Predator: Badlands Ending Explained: How the Finale Sets Up the Franchise’s Biggest Hunt Yet

Predator is back on the big screen and, yeah, the new one goes hard. Predator: Badlands is built for spectacle first, feelings second... but the ending somehow pulls off both. If Prey made you miss the Yautja in theaters, this one is aiming to cash in on that energy and push the series back into mainstream mode. And its final stretch is a full-on statement about where this franchise wants to go next.

Huge spoilers ahead for Predator: Badlands

How Badlands ends (and why it hits)

We pick up with Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) barreling into a Weyland-Yutani camp and calmly taking apart the androids like it is leg day. Most of the movie, Dek has been tracking a hulking beast called the Kalisk, but he ends up partnering with one of its offspring, a little terror named Bud, so he can rescue a Weyland-Yutani android, Thia (Elle Fanning).

The obstacle: another company android, Tessa (also Elle Fanning), who is very not in rescue mode. Dek can hang with her in a fight, but the Kalisk literally swallows her. Inside the thing, Tessa jacks Dek's shoulder cannon and blows the Kalisk apart from the stomach. Dek manages to disarm her after the blast, and Bud finishes the job in the most Predator way possible: head and spine, gone.

Bud is now orphaned, and out of that mess Dek and Thia choose each other, forming their own little clan. To close out his hunt per Yautja tradition, Dek heads home. He drops Tessa's skull at the feet of his father, Njohrr, as the proof. Njohrr is unimpressed, calls him weak and unworthy of Kwei's sacrifice, and sics two Yautja under his command on him. Dek drops both fast.

Then it is father vs. son. Dek uses Yautja tech to pin Njohrr, but he does not land the kill himself. He lets a now much bigger, seriously bulked-up Bud chomp Njohrr's head clean off. Dek takes his father's cloak and returns to Thia and Bud. Thia asks what comes next, smash to the final title card. Clean, brutal, and surprisingly tender for a Predator movie.

So what does that set up?

Badlands centers the actual Yautja for once, which is a smart pivot. Dan Trachtenberg puts Dek at the heart of the story, and that gives the franchise flexibility it has not really had before. No single human star to anchor every sequel means the series can move, scale, and cross-pollinate more easily. Also, the found-family angle with Dek, Thia, and Bud gives the character a weight Predators usually do not get. It is a bit of a mythic protector vibe — an alpha who actually cares about his pack — and it works.

The last beat before credits is not subtle: Dek looks up to see his mother's ship inbound. That is either a family reunion, a reckoning, or the opening bell for a bigger conflict. Given where Trachtenberg seems to be steering this whole thing, I am betting the latter.

• Badlands is designed to reach beyond the core fans — big action first, feelings to close — and the box office should reflect that out of the gate.
• Dek now leads a clan with Thia and Bud, which instantly gives the series an ongoing character thread it can follow movie to movie.
• The approaching ship from Dek's mother teases a next-step escalation, possibly a larger Yautja power play or family war.
• Trachtenberg has another live-action Predator project, Killer of Killers, in the mix. That one already nodded to Prey by tipping the hat to Amber Midthunder's Naru, and later he said Killer of Killers was updated to include Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) and Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
• If Badlands feeds into Killer of Killers, expect something event-sized: Dek could be recruited to track down escaped warriors from that story, or end up facing off against the franchise's legacy heroes.
• There is room to pull in survivors from the Shane Black film and even Adrien Brody's character from Predators, which would lean into the idea that all the movies count.
• Either way, Dek is clearly locked in as a pillar for whatever comes next.

The bottom line

Predator: Badlands sticks the landing with an ending that is gnarly, oddly heartfelt, and very clearly a runway for more. If you wanted the Yautja back in theaters with a plan, this is the plan.

Predator: Badlands hits theaters November 7, 2025. 20th Century Studios is distributing.