics), but it is also disabled, sporting a battle prosthetic at the end of its right forearm.

So often when space tech is involved, there is a replacement limb in the form of a robot hand, robot leg, or some such thing. The actual joy that warmed my heart seeing this big space monster with a cap on its missing limb that it can hand crank to emit a pulse of energy was probably visible from space.

Disabled characters typically feel like acts of tokenism in these sorts of stories. They give tragic looks towards whatever aid they are using in a way that almost seems to indicate “Hey audience, I hate this as well and I know no one wants to live this awful way.”

However, making the massive space warrior not only disabled, but kitted out with a prosthetic, and still showing him easily dispatching of a group of skilled warriors was absolutely amazing. You never get to see the cool warrior monsters having disabilities. They are always shown as the best of the best. What this depiction translates to for me is that, unlike most of human culture, the Yautja, a species who prides themselves on taking down the biggest challenges and hunting the most dangerous game in the universe, have a worthy warrior on a solo hunt operating independently in harmony with their disability.

Space alien hunters who rip the heads off people and display their skulls as trophies are depicted as showing more respect and value for someone who is disabled than most human characters in these kinds of settings. And I’m sure you can point to a handful of examples, Zatoichi, Winter Soldier, and Daredevil come to mind immediately for me, as respected disabled characters in an action setting.

But in a landscape where thousands of movies and shows are released each year, I’m hard pressed, as someone who looks for these sorts of things, to point to powerful characters with disabilities being shown with any kind of regularity. As someone who was born disabled, it seems people who are born blue eyed, or blond, or with freckles can get much more play in front of the camera than someone who uses a wheelchair or other aids in their day to day.

Additionally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the pilot Yautja in this anthology film as well. While it is not clear if it is a facial covering in the vein of some sort of targeting device or if it is an actual prosthetic eye, it is clearly shown that the pilot has some kind of cranial modification going on and that feels really rad as well.

All in all, the whole Predator Killer of Killers is a ton of fun. Much like the Predator movie Prey, I’m sure it will be one of those things I watch once a month for the next few years. I love the lore of the Predator, Alien, and Blade Runner worlds. It seems with the new Alien show coming soon, the new Predator: Badlands movie on the horizon, and this amazing offering in the animated space, we may very well get a chance to see many more cool and well-rounded and representative characters in this setting.

Until next time, I really did gasp when he dropped his cloaking device and you got a full look at that rad prosthetic.