Let’s Talk About the Ending of ‘Predator: Badlands’

Predator: Badlands is now in theaters, and with it, a whole new perspective on what it means to be a Predator. The film follows a member of the Yautja, the proper species name for the franchise’s main creature, who attempts an impossible task to gain his place in his clan. But lots of wild things happen, and by the end, what you thought about Predator may have just changed entirely.

Below, we’re going to dive into some of what happens, what it could mean, and when we might see more, with some thoughts from the film’s director, Dan Trachtenberg.

Predator: Badlands ends with Dek returning to his home planet to present his father with the kill he believes should gain him entry into the tribe and his all-too-important Predator cloak. Father disagrees, though, and the two battle, with Dek coming out on top, followed by Father being killed by Bud, the now slightly larger Kalisk Dek befriended on Genna. Now, Dek, Bud, and Thia, the synth, have formed their own clan, a very untraditional one by Yautja standards. One that, in the film’s final shot, is destined to be challenged by Dek’s mother, whoever that is.

“I have a pretty good idea of where things could go,†Trachtenberg told io9 about the ending of Badlands. “But, at the same time, have been trying hard to not make decisions based on that. Because truly, as you know, you’ve got to make one damn good movie at a time. So I was really trying very hard to just make sure I’m not hurting this movie by thinking of where things could go next. Make sure this is a great movie, and should we do anything else, I will think about it the exact same way.â€

That’s a very nice, non-answer by Trachtenberg about what’s next, so let’s dive deeper. Presumably, because Dek says she isn’t a friend, Dek’s mom is worse than his dad. Maybe she’s the leader of the whole planet of Yautja. Maybe she’s in control of that wild Yautja freezer where Naru (from Prey), Dutch (from Predator), Harrigan (from Predator 2), and everyone else who has ever bested a Yautja are being kept. We don’t know. But we do know that there is a plan to sort of slowly bring this all together, and that Dek creating this new, untraditional clan is probably considered highly disrespectful by the rest of his people.

There’s also still the Weyland-Yutani of it all. The company, which by this point has been failing for centuries, can’t be happy about Thia for turning on it and all of its Genna research being destroyed. Will it retaliate? Has it recruited other creatures to the cause? Could it send other Predators (or Xenomorphs) after Dek, Thia, and Bud?

Surely, there are a million places for this franchise to go after this, if Trachtenberg chooses. And we hope he does. Because we also have to take a second to praise the third act of Badlands. Trachtenberg takes the best part of the original Predator—when Dutch finally starts using his surroundings to his advantage to beat the Yautja—and the best part of Aliens—the power loader fight—and finds a way to bring them both into this movie. I was in awe of how beautifully the end of this film paid homage to those films while never being overtly nostalgic about them.

Will we get a chance to be nostalgic about Predator: Badlands? Time will tell. And we ask you to tell us what you thought of the ending below.

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