Predator: Badlands—When the Hunter Becomes Prey

Predator: Badlands

★ ★ ★ ★

Predator: Badlands is the latest in the now blended Alien and Predator franchises. Sequels to each film have been hit-or-miss, often sacrificing story for cheap visual-effects laden creature action.

Badlands reminds me a bit of First Blood, where Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) returns home and drifts into a town ruled by a hostile sheriff (Brian Dennehy) who’ll stop at nothing to push him out. Here, a Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) will embark on his first hunt to a hostile planet to kill a beast so formidable even his father, clan leader Njhorr (Reuben de Jong) fears it. The planet is known as the “death planet,” almost everything there will try to kill you. The beast is called a Kalisk.

Dek faces the Kalisk
© 2025 20th Century Studios

As the film begins, Dek and his brother Kwei (Michael Homik) duke it out on the rocky terrain of their home planet Yautja Prime. Dek is the smallest among his brothers, and Kwei is supposed to kill him. In the Yautja hierarchy, the runts are culled. But Kwei refuses to kill him. Instead, he tells Dek about planet Genna and the Kalisk. Dek believes that if he can bring back the head of the Kalisk for his first hunt, he’ll earn his place in the tribe.

When Njhorr returns from a hunt, he attacks Kwei for disobeying his order. Njhorr makes short work of Kwei, and Dek gets on a ship with Genna’s coordinates programmed in. When Dek reaches Genna, he barely hits the atmosphere before the planet hurls enough chaos at him to force a crash-landing. Once on the surface, the planet wastes no time trying to tear him apart.

Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
© 2025 20th Century Studios

As he searches for the den of the Kalisk, he happens across Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic android made by Weyland-Yutani, the franchise’s evil corporation. Thia is without her legs, having been through a battle of her own. She strikes a deal with Dek: she’ll help him find the Kalisk; he’ll help her locate her legs.

If this all sounds silly, it is. But it works, because we empathize with Dek. Taking a badass alien species, notoriously brutal hunters, and turning one into an underdog was the right move here. Dek is virtually outmatched on every level. It’s his unwavering belief that he can kill a near-indestructible beast and bring its head to his father that has us rooting for him.

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek
© 2025 20th Century Studios

While the film is full of fantastic action sequences and sci-fi fun, it’s Fanning who steals the show, riding the edge of not-quite-annoying snarky humor and a stronger sense of empathy than we’ve seen in a Weyland synthetic. She’s at once endearing and eventually Dek learns she’s not just a robotic tool, but a good pal to have around.

This really is a great time at the movies. It’s one of those rare films that does an outstanding job of keeping the story rolling and the audience entertained. I guess I’ll go ahead and check caring about a Predator’s well-being off my 2025 bingo card of things I didn’t see coming.