LINK: predator: badlands (best viewed by clicking the link)
I’ve watched many of the predator films, probably about five of them and I didn’t realize how much they morphed.
My fav Predator movie was Prey and the original movie. In Prey, it’s about a young Comanche woman named, Naru, trying to save her tribe against the Predator. They had an extensive Native American cast and it was fully dubbed in Comanche as well. And the OG Predator, that’s a classic. Nuff said.
SPOILER ALERT:
The Predator aka Dek, is the protagonist in this film, instead of the looming threat in the shadows. Dek is a young and smaller Yautja fighting for his cloak and dignity within the predator culture. He dreams of being the first to hunt the fearsome and elusive Kalisk, the apex predator from another planet. His father, who views Dek as weak, orders his older brother Kwei, to kill him because of his perceived weakness. Kwei defies his father’s orders and launches Dek to Genna for a chance at survival, who then is executed by their father for disobeying him.
When he lands, he quickly realizes that the planet is a violent ecosystem and while fighting for his life, he meets his unexpected lifeline, Thia, a damaged android whose scientific team was unalived by the Kalisk. They strike an interesting partnership: she will help him find the Kalisk if he helps her reunite with her sister, Tessa, whom she believes is alive.
Along the way, the two of them adopt an odd looking creature they’ve nicknamed, Bud. Bud has marked Dek as part of her pack and acceptance.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Thia’s sister, Tessa, reawakens to discover Dek’s crashed ship and begins her search for Thia.
As Thia recovers her legs and contacts Weyland-Yutani, she reveals to Dek that her team’s objective was to capture the Kalisk and not kill it. Dek feels betrayed by this information and sets out to lure the Kalisk and severs its head… only for the creature to regenerate and defeat him. Oddly enough, it spares him.
When Weyland-Yutani arrives, they gather both Dekand the Kalisk, and subjects them to experimentation. Tessa, who sees emotion as a malfunction prepares to deactivate Thia for showing empathy. Thia saves Dek by tricking a guard into activating a grenade.
Dek realizes the truth: Bud is the Kalisk’s offspring. The Kalisk hasn’t been sparing him out of mercy but out of instinct. Determined to save Bud’s parent, Dek creates an organic armor and weapons from Genna’s environment and stages a full-scale assault on the base with Bud, not only to rescue the Kalisk but also Thia.
Later Dek returns home to Yautja Prime with Thia and an older Bud. He brings Tessa’s skull as proof of victory and demands his father to give him the cloaking device that he was denied before. Njohrr, his father, refuses. Dek unalives his father’s guards and defeats him in ritual combat, only to find his father begging for mercy. Dek rejects his father’s cowardice ways and states that Thia and Bud are his clan now.
As the film is ending, a massive ship arrives. The three of them and the remaining clansmen brace for a final confrontation. Dek reveals to Thia that the ship belongs to his mother…
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