Predator: Badlands premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 3, 2025, and was released in the United States on November 7, by 20th Century Studios. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $184.3 million worldwide.
Plot
Dek is a Yautjarunt from planet Yautja Prime. Seeking approval from clan leader Njohrr, his father, Dek plans to hunt the Kalisk, the apex predator on the "death planet" Genna feared even by Njohrr. Before Dek can leave, Njohrr arrives and orders Dek's brother Kwei to kill him, deeming him too weak for the clan. Defying the order, Kwei activates his ship to transport Dek to Genna. Dek watches helplessly as Njohrr executes Kwei.
Upon crash-landing, Dek faces numerous dangers from Genna's flora and fauna. He reluctantly allies with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation android, whose team was destroyed by the Kalisk. Thia offers to help Dek track the Kalisk. Later, they are joined by a friendly creature that Thia names Bud, which marks Dek with its saliva. Meanwhile, Thia's "sister", Tessa, is retrieved by Weyland-Yutani androids and repaired at their main base. She begins searching for Dek’s group. Tessa finds Dek's ship and takes his weaponry.
After discovering the remains of her team, Thia attempts to repair herself. She reveals the Weyland-Yutani team is on the way, and they aim to capture the Kalisk. She urges Dek to flee, saying he cannot kill the Kalisk. Feeling betrayed, Dek challenges the Kalisk alone. The two fight, and though Dek manages to sever its head, the Kalisk regenerates and subdues him. The kalisk smells 'bud's' saliva on Dek and spares him. The Weyland-Yutani team arrives and captures them both.
Tessa congratulates Thia on the successful mission, then begins experimenting on Dek, but Thia intervenes. Seeing Thia's emotions as weakness, Tessa slates her for deactivation. Thia helps Dek escape the transport vehicle. Dek realizes that Bud is the child of the Kalisk, who had smelled its saliva on him, and decides to rescue both Thia and the captured Kalisk. Having lost most of his weapons, Dek improvises ones using Genna's environment.
Dek and Bud infiltrate the Weyland-Yutani base, kill the guards and free Thia. While Thia searches for the Kalisk, Dek and Bud wreak havoc before being confronted by Tessa, who pilots a power loader mech and wields with Dek's plasmacaster. The Kalisk, freed by Thia, joins the fight and eventually swallows Tessa.
After Dek and Bud each share a moment with the Kalisk, Tessa kills the creature with a combination of cryogenic grenades and plasmacaster blasts from inside its body. Tessa prepares to kill Thia for her betrayal. As Thia severs ties with Tessa, Dek disables her, then Bud gleefully tears off her head.
Some time later, Dek returns to Yautja Prime. He presents Tessa's skull to his father as a trophy, and demands his own cloaking device as a reward. Njohrr denies the request and orders his bodyguards to kill Dek. Quickly dispatching the bodyguards, Dek challenges and defeats Njohrr in a duel, cutting off his arm and restraining him with his own trap.
Njohrr attempts to barter for his life by offering Dek a place in the clan. Dek rejects the offer, having found his own clan with Thia and Bud. An older and larger Bud bites Njohrr's head, and Dek takes the cloaking device for himself. Njohrr's remaining clan members pull out their weapons, either to avenge their leader or to prepare for a confrontation as a large Yautja ship appears overhead. As Thia wonders if the ship is friendly, Dek grabs his sword and reveals that it is his mother, hinting at the possibility of a sequel that starts from exactly where this films ends.
Drawing influence from the franchise's expanded universe, Badlands is intended to be a self-contained entry in the series, set on the Predators' home-world and focusing on the culture of their species.[14][15] To this end, a consistent written and verbal language for the Predators was developed for the film by linguist Britton Watkins.[16][17] In creating the Predator language, Watkins drew influence from previous depictions of the Predators language, but redesigned the language to have consistent rules of grammar: the Predators numerical system was influenced by the self destruct timer in the original 1987 Predator film, the written language from symbols seen in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), and their spoken language from a brief depiction in The Predator (2018).[18] Consideration was also made for the type of sound a Predators mouth design could realistically make, as well as the Predators typical clicking noises.[19][18]
The film adds the terms "Yautja" and "Yautja Prime" to the Predator film series to refer to the Predator species and their homeworld, respectively.[7] These terms were first introduced in the franchise’s expanded universe, first appearing in the 1994 novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey authored by S.D. Perry and Steve Perry, which itself was a spinoff of the Aliens vs. Predator comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics.[20] In a departure from previous films, the Predator, Dek, is the protagonist rather than an antagonist.[21] Dek is portrayed by stuntman Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who also learned the Predator language specifically for the role.[15] To create Dek's physical appearance, Studio Gillis designed a creature suit to portray Dek's body, while Dek's face was digitally enhanced using motion capture computer animation to convey more subtle emotional expression.[15][7][14]Wētā Workshop also contributed to the film's practical effects and designs.[7] The fictional Weyland-Yutani Corporation featured in the Alien franchise (and created by screenwriter Dan O'Bannon for the 1979 film Alien) appears in the film.[5]
In October 2025, Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch were revealed to have composed the musical score, having previously worked with Trachtenberg on Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, respectively.[25]
Release
In June 2025, it was announced that Predator: Badlands would have a Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con later that year.[26] It had its UK premiere at BFI IMAX in London on October 28, 2025.[27]
A tie-in prequel comic book, set shortly before the events of the movie, written by Ethan Sacks and illustrated by Elvin Ching, was published on November 12, 2025, by Marvel Comics.[32]
Reception
Box office
As of December31,2025[update], Predator: Badlands has grossed $91 million in the United States and Canada, and $93.3million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $184.3million.[3]
In the United States and Canada, Predator: Badlands was released alongside Die My Love, Nuremberg, Christy and Sarah's Oil, and was initially projected to gross $25-$30 million in its opening weekend.[33] The film made $15.6 million on its first day[34] (including $4.8 million from Wednesday and Thursday box office previews),[35] rising estimates to $36-$38 million, a record for the Predator franchise.[36] It would end up debuting to $40 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, overtaking the previous franchise record held by Alien vs. Predator, which made $38 million in 2004.[37] The film collected an additional $40 million from international markets, for a worldwide total debut of $80 million.[37]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 265 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Director Dan Trachtenberg continues to take the Predator franchise in exciting new directions with Badlands, a rollicking adventure that transforms one of cinema's most iconic brutes into a hero worth rooting for."[38]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[39] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A- on an A+ to F scale, the highest in the Predator franchise to date, and it received a 78% "definite recommend" on PostTrak.[40]
Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence gave the film an "A-", stating that "Badlands flips the approach and finds something fresh and wonderful and bold as a result — as if James Cameron had made Terminator 2 entirely from the T-800's point of view."[41] Tim Robey of the Daily Telegraph gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, praising Badlands' ability to "humanise a film in which not a single human features".[42] Not all reviews were positive however, with Hindustan Times reviewer Abhimanyu Mathur referring to the movie as a "bland" spin-off that "nobody asked for". Whilst supportive of the choice to focus on the runt of a litter, Mathur described Dek as a "whiny teenager", rather than as an "underdog", awarding Badlands 2 stars.[43] Luca Fontana of Galaxus and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times also acknowledged Dek's reversed role as the prey, with the Kalisk instead becoming the underdog.[17][44]Écran Large[fr] writer Geoffrey Crété described Badlands as a big leap from Trachtenberg's previous work in the franchise, describing the planet Genna as a "savage world", that is complemented by "high-quality visual effects". Crété criticized the characterization however, describing them as remaining "the same puppets serving the same eternal stories of identity quest and blended families."[45] Giving the film 2 stars out of 5, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian similarly criticized the characterization of Dek, putting his humanisation down to "the service of narrative development", concluding that "it ceases to be the Predator".[46]
Elle Fanning was described as a "sprightly breath of fresh air, winsomely cutting through the grit-and-honor stolidity of the Predator mindset" by Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter, going on to say that her character "steers the film away from impossible bleakness".[47] Dustin Rowles, reviewing for Pajiba, also praised Fanning's performance, referring to her as "the glue holding it all together", remarking on her performance as humorous, intelligent and including "jaw-dropping action scenes involving her detached legs."[48] Matthew Turner of Nerdly gave special mention to Badlands screenwriter Patrick Aison for making Dek sympathetic to the audience before Thia's first appearance.[49]
Meredith Loftus of Offscreen Central gave Badlands a B+ rating, stating that "the only aspect that will get any attention this awards season is the visual effects."[50]ScreenCrush writer Matt Singer commended the design of Dek, remarking that "it looks so convincing that the viewer simply accepts it as a living, flesh-and-blood creature."[51] David Crow, reviewing for Den of Geek, credited the performance of Schuster-Koloamatangi for being able to act despite heavy CGI and prosthetics, remarking that Dek "looks unconvincingly alien, but there is a more human tactile performance in those eyes", making a comparison to prior Predator franchise entries.[52]IGN writer Clint Gage scored Badlands 8 out of 10, complimenting the creature design, comparing them to those seen in Avatar and describing Genna as an "alien death planet populated with ravenous flora and fauna".[53]Variety Magazine writer Peter Debruge compared the plot of Badlands to a live-action version of the poem "Jabberwocky" by author Lewis Carroll, naming Badlands the strongest entry in the Predator franchise since the original.[54]
Future
In an interview in the July 2025 SFX magazine, Trachtenberg stated he had three initial Predator films in mind to make: Predator: Killer of Killers,Predator: Badlands, and a third that he intends to direct if Badlands is successful.[55] Discussions are ongoing with original franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger about reprising his role as Dutch in a future installment.[56] In a January 2023 interview, Prey star Amber Midthunder said the cast of that film was in talks with Trachtenberg for a sequel.[57]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
