Spoiler alert! We’re discussing important plot points and the ending of “Predator: Badlands” (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
We’ve seen plenty of killer dude Predators in movies over the years. So what’s a mommy Predator going to be like?
Franchise fans are bound to get a taste sooner rather than later if an intriguing cliffhanger tease pays off from the new movie “Predator: Badlands.”
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, “Badlands” centers on a young outcast Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi). Undersized but scrappy, Dek wants to prove himself to his tribe on the Predator home world of Yautja, especially after his father Njohrr wanted Dek’s older brother Kwei to execute him. (The sibling saves Dek and then is killed by their dad.)
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Synthetic android Thia (Elle Fanning, left) and Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) help each other on their quests in “Predator: Badlands.”
Dek escapes and ventures to the planet Genna – where all manner of plant and animal want to murder you – to hunt the Kalisk, a giant apex predator that no one’s ever been able to kill. He meets and strikes a bargain with the android Thia (Elle Fanning): If he helps her get some new legs, she’ll assist in finding the Kalisk.
Things get hairy from there for both of them. Let’s talk the biggest “Badlands” spoilers, from that vengeful ending to an unexpected maternal appearance.
What happens in the ending of ‘Predator: Badlands’?
Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) tussles with the giant apex predator, the Kalisk, in “Predator: Badlands.”
Dek and Thia befriend a strange froggy creature they name Bud, who turns out to be a baby Kalisk. They also make an enemy: Thia’s synthetic “sister” Tessa (also Fanning), whose mission is to bring the adult Kalisk back to Earth. Tessa is eaten by the Kalisk but lives, and kills the Kalisk. And when Tessa threatens Thia, Bud takes the enemy android out.
The new pals return to Yautja, bringing Tessa’s metal skull. Njohrr refuses to acknowledge Dek’s victory, so the youngster disarms and traps him in a laser force field, takes a invisibility cloak from his dad, and Bud (who’s grown a LOT during the trip) kills the elder Predator. The movie ends with our heroes standing tall as other Predators enter the picture.
Is there a post-credits scene in ‘Predator: Badlands’?
Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) faces an unexpected presence at the end of “Predator: Badlands”: his mom.
Kind of! That final moment happens, the movie’s title appears on screen, but instead of credits rolling, immediately we go back to Yautja, where Dek and Thia watch as a large ship arrives in the distance. “Friends of yours?” Thia asks. “It’s my mother,” Dek responds.
Even though we don’t get to actually see Mom, that scene is “a lovely allusion to more heightened crazy emotional stakes, more heightened crazy physical stakes, and also a thing that we have not seen in the franchise,” Trachtenberg says about a female Predator.
So what is one like? “What I’ve thought about is just that I don’t want it to merely be like the kinds of drawings that we’ve seen in fan art and stuff,” the director says, “but really put thought into it and make sure that it’s unexpected and super-badass.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Predator: Badlands’ ending sets up a franchise first (spoilers!)
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