Predator: Badlands May Have Just Answered a 15 Year Old Franchise Question

Predator: Badlands is the first film in the Predator franchise to be told from the perspective of the alien hunter species, the Yautja. And, in doing so, the film manages to build out a lot of franchise lore about the Predator race in small brushstrokes of characterization, backstory, or details of the alien environments that are showcased in the film.

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Case in point: viewers who go to see Badlands – even longtime fans of the Predator franchise – may not spot an Easter egg detail that could actually explain a mystery that goes back 15 years. Namely: what’s up with the Yautja caste system?

Remember Predators’ Tracker?

Nikolai vs. Tracker in “Predators” / 20th Century Studios

The Tracker Predator was one of three Yautja class variants that appeared in the 2010 film, Predators. The premise of that film’s story saw a collection of experienced mercenaries, gangsters, special ops soldiers, and other forms of killers all get snatched from Earth and dumped on a Yautja game preserve planet, to be hunted. The three Predators who showed up for that hunt were “Tracker” (with elephant-style tusks attached to his helmet and a pack of alien “dogs”), “Falconer” (with his robot bird-drone companion), and “Berserker” (a swole Yautja final boss-type who was clearly from a higher-ranking clan).

“Tracker” settled his longstanding vendetta by finally finding and killing Laurence Fishburne’s half-crazed vet survivor, Noland. However, payback was swift, as Russian Spetnaz soldier Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) blew himself up to take out Tracker during their brutal duel.

Predator: Badlands Brings Back the Tracker Predator(s)

20th Century Studios

Predators was such a swerve in lore that it ultimately left fans with many deeper questions. One of the biggest requests was more information about the obvious implications of different races and classes that exist within the Yautja species. Before Predators, that kind of lore had been reserved for Predator tie-in novels and comics; now it was established on the big screen. Shane Black’s The Predator (2018) only deepened the hole by making a sort of internal war between classes of Predators (natural and enhanced hybrids), the core twist in its story.

Predator: Badlands doesn’t try to directly address every piece of Yautja culture from top to bottom, but there is one distinct implication, with the reappearance of the Tracker. The story of Badlands follows “Dek” (Dimitirus Schuster-Koloamatangi), a small, malformed Yautja deemed a “runt” of the clan. His father Njohrr (also Koloamatangi) is the clan chief, and decrees that Dek must die for the clan’s genetic potential to remain high; Dek’s older brother Kwei (Mike Homik) disagrees, and sacrifices his life to get Dek off-world and onto a hunt on the deadly planet “Genna” to kill the dreaded “Kalisk” bast and earn the clan’s respect.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Dek eventually makes his way back home to Yautja Prime and to the doorstep of his father’s house, looking for a revenge duel. When Njohrr finally emerges from his door, he doesn’t give his son the immediate respect of his attention: he comes out flanked by Tracker Predators as his personal guards. Dek has to dispatch both Trackers (which, at this point, he does with frightening ease) before finally facing his dad in the final fight.

Tracker Predators Are A Sub-Class of Yautja

“Predators” / 20th Century Studios

Unless you’re a die-hard Predator fan, you may not realize that Yautja culture has many strict mandates about clans and classes. “Tracker” is a title that “Youngblood” from the bigger “Super Predator” species can hold. In fact, Predators was essentially a hunting party made of an elder Super Predator (Berserker) taking two younger, greener Super Predators (a Tracker and Falconer) on a hunt.

Badlands makes it clear that these rankings and the methods of jumping up through them are staunch fixtures of Yautja culture. It’s lore that only makes Dek’s journey that much more interesting and epic.