When you ask who is the greatest hunter of all time, if you are not in pop culture circles that is going to get you some weird looks around the Christmas lunch table. While Spider-Man has Kraven for movie Sci-Fi the only answer is The Predator. Coming up to 50 years from the first appearance the Predator franchise is back in a big way with the 3rd film from a new creator hitting cinemas, Preadtor Badlands, and it is nothing like we have seen before.
So here is the part where we give you a customary run down of all the lore you need to know for a franchise that kicked off in 1987 and is now 9 films deep with 10x that much in comic adaptions. But here is the fun part, until recently there was not much lore for the Predator. How can this be? Well in short because the Predator for the longest time has been the Boba Fett of otherworldly killers in that half of it’s appeal has been how little we know about them.
Here are the cliff notes – in 1987 a CIA commissioned squad in Central America was almost entirely wiped out by something described as alien by the sole survivors. The killer hunted for sport looking for the biggest game which was human taking out army and special forces, ripping out the head and spine to keep as trophies. Fast forward a little bit with the next appearance in modern times being in Los Angeles where we got more of a peak into the Predator’s world by a few minutes on board it’s spaceship where we saw that it hunted multiple species including a Xenomorph (Aliens).
Oh so Aliens and Predator are part of the same universe we hear you say – well no and we understand this is where it gets confusing. Xenomorph/Aliens exist within the Predator universe as we saw in Predator 2 which also meant that Alien vs Predator (which introduced the Weyland-Yutani corporation known in the Alien franchise) AND it’s sequel are both part of the Predator ‘cinematic universe’. HOWEVER, it has been a long standing statement that Predators (and Alien vs Predator) exists outside of the Alien franchise. Meaning that Aliens exist in the Predator universe but Predators do not exist in the Alien one.
It is confusing we understand but the jist of this is that the Predator universe is a lot more fluid and open to crossovers (and we are not just talking about the Batman vs Predator comic book written by Watchman artist Dave Gibbons). Until the most recent films most of the Predator films were completely separate with only the Alien vs Predator ones following after one another. Every film had nods to the others with references but the loop has only started to close with the latest 3 films – Prey, Killer of Killers and now Predator: Badlands.
In the most recent films director Dan Trachtenberg has really been adding a lot to the Predator franchise in terms of back story on the Predators themselves, sorry we should call them by heir proper name established in the comics the Yautja. Predator Badlands is the closest we have come to a Predator movie that requires you to know a little more about the Predators beforehand but not by much.
Returning to the Predator home world we first saw in Killer of Killers, Badlands treats us to Predator lore in that when a young Yautja becomes of age they must vow to hunt their first trophy and either return with it or never return. We met Dek and his brother as Dek, the runt of his clan, picks his first hunt – this is not a source of celebration for his clan as he is forced to flee Yautja Prime for a world known as ‘the death planet’ to hunt the biggest game there is.
Crashing on the planet and a little bull in the china shop being his first hunt our Predator crosses paths with half of a Weyland-Yutani synthetic (android) establishing that Badlands is happening in the future. Oh and that he is not the only one after the biggest game on ‘the death planet’ as he teams up Chewbacca & C-3PO in Empire style to master the planet and then his chosen prey.
The film itself is unlike any other Predator film to date with this being the first time a Predator has been the main character but more so than that having the one thing that no other Predator film has had – actual humour without the comic relief being turned into red mist early on.
While filled with action sprinkled throughout as you would expect the other thing that set this apart is how video gamey the plot and progress feels right from the first crash on the new planet and the title card coming up afterwards. It is hard to explain without seeing the film but it is the 2nd film this year that reminded us of video game influence (the other one being The Ballerina).
So should you go see it? If you are a fan of the Predator franchise then yes, absolutely. This scratches an itch we have been watching for the longest time in taking the Predators from the one dimensional nearly unstoppable killing machines, that have interstellar craft and technologically advanced weapons – to ones that have an actual hierarchy and can (between each other) form sentences longer than a soundbite.
Providing you have seen at least one Predator movie before this (literally any of them… except for the 2018 “The Predator”) you are going to enjoy it. In the meantime, we are going to start a change.org to get John McClane as established canon in the Predator universe.
Predator: Badlands is in cinemas across Australia from November 6th
