Predator: Badlands Used Its Alien Crossover in a Brilliant Way

Predator: Badlands is out in theaters now, and Dan Trachtenberg’s latest film features a clever use of the world of Alien that opens the door for more while remaining brilliant on its own.

How does Predator: Badlands incorporate the world of Alien?

The latest entry in the Predator franchise takes a fairly big departure from how previous Predator movies have operated. Instead of the movie painting the Yautja (the race of the titular Predators) as terrifying hunters tracking down humans, Badlands instead shifts the focus onto the Yautja themselves.

The movie follows the story of Dek, a runt Predator that travels to a planet known as Genna to hunt down an unkillable predator known as the Kalisk to prove his worth to his clan after his father, Njohrr, ordered his brother Kwei to kill him, but Kwei refused, resulting in Njohrr killing Kwei. Upon landing in Genna, Dek meets Thia (played by Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani synthetic that becomes his tool as he moves to find the Kalisk and prove his worth as a Predator.

Although fans had been clamoring for another crossover between the worlds of Predator and Alien ever since 2005’s Alien vs. Predator movie, Badlands makes for a more interesting crossover. Instead of being overtly in your face that the world of Alien exists within Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg instead chooses to subtly show you via a handful of very fun Easter Eggs.

Besides the fact that Fanning’s Thia (and Tessa, another synthetic in the film) are owned by Weyland-Yutani, the film also features the AI system MU/TH/UR, which originally appeared as the main computer mainframe for the Nostromo in the original Alien. In Badlands, MU/TH/UR seems to be the one commanding the mission that Thia and Tessa find themselves on, which is to capture and bring back a Kalisk to Earth to study its regenerative properties.

Other Easter eggs appear in the film as well, including the use of a big mech akin to the one Ripley uses in 1986’s Aliens. While Ripley’s power loader is much smaller, though, the one in Badlands is a full, mech-sized version that Tessa uses to battle the Kalisk at the end of the film.

While it’s unclear if we’ll ever get another movie featuring a Predator and Xenomorph duking it out, Trachtenberg has shown us that it’s possible to merge these worlds in other ways. The future of Predator now looks brighter than it ever has, as well. With the Alien franchise also resurging following 2024’s Alien: Romulus, it might be time for the two iconic characters to clash again sooner rather than later.

Source: Comingsoon.net