Going into Terminator: Dark Fate, you might have some questions…
"So you're Carl?"
"That's what everybody calls me, yes."
Not to worry: We've prepared a crash course in all things Terminator, giving you a rundown
on past films and letting you know just what to expect from the latest installment.
"Come with me if you want to live."
The Terminator
First, let's talk about what's gone down so far, starting with The Terminator, the film
that got the ball rolling.
In 1984, a young waitress named Sarah Connor is targeted by a hulking cyborg and rescued
by a young buck named Kyle, who explains that both he and her would-be assassin are from
the year 2029.
He goes on to demonstrate that he can drive and rattle off pages of exposition at the
same time:
"All right, listen, The Terminator's an infiltration unit.
Part man, part machine.
Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis."
Kyle goes on to reveal that in this far-flung future, Sarah's unborn son John is a warlord
in the fight against an army of killer robots, known somewhat artlessly as the Machines.
He further explains that he has been sent to protect Sarah, while the robotic beefcake
has been sent to kill her.
Over the course of the film, Sarah learns that humanity is heading towards nuclear annihilation
in the near future.
In fact, her son John will be the last great hope of the human race.
By the end of The Terminator, Kyle has impregnated Sarah after a steamy motel interlude… and
he eventually sacrifices himself in the hopes of destroying the Terminator.
It's ultimately Sarah who kills the offending machine with the help of a pneumatic press.
And with that, Sarah drives off into the horizon.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Then we arrive at Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Released in 1991 but set in 1995, T2 sees Sarah locked up in a psych ward… because
she can't stop talking about robots coming from the future to tear our lives asunder.
She's also prone to acting out.
(When someone says they actually liked Terminator 3.)
Her son John bounces between foster homes until one day, a guy in a leather jacket saves
him from a police officer who can morph into liquid metal.
It turns out Leather Jacket Guy is a reprogrammed Terminator sent back in time by Future John.
The mission?
To save Present John from another robot... who himself was sent back in time to kill
Present John.
Isn't time travel fun?
Together, John and the Terminator rescue Sarah.
"Come with me if you want to live."
The three of them ultimately destroy the gloopy metal Bad Guy with a combination of liquid
nitrogen and molten steel.
Shortly thereafter, the Good Guy Terminator descends into a vat of molten metal.
Hooray, the world is saved!
Or is it?
Forget those other sequels
The minds behind Terminator: Dark Fate have decided to ignore several installments of
the franchise (so did we).
In interviews, director Tim Miller has said the film will serve as a direct sequel to
The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day … so let's take a quick look at what
we're ditching here.
"Do you wanna live?
Come on!"
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is out of the picture and frankly, that's okay.
"Talk to the hand…."
It also means Judgment Day still hasn't taken place in the upcoming film.
"The Terminator knew…
He tried to tell us.
But I didn't want to hear it."
Terminator: Salvation doesn't concern us anymore.
"Come with me if you want to live."
Feel free to wipe it from your memory bank... if you haven't already.
And while you're at it, we're expected to act like Terminator Genisys never happened
either… and frankly, we can live with that.
"I won't allow this."
"Whaddya gonna do - talk us to death?
You don't even have a body."
Oh, and remember the TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles?
Well, go ahead and forget that, too... at least when it comes to the new film.
What's the story?
Terminator: Dark Fate is set a full 27 years after Terminator 2 and it introduces us to
a dangerous new Terminator model called Rev-9, portrayed by Gabriel Luna.
"He's the most lethal Terminator ever created."
And here's Grace, a super-soldier from the future portrayed by Mackenzie Davis.
"I am human.
Just enhanced."
Grace has been sent back in time to protect Dani Ramos, played by Natalia Reyes.
She's a young woman who's being relentlessly hunted by Rev-9.
"That is not your father.
Come with me or you're dead in the next thirty seconds."
Soon, a certain fierce warrior named Sarah Connor and your favorite T-800 enter the fray,
doing everything in their power to save Dani from Rev-9.
Naturally, the fate of the whole world is in their hands.
"If you don't make it, everybody dies."
Rated R
One thing Terminator: Dark Fate shares with the first two James Cameron movies: it's rated
R … and that hasn't been the case for a Terminator film in over 15 years.
As Cameron says,
"It's R-rated, it's grim, it's gritty, it's fast, it's intense."
In 2009, Terminator Salvation became the first film in the franchise to receive a PG-13 rating,
with Terminator Genisys following suit in 2015.
"I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do."
At least one cast member is thrilled about the R-rating.
In a Reddit AMA, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed:
"I was sick and tired with the last time, when the studio decided to make it a PG-13
rating just because they thought there [were] more dollars in there.
I said, ‘Guys you’re so stupid…this is [...] not Terminator the babysitter type
of thing.'"
No, it's not… but wasn't that the plot to Kindergarten Cop?
"First, I would just like to get to know you."
(laughing)
The T-800 is back
This is Arnold Schwarzenegger's fifth appearance as an "800 series" Terminator or the sixth
if you count the CGI Arnold in Terminator: Salvation.
But Schwarzenegger's character in Terminator: Dark Fate is apparently not the same machine
we came to fear in The Terminator … nor is he the hunk of metal we came to love in
T2.
Director Tim Miller confirmed in an interview that this is an all-new machine, telling ComicBook.com:
"Imagine the rules that [original director James Cameron] set down, about what would
happen with a Terminator, what they become, they're a learning machine, they're a neural
net, they just keep learning.
So the longer you leave one around in our society, the more he learns about humanity.
And then what does he become?"
We have no idea.
But Miller clearly isn't afraid to ask the tough questions.
James Cameron's return
James Cameron is arguably the only guy who ever got a Terminator movie just right…
but he hasn't been involved in a Terminator film since 1991.
Well, that changes with Terminator: Dark Fate.
As Deadline reports:
"Cameron wrote the story treatment and took a hands-on producer role."
And if audiences respond positively to the new film, it sounds like there could be more
entries on the way.
Cameron told Deadline:
"[We're looking] at it as a three-film arc, so there is a greater story there to be told.
If we get fortunate enough to make some money with Dark Fate we know exactly where we can
go with the subsequent films."
Here's hoping.
"I'll be back."
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