Overview
It's one of the most famous lines in cinema history, and it just keeps proving true. When Arnold Schwarzenegger said "I'll be back" in 1984's The Terminator, he clearly meant it — and so did James Cameron's franchise.
Like Skynet-controlled robot killing machines trying to exterminate humanity and take over the world, this series just keeps coming, with 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, 2009's Terminator Salvation, 2015's Terminator Genisys, TV's short-lived Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and animated show Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series to its name. The saga's fortunes have been varied, to say the least, with the last few films hardly leaving anyone clamouring for more. But, no matter how Terminator: Dark Fate turns out, it does have one big trick up its sleeves.
While Arnie has been a part of every Terminator movie except Salvation, which was made while he was the Governor of California, Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor hasn't had a significant part in the franchise since T2. The character has still popped up on-screen, played by everyone's favourite duelling Game of Thrones queens — that is, by Lena Headey in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and by Emilia Clarke in Genisys — but now the kick-ass Hamilton is making a proper comeback.
Timeline-wise, Dark Fate actually takes place after T2, ignoring all of the other sequels. If it's a success, it'll start a new trilogy, although the same was expected of Salvation and Genisys, too. As well as the return of Hamilton as Connor — and Arnie as the T-800, of course — the movie stars Halt and Catch Fire's Mackenzie Davis as a new terminator-human hybrid sent from the future. She's charged with protecting Birds of Passage's Natalia Reyes from the deadly ways of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Gabriel Luna, who plays their not-so-kindly cyborg assassin foe.
After writing and directing the series' first two flicks, Cameron returns as a producer, while Deadpool's Tim Miller is in the director's chair.
Catch the trailer below — yes, the saga is back:
Terminator: Dark Fate releases in Australian cinemas on October 31, 2019.