Summary
Even though James Cameron didn’t care for one sci-fi franchise’s infamous twist,Terminator: Dark Fateironically saw the director repeat the same mistake with theTerminatorseries.TheTerminatormoviesstarted strong with director James Cameron’sThe TerminatorandTerminator 2: Judgment Day, but the franchise soon fell apart. In the decades that followed, theTerminatorseries repeatedly struggled to regain its initial critical acclaim. 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machineswas tonally uneven, with a brutally bleak ending that felt completely unearned. 2009’sTerminator: Salvationwas an ill-fated attempt to switch gears into post-apocalyptic action.
A lotwent wrong withTerminator: Genisys, but the finished movie’s incomprehensible timeline and muddled character focus is what made it a dud. As such, 2019’sTerminator: Dark Fateseemed like the franchise’s last hope. Directed byDeadpool’s Tim Miller,Terminator: Dark Fatehad a script from David S. Goyer and a story byThe Terminatorcreator Cameron. This R-ratedTerminatorsequel ignored everything afterTerminator 2: Judgment Dayand brought back Linda Hamilton, a move that seemed set to fix the franchise. Instead,Terminator: Dark Fatewas critically derided and became a major box office bomb upon release.
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Terminator: Dark Fate Killed John Connor Like Alien 3 Killed Newt And Hicks
Alien 3 and Terminator: Dark Fate Made The Same Opening Scene Mistake
The 2019 reboot made a lot of strange decisions, but among the most inscrutable wasTerminator: Dark FateborrowingAlien 3’s opening scene. Director David Fincher’sAlien 3infamously began with the revelation that Newt and Hicks, the likable survivors ofAliens, both died off-screen before the sequel began. This was a shockingly bleak twist since Newt was a small child and Hicks seemed like a potential love interest for Ripley, meaning viewers were understandably invested in their survival. Moreover, this twist made the entire story ofAliensredundant as it meant Newt and Hicks didn’t really survive.
This reveal was widely hated, which made it fascinating whenTerminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene killed off John Connor just likeAlien 3killed Newt and Hicks. SinceTerminator: Dark Fateretconned every sequel afterTerminator 2: Judgment Day, it effectively acted as a second sequel and a direct continuation of that movie’s story. Thus,Alien 3andTerminator: Dark Fateboth took vulnerable characters who viewers spent the entire preceding movie following and pitilessly slaughtered them in their opening minutes. In both cases, this bizarrely grim opening gambit was enough to put many viewers off the movie’s plot.
James Cameron’s Alien 3 Comments Make Dark Fate’s Story Surprising
Cameron Didn’t Approve Of Alien 3 Killing Hicks And Newt
It was always going to be strange forTerminator: Dark Fateto kill John Connorwhen the character was, alongside his mother Sarah, the protagonist of the series. However, what made this choice particularly wild was the fact thatCameron himself complained aboutAlien 3’s opening scene years earlier. Cameron said during a DVD commentary track forAliensthat the scene was “Just kind of a slap in the face of the fans who invested in Newt and Hicks and all of those character relationships.” Cameron’s comments echoed the attitude of many viewers and critics, but now ring hollow.
Where Newt and Hicks’ deaths took place off-screen before the sequel began, John Connor appears alive and well in Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene.
Since Cameron didn’t care for the decision to ax Hicks and Newt, it is surprising that the director opted to kill off John Connor in much the same way. Admittedly, John Connor’s death is a little different from Newt and Hicks’ deaths. However, the differences mean thatTerminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene is arguably even more of a slap in the face. Where Newt and Hicks’ deaths took place off-screen before the sequel began, John Connor appears alive and well inTerminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene. He’s then gunned down by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800n in a gruesome, sudden public assassination.
Killing John Connor Hurt Dark Fate’s Story
Terminator: Dark Fate Started Out On A Grim Note
What makes Connor’s death so hard to stomach is his existing relationship with the T-800. TheTerminatorseriesneeded to move on from John Connor, but killing the character off wasn’t the only way to achieve this and the T-800 killing him was just mean-spirited. John Connor spent the entirety ofTerminator 2: Judgment Daywarming to the T-800, gradually growing to see him as something of a stoic surrogate father figure and grieving his death in the movie’s finale. Even inTerminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene, he momentarily recognizes Schwarzenegger’s character before realizing his mistake too late.
It was tough for viewers to get invested in Terminator: Dark Fate’s story after this opening scene
The Terminator that kills John Connor is not the same one fromTerminator 2: Judgment Day, but it is still brutal to see him shot by a former friend. It was tough for viewers to get invested inTerminator: Dark Fate’s story after this opening scene since Sarah Connor’s drive to protect the life of her son defined her character arc in earlier movies. If John Connordied inTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as was originally planned, Sarah’s story may have successfully followed a new path. However, the franchise subsequently invested too heavily in him.
Alien 3’s Opening Was Worse Than Dark Fate’s Big Twist
Terminator: Dark Fatearrived afterTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines,Terminator: Salvation,Terminator: Genisysand even TV’sTerminatorspinoffThe Sarah Connor Chroniclesspent years focusing on John and Sarah. As a result of this sustained focus,the sudden death of John was less subversive and more pointless. That said, John’s death still wasn’t as misguided asAlien 3’s opening scene.Alien 3’s decision to kill off Hicks and Newt telegraphed just how downbeat and relentlessly grim the rest of the sequel’s story woiuld be, warning viewers to abandon any hopes of an enjoyable adventure likeAliens.
Terminator: Dark Fate is far from a misunderstood classic, but it did undeniably attempt to do something new with the series.
In contrast,Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene served to shift the franchise’s focus to Sarah rather than John. It didn’t work andTerminator: Dark Fate’s Carl subplotmight have been the silliest attempt at pathos in the history of the series. However, it wasn’t as pessimistic and miserable asAlien 3and the reboot did at least offer a few fun action sequences.Terminator: Dark Fateis far from a misunderstood classic, but it did undeniably attempt to do something new with the series. This madeTerminator: Dark Fatekilling off theTerminatorfranchise’s hero more understandable.
