Chosen Family

I love that director, Dan Trachtenberg, has basically become “the James Gunn” of the Predator franchise. His 3 films: Prey, Killer of Killers, and Badlands are so good — that I’m curious to see what else he can do? Honestly, if he decides to make nothing but Predator films for the rest of his career, I’d be totally okay with it.

I’m in my late-forties, so my adolescence was firmly rooted in the 80s. I grew up idolizing characters like Stallone’s Rambo and Schwarzenegger’s “Dutch” from the original Predator. I was only ten when the first film released in June 1987, so I had to wait for the VHS release in January 1988 to finally see it.

My Mom and Dad would always watch (and vet) any R-rated films before my brothers and I were allowed to watch them. Most of the time, the answer was a hard ‘no.’ But sometimes, my Dad thought a movie was so genuinely badass, his boys had to see it. I remember they watched Predator on a Friday night, then gave us the all-clear for Saturday.

What stood out to my 10 year-old self was the absolute grittiness of Predator. It was horror, Sci Fi, and a modern war-film all rolled into one. Of course, I would later see Aliens, which completely eclipsed any action film I’d seen up to that point—maybe ever. It’s the crowned King (or really, Queen) of 80s action cinema.

No wonder the two franchises were merged (unsuccessfully) in the early 2000’s.

But! Dan Trachtenberg has begun the re-mergence of Predator and Aliens. The character Thia is revealed to be a Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic. If you want more details on that plot thread, you definitely need to check out the excellent Alien Earth series.

I’ve been a huge fan of composer Sarah Schachner ever since her fantastic score for Prey, and I was pumped to see she’s back for Predator: Badlands. If I had to pick one deeply sentimental theme, it would be the motif “Chosen Family” which feels like a callback to Prey, especially with the Colonial-sounding string section.

It worked out easily as a fingerstyle guitar arrangement.

You might also like to play…

Prey: Naru’s Way | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

Alien Earth: Wendy | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

How to play Chosen Family | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this arrangement is beautifully written across 2 pages. I recommend this piece for beginner guitar players and up — as the chord shapes are really easy to play. Enjoy! The guitar tab is available below:

You’ll play the entire guitar tab straight through, taking care to repeat the chorus section 2x. I play the whole passage (both pages) 2x.

[guitar tab] **Predator: Badlands – Chosen Family | fingerstyle guitar 

This piece is played one whole-step down. Your tuning is as follows from low to high: D G C F A D.