Predator: Badlands
Predator: Badlands is a 2025 American science fiction action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison from a story by Trachtenberg and Aison. The seventh installment in the Predator franchise, and set after the events of The Predator, it stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi in leading roles. The story follows Dek, a young exiled Yautja, who crash-lands on a hostile planet and must prove himself worthy of the hunt by killing an apex predator, leading him to form an alliance with Thia, a Weyland-Yutani Corporation android.
Predator: Badlands premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 3, 2025, and was released in the United States on November 7, by 20th Century Studios. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $184 million worldwide.
Plot
Dek is a Yautja runt from the planet Yautja Prime. Seeking approval from his father, clan leader Njohrr, Dek plans to hunt the Kalisk, an apex predator on the "death planet" Genna feared even by Njohrr. Before Dek can leave, Njohrr arrives and orders Dek's brother Kwei to kill him, deeming him too weak for the clan. Defying the order, Kwei activates his ship to transport Dek to Genna, fighting Njohrr only to be defeated and lose an arm; Dek watches helplessly as Njohrr executes Kwei.Upon crash-landing, Dek faces numerous dangers from Genna's flora and fauna, losing almost all of his gear. He reluctantly allies with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation android, whose team was destroyed by the Kalisk. Thia offers to help Dek track the Kalisk. Later, they are joined by a friendly creature that Thia names Bud, which marks Dek with her saliva while they are camping out of gratitude to Dek for saving her from a wild beast and feeding her. Dek later reveals to Thia that his father killed Kwei, prompting Thia to teach him about the wolves on Earth, telling him that the alpha wolf takes care of the pack. Dek however remains adamant about being 'the alpha who kills the most.' Meanwhile, Thia's "sister", Tessa, is retrieved by Weyland-Yutani androids and repaired at their main base, where she is threatened with decommissioning if she fails her mission. Joined by a Weyland-Yutani team, Tessa begins searching for Dek's group, stumbling across his crashed ship and finding his lost equipment - including cryogenic explosives.
After discovering the remains of her team, Thia attempts to repair herself. She reveals the Weyland-Yutani team is on the way, and they aim to capture the Kalisk, and she urges Dek to flee, saying he cannot kill the Kalisk. Feeling betrayed, Dek challenges the Kalisk alone with only his sword. The two fight, and though Dek manages to sever its head, the Kalisk regenerates and subdues him. Unexpectedly, it spares him after smelling him, but the Weyland-Yutani team arrives and captures them both.
Tessa congratulates Thia on the successful mission, then begins experimenting on Dek, but Thia intervenes, claiming that they can be more than what Weyland-Yutani demands from them. Seeing Thia's emotions as weakness, Tessa slates her for deactivation and orders her boxed up. Thia helps Dek escape the transport vehicle, tricking one of the guards with an explosive toy that cost Dek one of his fangs as a child. After venting out his anger over Kwei's death and realizing the meaning of Thia's words to him about the wolf, he decides to rescue Thia, creating improvised weapons out of Genna's natural environment and creatures. While doing so, he reunites with Bud and realizes she is the child of the Kalisk, who had smelled her saliva on him, and decides to rescue the Kalisk as well.
Dek and Bud infiltrate the Weyland-Yutani base, kill the guards and free Thia, who reunites with her severed legs as Dek reveals to her that Bud is the Kalisk's child. While Thia and Bud search for the Kalisk, Dek kills the remaining guards before being confronted by Tessa, who pilots a power loader mech and wields Kwei's plasmacaster. The Kalisk, freed by Thia, joins the fight and eventually swallows Tessa alive. After Dek and Bud each share a moment with the Kalisk, Tessa kills the creature with a combination of cryogenic grenades and plasmacaster blasts from inside its body, and prepares to kill Thia for her betrayal. As Thia severs ties with her "sister," Dek stabs Tessa to death and reclaims his brother's plasmacaster, while Bud tears off Tessa's head and spine.
Sometime later, Dek returns to Yautja Prime. He presents Tessa's skull to his father as a trophy and demands his own cloaking device as a reward, but Njohrr denies the request and orders his bodyguards to kill Dek. Quickly dispatching the bodyguards, Dek challenges and defeats his father in a duel, cutting off his arm and restraining him with his own trap. Njohrr attempts to barter for his life by offering Dek a place in the clan, claiming he was wrong about him. Dek rejects the offer, having found his own clan with Thia and Bud. An older and larger Bud bites Njohrr's head off, and Dek takes the cloaking device for himself, which a fully-repaired Thia congratulates him for. Njohrr's remaining clan members suddenly pull out their weapons just as a large Yautja ship appears overhead. As Thia wonders if the ship is friendly, Dek grabs his sword and reveals that it is his mother.
Cast
- Elle Fanning as:
- * Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who partners with Dek
- * Tessa, a Weyland-Yutani synthetic and Thia's sister who opposes her and Dek
- Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, a young Yautja outcast for being a runt
- 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 runt
- * 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
Production
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 and Predator: Killer of Killers, and co-written by Patrick Aison, who wrote Prey. Writers Brian Duffield, Bryan Fuller, Patrick Somerville, and Ben Schwartz are credited for "additional literary material ". 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, Mad Max 2, The Book of Eli, as well as Clint Eastwood Westerns, and the video game Shadow of the Colossus. In June, Elle Fanning was in talks to join the film in a dual role, with her casting confirmed in August.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. To this end, a consistent written and verbal language for the Predators was developed for the film by linguist Britton Watkins. In creating the Predator language, Watkins drew influence from previous depictions of the Predators language, but redesigned the language to have consistent rules of grammar: the Predators numerical system was influenced by the self destruct timer in the original 1987 Predator film, the written language from symbols seen in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, and their spoken language from a brief depiction in The Predator. Consideration was also made for the type of sound a Predators mouth design could realistically make, as well as the Predators typical clicking noises.
The film adds the terms "Yautja" and "Yautja Prime" to the Predator film series to refer to the Predator species and their homeworld, respectively. These terms were 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. In a departure from previous films, the Predator, Dek, is the protagonist rather than an antagonist. Dek is portrayed by stuntman Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who also learned the Predator language specifically for the role. 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. Wētā Workshop also contributed to the film's practical effects and designs. The fictional Weyland-Yutani Corporation featured in the Alien franchise appears in the film.
Principal photography began in New Zealand by August 27, 2024, under the working title Backpack, and wrapped in late October. Jeff Cutter served as the cinematographer, after previously working with Trachtenberg on Prey. 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, Wētā FX, Rising Sun Pictures, Trixter, Important Looking Pirates, The Yard VFX, and Framestore. According to Trachtenberg, every shot of the film required visual effects work.