A predator outcast from his clan finds strange allies and new challenges in his search for the ultimate prey.
The Predator films have long since been in need of a fresh injection of an entry that actually dives into the history and culture of the Yautja, the actual name of the predator alien race. And here it is, hot and steaming-fresh from director Dan Trachtenberg, so make sure you have all your bot-parts handy, and let’s get into this!
As most of us are aware, the Yautja are a very war-like culture and race, prizing hunts of the ultimate prey, battle-scars, and dying a glorious death in combat, over pretty much everything else. So when clan leader Njohrr deems his youngest offspring, the runt called Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), to be useless to the clan and orders the elder sibling Kwei to kill Dek, there’s nothing terribly unusual about such an action. Dek wants nothing more than to prove himself to his father, and of course the brother he idolizes, but to keep the baby of the family alive and able to seek his ultimate hunt, Kwei does the unthinkable and defies Njohrr, ensuring Dek’s life at the cost of his own. And as the pre-programmed ship whisks Dek away to the “death planet” Genna, where his ultimate hunt of the creature called the Kalisk awaits, Dek vows to avenge his beloved brother.
The ship of course crashes onto Genna rather than landing, and much of weaponry and supplies that would have aided Dek greatly, are immediately lost. As we know from the legendary very first Predator movie, the Yautja hunters are highly adaptable, and if their technology fails them, can fashion a weapon out of damn near anything, even on a potentially hostile entire planet. But Dek in his youth and anger has apparently failed to do any kind of real research on Genna before finding himself there, and so finds himself pitted against antagonistic flora and fauna, and of course some combinations of both. And as Dek prepares for a terribly ignominious death on a planet far from home, he suddenly hears a voice off in the distance.
The chattering Weyland-Utani Corporation half-bot Thia happens to be a synthetic (we remember those, from the Alien franchise right?) who, while searching with her team of synthetics for the Kalisk here in Genna, got caught in the unpredictable plant and animal life changing, and was left behind, bifurcated for her trouble. And once the language barrier issue is rectified, Dek determines to take Thia (Elle Fanning) with him to find and hunt down the Kalisk.
No synthetic ever seems willing to fully trust humans in these kinds of movies, and though Dek is about as far from human as one can get, he occasionally shows empathy and does very humane things, like saving and feeding the friendly simian-like creature Thia names ‘Bud’. And though Thia talks about the twin-synthetic to whom she has a close relationship with, Tessa (also Elle Fanning), she who Dek identifies as Thia’s ‘sister’, Thia still hasn’t revealed the whole truth about her mission there to Dek.
Of course, it’s those kinds of omissions that just blow up well-laid plans in your face. Even after Dek stormed off on his own and managed to confront the Kalisk alone, the synthetic Tessa has been rescued and informed directly by the Weyland-Utani Corps central AI called, you guessed it, MU/TH/UR, to capture the Kalisk, Thia, and Dek, at all costs.
One can arguably state that there are effectively no humans in this entire movie at all, which is rather cool. Especially the synthetics, who may wear the skin of humanoids, but act about as far from it as possible. As stated earlier, the one who acts the most humane most of the time is the Predator hunter Dek himself, though he’d just as soon straight-up murder you for trying such a backhanded compliment. You wouldn’t think a Predator film would be full of such strange concepts as found-familial love, finding your own strength, and the courage to ask for help, but here we are, afforded the privilege of watching a fledgling Yautja carve out his place in the vast world, naturally right on top of his fathers corpse. Dek is still a predator, after all. And the arrival of Dek’s mother’s ship at the very end, the reverence and absolute dread everyone seems to hold for her, opens up all sorts of sequel opportunities.
Predator: Badlands storms onto Hulu and Disney+ streaming on February 12th, 2026!
Reviewed by Alicia Glass