Then Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands This is a Predator movie like no other, and not just because it broke franchise box office records: This time the main character is the Predator (or Yautja as they call themselves). Referred to as the “runt” of his Yautja clan, Deku (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) must prove himself to his formidable father (Reuben De Jong) to claim his name and his place on his home world, Yautja Prime. This quest involves traveling to another planet, battling a menacing monster, and allying with the synthetic human Tia (Elle Fanning). This also involves a confrontation with his father at the end of the film.
This final episode turns into a lengthy battle that required extensive digital development from Wētā workshop in New Zealand. But Wētā visual effects supervisor Sheldon Stopsak and animation supervisor Carl Rapley tell Polygon that the script was originally intended to be much shorter and simpler—and that its creation was a major challenge that involved reshoots and the creation of an entire digital world.
[Ed. note: Broad ending spoilers ahead for Predator: Badlands.]
“The part where Dek returns to Yautja Prime and fights his father was originally very short and abrupt,” says Rapley. “After watching the film, Dan came back to us and said, ‘I think we’re going to make this even bigger. I think that should be a more important point.” And a whole stunt team came here. [to New Zealand]and we went into the mocap stage and developed a whole new long fight scene.”
The new ending presented significant challenges as no physical sets had been built for Yautja Prime.
“It was a completely created world,” Rapley says. “They originally did a short shoot that had some grounded elements that we referenced. [on the revised sequence]we did sweeping camera movements and motion capture lighting for the action.”
For Veta, expanding the sequence meant creating more Yautja Prime in digital format, from clan guards to buildings and geographic features. This also meant digitally animating an entire sandstorm that rolls in while Dec and Father fight.
“Initially there was no sandstorm there,” Stopsak says. “It was an addition as the episode progressed. And it obviously had a narrative point, a goal: Dec outsmarting the Father. So you can understand the motive and the creative idea, but when you get that idea, you think: My God, how are we going to do this now? We did not hesitate to take on these tasks. We were delighted with this. I thought it was a brilliant idea from a storytelling perspective.”
Part of the finale takes place in a sandstorm, and there was also the technical challenge of making the characters “visually compromised,” as Stopsak put it. The audience couldn't see them well, but their actions still had to be clear and legible.
“In my opinion, that turned out to be one of the most beautiful and fun aspects,” Stopsak says. “What I liked about Dan's approach to many things was […] “We don't want to show them clearly. You don't want to have such a clear and clear view of your father and Dec. He wants to be dirty, he wants to be a little grittier.” This reflects the creativity and design language that Dan chose. I really admired that and resonated with it.”
Rapley says the original, shorter version BadlandsThe ending was more like a classic clash between samurai and cinema. “It was more like Dec arriving on the planet. He and Father were pretty close to each other. It's basically the same idea, but very condensed. Father would become invisible and they would run towards each other. But Dec would throw sand at Father, which would reveal him, and then they would cross paths, like a samurai confrontation, and they would go in opposite directions, and then Father's hand would fall off. So it was just a very quick exchange.”
“What Dan intended to do by allowing us to grow up more was to develop our respect for Dec, reflecting that Dec had matured. Now Dec was ready to truly defeat his father,” Stopsak adds. “Obviously there were two guards coming into play who weren't there to begin with. So that gave the whole thing a much more solid foundation and you could relate to Deku in a very different way.”
Predator: Badlands is now playing in cinemas.
