Predator: Badlands Mirrors An Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie (And Not The One You're Thinking About)

This article contains spoilers for "Predator: Badlands."

One of the tricks with a sequel, if not with a new genre movie of any type, is to make something that feels simultaneously unique and familiar. The sweet spot most filmmakers want to hit is right between the excitement of something original and the comfort of something well-known. This is a bullseye that's frequently hard to nail, of course, but some filmmakers and movies do it with a graceful ease. That's the case with Dan Trachtenberg and this week's "Predator: Badlands," which sees the "Predator" franchise return to movie theaters with a rollicking sci-fi adventure yarn. As with pretty much every sequel in a long-running franchise, the specter of the original film looms over the newest entry, both as a high-water mark to try and top and a milestone worth paying deference to.

Yet while "Badlands" cleverly riffs on 1987's "Predator," there's another blockbuster sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that it closely (and intentionally) resembles. That film is 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," which is itself a landmark film in the way it approaches the possibilities of the sequel. During his tenure on the "Predator" franchise (which began with "Prey" and continued through "Predator: Killer of Killers"), Trachtenberg has applied his savvy with video game logic and penchant for experimenting with premise and structure. "Badlands" feels like a culmination of this, and in doing so, it mirrors both "Predator" and "T2," with the former being an inversion and the latter being a reflection.

When James Cameron was conceiving "T2," he realized that he could surprise the audience, raise the stakes, and play into Schwarzenegger's leading man status by flipping the script on the premise of "The Terminator." Schwarzenegger's T-800 became the good guy from the future attempting to protect the Connor family, and another, more advanced Terminator could become the film's new ruthless antagonist. Trachtenberg realized that no movie in the 7-film "Predator" franchise (9 if you count the "AvP" duology) had featured a Predator as the protagonist. Thus, the story of Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), an outcast Yautja attempting to prove himself and break away from his toxic family, was born.

It wasn't merely Cameron's switcharoo that Trachtenberg was interested in emulating with "Badlands." As the director explained to IGN, he believed he could expand the audience for a "Predator" film in the same way that "T2" did for him and his family:

"I remember as a kid seeing it and then quickly after it being like, mom, you got to see 'T2'. I never thought after I saw 'Terminator' to be like, mom, you got to see 'Terminator.' But 'T2,' because it actually was thematically oriented and had some heart and was about legacy and parents and children, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, it made someone like my mom appreciate an action movie and allow it to be a great movie. 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' was like a movie my mom could watch. So that was a part of it for me, is like how to make something that was bold and visceral but also emotional."

In this regard, Trachtenberg is remarkably successful. "Badlands" proves that a "Predator" film can go to new places while staying true to the series.

Although "Badlands" is almost wholly unlike any prior "Predator" movie in terms of its tone and perspective, its structure also pays implicit homage to "T2" in the way it inverts the structure of the original "Predator." In the 1987 film, an elite paramilitary rescue team (led by Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer) is sent to a remote jungle in Central America to ostensibly rescue a cabinet minister, only to find out that they were being used by the CIA to foil a Soviet-sponsored operation and discover what happened to a missing squad of Green Berets. It turns out that the soldiers were being hunted by a Yautja, who then targets Dutch's team and takes them out, one by one, until only Dutch is left. Dutch is ultimately victorious, but his victory is hollow given the loss of his comrades.

In "Badlands," Dek starts out as a lone wolf, a Yautja who believes himself to be of worth but whose father, Njohrr (also Schuster-Koloamatangi), wants to cut his losses and kill the runt regardless. Escaping to the deadly planet of Genna, Dek encounters numerous flora and fauna who similarly attempt to kill him, but one by one, he begins to build up a team of his own, starting with the Weyland-Yutani synthetic, Thia (Elle Fanning), and continuing with the Kalisk child, Bud (Rohinal Nayaran). In this way, Trachtenberg and co-writer Patrick Aison flip the structure of "Predator" on its head while retaining several of its core themes, underlining the value of camaraderie and respect while criticizing unchecked machismo. Thanks to all of this, "Predator: Badlands" manages to hit that sequel sweet spot, providing a wholly unique experience that feels utterly recognizable.

"Predator: Badlands" is now playing in theaters everywhere.