Top 10 Terminator: Dark Fate Mistakes (and how to fix them): C.C.C. Issue #81

Top 10 Terminator: Dark Fate Mistakes (and how to fix them) 

I didn’t hate Terminator: Dark Fate. After the abysmal failure of Terminator: Genisys, the fifth entry in the series and the first half-ass attempt to reboot the franchise, it seemed things couldn’t get worse. Dark Fate is not as infuriating as Genisys overall, but in some ways, it’s even worse. I didn’t care about Dark Fate to begin with, but having seen it and thought about it, I’m still maddened by so many of the decisions made. So instead of a review, I’m going to deconstruct the top ten things I think it did wrong, and offer my own humble solutions.  

If you haven’t seen Terminator: Dark Fate yet, I’m going to try to keep this mostly spoiler free, or at least put spoiler alerts on certain point, and explain some of what goes on in the movie along the way.

10. Erasing the Timeline

This place is as good as any to start. The Terminator timeline has been messy since the beginning. It’s a paradoxical loop in the original, how John Connor sent Kyle Reese back in time but he ends up being his father which means he had to send him back in order for him to ever exist. But with every new sequel (except for maybe Terminator Salvation) the timeline has just become more cluttered and confusing. It seemed like a smart move to ignore Terminator 3, 4 and 5 in favour of doing a direct follow up to T2, making this the new T3. Unfortunately, shedding the baggage of those sequels didn’t help forge a new, airtight storyline. Things are as convoluted as ever, if not more so, as I’ll get into further detail later on. 

One of the concepts Dark Fate drives home is that yes, our heroes did succeed at the end of T2 and stop Judgment Day and defeat Skynet…except now we have a new A.I. that’s going to do the exact same thing, just at a later point and in a slightly different matter. Legion, as it’s called, builds Terminators that are exactly the same as those created by Skynet, so once again, just like the premise of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the message from T2—there is no fate but what we make— is negated. Judgment Day is inevitable.

   

Solution: Dark Fate essentially retells the story of the first two Terminator’s, just with new players in the same roles, fighting for the same cause. I don’t think anyone felt Skynet needed replacing, and I don’t think retelling the same story was as effective as the writers, producers, director, and studio execs thought it would be. It worked for The Force Awakens to do a soft reboot of Star Wars, and for 2018’s Halloween to ignore all sequels that followed the original, but neither tactic worked here. They should have dug in deeper to the many tributaries this story allowed for and committed to one. Examples: Sarah’s ongoing quest to eliminate other Terminators, this new slightly different version of the future in the 2040’s, or something else entirely.    

9. Too Much Time Travel  

Time travel used to be an impactful, tactical ability in the Terminator universe. Now, it’s not special at all. Even before Dark Fate, it was already getting questionable as to how easy or difficult it was to use the time displacement equipment (especially in Genisys), but now, according to the new timeline, Skynet has sent numerous Terminators back in time all at random points, just to ensure its continued existence, even though that plan failed, as we come to discover. Even though time travel is only seen twice in the movie, when future-augmented-warrior Grace and the half-liquid-metal-half-endoskeletal Rev-9 are sent back, it’s still unremarkable at this point. 

Solution: have the story take place primarily in the future. This is a point I will keep reiterating and elaborating on. We’ve seen the travel-back-in-time thing so many times now that it feels exhaustingly repetitive. Even new details can’t save it, like having the bubble the time travellers arrive in freeze everything in the immediate vicinity (which is actually a cool idea that I like) instead of superheat it like in T2. There should have been no use of time travel in this movie at all. 

8. No Scares

Remember when the Terminators used to be scary? We are so far past that now it’s starting to feel like a parody of what the concept originally was. I detected only one moment meant to make viewers jump. It seems the creators forgot that, in addition to having stunning action sequences, T2 also had many genuine thrills and scary moments, thanks to the menacing T-1000, who scared us in new ways, compared to Arnold’s muscular T-800. 

Solution: by getting into the characters more and making us care about them, Dark Fate elevates past the previous three sequels in a big way, but there wasn’t quite enough development to really make the emotional stakes feel earned in the third act. The reason the ending of The Terminator is so scary is because it’s stripped down to the bare minimum: an injured woman crawling away from a wrecked machine, neither one about to give up. That’s it. Simple is better; reduce the cast to as few characters as possible, trying to get away from one unstoppable threat, and I guarantee the fright-factor will go up several notches.

7. Weak Terminators 

In relation to the Terminators no longer being scary, that goes hand in hand with them being so easily defeated. Sarah Connor has been single-handedly terminating the metal motherfuckers for years, but as many other fans have pointed out, as cool as that is in concept, how are we supposed to believe a 63-year-old woman who barely survived her previous two encounters with a T-800 and T-1000 can now destroy them with ease? It’s farfetched to say the least, and clearly plays into the film’s flawed agenda of making all the women badass. They’re try desperately to make it work at all costs, and the cost, unfortunately, is basic logic. 

Solution: better thought-out interactions between the humans and machines in the action sequences, and smarter bridging between these scenes. There were multiple times when the Rev-9 was deflected from its target by gunfire. If this is supposed to be the fiercest Terminator we’ve ever seen, why is it so easy to make it miss its target? The T-800 took half-a-dozen direct shotgun blasts from Kyle Reese in the original and was on the ground no more than a few seconds before standing up again. The Rev-9 shouldn’t have even shifted its direction from a few shots of a pistol, and yet it did, and I have no doubt it was because they didn’t know how else to end the action scene and let the characters get away to the next scene. Commit to making these Terminators completely unstoppable, or, if they become too unstoppable to allow for basic fighting logic, don’t make them so powerful, scale their powers back. Just don’t cheat with cheap moves like that.  

6. Special Effects 

T2 had revolutionary effects for its time, and it’s no surprise, given that’s always been James Cameron’s thing. Dark Fate definitely has the best cgi of any Terminator film since T2, but having said it, it’s still highly inconsistent and often of poor quality. There were multiple moments of cgi taking me right out of the experience. Multiple times there are characters leaping into the air that look rubber. The liquid metal T-1000 in the original actually looked like liquid metal. The Rev-9 looks like the symbiote from Venom. That may have been an aesthetic choice, but I didn’t like it, regardless. In 2019, you would think a Terminator movie would have brilliant visual effects, especially with someone like Tim Miller behind the camera, who was a visual effects dude before he became a director, and did an excellent job on the first Deadpool with a considerably lower budget than he had to work with here. For all the advancements in technology since T2, filmmaking sensibilities seemed to have stalled.  

Solution: Practical effects are not outdated. Many of the best shots in T2 are not cgi, but rather the work of Stan Winston’s animatronics and special makeup effects. There is a fine blend of cgi and practical effects that can and should be worked out, but whether the choice to use cgi for everything was made by the studio, the producers, the director, or another department, I don’t know. All I know is, the less poorly-rendered cgi = better looking final product. 

5. Dumb action 

What if a Terminator took a sports car instead of a giant truck and actually caught up to its target with fast, tactical driving maneuvers? At least that would be something a little different. Instead, big bad Terminator takes big truck and drives after heroes. Yawn. 

The action becomes so bombastic by the end of the film, it’s difficult to believe anyone could have survived what they went through, even an enhanced human like Grace. It’s unfortunate the same mistake has been made so many times over: these sequels don’t need to keep trying to top the action from T2. It’s not going to happen, nor does it need to happen. Even with Dark Fate’s action descending into ridiculousness, it’s still some of the best action of all the sequels because of the relative emotional investment in some of the characters. 

Solution: the action in the first two films was kept realistic and grounded for the most part, but every sequel since seems to think audiences just want bigger and bigger action scenes. What I think fans are actually craving is something different from the usual driving-punching-shooting-clobbering we’ve seen 4 times in a row. Enough of having Terminators fighting Terminators. It was cool in T2, and that’s it. Let’s go back to humans trying to outsmart, outwit, and overpower a superior foe in creative, exciting ways. Less dumb action would mean needing less poor cgi effects, and a lower budget, which would ensure a more profitable film, and I doubt fans would berate it if there were a few less explosions at this point. 

4. Lack of Explanations

Some significant aspects of the story are breezed over, or not explained properly at all. There’s one in particular that I can’t get over. Spoiler: Grace has coordinates tattooed on her body, which lead them to the T-800 that’s been giving Sarah coordinates to places that Terminators pop up at over the years. If Grace comes from a future without Skynet, how does anyone in the future know where the T-800 is, if the T-800 was a creation of Skynet in a future that never happened? We never get an answer to this plot hole. 

The original Terminator had some lofty sci-fi concepts, but everything was neatly explained and made sense in-universe. Dark Fate just has lazy writing. I did a little digging, and director Tim Miller explained that when the T-800 travelled back in time, it glimpsed through time and saw the alternate realities and all the other Terminators being sent back, and because it felt bad for Sarah Connor (for reasons I’ll spoil later), it sent her the coordinates. This is, as far as I’m concerned, a straight-up bullshit explanation. It’s the kind of B-movie schlock you’d expect from a low-budget imitation of Terminator, not an actual Terminator movie. 

Solution: Eliminate the whole tattooed coordinates plot device. It comes off like something that’s strategically included simply to function as a mysterious point that’ll be explored in the sequel. It’s not necessary. The only purpose of it in Dark Fate is to get the characters to the T-800. Have Grace discover the coordinates through the phone the same way she does in the final version of the film, but bank on the emotional connection of doing this “for John” as the reason they seek out the coordinates. Sarah needs to find out who is out there guiding her to the Terminators. We don’t need to have one of the driving forces be connected to Grace.

As far as explaining other things like how the T-800 laid low for nearly 30 years and is connected to a future it was never a part of, there is no one easy fix, but it brings me to the next major problem…  

3. Carl

The T-800 in this movie goes by the name “Carl” to which Sarah Connor says: “There’s no fucking way I’m calling him Carl.” It was the hardest I’ve ever laughed in any Terminator movie. The saddest part, to me, is Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are the best parts of the movie, despite their roles being secondary and the purpose of their inclusion being spotty at best. As much as I didn’t love the reason for an old T-800 existing in Genisys, it was a better explanation that what’s given in Dark Fate. The story of the T-800 seeking purpose and redemption in the wake of fulfilling its mission and becoming nearly human was laughable. Even though it’s played up for laughs, it’s still so dumb I just can’t buy it. I even wish Arnold had been used more, too, because he only shows up halfway through, and is perhaps even better than he was in Genisys. From what I recall of Genisys, he was the best part of that one, too.

Solution: Schwarzenegger has always been the face of the Terminator franchise, but it’s been Sarah Connor’s story for the most part, and her inclusion is more acceptable than his at this point. The easiest solution would be to not include Arnold, thus eliminating the silly explanation of why he’s in it, but to lose him would be to lose a significant portion of the movie that I genuinely enjoyed, so I don’t know how to fix this problem.    

2. Killing *That* Character 

Spoiler: John Connor dies before the opening title even comes up. This huge moment has already divided fans, though most seem to be on the negative side, myself included. I get what they were going for. It makes for a truly shocking opening, and thwarts expectations significantly. Obviously they are trying to indicate John did fulfill his role as saviour of the future before being killed, but it’s a future that’s doomed to be ruled by machines anyway, just different ones. The problem with John’s death is it’s utterly unsatisfactory. It’s the equivalent of if George Lucas had killed Han Solo in the opening scene on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. A main character, beloved by viewers, integral to the previous film, dispatched unceremoniously, as if his role didn’t even matter before. 

Solution: the concept seems to have been one the creators were confident in utilizing from the early creative stages, yet didn’t seem to care what kind of backlash it might get from fans. In fact, I think many creators have wanted John Connor dead for a while, for his death was toyed with in both Salvation and Genisys. Numerous audience members reportedly walked out of the theater in the first five minutes because of John’s death, and I don’t blame them. It’s a concept used purely for shock value and to forge a female-version of the same story we’ve seen before. The solution is obvious: don’t kill John Connor. There are so many ways to work him in to the plot while still having a new female leader of the future resistance that the more I think about the way it played out, the more baffled I am at the reckless decision to terminate one of the few positive carryovers from the last truly great Terminator film.  

1. Nothing New 

This is without a doubt the biggest detriment to the entirety of Dark Fate. Not a single thing in it felt new, even if it might have been. We’ve seen human-machine hybrids before, we’ve seen liquid metal Terminators, we’ve seen truck chases and cyborg-on-human battles and robot-on-robot battles and heard “I’ll be back” so many times it’s become a punchline instead of a cool one-liner. For trying to reinvigorate a weary franchise, you’d think they would have tried to do something a little different, but instead, they went back to basics, and ended up just remaking the original two films, but adding nothing new, except to indicate there isn’t really one single prophetic leader in this new timeline, but everyone who is poised to save the day is female, because Hollywood agendas indicate that’s what people want.

They tried to make Dark Fate target multiple audiences (fans of the original, younger newcomers to the series, women who want to see badass female heroes taking the roles previously occupied by men) but in attempting to do so, kind of failed to appeal to anyone. Seriously, I don’t know who this movie is supposed to appeal to, because it asks the viewer to forget about Terminator 3, 4, and 5, but then also negates the ending of T2 and asks viewers to basically forget about the first two movies, too. So fans are here because they’ve been promised a worthy follow-up to T2, but instead get a soft reboot? This is supposed to be a new start, except it’s just the same story that’s been told before—a story told much better before. 

Solution: bringing James Cameron back in a creative role was a mistake. If the guy who created the franchise in the first place can’t offer any new ideas that appeal to fans, then it’s time to let go of as much of the history of Terminator as possible. Get rid of James Cameron, get rid of Arnold and Linda and scrap everything. Start brand-new. Use the very base elements of the story—Skynet, Judgment Day, the war against the machines, a future leader, and terminators—and build a story that hasn’t been told before, preferably in the post-apocalyptic future. 

Despite everything I’ve said, I must reiterate: I didn’t hate Terminator: Dark Fate. It’s true what everyone has been saying: this is the best Terminator sequel since T2, and it is a far cry from the greatness of T2, but is also a much more competently-made film than Terminator Genisys and better in many ways than Terminator Salvation. 

Here’s the conclusion of my Terminator Genisys review, which I went back and re-read, for I haven’t given that film much thought since I saw it the one-and-only time in the summer of 2015. These were my suggestions for the sequel (which never actually happened):  

If they can get a better script, that isn’t such a mess with too many ideas and a lack of focus, bring back old Arnold, give Jai Courtney some acting lessons (or just re-cast him), and patch up as many plot holes using time travel paradoxes and alternate time lines as possible, then maybe, just maybe, I can face the future of this franchise with a sense of hope.

It’s been over four years. I’ve changed plenty since writing that disgruntled review, and I felt less annoyed leaving the theater after Dark Fate than I did with Genisys. But the more I think about Dark Fate, the more the negatives start looking worse, because there are many more positives with it than there were with Genisys. I know that probably sounds confusing, but hey, confusion is the name of the game when it comes to the Terminator franchise. 

So looking back on what I hoped they would do in a post-Genisys film, Dark Fate did a lot of what I hoped to get out of a sixth Terminator. The script was better, with a few glaring exceptions. It was less messy and had a tighter focus, and it brought back old Arnold, though in a less interesting way than Genisys did. Jai Courtney was replaced with Mackenzie Davis’ Grace, who is essentially an enhanced female version of Kyle Reese (and significantly better than Jai Courtney), and it patched up some plot holes and paradoxes by rebooting the story, but created new ones in doing so. 

Most tragic of all, though? Dark Fate didn’t give me any hope for the future of the franchise on the big screen. The brutal reality of it is this will likely be the last Terminator film for quite a long time, because it just isn’t raking in the money necessary to make a profit. Instead, it’s poised to lose money—like, a lot of money—which all but ensures it won’t be revisited until after a significant passage of time. Perhaps the future is not set, though, and Terminator will live on via a limited series on a streaming service. There is no fate but what the producers make. As much as I’ve lost hope with a series I once loved through and through, I know there’s still potential for greatness in there, somewhere.