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Predator: Badlands
2025 film by Dan Trachtenberg From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Predator: Badlands is a 2025 American science fiction action film and the seventh installment in the Predator franchise. The film was directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison from a story by Trachtenberg and Aison. Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi star in leading roles. In the film, Dek, a young Yautja exiled from his clan, crash-lands on a hostile planet and must prove himself worthy of the hunt. Struggling to survive, he forms an unlikely alliance with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation android, as they face off against an apex predator.
Predator: Badlands had its premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 3, 2025, and was released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on November 7, 2025. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $141 million worldwide against a $105 million budget.
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Plot
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Dek is a Yautja runt from Yautja Prime, who seeks approval from his father, clan leader Njohrr. He vows to hunt the Kalisk, a seemingly unkillable apex predator on the "death planet" Genna. Before he can leave however, Njohrr arrives and orders Dek's brother Kwei to kill him, deeming him too weak for the clan. Kwei defies the order and remotely activates his transport ship to take Dek to Genna. Dek is forced to watch helplessly as Njohrr executes Kwei.
Upon crash-landing on Genna, Dek faces numerous environmental dangers from both flora and fauna. He reluctantly allies with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation android, whose team was destroyed while attempting to capture the Kalisk. Thia offers to help Dek track the Kalisk. Later, they are joined by a native creature that Thia names Bud, which marks Dek with its saliva. Meanwhile, Thia's "sister", Tessa, is reactivated and begins tracking Dek’s group. Tessa later encounters Dek's crash-landed ship and takes his weaponry.
After discovering the remains of her team, Thia contacts the Weyland-Yutani team and attempts to repair herself. Dek ignites an oil spill, attracting the Kalisk. The two creatures fight, and though Dek manages to sever its head, the Kalisk regenerates and defeats him; however, it spares his life. The Weyland-Yutani team arrives, captures Dek and the Kalisk, and holds them for study. Tessa begins experimenting on Dek, but Thia intervenes. Seeing Thia's emotions as weakness, Tessa slates her for deactivation.
Thia helps Dek escape. Dek then realizes that Bud is the child of the Kalisk, who had detected its saliva on him, and decides to rescue both Thia and the captured Kalisk. Lacking his advanced weapons, Dek creates organic ones harvested from Genna's environment. He and Bud attack the Weyland-Yutani base and free Thia. Thia helps the Kalisk escape, allowing it to destroy much of the facility. Tessa, now in a mechanical power loader mech and armed with Dek's Yautja laser weapon, kills the Kalisk, but is ultimately destroyed by Dek and Bud when she attempts to kill Thia.
Some time later, Dek returns to Yautja Prime with a fully repaired Thia, and an older, larger Bud. He presents to his father Tessa’s skull as a trophy, and demands his father's cloaking device as a reward, but Njohrr denies this. Dek avenges Kwei by defeating and mutilating Njohrr before Bud bites off his head, taking his cloaking device. Dek, Thia, and Bud prepare for a confrontation when a large ship appears near them, with Dek stating it is his mother.
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Cast
- Elle Fanning as:
- Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who partners with Dek[4]
- Tessa, a Weyland-Yutani synthetic and Thia's sister who opposes her and Dek[5][4]
- Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, a young Yautja outcast for being a runt[6]
- Reuben de Jong as Njohrr, Dek and Kwei's father and leader of their clan, who believes Dek should be culled because he is a weakling
- Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as the voice of Njohrr
- Mike Homik as Kwei, Dek's protective older brother, who helps him prepare for his first hunt
- Stefan Grube as the voice of Kwei
- Rohinal Narayan as Bud, a creature of the planet Genna
- Cameron Brown as Smyth, a Weyland-Yutani drone synthetic
- Alison Wright as the voice of MU/TH/UR, the A.I. overseer of Weyland-Yutani and Tessa's superior
- The Duffer Brothers as the voice of the onboard computer for Kwei's ship. Trachtenberg had been unable to work on the final season of Stranger Things due to the production of Predator: Killer of Killers, opting to include the brothers in Badlands instead[7][8]
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Production
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In February 2024, it was revealed that a standalone film in the Predator franchise titled Badlands was in development, set to be directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who previously directed and co-wrote the story of Prey (2022) and Predator: Killer of Killers (2025), and co-written by Patrick Aison, who wrote Prey.[9] Writers Brian Duffield, Bryan Fuller, Patrick Somerville, and Ben Schwartz are credited for "additional literary material (not on-screen)".[10] The director cited stylistic and thematic influences from the works of Frank Frazetta and Terrence Malick, Conan the Barbarian, Drax the Destroyer, the films Shane (1953), Mad Max 2 (1981), The Book of Eli (2010), as well as Clint Eastwood Westerns, and the video game Shadow of the Colossus (2005).[6] In June, Elle Fanning was in talks to join the film in a dual role,[11] with her casting confirmed in August.[12]
Drawing influence from the franchise's expanded universe, Badlands is intended to be a self-contained entry in the series, set on the Predators' home-world and focusing on the culture of their species.[13][14] To this end, a consistent written and verbal language for the Predators was developed for the film by linguist Britton Watkins.[15][16] The film adds the terms "Yautja" and "Yautja Prime" to the Predator film series to refer to the Predator species and their homeworld, respectively.[6] These terms were first introduced in the franchise’s expanded universe, first appearing in the 1994 novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey authored by S.D. Perry and Steve Perry, which itself was a spinoff of the Aliens vs. Predator comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics.[17] In a departure from previous films, the Predator, Dek, is the protagonist rather than an antagonist.[18] Dek is portrayed by stuntman Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who also learned the Predator language specifically for the role.[14] To create Dek's physical appearance, Studio Gillis designed a creature suit to portray Dek's body, while Dek's face was digitally enhanced using motion capture computer animation to convey more subtle emotional expression.[14][6][13] Wētā Workshop also contributed to the film's practical effects and designs.[6] The fictional Weyland-Yutani Corporation featured in the Alien franchise (and created by screenwriter Dan O'Bannon for the 1979 film Alien) appears in the film.[4]
Principal photography began in New Zealand by August 27, 2024, under the working title Backpack,[12] and wrapped in late October.[19] Jeff Cutter served as the cinematographer, after previously working with Trachtenberg on Prey.[20] Olivier Dumont and Kathy Siegel served as the film's production visual effects supervisor and visual effects producer, respectively, creating the film's computer-generated imagery through visual effects vendors Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Wētā FX, Rising Sun Pictures, Trixter, Important Looking Pirates, The Yard VFX, and Framestore.[21][6] According to Trachtenberg, every shot of the film required visual effects work.[6]
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Music
In October 2025, Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch were revealed to have composed the musical score, having previously worked with Trachtenberg on Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, respectively.[22]
Release
In June 2025, it was announced that Predator: Badlands would have a Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con later that year.[23] It had its UK premiere at BFI IMAX in London on October 28, 2025.[24]
The film had its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 3, 2025,[25] and was theatrically released in the United States on November 7,[26] in RealD 3D and IMAX.[27] Not counting Alien vs. Predator (2004), Predator: Badlands marks the first film in the mainline Predator series to be given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association, after its predecessors were all rated R.[28]
Comic book
A tie-in prequel comic book, set shortly before the events of the movie, written by Ethan Sacks and illustrated by Elvin Ching, was published on November 12, 2025, by Marvel Comics.[29]
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Reception
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Box office
As of November 20, 2025[update], Predator: Badlands has grossed $71.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $70.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $141.9 million.[3]
In the United States and Canada, Predator: Badlands was released alongside Die My Love, Nuremberg, Christy and Sarah's Oil, and was initially projected to gross $25-$30 million in its opening weekend.[30] The film made $15.6 million on its first day[31](including $4.8 million from Wednesday and Thursday box office previews[32]), rising estimates to $36-$38 million, a record for the Predator franchise.[33] It would end up debuting to $40 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, overtaking the previous franchise record held by Alien vs. Predator, which made $38 million in 2004.[34] The film collected an additional $40 million from international markets, for a worldwide total debut of $80 million.[34]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 243 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Director Dan Trachtenberg continues to take the Predator franchise in exciting new directions with Badlands, a rollicking adventure that transforms one of cinema's most iconic brutes into a hero worth rooting for."[35] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[36] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A- on an A+ to F scale, the highest in the Predator franchise to date, and it received a 78% "definite recommend" on PostTrak.[37]
Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence gave the film an "A-", stating that "Badlands flips the approach and finds something fresh and wonderful and bold as a result — as if James Cameron had made Terminator 2 entirely from the T-800's point of view."[38] Tim Robey of the Daily Telegraph gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, praising Badlands' ability to "humanise a film in which not a single human features".[39] Not all reviews were positive however, with Hindustan Times reviewer Abhimanyu Mathur referring to the movie as a "bland" spin-off that "nobody asked for". Whilst supportive of the choice to focus on the runt of a litter, Mathur described Dek as a "whiny teenager", rather than as an "underdog", awarding Badlands with 2 stars.[40] Luca Fontana of Galaxus and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times also acknowledged Dek's reversed role as the prey, with the Kalisk instead becoming the underdog.[16][41] Écran Large writer Geoffrey Crété described Badlands as a big leap from Trachtenberg's previous work in the franchise, describing the planet Genna as a "savage world", that is complemented by "high-quality visual effects". Crété criticised the characterisation however, describing them as remaining "the same puppets serving the same eternal stories of identity quest and blended families."[42] Giving the film 2 stars out of 5, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian similarly criticised the characterisation of Dek, putting his humanisation down to "the service of narrative development", concluding that "it ceases to be the Predator".[43]
Elle Fanning was described as a "sprightly breath of fresh air, winsomely cutting through the grit-and-honor stolidity of the Predator mindset" by Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter, going on to say that her character "steers the film away from impossible bleakness".[44] Dustin Rowles, reviewing for Pajiba, also praised Fanning's performance, referring to her as "the glue holding it all together", remarking on her performance as humorous, intelligent and including "jaw-dropping action scenes involving her detached legs."[45] Matthew Turner of Nerdly gave special mention to Badlands screenwriter Patrick Aison for making Dek sympathetic to the audience before Thia's first appearance.[46]
Meredith Loftus of Offscreen Central gave Badlands a B+ rating, stating that "the only aspect that will get any attention this awards season is the visual effects."[47] ScreenCrush writer Matt Singer commended the design of Dek, remarking that "it looks so convincing that the viewer simply accepts it as a living, flesh-and-blood creature."[48] David Crow, reviewing for Den of Geek, credited the performance of Schuster-Koloamatangi for being able to act despite heavy CGI and prosthetics, remarking that Dek "looks unconvincingly alien, but there is a more human tactile performance in those eyes", making a comparison to prior Predator franchise entries.[49] IGN writer Clint Gage scored Badlands 8 out of 10, complimenting the creature design, comparing them to those seen in Avatar and describing Genna as an "alien death planet populated with ravenous flora and fauna".[50] Variety Magazine writer Peter Debruge compared the plot of Badlands to a live-action version of the poem Jabberwocky by author Lewis Carroll, naming Badlands the strongest entry in the Predator franchise since the original.[51]
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Future
In an interview in the July 2025 SFX magazine, Trachtenberg stated he had three initial Predator films in mind to make: Predator: Killer of Killers, Predator: Badlands, and a third that he intends to direct if Badlands is successful.[52] Discussions are ongoing with original franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger about reprising his role as Dutch in a future installment.[53] In a January 2023 interview, Prey star Amber Midthunder said the cast of that film was in talks with Trachtenberg for a sequel.[54]
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References
External links
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