Predator: Badlands (2025)
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Cast out from his clan, a young Predator finds an unlikely ally in a damaged android and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
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51 films that influenced Predator: Badlands
What critics say influenced Predator: Badlands
Hell, the climax is reminiscent of Avatar's creature v. big mech showdown, fueled by your Alien nostalgia.
This standalone installment decisively links the Predator mythology with the insidious and relentless corporate monster of the Alien franchise.
When Thia’s crew of other Weyland-Yutani (the corporation from the Alien franchise) androids returns for their bioproducts, the exploration of what becomes a web of exploitative relationships makes Badlands a better Alien movie than the last Alien movie we got.
This is not to say Predator: Badlands feels like a prototypical return to the 1980s roots of the Predator or Alien franchises, with Fanning’s loquacious android hailing form the latter.
The Alien films at least tried to mix things up.
Thia (Elle Fanning, in one of 2025’s coolest performances), an android created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, linking this story to the Alien universe.
You do wish that she played things closer to the classic Weyland synthetics like Michael Fassbender in Prometheus: stiffer, more poised, and a bit colder to Dek’s intensity.
Closer to the vein of Aliens’s Bishop and Romulus’s Andy than, say, Prometheus’s David, she’s the film’s beating heart…
The tone blends elements of sci-fi horror à la Alien: Covenant, the desolate modern western vibe of The Book of Eli, and the disciplined honor of samurai cinema like Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins or Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.
Avatar’s pandora with the emphasis on flora and fauna…
Hell, the climax is reminiscent of Avatar's creature v. big mech showdown, fueled by your Alien nostalgia.
He’ll need those gadgets to survive the planet, which is designed like Pandora if it was created by Sam Raimi and not James Cameron.
It wouldn’t work if we only followed Dek’s solo hunting trip across Genna, which is creatively brought to life as a nightmarish take on Pandora from Avatar (2009), where everything has evolved to kill or hurt you.
The alien death planet is populated with ravenous flora and fauna and, while they compare unfavorably to the creatures of Avatar, for example, they are better than most.
…to borrow a line from Avatar — every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill him and eat his eyes for jujubes…
There are also echoes of James Cameron – Avatar’s sense of discovery, Aliens’ grit, and T2’s scale and heart.
I've lamented in the past that for cross-pollinated Fox franchise Aliens someone created the word 'quadrilogy' when tetralogy existed…
Rather than another female action hero in the “Predator/Alien” canon along the lines of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) or Naru, Thia has more in common to Bishop (Lance Henriksen) from “Aliens” (1986)…
Closer to the vein of Aliens’s Bishop and Romulus’s Andy than, say, Prometheus’s David, she’s the film’s beating heart…
“Predator: Badlands” cribs from across the sci-fi galaxy, especially with a nod to “Aliens.”
…there’s a bit with a pulse rifle (yes, the pulse rifle from Aliens) that will surely blow the mind of any child of the ’80s…
There are also echoes of James Cameron – Avatar’s sense of discovery, Aliens’ grit, and T2’s scale and heart.
…algo similar a lo que hizo Cameron entre «Terminator» 1 y la 2, donde el villano pasa a ser un héroe o antihéroe para que la audiencia pueda conectar…
…as with the Terminator movies, the universe expansion works against the directness of the original concept…
It’s one of the moments that doesn’t really work, but it plays as that overly literal style of humor you get from characters like the Terminator.
It’s a shame, because she is almost like a female version of The Terminator.
…algo similar a lo que hizo Cameron entre «Terminator» 1 y la 2, donde el villano pasa a ser un héroe o antihéroe para que la audiencia pueda conectar…
Avatar: Fire and Ash is right around the corner, and I am hoping the trailer will remind viewers what visual pop in an action blockbuster should look like.
…whether this brutal sci-fi sequel lives up to Prey and the 1987 original…
What made the original Predator work and what made Prey work is that the audience connected with our heroes in their own right, with the events of each film only getting more engaging and exhilarating when we saw the terror of the stalking Yautja.
This is not to say Predator: Badlands feels like a prototypical return to the 1980s roots of the Predator or Alien franchises, with Fanning’s loquacious android hailing form the latter.
…the best Predator movie since the first one back in 1987…
That does mean there’s none of the suspense or terror that came from the ’87 original, or Prey for that matter.
Once Thia arrives in the story, they take a page out of Predator star and legendary screenwriter Shane Black’s book and make Badlands into something of a buddy movie.
Trachtenberg seems more interested in turning the Predator franchise into a brand akin to Star Wars or the MCU…
Badlands is a teen-friendly adventure movie in the vein of the original Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean trilogies.
…you can’t help but laugh as he carries her around on his back as Luke Skywalker did Yoda on Dagobah…
It alternates between having a “Star Wars” aesthetic and embracing the cuteness of creatures like Falkor in “The NeverEnding Story” (1984).
The other thing Predator: Badlands evokes – and it’s impossible to miss – is Star Wars.
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…after revitalizing the series with the (very good) Prey in 2022…
…whether this brutal sci-fi sequel lives up to Prey and the 1987 original…
Though Badlands shakes up the status quo by making the Predator a protag, it retreads similar themes to Prey.
In Prey, we experienced the hunt through the eyes of a young Native woman.
Prey and the animated film were actually good little stories.
Similar to Prey, Predator Badlands is a completely different entry in the saga — this time with a Yautja as the lead instead of the adversary.
He also harkens back to the intimate scale of his feature-length directorial debut, 10 Cloverfield Lane. Like that 2016 gem, Badlands is often a two or three-hander movie rather than a sprawling ensemble piece.
…and in his excellent feature directorial debut, 10 Cloverfield Lane…
Across three films, Trachtenberg has given us three fierce heroines, also including Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 10 Cloverfield Lane.
In 2016 he made the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane…
Badlands is Trachtenberg at his highest budget to date, a huge step up from Prey and 10 Cloverfield Lane.
But director Dan Trachtenberg, who made the widely admired Hulu prequel Prey as well as the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane, is a skilled craftsman who’s willing to sacrifice Hall H dogma at the altar of a more generous entertainment.
…other universe expansions like Alien Earth and Alien: Romulus…
Predator: Badlands may struggle to replicate the commercial success of another ageing Disney sci-fi property, 2024’s Alien: Romulus ($351 million).
Both this and Alien: Romulus represented big-time theatrical returns for their respective stories, and neither has seemed to break through beyond their respective fanbases, of which I am a part.
Andy (David Jonsson) from “Alien: Romulus” (2024)…
Closer to the vein of Aliens’s Bishop and Romulus’s Andy than, say, Prometheus’s David, she’s the film’s beating heart…
However, Trachtenberg seems to disagree it’s a wholly bad idea, despite the Alien franchise undergoing its own rebirth with Alien: Romulus (2024) and Alien: Earth—which have both never once mentioned the Yautja.
Since it’s as lifeless as The Mandalorian, in its structure, photography, and storytelling…
Despite the film’s violence, it often feels more like The Mandalorian than a movie in the Predator franchise.
…the concept of “stoic warrior partners with unlikely allies and hilarity ensues” truly feels like the entire story is just an abandoned The Mandalorian script.
…a gorgeously photographed cross between King Kong’s Skull Island in its creepy crawlers and giant monsters…
Whereas those other films flirted more with horror or suspense elements, Badlands is a “survive the island” movie to the hilt, and does the concept better than the last decade’s worth of Jurassic Park and King Kong flicks.
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…landing somewhere between Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data and Interstellar's TARS…
That landed differently in the past, especially with the mighty Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
…it’s in conversation with the latest addition to the Alien franchise, Noah Hawley’s TV show, Alien: Earth…
So does the use of synthetics, which has always been key to Alien movies. Most recently also the Alien: Earth series.
However, Trachtenberg seems to disagree it’s a wholly bad idea, despite the Alien franchise undergoing its own rebirth with Alien: Romulus (2024) and Alien: Earth—which have both never once mentioned the Yautja.