Predator: Badlands connects to the Alien movies in one major way

A new Predator movie is in cinemas now, and Badlands connects to the Alien franchise in a pretty extensive way.

The Alien and Predator movies have been interlinked ever since Dark Horse Comics launched the Alien vs Predator series in 1989.

The two properties are both owned by Fox, meaning Predator 2 was able to feature an inside joke in 1990, when an Alien skull could be spotted on a Predator ship.

That paved the way for a pair of forgettable Alien vs Predator movies, but thanks to some Alien action in Predator: Badlands, we might get a good version of that concept in the near future. Though as we’re explaining exactly how and why below, beware of SPOILERS ahead…

Alien corporation Weyland-Yutani features in Predator: Badlands

Weyland-Yutani is the shady tech corporation at the heart of the Alien movies, with the company’s nefarious plans largely responsible all that Xenomorph death and destruction.

The Predator: Badlands trailers and stills have indicated that Weyland-Yutani features in the new film, with the company name and logo appearing on clothes, spaceships, and computer screens.

While in the movie itself, there are lines about “the company” not being pleased, and questions as to why W-T gave certain synthetic characters “feelings.”

Writer-director Dan Trachtenberg says that idea came to him during the writing process, in a featurette titled ‘Weyland-Yutani’ returns.

“Following the movie Prey, I was thinking about what I would do next,” Trachtenberg explains, while wearing a Weyland-Yutani cap on the movie’s set. “I wanted to make, truly, an adventure movie about a monster and a robot.

“And then it was like ‘oh, I know some people that make robots’ – the Weyland-Yutani corporation, from the Alien franchise, that has linkage to the Predator franchise.”

New Predator movie features “different kinds of synthetic units”

20th Century Studios

The Weyland-Yutani logo also appears on the eyeballs – yes eyeballs – of Thia, the character played by Elle Fanning, whom the below image indicates is part of the ‘Weyland-Yutani Bio-Weapons Division.’

In the same featurette, Fanning explains that: “Thia is a Weyland-Yutani synth. Her model knows [the planet] Genna very, very well. She’s been looking at how this planet works, and she has a lot of information that [Predator] Dek can use from that.”

While Trachtenberg reveals that Thia isn’t the only synth in play, explaining that: “What’s interesting in Badlands is you’re seeing different kinds of synthetic units.

“Usually the synthetic unit is something that’s meant to blend in with the human crew. But now we find a battalion of synths. These drone hunters that are made to kill.”

20th Century Studios

Another connection between the Alien movies and Predator: Badlands was glimpsed in early footage released online.

To the left of the below image, you can see the words “Hello MU/TH/UR.” on a screen, which is a term that’s regularly used in the Alien movies.

MU/TH/UR – more commonly referred to as “Mother” – is the AI system aboard Weyland-Yutani spacecrafts, dating all the way back to the USCSS Nostromo in the 1979 Alien movie.

20th Century Studios

Mother pilots vessels while the crew is in hypersleep, and wakes them from that slumber early should issues arise, which is how all the trouble starts in the original Alien.

While in Badlands, there’s one additional rather awesome callback, which is when Thia uses a machine towards the end of the movie, that bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconic Power Loader that Ripley operates in Aliens.

Predator: Badlands is in cinemas now, while you can head here to find out how the Alien Earth characters would react to meeting a Predator, or here for how Predator: Badlands might prove a Prey and Alien theory right.