Terminator: Dark Fate*

Alien3 is my favorite of the trilogy, it has to be said... a flawed but fitting finale to both Ripley's story and the saga in general. I find it the most interesting and intriguing of all three films, both aesthetically and thematically...

Welcome to the new normal of Star Wars... now owned by a company whose current CEO is on record as saying "my movies are advertisements for my merchandise" .

 

He wasn't directly referencing Star Wars, was he? I did a quick Google search and couldn't find this quote.

Merchandising has always been a major factor for George Lucas. I don't know if this is true or not, but many have contended that Lucas created the Ewoks for the sole purpose of having a new line of cute, cuddly stuffed Ewoks on store shelves that kids would want and parents wouldn't be able to resist buying for them. I personally don't buy it. I believe the real reason is that it was more feasible to find short people to play Ewoks than seven foot tall people to play Wookies. But the bottom line, no pun intended, is that Lucas made a heck of a lot more money from merchandising than he did from the actual films. So merchandising has always been a major part of the Star Wars franchise. Absolutely, positively nothing new in that respect.

 

Those are minor distinctions, just as the distinctions between The Force Awakens and Star Wars are minor. There was one reason and one reason alone to make Arnie the antagonist in the first film and the protagonist in the second film: star power. Arnie was and up and comer in 1984 and a bona fide superstar in 1991.

It would be just as easy for me to point out the core elements of Star Wars that were turned on their heads in The Force Awakens. The student is now the wise old hermit. That minor distinction is very similar to the minor distinction of casting Arnie as the protagonist in the second film. All of the characters in Star Wars undergo a transformation by the time they reach The Force Awakens, just as you pointed out the transformations the characters underwent between T1 and T2. As I mentioned, Luke is now the wise old hermit. Leia is a general. Han Solo is a smuggler. Oh wait. Scratch that last one.

The bottom line is that, corporate or not, both sequels were essentially rehashes of previous films in the franchise. You either like them and go with them or you don't. I happen to like both sequels, regardless of the fact they are rehashes.

 

That quote was said from Disney CEO Bob Iger himself to director Matthew Vaughn during a private conversation, which the latter recounted in a recent interview... I think it's general meaning is pretty clear, regardless of which Disney franchise you're talking about.

George Lucas at least went under the pretense that the merchandising was necessary to fund the movies... and from The Empire Strikes Back through Episode III, that seemed to be true, especially between about 1985-93 where there was virtually no new SW merchandise at all... but after the prequels ended, the merchandising train still rode on... 'nuff said.

The Mouse House bought Lucasfilm for the unlimited revenue from merchandising, period (the films are merely avenues to that pot of gold)... if you don't understand that fact, you don't understand why they paid out a staggering $4bn for it... frankly, it was a steal; Lucas was a motivated seller, if he had really dug his heels in, he could have got more... I firmly believe he wanted out, especially after the constant vitriol he endured over the prequels, and the commercial failure of his long-held passion project Red Tails was likely the last straw in him deciding to sell up.

That being said, I can see why he didn't like TFA... it was fun in and of itself, but as others said, it just didn't feel like Star Wars to me; there was nothing new, original, fresh, or substantive, whereas the prequels - for all their innumerable flaws - did have a substantive story to tell (albeit one that was royally botched in the execution) and did actually feel like SW... make of that what you will!!!

 

Arnold needs to return as a bad Terminator this time.......to hopefully restore any credibility left in the franchise.

 

I really cannot view T2 as a rehash. Sarah Connor’s transformation and Arnold’s are enough to make it fresh.

 

She already goes through that transformation in T1, though. She goes from very innocent, teenage waitress to a woman who is taking charge and even commanding a veteran (albeit wounded) soldier and killing a Terminator herself, with no remorse. The Sarah Connor we meet on her bike going to work in May 1984, and the weary, ready-for-the-end-of-the-world woman we see in November 1984 at the end of the film, are almost two different people.

 

The merch was definitely necessary to fund ROTJ. He was going through a very bitter divorce which pretty much wiped him out financially. That's why Temple of Doom, which came out the next year, is so dark - both he and Spielberg were in very dark places in their lives. Also, he wanted the Ewoks as a clear parallel to Vietnam: "Primitive" disorganized peoples defeat technologically superior imperial power. With the massive, tough Wookies, this element wouldn't come through as clearly. Everyone always thinks of the Empire as Space Nazis, but Lucas actually envisioned the Empire as the United States. The Emperor was based on Richard Nixon. Lucas was originally supposed to direct Apocalypse Now. When he was unable to, he put in subtle elements of his vision of that film into Star Wars.

 

The transformation I meant was to crazy. Lol. It was shocking to see our pretty heroine acting like that. Especially the psychiatric video, and to find out she had been shacking up with random men to learn fighting skills. Those things are not even hinted at in T1.

 

I hope we get an answer to what happened to one of the most important unaccounted-for characters from The Terminator.

Spoiler: Spoiler for The Terminator

I'm speaking of course of Sarah's pet iguana Puglsey.

 

I kind of want to see Dr. Silberman again, in all honesty. It would be interesting to see him now being a true believer.

 

Depending on how far into the future the movie is set there's a good chance he'd be either in his 80's or dead.

But yeah, his cameo in T3 was pretty cute.

 

Indeed we are of,the same mind (maybe it's a half be mind) as I pointed it out above. It's well written and made.Even with the cliffhanger ending, I could see it fitting into the Terminator films as we don't know how long John spent with his mother before she died (outside of the three post Cameron movies). I do think it was a nice touch to have the tapes in the last Terminator film and I actually like that one. It holds up surprisingly well even if the main focus isn't really John Connor. The 3rd film is almost like a mixture of satire of the first first and second film with action sequences. The third by McG had some interesting ideas that don't quite come together plus I don't think McG is a very good director. Terminator Salvation I liked for the most part. Terminator Gynsis as a reboot isn't too successful but it does introduce a bold idea with John being the bad guy. The only reason it exists though is because of Larry Ellison's rich kids who produced it.

 

Here's idea.. In the futurewar.. A man shaking by latest conflict..
stumbles around in need of clothes.. find some on dead soldier ..
He travels far to get away from it.. ends in a camp of soldiers ..
One looks up and says John Conner.. because uniform had Conner on it..

 

The divorce took place just after ROTJ was released, so that wasn't an issue in terms of funding the film itself... but yeah, Lucas lost half his fortune - NEVER get divorced in California, kids! - in the subsequent split, with Marcia Lucas supposedly walking away with around $50m! That pretty much killed George's big plan to set up a studio for independent filmmakers at Skywalker Ranch...the very thing that essentially drove his wife away... the bitter irony!

 

I'll be back - JULY 2019.

Terminator 6 Releases In Summer 2019

Tim Miller’s Terminator 6 will hit theaters in summer of 2019. The Terminator franchise has obviously had its ups and downs over the years, with the last three installments – Jonathan Mostow’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, McG’s Terminator: Salvation, and Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genisys – all failing to launch new trilogies. Paramount Pictures initially had two additional release dates set for Genisys‘ sequels, but the film’s critical and (domestic) commercial failure forced the studio to abandon those plans, which opened the door for franchise creator James Cameron to return.

Terminator 6 will reportedly enter production in early 2018, and THR reports that the film is set to arrive in theaters on July 26, 2019. That particular release date is currently open, but that means the untitled sequel will be going up against Jon Favreau’s The Lion King CGI remake during its second week. If Favreau’s The Jungle Book is any indicator, The Lion King will certainly have quite the impact at the global box office. Of course, both films cater to different audiences and the summer blockbuster season is always jam-packed.

 

James Cameron Sounds the Alarm on Artificial Intelligence and Unveils a 'Terminator' for the 21st Century

 

Miller is quite the potty mouth...otherwise great interview

 

I'm much more excited about how good this could turn out than I was about T3, T4, or T5, I'll say that much... T2 is my second favorite movie of all time.

 

I agree, I didn't mind T3 but 4 was mind numbingly awful and I have no desire to see 5. With Cameron back on board vetting everything I think we'll get something a little different but very much in the spirit of the first two movies.

 

That was the premise of The Postman.

 

I don't remember much about Salvation. I only saw it once. What I do remember is that it didn't simply rehash elements from previous films as T2 and T3 did. As much as I like T2, it is a rehash of T1. T3 is a rehash of T2. Salvation was a departure from the wash, rinse, repeat of the previous two films.

 

Yes, a crappy, silly departure. Sometimes it's better to stick with the winning formula.

 

I liked Salvation as a sort of World War II French-resistance sort of film. It holds up. It is the only non-Cameron Terminator film that took itself seriously on every level.

 

I just thought of another way you could make a Post T2 film, while having Judgement Day happen (even no more than a year or two after it happened in-universe, and by Cyberdyne Systems, as well). I mentioned before about data backups; I was reading the "Lost Media Wiki", and in regards to lost footage of 9/11, this stuck out to me: "most businesses by policy are required to back up data off-site in a different location, in case of any type of situation that could cause data loss, such as power failure, damage, fire, theft or, in extreme circumstances, a terrorist attack."

Now, for Cyberdyne to have been a company whose reached extended to the U.S. government, I have to imagine they were already working with the government. The Terminator in T2 says this:

"In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."

So, as of 1995 they were already working with the government; they simply became the 'biggest supplier of military computer systems' in 1997. Cyberdyne has enough supporters in Congress to get an actual bill passed to fund their gigantic project.

You're telling me that such a massive, connected corporation, which already:

1) Had a mysterious, highly covered up incident involving one death in 1984;
2) Faced one terror attack by Sarah Connor prior to 1995

Didn't have security cameras recording every single move Dyson made? He didn't copy his research over to his superiors, who themselves stored backups of what they were being sent off-site? Even if every single computer at Cyberdyne was destroyed in T2, that's one location. You don't think the research was being sent to Cyberdyne locations overseas, or perhaps even to the military/government (since we see Cyberdyne is already a military supplier at the time of T2)? Everything is computerized. Even if it took a couple of months to a year, the information could be reconstructed; the project could proceed easily. Hell, if you want to really delve into it, the Terminator might have detailed files on Miles Dyson, but that could be the extent of his knowledge - in that, after Judgement Day, as Kyle Reese himself says, the records pre Judgement Day are fragmented - they couldn't even find an exact address for Sarah Connor in 1984 despite her being listed in the phone book. They have a more complete file on Miles Dyson than they do on Sarah Connor, the mother of their nemesis? They don't have files on John Connor circa 1995 (he had already been arrested several times and was in the 'system' so to speak)?

Perhaps the Terminator doesn't have a complete record of what happened between 1995 and 1997, IE: "Miles Dyson develops Skynet....Cyberdyne becomes the number one supplier of military hardware....The Senate funding bill is passed...", very fragmented bits of information which don't take into account what happened between those major steps. Dyson dies a matyr, victim of anti-Capitalist/luddite terrorists, and he's given the majority of credit for creating Skynet in his memory, after the project is reconstructed. All follows as the Terminator says; the world still blows up on August 29th 1997. The future proceeds as it always has and will.

T1 proves to us that the universe of Terminator exists in a stable time loop; What is happening, has happened, and always will happen. Despite Connor believing the 'future is not set', the events of Terminator 1 proceed to Judgement Day nonetheless. Maybe details get changed along the way - Maybe Kyle Reese wasn't John Connor's original father. But the end is still the same: Sarah is rendered pregnant with John in May 1984. She still looks sad in the exact photo Kyle Reese has BEFORE he's sent back in time (which suggests the events of T1 have already happened). Kyle even mentions that Sarah was in hiding with John as a child before the War and trained him to fight - why would a teenage waitress go into hiding and train her son to fight - equip her son with the knowledge to destroy enemies that don't exist yet? Kyle mentions John's father dies before the war - and that comes to pass. Basically, everything that happens in T1 proceeds as it always has because these are, to use Doctor Who's words, fixed events in time. Judgement Day is a fixed event.

You can perhaps change some of the details, but the end result will always be the same. Maybe Dyson wasn't alive to see Judgement Day happen. But his work survived him, and it still happened. The end result is still the same.

Hell, maybe Connor's attack on Cyberdyne pushed the US government to consider using computerized defense forces to combat terrorism, and in steps the research Dyson did before his death.