Predator: Badlands spends a good chunk of its runtime peeling back the curtain on the Yautja culture. Nearly every entry in the franchise sends a member of the species to a foreign planet, where they hunt the best of the best that world has to offer. Badlands certainly gets to that point, but it starts on Yautja Prime, the Predator homeworld that houses different clans. The one the main character, Dek, belongs to values strength above all else. Despite having his brother, Kwei, in his corner, Dek is fighting an uphill battle because his dad doesn’t believe in him. That lack of faith pushes Dek to hunt the strongest monster in the galaxy, the Kalisk.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Dek isn’t in the best headspace when he arrives on Genna, having just watched his father execute his brother. But he perseveres, picking up a couple of allies along the way who want to stick by his side for the long haul. However, building a motley crew doesn’t mean Badlands abandons the Yautja culture altogether. In fact, it makes a joke toward the end of its runtime that has major implications for the franchise moving forward.
Yautja Technology Plays a Major Role in Predator: Badlands
Dek’s ultimate goal throughout all of Badlands is earning his cloak and becoming a real member of his tribe. That task becomes a tall one once the Yautja arrives on Gemma and loses nearly all his gear during a fight with some terrifying foliage. Without a full arsenal, Dek must lean on an unknown quantity, Thia, a Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who’s missing her legs. Together, they get closer to the Kalisk, but they aren’t the only ones hunting the beast. Thia’s crew, including her sister, Tessa, is hoping to capture the Kalisk and take it back to Earth. Tessa and Co. know that their weapons are enough to take down a creature that can regenerate nearly every part of its body, so they go shopping in Dek’s ship.
A small device that freezes its surroundings allows the synths to capture not only the Kalisk but also Dek. Tessa doesn’t have much use for him, though, so she plans to kill him after he explains what the rest of his gear does. But Dek doesn’t panic, as he sees an oppurtunity to escape. He has Thia tell the synth guarding their cell that one of the devices in his possession is a map. Once the guard looks inside, the item explodes, killing him instantly. Thia can’t believe her eyes, and her jaw drops even further when Dek explains that the device is a children’s toy. The joke is one of the movie’s best, but it could be so much more than that, given how Badlands ends.
Dek’s Mother Might Be the Least of His Worries in a Badlands Sequel
Badlands goes out of its way to explain how Dek is far from the strongest of his kind. His father views him as weak because of his size and lack of skills. By the end of the movie, Dek makes up for his deficiencies with his brain, as in his final fight with his dead old dad, where he uses his ship to create a dust cloud that renders his opponent’s cloak useless. The victorious vibe quickly changes, though, because a ship arrives on the scene that Dek identifies as his mother’s. In Predator lore, it’s been well-established that female Yautja can grow even larger and become more powerful than their male counterparts. If Dek’s mom comes looking for a fight, the now-proud Yautja will be at a severe disadvantage.
But what the joke earlier in the movie may set up is a fight that doesn’t involve Dek’s mother. It could be that she’s training young Yautja who show promise, turning them into an elite death squad capable of surviving massive explosions to their face. Dek’s going to need a significant upgrade to defeat something on that level, as will the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise, which is sure to pick a fight with its movie rival in the near future.
Predator: Badlands is in theaters now.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Focus Features. -
Courtesy of Comedy Central
