Isabelle's History
Sergeant-Major Isabelle Avigail Nissenbaum, also known as "Izzy", was a sniper in the Israel Defense Forces who was kidnapped by the Super Predators and taken to the Game Preserve Planet in 2010. Together with the others dropped on the planet at that time, she attempted to find a way to escape and return to Earth.
sabelle grew up attending St. Mary Magdalene's Catholic School for Girls in an unknown country. She hints that she was a loner and that the nuns and other children were afraid of her. She hypothesized that was why she was trained to be a sniper, as her 'stillness' was referred to as a 'gift' by her superiors.
Not much else is known about Isabelle's early life, except that as national military service is mandatory for Israelis, she would have joined the Israeli Defense Force at 18. With extensive training she became a very talented sniper, who served her country well when they needed her. No friends or family members are ever revealed and it is safe to assume that Isabelle may have been an orphan.
She reveals to Royce and the rest of her companions that she once heard a story while in Somalia about a team of American mercenaries that was decimated by a strange creature in 1987. From reading the debriefing of the incident's sole survivor, Isabelle learned how the hunters could be beaten and gave this knowledge to Royce and the others.
While in Kandahar, Afghanistan, she was tasked with assassinating a target's wife as she stood beside him cradling their infant child. The incident weighed heavily on Isabelle and afterwards she acknowledged that because of what she had done, she was going to hell.
Isabelle reveals to Royce that right before she was taken by the Predators, she and her spotter Isaac Archuletta were ambushed by the enemy while on a mission. This led to the capture of her partner and likely friend. Isabelle felt immense guilt because she chose to hide and watch Issac be killed instead of intervening, even though that would have inevitably resulted in her own capture and death. Isabelle tells Royce that she was abducted by the hunters while she hid from her pursuers. Royce tells her that she did what she had to in order to survive.
After her abduction by Super Predators she was declared AWOL by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Like the other humans, Isabelle awoke in free-fall with a parachute on her back. After landing, she comes upon Royce, Cuchillo and Nikolai interacting and believed them to be responsible for stranding her in the jungle. She trained her rifle on the men and watched as they discussed their predicament. Royce noticed her presence first, at which point she entered in to conversation with the men. Nikolai speculated that they were in Asia, but is corrected by Isabelle, who claimed to have seen "most" of the jungles (on Earth) and that this one didn't match. Isabelle guessed that they could be in the Amazon.
The four of them discover Walter Stans and Mombasa fighting one another, to which Isabelle insinuates that there were bigger problems to worry about and that they should all stick together. Upon finding Edwin stuck in a tree, she turns to the men and begins formulating a plan to get him down. Impatient, Royce shoots the branch and smirks at a frustrated Isabelle.
Isabelle and the others follow a reluctant Royce throughout the jungle. Using a leaf floating in water, she shows him how the polarity of the jungle is off, as the leaf spins counterclockwise. Royce accurately guesses the background of all of the other members of the group, including that Isabelle is part of IDF. She is the only one to guess that Royce is a former US black operations soldier turned mercenary. He does not deny this.
The group set out for higher ground to attempt to ascertain their location. They come into the clearing and witnessed a spectacular view of closely-orbiting planetary bodies, proving definitively that they were not on Earth.
The group later trigger the dead-fall trap of a US Special Forces soldier who was supposed to be deployed in Afghanistan. Isabelle nearly falls through one of the traps until her cries for help alert Royce, who helps pull her up. Using her sniper rifle, she is the first one to see that the soldier's dead body has been badly mutilated. Isabelle demonstrates that she has a conscience and suggests that the body be buried.
Soon Isabelle and the others were attacked by large alien hell-hounds and she is the only one to come to the rescue of Edwin, who unlike the others has no weapon or military training. As a hunting hound was charging toward her she ran out of ammo for her rifle and attempted to commit suicide with her sidearm. However, the Tracker called his hounds back using a whistle because it was merely a way to flush out the location of the humans as Royce explains. With the hounds departed, Mombasa notices first that Cuchillo was missing. They come across him wounded and calling out for help, slumped on his knees in a clearing of tall grass. Isabelle is the only one to step forward to aid him, but is stopped by Royce. He tests Cuchillo's clearing and discovers that it is booby-trapped. Members of the group vote to leave him behind, to which Isabelle cannot do. Isabelle shoots Cuchillo as part of a coup de grâce only to hear the same cry of "help me" from a concealed Hunter. She hurries away obviously spooked.
Following the tracks of the hounds at Royce's suggestion, the group later came across the hunters' camp and found a bound hunter that matched the stories Isabelle heard about earlier in her career. The hunting party quickly located the human group, and after a brief firefight Isabelle and most of the others escaped by jumping over a cliff into a river. Mombasa is killed in the process.
Afterwards, Isabelle realized that Royce had used the group as bait to flush out the Hunters and berates him over his willingness to coldly sacrifice a member of their group for a goal. Royce in turn confronts Isabelle over her knowledge of the Predators, which he surmised based on her reaction to the bound hunter in their camp earlier. She recounts the full story to the group. She reluctantly agrees to Royce's plan to set a trap for the aliens, although she remains visibly angry at him.
Before they can fully prepare, they are attacked by an insectoid creature, which Isabelle apparently shoots dead. However, as the group investigates the body, Isabelle reveals that she missed, and that she was not the origin of the fatal shot. At that moment, a figure wearing scavenged Predator equipment and an energy weapon uncloaks beside them, revealing himself to be a U.S. Army soldier named Ronald Noland.
Noland takes the group to his hideout inside a huge abandoned alien vehicle, where he explains the true nature of their situation: the Predators have been harvesting formidable fighters from Earth and other planets for several centuries, transporting them here to hunt them and thereby improve their skills. Noland himself has been stranded on the planet for years, scavenging to survive. He also informs the others that there is some kind of blood feud occurring between the Predators on the planet — the "black" tribe, who are now hunting Royce and the others, are openly hostile towards the "classic" form of Predator, one of which the group earlier found tied up at the Predator camp. Isabelle listens attentively and inquires about their weaknesses, to which Noland responds that they don't have many. He offers the group food and shelter for the night, which they accept.
In a deleted scene, Stans tells Isabelle while she is resting, that he thinks she is very attractive and propositions her for sex. He explains that they may die soon and this is their last chance to do the deed a final time. Isabelle appears to be assumed, but turns Stans down.
Royce approaches Isabelle and offers her a glass of water, which she accepts. She reveals what she was doing before being taken and admits that they are all bad people who deserve to be here. Royce disagrees and reveals that he will free the chained smaller Predator at the camp to commandeer the spacecraft home to Earth.
As the group rests, Noland attempts to murder them via smoke suffocation in order to steal their equipment. Trapped, Royce creates an explosion to alert the black Predators to their location. Noland attempts to escape but is cornered and killed by the Tracker Predator, while the Predators release the remaining humans from the room they are locked in, seeking to prolong the hunt. As Isabelle and the others escape, Nikolai is killed trying to save Edwin and Stans dies ambushing a predator to save Royce.
While running, Hanzo signals to Royce that he will hold off the Falconer Predator to allow Isabelle, Edwin, and Royce to get away. Hanzo kills the monster, but succumbs to his injuries.
When Edwin was maimed by a trap, Isabelle refused to leave him behind due to her remorse over leaving her spotter for dead prior to her abduction by the hunters. This compassionate action almost caused Isabelle to be killed by both Berserker and Edwin. After the Yautja ship departed, both Isabelle and Edwin believed themselves to be the last remaining members of their group. Even though Edwin had no means of defending himself against the hunters, used the other members of the human party to protect himself on numerous occasions, and was in fact still being hunted by a Yautja in close proximity, he chose to inexplicably attack Isabelle with the paralytic neurotoxin from which he earlier saved Nikolai. Edwin's decision to attack Isabelle at this moment contradicts his established method of relying on the physical capability and combat skills of the other group members for protection. However, it is possible that Edwin believed he would be spared by the hunters (as evidenced by his pleas to the Berserker that he was "one of them") and therefore no longer needed to keep up the pretense of being scared and vulnerable.
As Edwin stood over Isabelle preparing to torture / kill her, Isabelle's attention was drawn to the figure of Royce (who had inadvertently avoided death aboard the Yautja ship by coming back for Isabelle) standing above the pit. Edwin noticed her gaze, and quickly returned to his meek and defenseless disguise upon seeing Royce. Edwin also claimed that the hunters paralyzed Isabelle. Royce then pulled both Isabelle and Edwin out of the pit. While Royce tended to Isabelle, Edwin (realizing that the neurotoxin would no doubt wear off at some point, allowing Isabelle to expose his treachery) attempted to kill Royce as well. Royce was prepared for Edwin's attack, due either to: his extensive combat experience, Isabelle's frightened body language, preexisting mistrust of Edwin (Royce was able to identify all the other members of the party; it stands to reason that he may have suspected Edwin of something more than just being a doctor) or some combination of the three, and disarmed and stabbed Edwin through the underside of his jaw into the roof of his mouth with the poisoned scalpel. Royce dragged the paralyzed and still-living Edwin in to the Hunters' camp and booby-trapped his body with several grenades and assorted ordnance.
After Berserker entered the camp, discovered Edwin, and triggered the trap, Royce created a distraction with fire to mask his infrared signature and attacked the hunter with an axe. The Berserker gained the upper hand and almost killed Royce after detecting his heartbeat, but Isabelle had recovered enough from the neurotoxin to chamber a round and shoot the Berserker through the chest. The Berserker fired his wristblade at her in response and hit her in the shoulder. Isabelle's shot and the Berserker's reaction allowed Royce to recover his strength to the extent that he was able to pick up his axe and severely maim the Berserker (including cutting off his left arm) before finally beheading him. Royce stumbled over to Isabelle and collapsed next to her, exhausted, and Royce finally told Isabelle his name. The next morning, their wounds had been treated somewhat but Isabelle still seemed to be suffering from some lingering effects of the neurotoxin. As Isabelle and Royce stood and watched more parachute-equipped humans / aliens and crates fall to the planet's surface, Royce vowed that they would find a way to escape.
After spending several weeks on the reserve Isabelle developed a romantic relationship with Royce before he went off into the wilderness for several weeks by himself, much to her annoyance. Still, he came back to her injured from his hunts, and slept for several days with Isabelle tending to his wounds. They were later found by a hunter who left Royce a box of hunting equipment tailored to his size. They were ambushed by a four-armed hunter with Royce suffering some injuries. During the fight, Royce started to rethink his solitary way of handling things and worked with Isabelle to take down the modified Yautja, revealing the cloaked Predator's position so she could deliver a fatal sniper shot. Royce and Isabelle remained stranded on the Game Preserve, but continued to work together at getting home.
After a year spent being hunted by Predators on the Game Preserve Planet, she managed to escape by hijacking a Predator ship and set a course back to Earth.
