Predator is a fascinating franchise. With six live-action movies over nearly 40 years, the stories have always oscillated between science-fiction worldbuilding, monster movie setups, or spectacle-driven action filmmaking.
But this latest entry, Predator: Badlands, is the most action packed to date, straining the notion that this series was ever horror adjacent. The driving force behind this shift is that director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Alson (who also collaborated on Prey, the previous entry in the franchise) made this the first Predator movie with a Predator as the point-of-view character.
The story follows Dek, a runty Yautja warrior hated by his own clan who embarks on a mission to take an unkillable beast as his hunting trophy. Landing on a planet where hostile species of plant and animal lurk all around, Dek quickly finds he is in over his head and must accept the companionship of Thia, a wounded android with a mission of her own.
Their partnership lends the movie its heart and soul, as well as a surprising amount of levity. With humor and action in spades, Badlands is a home-run of a blockbuster that will delight fans and newcomers alike.
The Predator Becomes the Protagonist in ‘Badlands’
The greatest feat of this movie is that Trachtenberg manages to pull off a full-length movie following a monstrous character who only speaks in an alien language. The lifeline for the audience comes in the form of Thia, portrayed with a plucky spirit by Elle Fanning.
Thia feels like a video game companion who joins the strong, silent hero to bring the energy up, and Fanning does so remarkably well. But Dek is the central character, and his relationships with his clan, his mission, and his outlooks on what it means to be a warrior are the engine of Badlands.
Dek’s character offers a more robust view of the worldbuilding of Yautja culture than any Predator movie up until this point. His smaller stature and perceived weakness put a target on his back, and his father/clan leader would rather execute him than even give him the chance to complete his first proper hunt.
Dek is portrayed by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, a stunt performer providing both the physicality in a practical effects suit and the alien-language dialogue. That Schuster-Koloamatangi and Fanning are able to express an impressive level of buddy-cop energy through an interplanetary language barrier is a great sign of how both actors were up to the task of making this story matter.
The Action Spectacle of ‘Badlands’ Proves ‘Predator’ One of the Most Durable Franchises
Because Badlands follows a Predator as a protagonist, the film is more action oriented than past entries which leaned into horror.
The monster-movie nature of earlier Predator films is replaced with explosive action from start to finish. Dek fights his way through a jungle full of alien adversaries, whether it be murderous tree vines or giant animals, as well as a fair share of androids. Though he and Thia are working in tandem, they are being trailed by Tessa, Thia’s other half. Tessa is far more ruthless and colder than Thia, played in a fantastic juxtaposition of Thia’s demeanor by Fanning in a dual role. Tessa brings a band of androids along with her who also threaten Dek’s mission, lending Badlands many of its fight sequences.
Badlands is not a revelatory movie on a narrative or thematic level. Trachtenberg leans on tropes which are tried and true for hero’s journey stories, but even when the story beats feel familiar, it works because they are all employed with precision and a lack of self-seriousness. If the movie feels boilerplate at times, any quality of staleness quickly subsides when Trachtenberg delivers another thrilling action set-piece.
Despite the PG-13 rating, which was a put off for some fans, Badlands proves the arbitrary nature of the MPA’s guidelines on violence as it gets away with quite a bit of alien or robot “gore” which passes simply because it does not match the color of human viscera. All this to say, if you want some gnarly Predator kills, you are still in good hands.
‘Badlands’ is a Complete Story, But It Hints at Exciting Directions for Future ‘Predator’ Stories
The major talking point around the trailer for this movie, and one that has not been obscured at all in the various marketing materials, is that Thia and Tessa are Weyland-Utani androids, plucked straight from the Alien franchise. Fanning joins a long line of actors from Ian Holm in Ridley Scott’s original to Michael Fassbender and, most recently, David Jonsson as a standout in Alien: Romulus, in playing these iconic androids.
While it may have been a shock to see Badlands put this front and center in the film’s promotional run, the truth is that Badlands wisely avoids any baggage that relates to setting up a direct Alien and Predator crossover.
Weyland-Utani’s presence looms over the film, but it does not overtake the story, nor does the film end on a tease for a future crossover. It is clear that the two stories once again share a universe, as they did in the 2000s when Alien vs. Predator was released to largely negative reception.
With Romulus hitting and the undeniable success of Prey and Badlands, both franchises are in a much better place now than in 2004 when that first attempt fell short. Trachtenberg’s love for these worlds is clear enough that fans should feel confident he would not take on a crossover unless it really was the right story at the right time.
Badlands only lays some groundwork for what may come, but it is undoubtedly a complete movie unto itself, and one of the most successful in the franchise so far. Trachtenberg brought new energy and a new scope to this series that works as well for first-time viewers with zero context as it will for die-hard fans excited to see a different take on a Predator story.
8 out of 10
Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.
This article appears in Nov. 1-30, 2025.