Cate Blanchett plays an infamous treasure hunter with a ragtag crew of fellow adventurers in the upcoming sci-fi comedy film Borderlands.
The movie is based on the video game series of the same name, which debuted in 2009. Randy Pitchford, who oversaw production of the Borderlands game as cofounder of the video game development studio Gearbox Software, served as an executive producer on the film adaptation.
“It’s Randy’s baby, it’s his brainchild,” the film’s director, Eli Roth, told IGN in February 2024. “You’re stepping into a world that is so beloved and the fans are so hardcore that you think, ‘OK, well, I really don’t want to screw this up.’”
Despite the loyal fan base, Pitchford chimed in to note that the film is accessible “whether you’ve played a Borderlands game or not.”
He added, “It’s a fun movie. It’s a really, really fun movie.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know about the Borderlands movie:
What Is the Plot of the ‘Borderlands’ Movie?
The film focuses on treasure hunter Lilith (Blanchett) as she returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of a powerful man named Atlas (Edgar Ramirez). Along with an unlikely group of allies, Lilith must battle “alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power,” per a press release from Lionsgate.
Who Is in the Cast of the ‘Borderlands’ Movie?
Blanchett’s team of misfits is comprised of Roland (Kevin Hart), a formerly respected soldier seeking redemption, Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a preteen with a taste for destruction, Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s brutish protector, Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), a scientist who’s seen it all, and Claptrap (Jack Black), an overly enthusiastic robot.
While Lilith, Roland, Tannis and Claptrap were all featured in the first Borderlands game, Krieg and Tiny Tina didn’t appear until Borderlands 2.
“At a certain point, you just have to pick, these are our characters, this is the story we’re going with, and let’s just make the best one possible,” Roth told IGN in February 2024 of deciding which characters to include in the film.
Is There a Trailer for the ‘Borderlands’ Movie?
The film’s first official trailer dropped on February 21. In the teaser, Blanchett sports Lilith’s signature orange hairstyle and talks about her unsavory home planet.
“Legend has it that there’s this massive treasure hidden in some secret vault. And if you go hunting for it, you’d better take any help you can get. Cause it’s on the weirdest, most dangerous dumpster fire of a world in the universe,” she says.
Elsewhere in the teaser, Lilith and her allies endure “piss wash” spraying through their car window, Tina getting carried away with her use of explosives and Roland driving their car directly into the mouth of a monster.
Who Wrote the ‘Borderlands’ Movie?
Roth teamed up with Joe Crombie to write the screenplay. During a November 2023 interview with RGN, Roth said that he didn’t want the film’s possibilities to be limited by the Borderlands games.
“There are certain things that we kept very, very close, but I really worked with Randy Pitchford, and he goes, ‘Think of it like Marvel, where the comics are their own canon and the movies are their own canon, and you don’t have to be married to it,’” Roth explained. “So, we could use certain things, but I didn’t want to have to be too slavish. I didn’t just want to film the game.”
When Is the ‘Borderlands’ Movie Coming Out?
Borderlands hits theaters on August 9, 2024.
