With the theatrical release of Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg has delivered another outstanding addition to the Predator franchise. While his last live-action film, Prey, sent fans to the distant past, Predator: Badlands sends them far into the future. It also took them far from Earth and to the strange planet that serves as the Predators’ most dangerous hunting ground. This premise alone allowed the filmmakers to get creative, unveiling a variety of killer alien creatures that made for the wildest, most thrilling Predator film yet.
The Predator franchise began in 1987 with a hyper-masculine action film about a group of war veterans facing off against the titular alien while on a mission in the Central American jungle. Behind all the loud gunfire and glistening muscles is a deconstructive tale about the horrors of the Vietnam War, as well as America’s militant presence in other countries. Nevertheless, Predator was one of many ultra-macho action films of its era. By the 2020s, audiences were looking for fresher, more diverse stories.
Hollywood struggled to reboot the franchise after 2018’s The Predator experienced a troubled production and lackluster reviews. Fortunately, Trachtenberg, best known at the time for directing 10 Cloverfield Lane, defied expectations with work on Prey, breathing new life into a beloved IP. Now that Predator: Badlands has been released, it’s clear that Trachtenberg and his team have changed the Predator franchise for the better with their films.
Prey broke new ground for the franchise
Set in the year 1719, Prey took the original Predator film’s themes of survival and colonialism and embedded them in a compelling new story. However, the former’s narrative mainly follows Naru (Amber Midthunder), a Comanche woman who tries to show her tribe that she can be a hunter instead of a healer, all while Predator and French voyageurs are hunting on her people’s native land.
The fact that Prey featured an Indigenous woman as the protagonist was something not often seen in Hollywood blockbusters at the time of its release. The film also painted an authentic portrait of Comanche life and culture in the 18th century, with much of the dialogue being spoken in the Comanche language. This type of representation alone made Prey a groundbreaking installment in the Predator franchise.
While Predator depicted the Central American soldier Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) as a supporting protagonist, the movie ultimately put Arnold “Dutch” Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a white soldier not from Anna’s country, at the forefront. Through Naru, Prey explores how Indigenous people are affected by violent strangers appearing on their land.
By setting its story in a less technologically advanced age, Prey heightened the challenge that Naru and her allies faced as they confronted an alien warrior with high-tech weaponry. Predator showed Dutch being forced to use what minimal resources he had to defeat his alien foe, but only after he and his team failed to use semi-automatic weapons to kill it. Naru, starting with axes, bows, and arrows, made her ingenuity and triumph all the more extraordinary.
I would argue that Prey is a much better movie than the original Predator movie. It also seemed like the Predator franchise couldn’t present anything fresh enough to justify a sequel. But then we got Predator: Badlands.
Predator: Badlands took the franchise on another bold frontier
Audiences have seen the Alien and Predator franchises crossover on film in the 2000s. However, Badlands takes a unique approach by making a Predator serve as one of the protagonists in the movie. Since the Predators have served as the villains in previous films, the premise of Badlands seemed almost unthinkable.
Though the Predators are different from humans, like Naru, the “runt” Predator Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) embarks on his journey as a rite of passage as he hunts for the dreaded Kalisk on the “death planet” Genna. Just as Naru tried to prove herself to her tribe, Dek wanted to prove he was worthy of being a part of his clan on Yautja Prime.
Overall, Predator: Badlands examines the Predators’ society and culture, revealing how this proud warrior race lives and treats their own. Through Dek and his unlikely alliance with Thia (Elle Fanning) and the alien Bud (Rohinal Nayaran), we learn that the Predators are capable of feeling love, making friends, telling jokes, and being more than just hunters.
The film ultimately expands on the franchise’s theme of survival and identity to make it a found family story. During his journey, Dek realizes that relying on others and protecting them isn’t a weakness, choosing to be more like an alpha wolf thanks to Thia. He thus decides to be part of his own clan with his newfound allies, breaking free of the Predators’ expectations of them.
Dek’s arc mirrors Naru’s defiance of her tribe’s expectations of her as a woman. However, Predator: Badlands also links this kind of story to the relevant issue of artificial intelligence, with the android Thia learning to defy the directives she was programmed to follow by the Weyland-Yutani corporation.
Given how skilled and deadly the Predators have proven themselves to be so far, putting a Predator on a hostile planet that even they fear proved to be something especially thrilling. Even with futuristic tools and weaponry, Dek was way in over his head as he battled sentient vines, giant regenerating apes, and alien elephants.
Like Naru, he had to rely on everything he learned on his adventure, using Genna’s wildlife and resources to overpower the forces of Weyland-Yutani. As a result, Badlands showed that the Predators’ true power comes from their ingenuity.
Having made two successful live-action films, Prey and Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg has proven that he knows how to keep this iconic sci-fi franchise moving in the right direction. The ending to Predator: Badlands shows that the director and his writers have another sequel in mind. Here’s hoping that the next film has the Predators fight the Xenomorphs next.
Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.
