Terminator: Dark Fate has arrived, and it's safe to say that fans have a lot of questions.
Which works out really well, because we happen to have a lot of answers!
Answers that require spoilers, of course.
With that warning, let's break down the ending of Terminator: Dark Fate.
The first two thirds of Terminator: Dark Fate set the table: a new evil Terminator model
called the Rev-9 has been sent from the future to kill a Mexican woman named Daniella.
Luckily, someone also sent back a bionic woman from the future named Grace to protect her.
Along with Sarah Connor, looking to get revenge after her son John was killed by a Terminator,
they end up finding help from a very unlikely source: Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800, who
has been stuck in the past since killing John after the events of Terminator 2.
The real surprise here, though, is that this Terminator has voluntarily given up the terminating
business and has settled down in a human life under the name Carl.
He embodies the core message from T2 that people can choose their own fate and rewrite
their future.
He decided to stop being an evil killing machine, and instead become a nurturing father figure.
It's an unexpected twist that suggests humans and robots may actually be able to live together
in peace after all if the robots simply choose a different path.
One of the big mysteries in Terminator: Dark Fate is just why the robots have sent their
agent back in time to kill Dani.
During the final chase scene, though, Grace reveals the truth: that Dani herself actually
becomes the resistance leader in the future.
As Sarah puts it, she's the new John Connor the new last, best hope for all mankind.
Like Carl, Dani's character arc also reinforces the idea that you can choose your own fate.
Several times in the film, the others urge her to run and hide, but she instead insists
on fighting back.
She chooses to become the hero humanity needs, and indeed, it's those choices that actually
make her a hero.
It's a real contrast to John, who often seemed to reject the role of savior, only reluctantly
being pressed into it by circumstance.
John as a character seemed consigned by fate, while Dani chooses her own path.
"I want to stand, and fight!"
The last third of Terminator: Dark Fate is essentially one giant, neverending action
sequence that involves car chases, helicopters, multiple plane crashes, gun fights, and a
Humvee getting swept over a dam, leading to an underwater brawl.
It's such a whirlwind of non-stop excitement that you may not have noticed it's all very,
very familiar.
Basically every action beat in Terminator: Dark Fate is based off of something from a
previous Terminator installment.
In a way, that's thematically appropriate.
Even though Sarah successfully destroyed Skynet in T2, which should have led to a happy future,
we learn instead that Skynet was just replaced by a new AI called Legion.
The details of the future are different, but the outline is still the same, just as the
details of Dark Fate are different from the previous films, but the plot is still the
same.
The message now seems to be the opposite of T2: in Dark Fate, no matter what you do, nothing
ever really changes your destiny.
In the climax of the film, the whole team of good guys faces off against the Rev-9,
which seems unfair until you consider the Rev-9 has the ability to split into two different,
self-sufficient robots - a metal exoskeleton like the T-800, and a fluid form like the
T-1000.
The only way the good guys are able to win is by Grace sacrificing herself so Dani can
take Grace's power source and jam it into Rev-9's eyehole, causing it to melt down.
As it happens, fans have seen this before, because that's almost exactly how Arnold's
good guy Terminator defeated the evil T-X in Terminator 3: he removes his power core
and shoves it in the T-X's mouth, whereupon it explodes and destroys both of them.
We're not sure if this is a loving homage to Terminator 3, or if they just assumed everyone
had forgotten Terminator 3 existed at all.
Either could be true!
With the power core delivered to the Rev-9's head, there's just one last thing that needs
to happen: a sad descent into the pit where both the villainous Rev-9 and the heroic T-800
model known as Carl blink their final blinky lights.
It's sad or at least it's supposed to be sad, because it's very intentionally calling back
memories of the infamous ending of T-2.
You remember that one, right?
It's the one with the thumbs up!
It's obvious director Tim Miller is hoping the memory of T2's tearjerker ending will
add some much needed gravitas to the climax of Terminator: Dark Fate.
Avengers: Endgame isn't the only action movie this year that gets its emotional resonance
from the films that came before.
"I love you 3000!"
That's not the final "moving" moment designed to play on peoples' emotions, though.
The final scene of Terminator: Dark Fate is designed to deliver a double subliminal whammy
to anyone who has seen Terminator and T2.
Dani and Sarah Connor are at a playground, where they watch a young and oblivious Grace
playing with her family.
After Dani vows to make sure Grace doesn't have to sacrifice herself, she and Sarah jump
in a waiting vehicle and drive off to prepare for the impending Armageddon.
The playground element, of course, is a clear reference to the infamous playground scene
in T2 where Sarah connnor watches families get incinerated by the Skynet-caused nuclear
holocaust.
And the "riding into the sunset" ending is exactly the same as the end of the first Terminator
film only this time, instead of being pregnant with the future savior of humanity that she
has to train, Sarah Connor is riding shotgun with her.
Structurally, Terminator: Dark Fate is almost identical to the original Terminator film,
in much the same way that Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens is a soft reboot of
the original Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
So we actually have a pretty good idea where they could go with the next film in the series
a new version of T2!
Sure, the plot would actually have to be pretty different, but the main thrust of T2 was the
attempt to prevent Armageddon by destroying Skynet.
In Dark Fate, they don't ever have the chance to even think about stopping the apocalypse,
but they could certainly try to take steps in Terminator 7 to prevent the new AI, Legion,
from coming to be.
One thing is for sure: we can't wait to find out which beloved scenes from the previous
Terminator films they'll remake in the next one!
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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