'Predator: Badlands' looks like it's taking inspiration from an unlikely ancestor — a terrible 20-year-old video game

There were some dark times, but the Predator movie franchise's health has been almost fully restored in recent years with Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. Now, we're eagerly awaiting Predator: Badlands' arrival later this year. Dan Trachtenberg's third entry in the long-running sci-fi series is taking us to a faraway future — with trailers already revealing that it shares elements with the Alien movies — but we've also noticed more than a few similarities to the old (and forgotten) video game, Predator: Concrete Jungle.

While 'solo' Predator and Alien flicks were having some downtime in the 2000s, both franchises were kept alive with comic books, video games, and the two divisive Alien vs. Predator movies. The extended universe that surrounded the series grew much larger, and we got excellent games like Rebellion and Monolith's Aliens vs. Predator first-person shooters. Hot on the heels of those two and the first AvP movie, developer Eurocom got the chance to make a standalone Predator title targeting the 'ultimate alien hunter' power fantasy.

Though it never escaped PS2 and Xbox following bad reviews, Predator: Concrete Jungle gained a cult following, as no other Predator game had offered that gory action-adventure single-player experience that fans craved. It told an ambitious — and often silly — story full of twists and turns that made even Dark Horse's loopiest comics seem predictable.

With Badlands just around the corner, we revisited this overlooked 2005 game release and found more than one or two common points that suggest Trachtenberg has been digging deep into the franchise's history for his grand ideas.

Yautja outcasts

The most obvious connection is found in Badlands' Yautja protagonist, Dek. He's described as a young hunter who is an outcast after he fails his clan in some way. Now he's on a quest to regain his honor by hunting "the ultimate adversary" on a remote and ruthless planet. We've yet to learn more about the actual plot once the adventure gets going, but the setup alone instantly evokes Concrete Jungle's.

In Eurocom's game, a Predator nicknamed 'Scarface' is badly wounded by the mob in the year 1930 in New Way City. As a last resort, he sets off the self-destruct device we first saw in the original movie. While much of the city and his ship are destroyed, he fails to kill himself and protect Predator technology from reaching human hands, which leads to his clan exiling him to a desolate planet where insect-like creatures are at the top of the food chain.

There are some differences between the two stories, most notably in the time period they're set in. Concrete Jungle's story picks Scarface back up 100 years after the prologue — around 2030 — while Badlands is set much further into the future (we don't know the exact year, but humanity has space travel, synthetics, and terraforming courtesy of Alien's Weyland-Yutani).

Ultimately, Concrete Jungle is a story of redemption and humans messing with forces they don't understand. It echoes Prometheus and the "secret fire from the Gods" themes, beating the first of Ridley Scott's Alien prequels to the punch by over half a decade.

Predator: Badlands' Yautja lead is more of a rookie who will also have an unexpected synth ally, but we could see similar character arc and story beats throughout the film. Let's just hope the movie's 'final boss' will be more convincing than a human-Predator hybrid (yes, really).

The Alien connections

We know that the Weyland-Yutani corporation is present in Predator Badlands, marking the first step towards an inevitable Alien vs Predator crossover, but Concrete Jungle was out there name-dropping the Weyland Corp 20 years ago. At first glance, the game looks like an homage to Predator 2 with a cyberpunk twist, but things escalate quickly with a surprising tie-in to the previous year's Alien vs Predator movie.

The Xenomorphs appear as late-game foes in Concrete Jungle without much explanation as to their presence on Earth, but writer Grant Morrison (yes, comic book legend Grant Morrison) slips in a quick reference to Charles Bishop Weyland and his disappearance that heavily implies we're in the same universe as the movie. Perhaps Borgia Industries — the ruling corporation in Neonopolis following the 1930 disaster — picked up the Alien queen from the Antarctic waters?

The surprises keep coming in the closing moments, when a second Weyland appears and mentions the Yutani Corporation — we're pre-merger at this point, something Alien: Earth will also touch upon.

But perhaps the wildest reveal is that Isabella Borgia — a character from the prologue — shows up 100 years later, having apparently gained immortality after being covered in Predator blood. After Dex takes her down, Weyland recovers her brain and jams it into a supercomputer. A supercomputer called MOTHER.

Predator: Concrete Jungle ended up being a stealth Alien prequel in many ways. The movie Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem would try a similar move with its cliffhanger ending and recovered Predator tech roughly two years later, but neither is, at least right now, considered canon. Despite that, Predator: Badlands is clearly establishing solid links between the two franchises, and rumors are floating around that a Predator will show up in the Alien Romulus sequel.

Whatever ends up happening in Predator: Badlands, it's clear that the 'powers that be' over at 20th Century Studios have been digging deep for inspiration, scouring the rich canvas painted by not only the Predator movies, but also comic books and video games over the years This might be the (conceptual) key to success filmmakers had been searching for, and we're delighted to see Trachtenberg and his peers leaning on often ignored works to boldly expand the series' cinematic possibilities.

Predator: Concrete Jungle is available to play on PS2 and Xbox if you're lucky enough to find a copy second-hand. Predator: Badlands will release in theaters on November 7, 2025. You can watch the rest of the franchise on Hulu (US) or Disney+ (UK).