Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie brings the world of Pandora to the big screen, ComingSoon examines what to expect from the planet’s varied environments, factions, and the art of vault hunting.

Anyone who has spent time in the video game version of Pandora will know just how deadly and surprising it can be. From its oddball and often violent population to the varied biomes and the aggressive creatures that inhabit them.

While the Borderlands movie obviously won’t go everywhere and show everyone we’ve come to know in the game franchise’s past 15 years, the big-screen adaptation is sure to have plenty of signature sights, sounds, and slaughter. Let’s look at some of those, shall we?

Borderlands’ Pandora will be one of the movie’s biggest stars

Pandora is a largely arid planet with many desert Badlands filled with beastly creatures. The Coyote/Hyena-esque Skags and giant Spiderants roam the wilderness, looking for a misguided adventurer or wannabe Vault Hunter to provide a meaty morsel. With little to live on out in this area, outside the weapons market, Vault Hunting is the biggest source of action, dangerously fruitless as it can be.

But what is Vault Hunting? Pandora features alien vaults hidden away across the planet. Each has its own glorious treasure, so you can imagine how competitive that gets in a place full of violent, bloodthirsty bounty hunters, adventurers, and the like. It’s basically the building blocks of Pandora’s economy, so you can understand that the competition brings plenty of power plays among warring groups.

Pandora is replete with factions seeking to seize a piece of personal paradise or exert power over the rest. Chief among the players is the Atlas Corporation. The interplanetary weapons manufacturer was involved in a Corporate War when its explorers stumbled upon the bountiful goods of Pandora’s Vaults and the Eridian technology found within. It finds itself up against rival corporations like Hyperion, Maliwan, and Tediore, all of whose weaponry is sold and traded/stolen off a dead body on Pandora.

The battle on the ground features less wealthy factions and the henchman of the elite. The Crimson Lance is the private military company of Atlas, and they keep the population of various spaces on Pandora in check with dictatorial law. Bandits are the Mad Max-esque local faction at war with the Crimson Lance. Bandits that have been driven to the brink in search become Psychos, the iconic mutant humanoids that are prominently in the game series’ advertising (One of the movie’s key crew is a somewhat ethical Psycho named Krieg). They wear masks that feature an upturned V symbol for the source of their obsession. These guys n’ gals are usually more likely to jump at any target whilst screaming incoherent threats.

Despite all the blood that’s spilled on the scorched earth of Pandora’s deserts, it’s not the only kind of locale out there. Tropical beaches, snow-covered mountains, futuristic cityscapes, and volcanic mountains are also out there. With the search for Vault keys as crucial as finding vault locations, Vault Hunter’s search will take them all over the planet.

So be prepared for a wild world in Eli Roth’s Borderlands when it hits theaters on August 9, 2024.