{"id":155928,"date":"2025-11-23T20:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T20:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/155928\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T20:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T20:16:08","slug":"badlands-a-better-more-fun-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/155928\/","title":{"rendered":"Badlands’ a Better, More Fun Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dek of the Yautja goes through a lot throughout\u00a0Predator: Badlands<\/a>,\u00a0all in the name of seeking validation from his father, Njohrr. This being Predator<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cvalidation\u201d actually means \u201ctrial by combat,\u201d and the showdown between father and son at the end was almost more restrained than what we got on screen.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

In the final cut of the film, Dek and Njohrr\u2019s fight on Yautja Prime has them really going at it. But as W\u0113t\u0101\u2019s two supervisors\u2014Sheldon Stopsack for VFX, and Karl Rapley for animation\u2014revealed to Polygon<\/a>, that clash was originally more akin to a samurai film. \u201cFather would turn invisible, and there\u2019d be a quick rush as they ran toward each other,\u201d explained Rapley. \u201cDek threw sand at Father, which revealed him, and then they crossed paths, like a samurai standoff, and they went to the opposite sides, and then Father\u2019s arm fell off. So it was just a very quick exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

After watching the film, director Dan Trachtenberg approached W\u0113t\u0101 about doing a \u201cbigger\u201d sequence that would make it feel \u201cmore of a moment.\u201d The\u00a0Predator: Badlands\u00a0stunt team came down to New Zealand and made a brand new fight sequence, so W\u0113t\u0101 had to digitally create Yautja Prime, including the clan guards Dek disposes of and the planet\u2019s geographical features. Using the original fight as a reference point, Rapley said the team used \u201csweeping camera moves\u201d for the new sequence and created a sandstorm from scratch.<\/p>\n

Stopsack felt the sandstorm served a \u201cnarrative point\u201d of Dek outsmarting his father, and the idea behind it was sound. It may have been a challenge, but he said the team was \u201cexcited\u201d to tackle it and considers it \u201cone of the more beautiful, fun aspects [of the film]. Dan told us, \u2018We don\u2019t want to show them clearly. It wants to be muddy and a bit more gritty.\u2019 I really admired that and resonated with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the longer fight, audiences get to see how Dek\u2019s come into his own as a hunter, and it hopefully gets them excited about where he goes next<\/a>. There\u2019s no word yet on if we\u2019re getting a sequel to Predator: Badlands, but at the very least, it feels like the young Yautja has endeared himself enough to hopefully pop up somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dek of the Yautja goes through a lot throughout\u00a0Predator: Badlands,\u00a0all in the name of seeking validation from his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[66242,93,61,60,270,46188,46189],"class_list":{"0":"post-155928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dan-trachtenberg","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-predator","14":"tag-predator-badlands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}