"Predator: Badlands" Final Trailer: Elle Fanning Plays a Synth Stuck on a Hostile Alien Planet Brimming with Deadly Monsters in Dan Trachtenberg’s New Predator Entry
Elle Fanning stars as a stranded Weyland-Yutani synth who must trust a young Predator hunter (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) to survive the galaxy’s most deadliest world.
The Predator franchise has long been centered on man versus the ultimate alien hunter. In the original 1987 film starring action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, he plays an elite paramilitary mercenary sent on a rescue mission deep in the Central American jungle—only to come face-to-face with a highly skilled, technologically advanced extraterrestrial warrior.
The battle wasn’t decided by brawn, but by who could outlast the other. In the end, it wasn’t Schwarzenegger’s muscles that saved him, but his cunning ability to survive at all costs.
Still regarded as one of the definitive ‘80s action sci-fi thrillers—and among Schwarzenegger’s best—the film can now be seen as more than just a macho survival flick. Beneath its muscular bravado lies a subversive commentary on the futility of American military might.
Schwarzenegger’s Dutch leads a small unit of skilled mercenaries, each with bulging muscles and even bigger egos. Sure, the original Predator movie was thrilling entertainment for audiences seeking explosive action, but beneath the surface of its seemingly straightforward jungle shootout lay a biting critique of American military power—and how its persistent overconfidence in being a so-called heroic force often led to bigger disasters on foreign soil.
There’s no question the film was riffing on American military involvement in Central America during the 1980s, particularly the conflicts in Nicaragua and El Salvador, echoing Reagan’s controversial interventionism in that region.
One of the best examples of how the original film stealthily satirized the excess of American military power comes in the scene where Dutch and his squad unleash a barrage of gunfire, mowing down an entire section of the jungle. They empty their clips into the trees, obliterating everything in sight—yet hit nothing. The invisible Predator still escapes. It’s a moment that perfectly encapsulates how many still believe that blunt force is the only answer, yet brute strength and heavy artillery prove useless against an enemy that can’t be seen or understood.
The next installments in the franchise, however, became less metaphorical about militarism critiques and more focused on expanding the mythology of the creature itself. Predator 2 (1990) was a near-futuristic thriller romp with Danny Glover as a hard-edged cop facing off against the alien amid the city’s gang wars. Not a box-office hit by any means, but a cult favorite for sure.
Then, decades later, new entries arrived like Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018). Both leaned heavily into sci-fi spectacle and franchise lore, often missing the original’s allegorical bite in favor of world-building. After a couple of crossovers with the Alien franchise, it seemed the Predator series may have run its course.
But the franchise found renewed life with Prey (2022), which stripped the concept back to its primal essence. Featuring a breakout performance by Amber Midthunder, the film follows a young Comanche warrior as she finds herself squaring off against a ferocious alien hunter alone. By returning to a simpler, survival-driven story, Prey was able to recapture what made the 1987 original so compelling—the unbearable tension between warrior versus warrior, man versus alien... or in this case, Comanche versus Predator.
Dan Trachtenberg, the filmmaker behind Prey and now the creative force steering the Predator franchise, is back with another thrilling installment: Predator: Badlands.
Just months after spearheading the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers for Hulu, Trachtenberg returns to the director’s chair for a feature-length continuation that promises to expand the mythology of the alien hunter like never before.
Seemingly taking a cue from Prey but flipping the script, Badlands centers on a young Predator hunter determined to prove himself worthy of joining the ranks of his elder tribal leaders—much like a Comanche warrior would.
Exiled to a desolate alien planet teeming with some of the most barbaric and deadly creatures in the universe, the young Predator must endure a brutal trial of survival. If he can outlast the horrors of this unforgiving world and slay one of its most vicious apex predators, he may return home with honor—and a trophy worthy of legend. But if he fails, he will certainly die and be forgotten... another casualty in the endless hunt.
To his utter shock, the young Predator, Dek, finds an unlikely ally in a stranded female survivor who’s been fighting to stay alive on the same hostile planet. Her name is Thia, a resourceful Weyland-Yutani field unit agent who has just lost both legs in a catastrophic spacecraft crash. She’s able to function only because she’s a synth—a humanoid synthetic android created by the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the very same company from the Alien franchise. From what we can gather, Thia’s mission was to collect and study alien species for the corporation, but her expedition took a deadly turn when she crash-landed on what’s known as “the most dangerous planet in the universe—where everything is trying to kill you.”
Dek and Thia become unlikely companions as they battle to survive the planet’s relentless onslaught of gigantic, deadly creatures. As Thia searches for a way to contact rescue, Dek remains fixated on his singular goal—to claim the ultimate trophy: the head of the unkillable alien monster that rules this world. The problem is, Weyland-Yutani may have already sent an entire strike force to capture or kill the creature for their own purposes. Now Dek finds himself caught between two deadly hunts—one led by a ruthless human corporation armed with advanced weaponry, and the other by his own instincts to prove his worth.
Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown, The Great) stars as Thia, the legless synth, while New Zealand actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (Red, White & Brass) takes on the role of Dek, the young Predator runt desperate to prove that he’s more than just a failed warrior.
Trachtenberg, who also co-wrote the story concept with Prey screenwriter Patrick Aison (with Aison and Brian Duffield penning the script), said the idea stemmed from his love of the image of Chewbacca carrying a legless C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back. It just goes to show that inspiration can come from the most unexpected corners of pop culture—and sometimes, from a galaxy far, far away.
Predator: Badlands arrives in theaters November 7th. So, prepare for a Predator movie where the hunter not only becomes the hunted but learns it’s not so easy to survive when the prey might just be the better predator.
Official Synopsis:
First hunt. Last chance…
From the director of Prey, Predator: Badlands stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
Exclusively in movie theaters on November 7th in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, RealD (3D), Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX and premium screens everywhere.
