This article contains spoilers for “Predator: Badlands.”
Most genre films feature a relationship between their protagonists that’s of a romantic or sexual nature. This harkens back to the days of classic Hollywood, when moguls and producers assumed that audiences were voracious for love stories, and screenwriters used such arrangements to provide easy shorthand for emotional stakes. While this trope is still active today, not every genre film has partaken in it. Two major exceptions are the “Alien” and “Predator” franchises, in which none of the movies have centered around a traditional love story. Sure, there have been hints and subtexts in the series before, and there have been characters in pre-established committed relationships (as seen in “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant”), but both series tend to focus on familial connections instead.
Ever since 20th Century Studios was bought by Disney and brought both franchises into their fold, there’s been a noticeably increased focus on sibling drama in the “Alien” and “Predator” franchises. This may just be coincidental, given that prior films in each series have examined family ties of a literal and “found family” nature. Yet the past several entries — “Prey,” “Alien: Romulus,” “Predator: Killer of Killers,” “Alien: Earth,” and now “Predator: Badlands” — have each featured a sibling duo at their center. These duos largely serve the stories with similar emotional stakes as the traditional love story does, albeit without the romantic or sexual implications, of course. This means that either one sibling is in mortal jeopardy while the other attempts to save them, or there’s a bitter rivalry between the siblings that threatens everything. Whether a coincidence or not, this trend is even more intriguing, knowing that the two franchises share the same universe, as “Badlands” uses it to make itself into a new kind of crossover film.
The siblings of the new ‘Predator’ and ‘Alien’ films
Both the original “Alien” and “Predator” films emphasized the interrelationships of their characters as a (somewhat) cohesive unit. This is to make the titular creatures seem that much more deadly and formidable when they kill each of these groups one by one, proving that there is little strength in numbers. From there, both series either emphasized the protagonists building their own newfound families (Ripley, Newt, and Hicks in “Aliens”) or using pre-established family ties as a source of strength (Quinn McKenna and his son Rory in “The Predator”).
The sibling theme in the “Alien” films now tends to be conflated with the notion of robot versus human. Director Ridley Scott presented two synthetics played by Michael Fassbender in “Alien: Covenant” as characters who came to regard one another as siblings after a fashion. This led to Andy (David Jonsson) and Rain (Cailee Spaeny) in “Alien: Romulus” struggling between their adopted sibling relationship and Andy’s near-takeover by the false sibling of Rook (Daniel Betts/Ian Holm), another Weyland-Yutani synth. Noah Hawley’s “Alien: Earth” concerns the human-turned-synth Wendy (Sydney Chandler) struggling between her blood relation to her human brother, Joe (Alex Lawther), and her new relationship to her synth siblings.
Where the “Alien” movies focus on questions of identity, the “Predator” films, based in conflict as they are, look at rivalry. In “Prey,” Naru (Amber Midthunder) is jockeying for position against her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers), despite the respect and affection the two share. In “Killer of Killers,” Kenji and Kiyoshi (Louis Ozawa Changchien) learn too late that their lifelong rivalry for their father’s favor has blinded them to a Predator in their midst. Though there are other relationships, it’s these sibling ties that stand out the most.
The siblings in ‘Badlands’ prove that it is both a ‘Predator’ and an ‘Alien’ film
“Badlands” brings these two threads together in an especially clever fashion. First, there’s the relationship between Yautja brothers Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Kwei (Mike Homik), which is both one of rivalry and respect, similar to Naru and Taabe. When their father, Njohrr (also Schuster-Koloamatangi), demands that Kwei kill Dek due to the latter’s supposed untenable weakness, Kwei sacrifices himself and sends Dek to Genna on his ship to try to hunt a trophy for their clan. On Genna, Dek meets and eventually befriends Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani synthetic who is continually trying to impress her “sister,” Tessa (also Fanning) and their “mother,” well, MU/TH/UR, the Company’s artificial intelligence (established way back in the original “Alien,” though perhaps this version isn’t the same one).
So much of director Dan Trachtenberg’s tenure on “Predator” so far is about subversion, and these relationships are no exception. Where Dek and Kwei initially appear to be enemies, their respect turns out to run deep. Where Thia and Tessa initially appear to have genuine affection for one another, that feeling ends up being one-sided. In the end, “Badlands” is a movie about found family, with Dek, Thia, and Bud (Rohinal Nayaran) forming a new clan. Instead of Bud’s mother, Dek takes Tessa as a trophy, closing the toxic sibling relationship between her and Thia for good. “Badlands” weaves these relationships together, making the film into a crossover movie in a thematic sense, not a literal one. No Xenomorph turns up in the movie, nor do any characters from the “Alien” films (MU/TH/UR notwithstanding).
Instead, “Badlands” proves that a crossover movie within a cinematic universe needn’t be IP slop, but can instead enhance both franchises in a whole new way.
