The Terminator Thread

[Death From Above]

Based on that video, James Cameron can no longer be trusted to pick out his own clothes, let alone discern what a good movie is.

 

In fairness, if you lived in a solid gold house with a gold closet next to your gold bed and you had to pick out clothes to wear when you sit by your gold pool, there's a chance you'd get a little out there too.

[Jiji]

Don't forget his gold-plated shark tank bar! He had to wait a few months before he could afford it due to the high piracy numbers on Avatar. VICTIMLESS CRIME?! I think not.

[Ligerbusa]

 

Apparently "Fuck you, asshole!" is in the movie but they took it out of the clip.

[TheVileOne]

Just got invited to see the film on Monday out of the blue at the Paramount lot.  Was not expecting that.  There is also supposed to be some in theater interactive game demo they are going to show first.  

[Ligerbusa]

Skydance saw my Youtube videos and didn't fly me to LA to see the movie early. 

[TheVileOne]

Ligerbusa, I am telling you right now, don't say I didn't warn you.

 

As I said when we found out about the John Connor reveal, I wish this franchise would fucking die with dignity already.

[EVA]

You mean it sucks? SHOCKING. Who could have possibly foreseen that?

[TheVileOne]

Not Ligerbusa.

[EVA]

We need a Supreme Court ruling that only James Cameron can make Terminator movies.

[Ligerbusa]

Not Ligerbusa.

 

I never said it was going to be good, but I'm going to see it and I prefer not going in angry and hating everything. If that's the case, why see it?

 

I hoped it could work and if it doesn't, that sucks. I'll see tomorrow. 

[BrianS81177]

Saw it tonight. I'd give it 6.5-7 out of 10. Random thoughts/spoilers below.

 

The ending with Arnold becoming "upgraded" by the liquid metal was a bit much IMO. 

 

It didn't seem like there was any real reason for J.K. Simmons' character to even really be in the movie, which I hate to say because I like him a lot. 

 

The CGI work on the young Arnold T-800 was pretty good I though.

 

Good god those opening scenes must have cost a fortune to make

 

They didn't do enough with Byung-Hun Lee IMO. Killed him off way too quickly

 

Now don't get me wrong, there's enough stuff here to like (some good action scenes, some funny Arnold moments, Emilia Clarke's heaving bosom) but I would put it 4th out of the 5 movies (I hated hated hated Salvation). 

 

Not spoiler-y at all, but how the hell does Jai Courtney keep getting work? Dude has all the acting range of a 2x4.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I saw Divergent a few days ago on HBO, and he was like the least offensive part of the movie. YA just isn't for me I guess. He can do American accents. That's more than I can say for ole Sam "I make Sam Neill's American accent sound natural" Worthington. Plus, women want to fuck him. That has bought Boris Kodjoe like 10 or 15 years in Hollywood.

[Technico Support]

Guys who have seen this: 

 

I enjoyed Terminator 3 & 4, which many critics and fans considered to be crap.  With that in mind, would I like this one?

[BrianS81177]

As I said above, I personally would put it below T3 but miles above Salvation. So, yeah I think you'll like it. 

[RIPPA]

[Kuetsar]

Among the scores of reasons I won't be seeing this movie is Emilia Clarke. I realize she's in her mid 20's, but she has such a baby face that makes her playing any sort of adult/serious role non credible. I say this as some who does not watch GOT. . . . .

[Ligerbusa]

I thought the first thirty minutes or so were awesome. The rest of the movie didn't feel like Terminator to me but was decent sci fi action.

 

I'll post my super fanboy video review sometime.

[Jingus]

Among the scores of reasons I won't be seeing this movie is Emilia Clarke. I realize she's in her mid 20's, but she has such a baby face that makes her playing any sort of adult/serious role non credible. I say this as some who does not watch GOT. . . . .

Clarke is fine in her role on GoT. But, she's playing a character who's a young teenager in the book; like, at the beginning of the show, she's supposed to be 15 (which is raised from the book's 13; I guess that somehow makes her endless nude scenes and sex scenes and child-getting-raped scenes to be somehow less immoral, or something). And her character Dany is basically a trust-fund baby who always relies on other people to fight all her battles for her. So, no, she's not portrayed as any kind of physical badass or threat on that show.

[(BP)]

I watched the first one again last night. Is it possible that in the original timeline before Reese ever travelled back that one of the other Sarah Connors was John Connor's mother, and it was a case of mistaken identity? I know I'm just trying to explain away a paradox, but it's been a long time since I've watched it and that hadn't occurred to me before.

[Craig H]

Man, this movie was such a mess, and yet, I still found it to be ok. Like Ligerbusa said, the first 20 to 30 minutes were good, but then the entire tone of the movie changes. It becomes so bright and slick.

 

If it wasn't that, it was how they kept hitting you over the head again and again and again about what Terminators are or what Skynet is or what Judgment Day is or what Kyle Reese is there for and...ugh...you get the point. IT'S A FUCKING TERMINATOR MOVIE! If you don't know what this series is about, TOUGH FUCKIN' SHIT ASSHOLE! Get the fuck out because this movie ain't for you. And yet, the writers found it necessary to overly explain a franchise that we're 5 movies and 1 tv show into.

 

That writing also saw fit to introduce the biggest plot holes I've seen in a movie. 

 

I don't even know where to begin...Let's start with the fact that the timeline was created in 1984 because in about 1974, someone sent a fucking liquid metal terminator to kill Sarah Connor as a child and someone also sent a T800 back to protect her. Initially, they play up a mystery as to why there's a T800 with Sarah in 1984. T800 says his memory files were deleted, but Sarah knows the how and what and why. Then, like 5 minutes later, Sarah reveals the whole thing about the T1000 being sent to kill her and the T800 being sent to protect her. AT NO POINT DOES KYLE REESE ASK "WHO SENT THEM?" It's just fucking hand-waved and everyone moves on because that's a totally fucking normal thing to happen.

Another plot hole at this very same time, and we're like 20 minutes into this thing, is Sarah mentions going to get the other Kyle Reese sent back to 1984, which is completely glossed over again. Like, what in the fucking fuck? Why would you introduce shit like that without having a payoff? It's the laziest fucking writing.

So in 1984 the T800 and Sarah have built a time machine and instead of just going to 1997 or whatever, they wait for the T800 to show up. We see the T800 get sent back and we are told that using the time machine is last ditch effort, so nothing else has been sent back in time. Not another T800, not a T1000, not Kyle Reese, NOTHING. The T800 shows up and the old T800 and the one just sent back fight it out. I should point out that Sarah had exact knowledge of the T800 being sent back and going to where those punks were at so you would think both Sarah and Pops would be waiting for the new T800. Instead, THEY GET THE JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME! The fuck?! And this is bullshit that happens constantly in this movie, with characters knowing exactly what would happen and just getting somewhere late or just in time. Also, a T1000 is already in 1984, which not one fucking person questions how that would even be possible.

Moving on, Sarah and Kyle use the time machine to instead go to 2017. Sarah has a problem with this, but timey wimey bullshit deems that 1997 isn't going to be Judgment Day and 2017 is. Parallel timelines are mentioned and blah blah blah, but Sarah and Kyle go to 2017, leaving Pops to wait around. In that time, you would think Pops would have ammo all loaded up and ready to go or he would be in the right place at the right time to get Sarah and Kyle, but that would deprive us of the bullshit scenes of Kyle and Pops loading up ammo clips and shit.

Giant plot hole #3 is John managing to go back in time at all. So as Kyle is getting sent back in time, The Doctor/Matt Smith/Skynet infects John Connor with nanobots Agent Smith style. I shit you fucking not, it's the same way Agent Smith would infect others, complete with digitized voice of the victim. So John Connor is now a machine. There is no bio-organic skin covering metal to protect it while it goes into the time machine. And yet, it goes back in time anyway. This, by the way, turns out to be something that destroys John Connor later in the movie.

The characters also laugh in the fucking face of time and space in this movie, with John saying he could still kill Sarah and he would be there. We are also told that they are relics of a failed timeline. And that's fine, but no respect is even paid to parallel timelines.

So to sum up...someone or something sends back a T1000 and Pops to 1974 to kill Sarah and Pops saves Sarah. Meanwhile, they wait until the events of 1984 and also build a time machine. In the future, the time machine, which hasn't been used before, finally gets used to send back a T800 to kill Sarah. Kyle Reese also gets sent back to 1984. Sarah and Pops show up just a little late to the party to kill the T800 even though they had information on when and where the T800 would be. Pops and Sarah go to save Kyle from the T1000, which was somehow sent back as well. And there's another Kyle that was sent back. So the writers have no idea how parallel timelines or time travel should work. They just do whatever the fuck they want, no matter how little sense it makes.

 

At this point, I need to stop. There's so many problems with this movie, but again, I found a way to think it was merely ok. I have no idea how that's possible. I can only chalk it up to Arnold being awesome. Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke both fucking sucked. They are terrible actors.

[Technico Support]

I watched the first one again last night. Is it possible that in the original timeline before Reese ever travelled back that one of the other Sarah Connors was John Connor's mother, and it was a case of mistaken identity? I know I'm just trying to explain away a paradox, but it's been a long time since I've watched it and that hadn't occurred to me before.

 

Oh shit.  Right, there were more Sarah Connors in the phonebook; I believe the one who got all caught up in these adventures was the third.  Maybe John  Connor was the son of one of the Sarahs further down.  So Skynet is wasting time constantly sending Terminators after the wrong people while the real John Connor lived a peaceful existence, maybe joined the National Guard or something.

[(BP)]

Yeah, John Connor Prime gets to spend the 90s following Phish around or something. Meanwhile, this kid who only exists because Reese went back in time and protected/slept with the wrong Sarah Connor is being trained by his mother to fight and being told he's the savior.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I can only chalk it up to Arnold being awesome. Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke both fucking sucked. They are terrible actors.

 

When they first announced Emilia Clarke was the lead, I immediately thought she should've waited at least a few more years before taking on a giant role. I mean I think she is great as Daenerys, but it's not like it requires her to do a whole heck of a lot. I've seen her do some stage acting (Breakfast at Tiffany's IIRC). Oooof.

 

She is a tad bit limited.

[Craig H]

While my friends and I were discussing the movie last night, we were trying to think of a way to unfuck this franchise, which would have to be done with this movie, so obviously that didn't work. If it did go differently though, maybe this would be one way. I'll admit this is possibly dumb, it is long, it's probably confusing as fuck and it may contain plot holes for I am not a writer of fiction.

 

For this to work, you basically have to pretend Terminator 3 doesn't exist, or rather, it exists to just show that Judgment Day can't be avoided, or at least that's what most think. Salvation just shows what a version of the future war is like.

 

They nearly went full Doc Brown with J. K. Simmons' character and they should have gone beyond Doc Brown with him.

 

The movie starts the same. A T1000 makes it way back to 1974 to kill 9 year old Sarah and Pops manages to make his way back as well, except he only knows he was sent back to protect Sarah by Skynet.

 

Somehow Pops knows the approximate location and time Kyle will be sent back and also knows that another T800 will be sent to kill Sarah.

 

The T1000 sent to kill Sarah in 1974 has been chasing her and Pops the whole time, including up to 1984. In that time, the T800 provides Sarah with an education, along with priming her for the future.

 

In the future, that plays out the same as well. Skynet is on the ropes and the resistance makes their final push on Skynet and the facility with the time machine. As planned, Skynet sends back a T800 to 1984 to kill Sarah and the humans send back Kyle to protect Sarah.

 

As Kyle gets sent back, he sees Matt Smith/Skynet attack and infect John. This causes Kyle to experience multiple timelines, just like he does in the movie.

 

So Kyle experiences multiple timelines during his trip, he arrives, the T1000 we see in the trailers detects a temporal disturbance and it encounters Kyle. Sarah and Pops show up to save Kyle. A witness to all of this stuff manages to survive.

 

Sarah, Pops and Kyle overcome the T1000 at some point in 1984. Sarah and Pops take Kyle to the time machine they've been building.

 

Kyle tells them that John told him everything to expect based on what Sarah told younger John. Nowhere in there was a T1000, Pops or another time machine. Sarah only knows what Pops told her and the timeline is much different. Kyle also reveals he saw multiple timelines including ones from 1997, 2004 and 2017. Kyle can't explain it, but something is pulling him to 2017. Pops only knows that it's possible for multiple timelines to exist from the use of time travel and agrees that based on the divergences in their timeline, they should go to 2017 since enough events have changed to make the outcomes of 1997 and 2004 unlikely to occur, namely that there are no random Terminator parts to inspire Myles Dyson to create Skynet/Cyberdyne, but those are still created and Judgment Day still happens.

 

Kyle and Sarah travel to 2017, days before what Kyle thinks will be Judgment Day, leaving Pops behind to meet up with them in 2017. While he waits, he will acquire weapons, ammo and explosives to assault Skynet/Cyberdyne.

 

When Sarah and Kyle arrive, it causes a pretty big ruckus due to how cautious we are about terrorism and how everyone has a video camera on them with their phones. Sarah and Kyle are captured and placed in jail while they wait to be moved to a mental care facility since they didn't do any harm, but they were naked and saying crazy stuff.

 

Simmons shows up as a psychiatrist and takes the two out of jail to a mental care facility. but instead takes them to Pops' safehouse.

Simmons explains that he was there in a version of that same 1984, was placed in a psychiatric ward, Skynet went live, the bombs fell and he was someone placed in an internment camp. The machines ran tests on many people, including him, and for some people, they were used to test out time travel. Most went crazy or died. Simmons was one of those used to test time travel and he survived. The machines began to augment his brain to better record data. Simmons was then sent in the time machine several times, never actually traveling to any point, and each time he saw a different timeline and received other augmentations. The machines eventually lost Simmons in time at some point around 2010. Before that, he connected with Skynet due to his augmentations. He learned that Skynet developed a second AI, one of them realizing that Skynet's own survival was at risk because of the war against humans and because they perceived humans as a disease to be eliminated. This AI was more passive than the Skynet we all know and the more aggressive Skynet continued to carry out it's campaign to destroy all humans. That more passive AI lives in Simmons. So before Simmons gets lost in 2010, a T1000 is sent back as a test to an even earlier point, in 1974, to test the capabilities of time travel. The timeline doesn't change, but the more aggressive Skynet knows they can send a machine back and that will be used when Skynet's survival is at stake because sending additional machines could have the possibility of preventing Skynet from even going online. Simmons, empowered by the passive Skynet, sends back a T800 programmed to protect Sarah in the event the T1000 attacks her.

 

Simmons explains that somehow Dyson is still able to bring Skynet online and doesn't understand how that's possible. He also explains that Judgment Day will always happen unless they avoid the creation of all other timelines. Each time someone or something went back, a new tangent timeline was created. From that point forward, the universe has been trying to correct itself, to avoid this current state, which will inevitably unravel all of space and time. He also knows that for Skynet, time travel was always a goal so it's possible it's being worked on now. The rules of the time machine are also better explained to allow some machines to make it through.

 

The team goes to abduct Dyson to learn more. While they're with Dyson, John shows up and kills Dyson. He reveals that Skynet opened his mind to the futility of war and he had to go back to ensure it's creation and he's been behind this creation of Skynet and he is Skynet.

 

Anyway, a big battle ensues with John trying to protect Skynet. During the fight, they discover a time machine. Simmons explains to them that he can program the time machine to make the jump to a specific timeline and point in the space-time continuum, but he needs to go back with them because the information he has needs to survive to avoid Judgment Day and the only way to avoid Judgment Day is to let Skynet go online and let Judgment Day occur. Pops destroys John, but is mortally wounded in the process. Sarah and Kyle obviously protest what Simmons is saying, but Pops ultimately serves Simmons, so Pops aids in sending Simmons, Sarah and Kyle in time. The red light in Pops' eye fades as he's thinking of memories of Sarah. Fade to black.

 

Open back up to what looks like a desert. The temporal bubble appears and drops off Simmons, Sarah and Kyle. We see they're actually in the post-Judgment Day future and up walks John Connor.

 

In the next movie, they're in the post-Judgment Day future and human John aids them in their mission. Simmons reveals they're in the T3 timeline and they need to stop the TX and make a time jump before the TX is destroyed because if they're still in that timeline when the TX is destroyed, who knows what will happened when the timeline is severed.

 

The encounter the TX, but wind up destroying it to survive. Nothing happens and Simmons theorizes that they need to go to the time travel facility at Skynet because they also need to stop the T1000 in that timeline.

 

During all of this assault on the facility to stop the T1000, we learn that Sarah is pregnant, Kyle dies because fuck Jai Courtney, and Simmons dies. Sarah realizes that Simmons should still be alive though, and during the assault on Skynet, she and John find Simmons.

 

Many epic, Mad Max type battles take plac and the T800 and T1000 fight. John has the intelligence to realize he can't go with Simmons and Sarah since he's part of this doomed timeline. Simmons supports this by saying the disruption could undo everything they've done. We get Sarah ordering John not to stay, but he stays anyway and tells Simmons to protect Sarah since he'll have a second life if they succeed, point to Sarah's stomach. John and the T800 stop the T1000 after Sarah and Simmons jump. Then we get some crazy special effects showing the ending of a timeline.

 

Simmons, who doesn't have the knowledge that the other Simmons had, and pregnant Sarah arrive in 1984, right after Sarah and Kyle jump to 2017. Yeah, it's the Back to the Future 2 ending.

 

The third movie starts by explaining Sarah and Simmons' mission. Skynet needs to survive and go online. If it doesn't, nothing changes and Judgment Day still happens. My version of Terminator Genisys is now the prime timeline. They can't wait around for 23 years.

 

We also learn that Matt Smith/Skynet has been hot on their trail, using the same coordinates to jump to same timeline, concluding that this will give Skynet it's ultimate victory.

 

The team reconstructs the time machine and begins to make the jump. Matt Smith shows up at the this same time and Pops has to throw him into the time bubble or else Matt Smith can do whatever he wants over the next 23 years. Simmons, Sarah and Smith all arrive in 2017 and then it's just massive fights en route to Cyberdyne. The ultimate goal is for Simmons to upload the version of Skynet in his brain to override the version being created by John. However the upload occurs is fine as long as it isn't dumb where Cyberdyne just happened to have a device to uplink a brain or something. The little biometric reader John used to communicate with Skynet would be fine.

 

While that happens, Sarah and Pops need to fend off John and Smith. Simmons' good Skynet begins to have an effect on John so Smith kills John. Smith and Pops begin to fight until Smith begins to infect Pops. Pops manages to drag them over to the time machine, which Sarah turns on to destroy Smith and the time machine. Pops gets spit out of the time bubble.

Simmons holds on to complete the upload and dies after because his brain is fried.

 

The more benevolent Skynet rebuilds Pops with the liquid metal soup. Pops then picks up Sarah, who is in labor and dying, and takes her to the hospital. Sarah dies or doesn't, I don't care, but John lives with Pops there protect John or John and Sarah. Skynet has setup John to be taken care of as he must be the guardian against other AI and that's how he lives out his life, still ensuring the survival of the human race.

[Bustronaut]

You're mad a nanite encrusted [person] makes the trip through time unaffected, but you're fine with multiple liquid metal robots doing the same?  Someone's cranky!

 

I've long wondered why the future soldiers didn't skin some extra terminators, make this pelts into a giant bag, fill it with future weapons and send it back.