You already know that a story takes a thousand turns from how it was originally conceived to how it ends up at the end of the entire work. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first manuscript of a novel or a Hollywood blockbuster like Predator: Badlands.
The film with which Dan Trachtenberg returned the saga Predator to cinemas after seven years of absence tells the story of Deck (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a yautja rejected by his own clan, led by Njohrrhis father, being considered very weak.
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Determined to prove them wrong and win his cloaking device, Dek travels to Gennaa ruthless planet where everything, from vegetation to fauna, tries to kill anyone who comes near. It is also home to one of the prey that has escaped Yautja hunting since time immemorial.
From now on we will talk about spoilers for the end of Predator: Badlands. If you haven’t seen the film yet, you’ll probably want to go back when you have and continue reading.
This was the original ending of Predator: Badlands
At the end of the film, with the peculiar “flock“which forms Dek with Thia (Elle Fanning) and her other companion (wink, wink), the discarded yautja return home to claim what’s hers. But Dek isn’t satisfied and challenges his father to a duel after taking care of two bodyguards.
During the duel, Dek uses his ship’s thrusters to raise a sandstorm that reveals his father’s camouflage, allowing him to attack him and prevail in the fight. Broadly speaking, the original premise was the same, but with notable changes.
In statements to Screen speechvisual effects supervisor at Weta, Sheldon’s Bagand Carlos Rapleyanimation chief Predator: Badlandspoint out what the original ending of the film was like:
“Dek arrives, his dad is there, there’s a quick exchange of blows, and Dek basically throws some sand off the ground, revealing his dad’s camouflage. So they just walk past each other, his dad turns around and his arm falls off. And it was great!“
However, for that scene, defined as “brief duel between samurai“, something was missing, and the test audience also expressed it this way. Therefore, Dan Trachtenberg worked with the team to add more layers of epicness to the fight sequence.
It can be said that the idea was successful, as the public is quite satisfied with the final result of the project. Predator: Badlandswhich became the highest-grossing film in the franchise, and the crossover is just a few steps away Alien vs. predator.