In 1984 The Terminator introduced us to Linda Hamilton′s young Sarah Connor and her first encounter with Arnold Schwarzenegger′s now classic T-800 “Terminator” cyborg.  In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, director James Cameron amped up Hamilton’s role, resulting in arguably the best female character in all of science fiction movies (in a close heat with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in Aliens, also from Cameron), while making Arnold’s T-800 a good guy.  In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, we watched Sarah’s son John Connor (played by Nick Stahl) and his future wife (played by Claire Danes) as they approached Judgment Day–the day of the technological apocalpyse.  In the fourth film Terminator: Salvation, audiences saw an older John Connor (Christian Bale) fighting the machines after the series’ Judgment Day, along with a young Kyle Reese played by Anton Yelchin, recounting the origins of the T-800 Arnold would embody later in the timeline.  With Terminator: Genisys, John (next played by Jason Clarke) and Kyle (played by Jai Courtney) arrive at the future point where humans travel back in time to prevent Skynet, and in that timeline John encounters his own problems, and Kyle returns to a modified version of the past where Sarah (played by Solo: A Star Wars Story and Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke) is working with a T-800 (again played by Arnold, and again as a good guy) to prevent the Skynet future apocalypse from happening.

Welcome to the day after Judgment Day.

It’s now 35 years since we first heard the message from Kyle Reese given to Sarah Connor, “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”  Producer James Cameron is back, with Tim Miller (Deadpool) directing the autumn theatrical release Terminator: Dark Fate.  This time we’re told audiences are supposed to ignore everything that came after Terminator 2, and substitute this next chapter, similar to the “picture hopping” the Halloween movie franchise has become known for.  The original Sarah Connor is back battling a Terminator.  Newcomer to the series, Mackenzie Davis is one, “almost human.”  And Gabriel Luna plays another, making them the faces of the next Terminators, following in the footsteps of Arnold, Jason Patrick, Kristanna Loken, Byung-Hun Lee, and Jason Clarke.

Check out this new poster for the film and the first trailer for the sixth Terminator flick, Terminator: Dark Fate:

As with so many movie franchises of late (Star Wars, Marvel’s The Avengers, Star Trek, etc.), the theme is again the passing of the baton to the next generation of actors, the studios making every effort to keep their franchises going forward for the coming decades.

Tim Holkenborg aka Junkie XL (Mad Max: Fury Road, Alita: Battle Angel, Tomb Raider, Deadpool) is supplying the music for the film.  Ngila Dickson (Xena: Warrior Princess, The Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) is costume designer.

It’s a little wait for fans of all things borg.  Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters November 1, 2019.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
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