After Prey, I found myself fully vested in the Predator franchise once again. Predator: Killer of Killers added to that. That now brings us to Predator: Badlands, one of my most highly anticipated Predator movies ever. It did not fail to disappoint. By focusing on the Predator species known as the Yautja, we get this wonderful look into their culture and family structure.
Here we focus on Dek, a Yautja youth, who is considered to be the runt of the family by his father. His father wants him dead, but his brother tries to stop him. Dek, wants to prove he is a warrior and sets out to hunt a Kalisk, an apex predator on the planet of Genna.
Literally everything on Genna is out to kill you. Dek struggles but then comes across Thia, a Weyland-Yutani android. Even though she has been cut in half, Thia is remarkably resourceful and agrees to help Dek track the Kalisk. She also wants to meet up with the others from the corporation that are also on the planet. The unlikely pair then meet a friendly creature that Thia names Bud. At the same time, Tessa, Thia's android "sister" has been retrieved by the corporation.
The corporation has other plans for the Kalisk. Dek and his friends go against the Wetland-Yutani corporation. I am curious to see how or if the Predator franchise will merge with the Alien franchise once again. In Alien: Earth we see some of the species that the Weyland-Yutani corporation are searching for.
Bonus Features:
- Deleted & Pre-Visualization Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary:
- Sand Trap – An early animatic version of Dek’s very different first encounter with Thia.
- Squirt Canyon – The full version of Dek and Thia traversing the water-filled trench while trying to survive Genna…and each other.
- Tessa vs. Abe – Tessa faces off against a superior synth in this deleted scene and storyline.
- Razor Grass – The original previsualization of Dek, Thia, and Bud’s first hunt together…sort of.
- The Outpost – Thia takes Dek to a small Weyland-Yutani field facility where they experience a few things that ended up being used elsewhere in the final film.
- Super Power Loader Extended – Special additional moments during Dek’s climactic final battle with the Super Power Loader and the Kalisk.
- Featurettes:
- Embodying the Predator – Meet the talented team of designers, performers, and effects artists responsible for bringing one of cinema’s most terrifying creatures to life on screen in ways we’ve never seen before!
- Authentic Synthetics – Get up close and personal with synths Thia and Tessa as star Elle Fanning walks us through the process of crafting two characters who may look the same but have evolved in surprisingly unique ways.
- Building the Badlands – With razor sharp grass, killer trees, and terrifying animals, never has a planet been more deadly than Genna. Uncover how a team of artisans built this threatening landscape, transforming real locations into the dangerous environments seen on screen.
- Dek of the Yautja – For the first time ever, director Dan Trachtenberg has given audiences an extended peek at Predator culture. Follow the evolution as filmmakers reveal the process behind developing the Yautja’s home world, spacecraft, and family dynamics.
- Audio Commentary: Watch the film with audio commentary by Director Dan Trachtenberg, Producer Ben Rosenblatt, Director of Photography Jeff Cutter and Stunt Coordinator Jacob Tomuri.
