Predator: Badlands Continues A Big Trend Started by Prey, and It’s Only Clear to Gamers

Predator: Badlands is another successful installment of the sci-fi/horror franchise from director Dan Trachtenberg, following his prequel period film, Prey, and Predator animated anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers. With an entire trilogy of Predator under his belt now, Trachtenberg has brought new styles and lore to Predator that fans seem to be enjoying.

However, one Predator: Badlands Easter egg that a lot of viewers are missing is also one that stands out to gamers as a major signal flare that Trachtenberg is definitely a member of their community.

Dan Trachtenberg Loves Mixing Preator & Gaming

When Prey came out in 2022, Predator fans were enamored with the film’s protagonist, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanchy girl and would-be warrior who gets a hellish ‘trial by fire’ test against a Yautja hunter, to shatter her tribe’s gender stereotypes. Because Naru wasn’t a big, beefy combat veteran like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch, she had to be much more smart and resourceful about how she hunted, battled, and ultimately killed a Predator. At one point in the films, Naru goes through the gaming trope of “leveling up” her weaponry: using vines as rope, and her signature Tomahawk, she constructs a weapon that is basically a Comanche’s version of a Japanese kusarigama.

Any real fanboy or fangirl knows that, besides shows, movies, and games set in Japan’s feudal era, there is only one other popular character and franchise that has made such weaponry iconic in pop culture: the God of War video games. Later installments of God of War would swap the Blades of Chaos for the “Leviathan Axe,” which Kratos could summon back to his hand from any distance, like Thor’s hammer Mjolnir – a more direct similarity to Naru’s Tomahawk.

The God of War and Prey connection isn’t speculative thinking: Dan Trachtenberg has confirmed that when making Prey, he was “very much inspired by playing that game” [God of War] to have Naru design her own signature weapon. So, it should surprise no one that Trachtenberg looked to another popular video game series for inspiration when making Predator: Badlands.

“Shadow of the Colossus is one of my favorite games of all time, and there’s definitely a heart in this movie that is one from that game,” Dan Trachtenberg revealed in a recent interview with BAFTA. “

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If you’ve never played before, Shadow of the Colossus was a 2005 video game that centered on a character named “Wander,” who is trying to revive a girl named “Mono.” To do so, Wander is tasked by an entity named Dormin to enter the forbidden lands and destroy sixteen “colossi,” giant creatures made of both organic and inorganic parts. However, Wander eventually learns that his task is not as noble and pure as it seems – and neither is Dormin.

Predator: Badlands is generating buzz with sci-fi fans in part because of its impressive character, creature, and alien environment designs. The “death planet” Genna was an ambitious concept for a sci-fi/action film setting, and it did not disappoint: it was a world where even the deadly Predator race, the Yautja, were considered fair prey. Almost every one of the creatures and alien world set pieces that Trachtenberg and Co. came up with served the film well narratively and visually. Whether it was the field of razor-sharp glass-grass, or the fearsome, self-healing beast, the Kalisk, which serves as the film’s primary MacGuffin.

The Kalisk, in particular, has Shadow of the Colossus vibes written all over it – but hey, great sci-fi gaming inspiring great sci-fi moviemaking is something we are here for.

Predator: Badlands is now in theaters and IMAX. Shadow of the Colossus got a 2018 remake, which is still available on PlayStation. Let us know your reaction to Predator: Badlands over on the ComicBook Forum!