The Terminator series is one of my all-time favorites. The first two films are bastions of excellently crafted sci-fi action. Many people, including myself at some time or another, have argued that there should never have been any more movies after the masterpiece that is Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Mainly for the reason that, given the films ending, there was no room for any more content. While that has not stopped Hollywood from trying, I would personally argue that there is, in actuality, plenty of space for more Terminator content. The only problem is that those who are in a position to provide said content are continually looking in the wrong places.
For the sake of keeping everyone on the same page, The Terminator is a science fiction action thriller by visionary filmmaker James Cameron released in 1984. The story follows a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who becomes the target of a strange and lethal behemoth known only as The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Fortunately for Sarah, she has a companion in Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who is on a mission to protect Sarah from the mysterious walking machine. As it turns out, he and The Terminator are from the future: when an advanced computer system called Skynet gains self-awareness and decides to destroy all humankind. They are met with resistance lead by Sarah's future son, John Connor, who has become a thorn in Skynet's side. Therefore, Skynet sent one of their machine soldiers back in time to kill John's mother, thereby eliminating the resistance. In response, the opposition sent back one of their soldiers to protect Sarah from The Terminator. In the end, Kyle sacrifices himself to save Sarah, The Terminator is defeated, and Sarah rides off with her unborn son preparing for the impending future of war.
The Terminator is one of the greatest movies ever made. It paved the way for future action films and, to this day, serves as a template for how to construct proper action narratives. By having a sympathetic protagonist whom the audience can relate to in some way or another, the action becomes more visceral and engaging. Also, if you build and photograph the movie in a way that is comprehensive and layered, with rises and falls and fun beats in between, it will add a texture to the narrative, thereby making every victory feel earned and more triumphant. All of this and more was elevated even further in the most surprising sequel ever to grace the silver screen.
Released in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day reigns supreme as one of the best sequels and greatest sci-fi action films ever crafted. It is even surpassing the first movie in some ways. This time around, The Terminator (once again played by Arnold) is reprogrammed by the resistance and sent back to project John Connor as a child. Meanwhile, Skynet has sent back a more advanced and powerful machine known as the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), made of malleable liquid metal. As such, it can morph into any person it chooses and reshapes its limbs into knives and other such deadly weapons. At the end of this film, our heroes succeed in preventing the war from ever happening. Thereby saving all of humanity and providing a blank slate for the future. Incidentally, there is where many people, including myself, agree that the franchise should have ended, or expanded upon in unique and more original ways.
Sadly, that never happened.
Every one of these films was utterly terrible, with the slight exception of Terminator: Dark Fate. I say "slight" exception because even though I did mostly enjoy that movie, I still had a ton of issues with the script. Meaning I do recognize that it is just as insultingly awful as all the other Terminator films post-Judgement Day, but at the very least, it had more heart in some areas than any of the others combined. Other than that, all of these movies are insulting to the integrity of the series.
There are many reasons why these films are terrible. However, except for Terminator: Salvation, I believe that the most significant reason these movies are awful is that they all take place in modern times. Most of these films tried and failed to reboot the franchise for new audiences. They were trying to keep what long term fans loved while bringing in new concepts for younger people, which was their greatest mistake. Aside from the conclusion of Terminator 2: Judgement Day leaving no possible room for a story taking place after those events, there has been a veritable goldmine sitting right in front of Hollywood, which they either ignored or simply didn't see. The time travel concept.
The entire mythology of the Terminators and their future war against humanity is tied to not only the machine's creation of time travel but their apparent reliance upon it. As suggested in Terminator: Genisys, Skynet used time travel as a last resort to win the war. Why would they just stop at sending one or two soldiers to kill the leader of the resistance? As also suggested in Terminator: Dark Fate, they didn't. They sent back many killing machines as contingencies. So, having established all of that, why would they not also send back terminators to other points of time to further their efforts?
Here's an example: Let's imagine that for this thought experiment, time is not linear. Instead, time is a continually changing mishmash of realities, continuities, and dimensions, all existing simultaneously. Therefore, if we can accept this idea, at least for the sake of argument, then we can work our way around the one narrative wrinkle that some people have had a problem with forever. That being, if Judgement Day didn't happen, then John Connor would not exist, because he would not have sent Kyle Reese back in time to become his father. Anyway, what if Skynet sent back multiple Terminators to various points in time? A machine sent to the 1700s, one to the 1950s, and so on. There is a multitude of stories that can be told with this concept allowing tons of different settings and themes. Be honest, how awesome would it be to see a Terminator as a Cowboy?
Art by Ben Munson
Now, some of you might be thinking, "well, even if we did do something like that, it would still be the same story. A Terminator goes back in time to kill someone related o John Connor, and someone else has to protect that person." Well, you would be right. However, there is no reason for this new story to do any of that. Let's imagine that a Terminator was sent back in time to prevent a specific historical event that could go on to play a significant role in the future war. Say a particular political document or the outcome of a previous ancient battle. Any number of ideas could work in this context with the right creative team behind its conception.
There is a great deal of space for more Terminator stories. None of which requires the dismissal nor continuation of any of the previous films that came before. With the right amount of creative talent and heart, there can be many Terminator films that retain the same amount of excitement and visceral storytelling as the first two. If only the owners of the franchise would realize it as well as we all do.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you all for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment