Deadly Prey
Deadly Prey is a 1987 action film written and directed by David A. Prior. The film is a loose adaptation of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, and stars Ted Prior as a former soldier who is kidnapped for participation in a human safari.
Plot
Colonel Hogan is a highly-decorated Special Forces officer who leads a group of mercenaries. His current client is businessman Don Michaelson. A deal is struck, and Hogan recruits new troops; for training, Hogan orders them to kidnap civilians for use as targets in hunting exercises. One of the people they kidnap, Mike Danton, is ambushed and captured while taking out the trash. He is outfitted in jorts, greased up, and released in a nearby forest as game.A team of mercenaries hunt Danton; however, Danton, a highly-skilled Vietnam War veteran, picks off the troops one by one. The surviving troops report their difficulties to Colonel Hogan, who sends a task force led by his best man, Lt. Thorton. Another member of the task force is Danton's former comrade Jack Cooper, whose life Danton saved in combat some years earlier. Recognizing each other, Cooper defects from the mercenaries and allies with Danton.
With Cooper's help, Danton continues to fight off the mercenaries with the goal of returning to his beloved wife Jaimy, who is eventually taken hostage by Hogan. Intending to rescue her, Danton escapes from the forest, equips for battle at his home, and storms the mercenaries' training camp. Danton and Cooper manage to eliminate all of the mercenaries, but in the end Thorton catches up with Jaimy and Cooper and murders them. Thorton is in turn pursued by a vengeful Danton, who chops off the lieutenant's right arm and scalps him. In the final scene, Danton corners Hogan, shows him the scalp and commands him to remove his shirt and shoes. Releasing Hogan into the forest, Danton becomes the hunter.
Cast
- Cameron Mitchell as Jaimy's father
- Troy Donahue as Don Michaelson
- Ted Prior as Michael "Mike" Danton
- Fritz Matthews as Lieutenant Thorton
- David Campbell as Colonel Hogan
- Dawn Abraham as Sybil
- William Zipp as Jack Cooper
- Suzzane Tara as Jaimy
- Thomas Baldwin as hillbilly
- Leonard Weltman as hillbilly
Production
Retired U.S. Army soldier Don Michelson acted as a technical advisor, with part of the film being shot at his American Military Museum outside South El Monte, California. Troy Donahue's character used his name in the film.