Predator: Badlands isn’t just a major franchise milestone because it’s the first project to make a Predator its protagonist: It’s also significant for being the first film to mix the worlds of Predator and Alien since the crossover films Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). However, a lot of newer fans may not realize that the first real blending of the Alien and Predator franchises goes back 35 years, to a moment in Predator 2 (1990) that sparked the imaginations of an entire generation of fans.
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But while the AvP films are non-canon misfires most fans love to dismiss, Predator 2 is only growing more important to the current canonized storyline of the Predator franchise. That’s why it’s so good to see Predator: Badlands picking up those crossover story threads weaving them together the right way again.
Predator 2 Established the Yautja’s History With the Xenomorphs
Predator 2 moved the franchise story from the jungles of South America in the 1980s to late-1990s Los Angeles, where a Yautja from the Jungle Clans targets Detective Mike Harrington (Danny Glover), a badass cop going to war with LA’s various gangs. The climax of the film sees Harrington turn the tables and injure the Predator, forcing the Yautja to retreat to its spaceship. Harrington pursues the creature and fights it to the death on the ship’s bridge. During that sequence on the ship, the Yautja’s collection of skull trophies that was hung on the wall featured a xenomorph skull. That little Easter egg prop then started a whole crossover revolution.
For nearly a decade and a half, fans were left to either imagine and speculate about what a showdown between xenomorphs and Yautja would be, or seek out other forms of media like comics and games, that were free to explore those concepts. When AvP arrived, director Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil, Event Horizon) tried to build rich lore around the two species’ history – but again, the film and its sequel got slammed by longtime fans, who didn’t feel like the crossover lived up to the cinematic legacy of either franchise. It was a crossover that reeked of financial desperation, at a time when both Alien and Predator had fallen out of relevance.
Predator: Badlands Did An Alien & Predator Shared Universe The Right Way (Again)
The great thing about Predator 2s inclusion of Alien was that director Stephen Hopkins did it in such a way that it didn’t interrupt the movie at hand for casual fans, while still sparking a whole wave of imagination and debate in the scattered community of hardcore sci-fi/horror fans, who were beginning to see Alien, Predator, Aliens, and Predator 2 as their own sub-genre of sci-fi/horror. The correlation between the two franchises was so logical and easy that it was more validating than surprising to see them get informally linked onscreen.
Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg was certainly one of those 1980s/1990s kids, because he clearly understands the natural synergy between Alien and Predator. Badlands seamlessly incorporates Alien‘s Weyland-Yutani corporation as antagonists to Dek’s hunt; positions one of the company’s android servants (or “synthetics”) as both the major supporting character and big bad of the film (Elle Fanning’s dual roles as Thia and Tessa, respectively), and even features a new model of the power lifter exosuit seen in the iconic climax of Aliens.
Every single element of Alien that Predator: Badlands borrows is put to functional use in the film’s story – but never in a way that takes a casual viewer out of the film, needing to ask questions about Alien (or even necessarily aware of the connection). Meanwhile, hardcore fans get to finally enjoy the validation of seeing the franchises co-mingle so effectively, while getting the spark of excitement to see where things lead with the franchises being one big sandbox to play in.
And with the grand design that Dan Trachtenberg is building through his other Predator films (Prey, Killer of Killers), the canon of the first two Predator movies is once again in play, meaning those 35 years of waiting and hoping since Predator 2 are finally paying off.
Predator: Badlands is now in theaters. You can stream the previous films on Disney+.
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