Despite T2 triumph, the future is worse than ever in Terminator: Dark Fate

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Things were looking pretty hopeful at the ending of writer/director James Cameron's TERMINATOR 2, like Sarah Connor and her young son John had (with the help of a heroic Terminator) saved the world from an impending apocalypse. There was even an ending filmed where we would have seen an elderly Sarah hanging out with her family on a happy, bright future day. But, that ending didn't make it into the film, and as it turns out the world was not saved no matter what timeline you're in. Three sequels have followed to assure us that the war between humans and machines is still going to happen in the future despite what Sarah, John, and their Terminator pal accomplished at the end of T2. Cameron wasn't involved with those sequels, so now that he's returning to the franchise as a producer on the upcoming TERMINATOR: DARK FATE that film is going to be direct sequel T2 – and DARK FATE is going to show us that the future is still bad. Very bad.

In fact, director Tim Miller has told Entertainment Weekly that 

There’s this new future because of what Sarah did at the end of TERMINATOR 2, and it’s worse than ever."

The knowledge that Sarah and John have just managed to make the future worse for themselves puts quite a dark cloud over the ending of T2. But Miller sees a silver lining: it gives DARK FATE the opportunity to introduce the new characters played by Gabriel Luna and Mackenzie Davis.

Gabriel comes from something that is not Skynet, but it’s like Skynet. And Mackenzie comes from something that Kyle Reese and the Resistance did. I tried to keep Gabriel a bit grounded while still interesting; I feel his new weapons and abilities are right for our times but not so ridiculous that it just turns into a visual effects superfest. And the same with Mackenzie’s character — I really liked her origin story. We did an early writer’s room and Joe Abercrombie came up with her as this super soldier from the future, but it comes at a cost to be one of these people. They’re the first people to die, they’re the shock troops who protect the rest of humanity, and her readiness to sacrifice is a really interesting way to come at a character."

We've heard Miller talk up Davis's character Grace before, and Linda Hamilton, who reprises the role of Sarah Connor in DARK FATE, was also quite impressed with her:

I was very happy to see Mackenzie take the mantle of turning her body into a fighting machine. Hopefully she will get all the attention that I got in 1991 for what she has done to make herself ready, to make herself a warrior."

Miller adds that Luna gives a fantastic performance as the film's villainous Terminator, and that the role will be expanded through reshoots that will soon be underway.

This Terminator is a lot more human than a regular Terminator has been, which makes sense because computers are human, they understand us more every day."

Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger is also in the film as another Terminator, and Miller says, 

I don’t think people will be ready for what Arnold has become either, because it’s very different."

Cameron developed the story for TERMINATOR: DARK FATE with David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, Charles Eglee, and Josh Friedman. Goyer, Rhodes, and Billy Ray then fleshed that story out into a screenplay.

Hamilton, Davis, Luna, and Schwarzenegger are joined in the cast by Natalia Reyes as heroine Dani and Diego Boneta as Dani's brother.

There is a TERMINATOR: DARK FATE panel scheduled to take place at the San Diego Comic-Con tomorrow, July 18th. The film is heading toward a November 1st release.