Summary

• The Borderlands movie will feature the iconic planet of Pandora, known for its blend of Mad Max-style wastelands and fantastical landscapes.
• Pandora's vastness and unique characters, such as skags and rakks, provide depth crucial to faithfully representing the popular video game franchise.
• With a focus on treasure hunting and Eridian lore, the movie's use of familiar Pandora settings and characters ensures a strong connection to the source material.

The Borderlands movie release date creeping ever closer, further glimpses of the action taking place on the iconic and fun planet have been revealed.

There are many exciting things audiences can expect from Borderlands, but perhaps one of the biggest things to look forward to is seeing Pandora on the big screen. Given that Pandora is prominently featured in every Borderlands game, the first movie utilizing it well could perfectly set up franchise potential in the coming years. Notable for the various characters, treasure, and locations that hearken back to the wastelands of Mad Max and the jungles of King Kong, Pandora's inclusion in Borderlands is essential to faithfully representing the video games it's based on.

Borderlands Primarily Takes Place On The Planet Of Pandora

Pandora is host to various monsters, bounty hunters, criminals, and aliens.

Pandora serves as the central location for the Borderlands franchise as it is host to a plethora of bounties, treasure, weapons, and vehicles there for the vault hunters' taking - or stealing. As one of the best looter shooters - that is, video games rooted in gameplay elements that allow players to hunt down targets for rewards, Pandora's vastness and the wildly distinct characters who populate it make the planet feel real and lived-in. Pandora is also great because it prominently features a vast range of extracurricular activities, such as racing and patronizing saloons for bounties.

Borderlands needs Pandora as its central location because of its unique and enthralling presence. Everything from duplicitous bounty hunters who are clear references to the spaghetti Westerns of years past to the futurism and grandeur rife in any given Star Wars movie, Pandora provides a lot of depth and atmosphere for players to enjoy. The movie will benefit significantly from its inclusion because of its familiarity to new audiences while respecting the expectations of viewers familiar with the source material. Additionally, including Pandora in Borderlands could mean further development of the planet's lore.

Pandora's History In The Borderlands Video Games

Pandora was originally built by the Eridians as an eternal prison for Borderlands' central villain, The Destroyer.

In addition to building Pandora, the Eridians also created the planet's moon, Elpis, as a means of ensuring that The Destroyer wouldn't be able to run rampant through the galaxy years prior to the events of the first Borderlands game. Furthermore, the planet was constructed with a purple resource known as Eridium, and a massive Eridian weapon known as The Warrior was also constructed to help protect the Eridians. However, a powerful Siren named Nyriad used all the Eridians' resources to seal away The Destroyer, which resulted in their extinction.

Pandora is also host to many different unique flora and fauna consisting of wild, dog-like creatures named skags and vicious bat-like monsters named rakks, among a host of others that attempt to kill the vault hunters. Perhaps one thing the Borderlands movie can address that none of the games has is just how exactly anyone inhabiting Pandora can breathe its air, since neither the human inhabitants nor any Eridian technology is used to explain it. An explanation of such a phenomenon is one way the Borderlands movie can distinguish itself from the games.

How Pandora In The Borderlands Movie Compares To The Video Games

Pandora in the video games features desolate wastelands, snowy fields, and forested habitats.

While Pandora isn't mentioned by name in the Borderlands trailer, its undeniable Mad Max aesthetic, array of psychos on display, and familiar weapons confirm the movie will take place on the beloved planet. Additionally, the trailer showcases locations that imply the movie could deviate from Pandora in unique ways, if not be at least partially set on an entirely different planet altogether. While the idea of a new planet is interesting considering the potential it has to solidify itself as an iconic location as well, Borderlands' first foray into live-action is right to feature Pandora.

Pandora isn't only great because of its charming aesthetic and familiarity, but it's also important because of the deep lore and great characters native to it. Since the central vault hunters are on a quest for the planet's treasure, setting the action on Pandora is crucial to also explaining The Destroyer's significance, and, more importantly, how it survived on nothing more than eating vault hunters. With beloved Pandora-based characters like Scooter, Mad Moxxi, and Ellie being confirmed to be in the movie, it confirms that at least a good portion of the Borderlands movie is set on Pandora.