Predator: Badlands (2025): Alien Hunts Dakota
You know that feeling when a franchise refuses to die and somehow keeps getting better? Yeah, neither did I until now. Elle Fanning hunting alien game in a dusty apocalypse sounds like studio desperation, but director Dan Trachtenberg has pulled off something genuinely unhinged here. The question is whether he sticks the landing, and honestly,
The setup is ruthless. Fanning plays a tracker in a world already half-dead, and Trachtenberg wastes zero time establishing the stakes. You get dusty vistas, desperate survivors, and that unmistakable clicking sound somewhere just off-screen. The atmosphere drips with dread. But here is the thing. For about forty minutes, this movie coasts on vibes alone. Beautiful, menacing vibes, sure, but vibes nonetheless. You start wondering if anyone remembered to pack a second act. Short answer: they did. Long answer: it arrives wearing a face you absolutely did not expect.
What Is It About
The premise sells you a simple hunt. Fanning's tracker guides wealthy clients through irradiated wastelands, dodging mutants and raiders. Standard survival fare. Then a Predator ship crashes, and suddenly everyone becomes prey. Fine, you expected that. What you did not expect is the second Predator. These two are not working together. They are at war with each other, and Fanning's crew stumbles directly into their ancient grudge match. Why they are fighting matters enormously, and the movie knows exactly when to tell you.
Plot Holes and Things That Make No Sense
Okay so the Predators have thermal vision that tracks humans through sandstorms but somehow Fanning hides behind a sheet of corrugated metal for ten minutes and they just forget she exists. The rival clans have been warring for centuries according to the lore dump yet they both crash land within walking distance of the same settlement on the same day. Convenient. Also Fanning's brother gets impaled through the shoulder in act one and by act three he is swinging a machete like nothing happened. No field surgery, no explanation, just vibes and adrenaline apparently. The movie wants you moving too fast to notice but come on. That shoulder had a hole in it the size of a grapefruit.
The Good, The Bad, The Honest
Trachtenberg understands space and silence better than any action director working today. The canyon ambush sequence uses negative space like a weapon, letting you hear every pebble shift before the carnage erupts. Fanning disappears into this role completely, all coiled tension and zero vanity. However. The script gives her supporting cast nothing to do except die on schedule. You learn names moments before bodies drop. The emotional beats land with a thud because you cannot mourn strangers. The villain Predator gets more personality than any human sidekick. That is a problem. A fixable one, but nobody fixed it.
Cast and Direction
Fanning acts circles around material that occasionally forgets she exists. Her physicality here rivals anything in the franchise, full stop. Trachtenberg directs like he resents studio notes, which tracks. The man turns budget constraints into aesthetic choices. One criticism: he lets the third act run five minutes too long, and you feel every second.
How It Ends
Fanning kills the hostile Predator by exploiting the rival clan's code. She offers herself as bait, letting the second Predator track her heat signature to its enemy's position. Both creatures fight. She detonates a buried fuel cache when they clash, incinerating the aggressor. The surviving Predator honors the kill by leaving her alive and departing. Final shot: Fanning walking alone into the wasteland, her brother dead, her crew gone, carrying a Predator blade as a trophy. The honor code gets established early through cave paintings, so the ending plays fair. Earned, mostly. Though her brother dying offscreen feels like a rushed rewrite to juice the tragedy.
The Verdict
The single best thing this movie does is make you root for a Predator without ever letting it speak a word. Trachtenberg delivers a leaner, meaner franchise entry that respects your intelligence while melting faces. Skip it and you miss Elle Fanning becoming a genuine action star, plus the most creative use of thermal camouflage since the original. Your loss, honestly. The wasteland will be there when you change your mind.
Is Predator: Badlands (2025) worth watching?
Yes
Predator: Badlands (2025) scores 8.3 out of 10 on SpoilSins, and the one-line verdict is "Yes". Above the SpoilSins median of 7.5, and higher than 76% of the 120 films scored here.
8.3/10 the SpoilSins score
- Released
- 2025
- Genre
- Action-Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Reviewed by
- Broikos Nikos,
- Scale
- Out of 10, and what that means, against every score on SpoilSins
