Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Prey. When Sarii (Coco) was first shown on-screen in Prey, the same thought ran through all of our heads: “The dog is not allowed to die.” We know what we’re in for if we dare watch Old Yeller or All Dogs go to Heaven, but ever since I Am Legend hit screens in 2007, we haven’t been able to trust action writers with a dog again. The writers behind the script of Prey create a strong bond between Naru (Amber Midthunder) and Sarii, and with every harrowing encounter, audiences fear that Sarii won’t survive, making her role one of the most important and suspenseful subplots of the film.
Director Dan Trachtenberg said in an interview that when writing Prey, they knew that for a large portion of the film, Naru would be alone in the wilderness. With Road Warrior being one of his favorite films, he felt inspired to give the hunter a buddy, just as Mad Max had in his dog, Dog. In Comanche language, Sarii means dog, a nod to the film and the pup that inspired the Predator prequel’s four legged character. More than a companion, Naru’s buddy turned out to be a very important part of the film. Naru wasn’t taken seriously by her tribe, but Sarii was always by her side, right through the neon bloody end. The relationship and trust between them is what ultimately saves Naru, and by extension, her entire tribe, making Sarii the ultimate good girl and the underdog hero of this story.
Sarii is first seen in Prey waiting patiently beside Naru as she is rudely awoken with a kick. The pair then set out to gather chicory root. Though, after spotting a set of elk tracks, the aspiring hunter and her pup devise a plan to take down the animal. In this scene, Sarii showcases her tracking skills as well as a helpful technique to keep the deer on a straight path and distracted as Naru runs up from behind with her trusty tomahawk.
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From behind a fallen tree, Sarii waits patiently, and listens as Naru gives her directions in Comanche and Plains Indian Sign Language. After being startled by the sound of the Predator overhead, the deer runs off. Sarii, utilizing her skills as a good girl, waits for Naru to signal her before setting off after the deer. What makes Sarii’s role in this scene so awesome is how she has her own job in the hunt. As Naru chases the deer with her tomahawk, Sarii keeps the deer distracted and stops it from changing its path. This maneuver is one that takes a great amount of training and communication as a team, and proves that the two work best when they are together, foreshadowing the final battle. Though what follows the chase with the deer is the sound that audiences dread most: a sudden snap and the sound of a crying pup. This is the writers’ first time toying with our emotions and leading us to believe that Sarii could have been killed. Luckily, she wasn't.
After Naru’s brother kills the lion that had been stalking the tribe, the jealous sister decides she must prove herself, secretly setting off on her kühtaamia with faithful Sarii by her side. Sarii appears to have her own agenda, disappearing into the forest, though this good girl always finds her way back to Naru, once with a fresh kill in her muzzle to share, just as Naru had shared a fish with her. In this way, Sarii is showing Naru that they are equals and a team.
Later along their journey, the pair encounter an enormous grizzly bear, and in this instance, Sarii appears to go on her own kühtaamia, barking at the bear as it approaches, as if to tell it that this is as far as you go, no more, this is it. In the heat of the moment, Naru struggles to restring her bow, and a quick-thinking Sarii buys the hunter some time by distracting the beast, changing its course until Sarii has her weapons ready. As Sarii and the bear turn a corner and things get a little too quiet, viewers are once again on the edge of their seats, pleading for the pup's survival.
After the bloody tussle between the bear and the Predator, Sarii disappears again. Audiences fear that Naru will stumble upon Sarii’s lifeless body at any moment, but instead the faithful pup is found an entire day later, tied up at the French-Canadian voyageurs camp. When Naru locates her best friend she risks her life to save Sarii, who runs off into the wilderness at Naru’s instruction. This scene shows how Naru treats Sarii as an equal being, and that their relationship takes mutual trust and sacrifice.
As night falls, Naru plans her attack on the Predator. Just as her brother laid the trap for the lion, Naru lays out a trap for the Predator. When things don’t go exactly to plan during the attack, Sarii comes out of nowhere and attacks the Predator, risking her life to save her best friend from being speared. Just like how Naru had wounded the lion before her brother killed it, Sarii wounded and distracted the Predator so that Naru could get her footing and an upper hand. In the end Naru cannot kill the Predator on her own, and alongside Sarii they take it down as a team, with the hunter signaling her companion to run, and Sarii bravely bringing the tomahawk to her human at the feet of their enemy before their ultimate victory.
In the end, Sarii was just as important to the plan as Naru, and played an equal part in saving the tribe from the Predator. As the two warriors return home, they walk triumphantly side by side, equals and best friends who trusted each other to the very end. A trust that Naru never got from anyone but Sarii.
Prey takes place in the 1700s, during the Predator's first encounter with Earth. Due to the era that the film is set in, they couldn’t cast just any dog. Coco, the adorable animal actor who portrays Sarii, was chosen for her specific rare breed, the American Dingo. This breed, also known as a Carolina Dog, is one of the oldest breeds in existence. American Dingoes have their roots in Asia, and crossed into North America by way of the Bering Sea land bridge approximately 4,000 years ago, eventually making their way south from what now makes up modern-day Alaska. Because this breed is so rare, the team were unable to locate a trained American Dingo actor for the role. As a result, Coco was adopted specifically for the film, just as Dog the Blue Heeler was for the Road Warrior film.
In Prey, Naru’s mother remarks that her daughter has done a good job training her dog. Naru states that it’s easy because Sarii is smart, to which her mother replies that not every smart creature is easy to train. Unfortunately, the latter statement was true for the animal actor herself. Though Coco is wicked smart, she was indeed not easy to train. Having had no prior acting experience the crew never knew if she would hit her marks, or be a dog just doing dog things while on set. It took some extra time and patience, but Coco always got the scenes done, eventually.
Trachtenberg has called Coco joyful and spirited, in a loving manner. Though he admits that scenes were sometimes a struggle to film with her high energy and playful personality, he states that she made every scene that she was in significantly better, and for that reason they decided to add her into more scenes than she was originally written into. That is why the pup tends to disappear and subsequently reappear in the nick of time throughout the film.
Midthunder also said in an interview that Coco was a high-energy, playful hot mess, and a delight to be around. Just as Coco won over the cast and crew with her sweet personality, Sarii won over audiences with her skills as a hunter, a warrior, an ultimate good girl, and the real MVP of Prey.
