It’s the most! Wonderful tiiiime of the yearrrr! Aside from Christmas! Prey, the surprise Predator sequel from a couple of years ago, is enormous fun and if you haven’t seen it, run, do not walk to Disney+ and do so. It’s fantastic. We’re getting two Predator movies this year, the animated Killer of Killers anthology and Badlands. The trailer for Badlands just arrived and Alasdair Stuart is here to point out what to look out for…

0.02 – THAT’s where Nicholas Cage’s T-Rex skull went!

I  do love a Predator trophy room sequence and this one is especially fun. On the left we have a human skull and spine, what might be a Predator skull and what seems to be an enormous bug. In the middle we’ve got a lot of variant hominid skulls and I’m really curious to see if we get more explanation for them. Why just the skulls when there’s the spine/skull combo on the left? Is it me or does one of them look metallic? AND IS THAT AN INDEPENDENCE DAY ALIEN IN THE MIDDLE?!

And on the right, of course, a T-Rex. Which raises some interesting questions about when this movie is set. Or about whether the Jurassic Park series are actually documentaries.

0.03 – ‘I didn’t think you’d survived.’

As we hear Elle Fanning’s character we see the Predator remove… her?… helmet from a sandy case. Also, I’m not saying that also doesn’t look a little like a Predator skull next to it but… it kind of looks like a Predator skull next to it.

0.11 – Triple Suns

We’re off world! The last time the series did this was Predators which is also a fun time. Honestly, most of the franchise is really fun.

0.26 – Synthetic?

We’ve already got the Xenomorphs and Predators existing in the same universe and the effect on Fanning’s character’s eyes looks a lot like the way David shuts down in Alien: Romulus and in fact the Weyland-Yutani logo may be on her eyeballs. The weird frame she’s strung up on also looks a little like the torture frame from Predator, oddly the last time we saw Predators clash. Which as we’ll see, is about to happen again.

0.29 – Sweep and Clear

A group of armed soldiers, with science fiction blue lights on their guns, clear a settlement. It’s a neat looking sequence too, reminds me of the building search in Minority Report.

0.33 – Murder Plants

I do love a good ‘Welcome to this strange new world! It HATES you!’ story. We also get a good look at our Predator, maskless and running through a field of black cacti-looking plants as they fire pink spores. What’s interesting is we see them maskless, for the most part, throughout the story and the humans we see are also without breathing gear. Is this a world where there’s some form of atmosphere both species can breathe? Or is this a different kind of Predator?

0.38 – Predator and Prey

Grey dreads, different build, heat knife and BADASS mask. The second Predator looks to be hunting and possibly maiming the Predator we’ve seen in previous shots. Also the choral music sounds a lot like it’s repeating the word ‘YAUTJA’ which is the name first given to the species in the comics.

0.50 – ‘You’re hunting something that can’t be killed.’

As we get full Pred on Pred swordfights, we get another shot of Fanning’s character covered in what seems to be purple blood. We know the Predators bleed fluorescent green and we know Synths, if she is one, bleed white so this is something new. But like the man says ‘if it bleeds, we can kill it’. Or not, if she’s to be believed. Also, again, there’s what looks a lot like a Weyland-Yutani logo on her shoulder.

0.55 – Hero Shot

As something enormous, fanged and pissed off leaps out of the fog, we get a look at our hero Predator. Or is that heroine? This is a very streamlined design, and a slighter form, than the gymnastic murder tanks of previous movies. I love the clean lines too! This looks like a Predator who means business, dreads tied back, freedom of movement around the arms. Interesting wreckage in the background too. Some of it looks very human and some of it looks distinctly Predator.

1.07 –  More Murder Plants!

Hurray! I love a nice bit of arboreal violence!

1.10 – Only In Theaters   

Prey was envisioned as a straight to streaming sequel. The fact we’re getting two Predator movies, one in cinemas, this year tells you how good it is.

 

Predator: Killer of Killers is released on 6th June via Hulu / Disney+

Predator: Badlands is released on 7th November

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