The Predator now has to prove himself on “the deadliest planet in the universe” in Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands! The film is directed and co-written by Trachtenberg. He had similiar duties with Prey (2022) which refreshed the franchise and then co-directed the animated film that is on Hulu, Predator: Killer of Killers (2025). The co-writer, Patrick Aison, also co-wrote Prey. It begins in darkness as we get a prologue that tell about the Yautje from the Yautja Codex that also appeared in Predator: Killer of Killers. Yautja (which seems to be pronounced Yowt-cha). The term actually came from the novelization of the Aliens vs. Predator (1990) mini-series. Aliens vs. Predator: Prey (1994) is by Steve and Stephani Perry.
There is the mouth-like cave with desert in the distant, a harsh, post-apocalyptic(?) world, the Predator homeworld. This is the first time that it has been seen. We see a dust trail as a double-winged racer that reaches a beach. A hooded Predator swings up a cliff. This is Dek played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. In the New Zealand dramatic mini-series, Schuster-Kolomatangi played Will. Bek as the protagonist, something Trachtenberg has mentioned, is like the T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, still a killer, but one whose actions we can get on board. In the cave, Dek calls out in the Yautja language, “I see you brother.” The Yautje now have their own language complete with alphabet and runes on their weapons and other places.
This was developed by linguist Britton Watkins who created a language that works with the Predator’s split jaws. Dek removes his mask, revealing a Yautje with his dreads drawn back into a top knot, not the wide shape seen in other Predators. The interesting part of Dek's design is his grizzled nose. The other Yautja have tiny flaps. It makes him a tiny bit human-like for me.His rival, Kwei, is bulkier with his black dreads falling from a top knot on his head. He is played by Michael Homik in the suit and voiced by Stefan Grube. Dek is trying to earn his cloak, the device that makes Predators invisible, and they return to Kwei’s ship. We see his trophy room with a T-Rex skull and other skeletal remains.
Dek says he will earn his cloak by hunting the “unkillable” Kalisk. Kwei says their father fears the Kalisk and that it is on Genna, called the Death Planet. A nice twist on the biblical place of punishment, Gehenna. Then, the ship of their father arrives! Father is a massive Yautje with heavy armor, grey braids, a helmet with short antler-like horns. The head of this Predator clan is played by Reuben de Jong and voiced by Schuster-Kolomatangi! Father sees Bek as weak and throws a disc that locks Bek in a pyramid of red plasma. In the Japanese sci-fi movie, Zeiram (1991), the bounty hunter, Iria, has a trap that locks bounties in a crystal hexagon. Father orders Kwei to kill his brother! I really like the family dynamics here, the tough father, and the young son trying to prove himself. Very Tywin Lannister.
Dek struggles in the plasma trap as Kwei walks up to him and draws his sword. Kwei tells him, “Be brave brother” before holding up the plasma sword. Bek is spared from Kwei’s sword and the trap drawn back into the ship with a transparent door closing on him! Kwei faces Father as Dek shouts for his brother. Kwei’s ship leaves on a locked in course to Genna. It descends into the stormy atmo and some pterandon-like beast, the Sky-Reaper, damages the ship! This reminds me of the lost worlds like the recent novel, The Land That Time Forgot: Foretress Primeval (2025) by Mike Wolfer. The breaks into a pod that crashess into a forest on Genna sending Dek rolling out! He roars in frustration and then begins to take stock of his weapons from the sword, some cyro grenades, a combistick like a staff, a Shuriken that floats from a disc, and a Yautja bow. The shuriken was the name for the Japanese throwing star.
The bow is like the energy bow wielded by Omega in The Bad Batch, but more lethal. Dek’s armory, bow and sword, is basically reduced to simple weapons like Naru in Prey. He checks his weapons, then snake-like vines wrap around Dek testing his combistick. The Predator begins slashing them until he is freed. He uses some plants he has scanned as safe as salve over his wounds. A small slug oozes and Dek tosses it only for it to explode, a Boom Slug! Dek sees a plant swell up and it sends a thorn into his neck. He sees a woman in a white suit in a tree. This is Thia played by Elle Fanning who is in this year’s dramatic film, Sentimental Value. She recognizes and speaks Yautja, using universal translation so we can understand her and Dek hears his language. This is the way to get around language similar to John Crichton’s translator microbes in the sci fi series, Farscape.
She explains that the thorn, from the Paralysis Stalk, poisons victims! Dek refuses her help and tries to escape the thorn shooting plants. The Sky-Reaper descends, then Dek tosses his Shuriken, before falling. He only sees blood spurts as the Sky-Reaper is torn apart. Thia's smiling face greets him. He pulls her up and sees that her body below the abdomen is missing! Thia is a synthetic from Weyland-Yutani, the corporation from the Alien franchise. We had last seen a synthetic in Alien: Romulus (2024). It is great to see another synthetic, especially one more emotional than the others, but any appearance by a Xenomorph would pull this film from its franchise. Dek is still a Predator, but sees that Thia would be his only way to find the Kalisk. She climbs on his shoulders and later Dek fashions a carrier out of vines. This is a Lone Wolf and Cub-type situation. Trachtenberg said he thought of C-3PO carried on the back of Chewbacca.
Thia explains that two years ago, she was part of a Weyland-Yutani expedition to collect samples from the Kalisk, but was separated from her counterpart, Tessa. Their models have a "higher sensitivity" to survive Genna. A development for synthetics like Data's emotion chip in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She knows his mission to hunt the Kalisk which was also the mission for the synthetics, sent by the company since humans would not survive Genna. This moves to Thia, non-functional, in a pod. She is severely damaged; gashed to her silver skin, with a missing hand and foot. Needle-like probes shove into her ear to activate Thia. Also, played by Fanning, Thia is a ruthless synthetic, a dark reflection. Where Thia works to open Dek up to other ways, Thia leads the synthetics in the company's single-minded mission. This film feels like it works in tandem with Alien: Romulus. with David Jonsson's synthetic, David.
She is chastized by the voice of the company, MU/TH/UR 062578 (Alison Wright) for her performance. She is sent to complete her mission or be decommissioned! There are opposites here with Dek's father and now the mother of the synthetic sisters! Thia and Dek leave the forest to find a field of razorgrass, tall, white stalks that can cut them! They also find a small, primate-like creature. Thia later names it Bud. It has a pug-like face, pinkish belly and face, with a greenish hide. Bud is almost like an infant which would be like Daigoro to Itto's assassin in Lone Wolf and Cub. A massive grazer called a Bone Bison moves through the razorgrass protected by its armor. Bud charges through the razorgrass after it. Dek uses the trees to move towards the Bone Bison. He leaps onto it using his plasma sword to defeat the Bone Bison! Dek roars in triumph, but his victory is short lived as a tentacled creature swings from the trees!
This is a Luna Bug. It catches the trio, but Bud's tough hide is too strong for its teeth and Dek uses the distraction to defeat the creature! Tessa and her team has reached the crash site of Dek's ship. They are attacked by the vine creatures, but use flame units to drive them off. One of the brilliant parts of the movie is that by having synthetics as the antagonists, even though they are human-like, they can be violently destroyed. This has the violence to the alien Yautje and alien monsters feel like an R rated movie, but it is PG-13. It doesn't compromise the relentless action. Dek can only finish his mission to hunt the invincible Kalisk through the help of his strange allies. They are hunted in turn by Thia and her inhuman army. Trachtenberg develops the Predator world throwing in Dek to explore an unknown world with its own deadly ecology. Predator: Badlands sets its Yautja protagonist on a hunt for an invicible creature that teams up his unlikely family!
Five Plasma Swords out of Five!
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