I don't need to. A new movie is coming and this thread is about what I would like to see brought back to that franchise and what others would like to see.
You clearly don't feel it should continue. That's fair. I feel you with those not so great movies that came out after T2 - my opinion, as there are fans of those movies and that's fair. They just don't speak to me because to me they actually DO feel like fanfiction.
Maybe James Cameron surprises... maybe he doesn't. Who knows. I still have more faith in him than the other directors, though. He could give us a Ridley Scott and George Lucas... or he can give us a George Miller.
Yeah, I'm encouraged that Cameron is going back.
But he's facing the same problems with 'Terminator' that anybody else would.
I wish he would start over with a reboot. But I don't think he will.
I hope he splits the difference. Ignore the movies after T1/T2 (including 'Dark Fate'). Treat T1/T2 as another timeline that has been avoided.
The post-apocalyptic future war version of the 2020s in T1/T2? That was the hellscape version of Hill Valley in 1985 where Biff Tannen is rich. When Miles Dyson blew up Cyberdine in T2, it was retrieving the sports almanac from young 1955 Biff before he could start using it. Hellscape avoided. The years of trauma & struggle that Sarah & John endured were not for nothing. They did save the world, although nobody else will ever know about it.
Okaaaay . . . but eventually the Cyberdine/Skynet tech is going to be developed anyway. It's a logical progression of human tech endeavors. So maybe that's what a new 'Terminator' movie could deal with. A more nuanced version of events where Skynet doesn't suddenly become self-aware and nuke the world in one very bad day.
I have no clue how the old T1/T2 cast fits into it. My feeling is that they mostly shouldn't, but Cameron probably won't make the movie without them. Eddie Furlong was right for the role in 1991 but not as an adult. Arnie doesn't realistically fit in either. He could play a scientist or somebody who inspired the T-800 form in the aborted hellscape timeline. But I don't think there is room for Arnie to do any more ass-kicking in a new movie. That leaves elder Linda Hamilton and a new actor for John.
I'd like to see Sarah get a happy ending for once. That actually seems out of her comfort zone now. We've seen her doing plenty of doom & gloom & Terminator-hunting.
Picture it: After decades of avoiding Kyle Reese she finally gets forced to meet him. Of course he's half her age (new actor or CGI-fake job). She doesn't even want to tell him about their relationship in the T1/T2 timeline, and that's sad . . . but oh gee, look. Kyle happens to have a single father/uncle and he's played by Michael Beihn.
Have Arnie play some character like a scientist who is totally not a tough guy. Just completely take him out of his usual wheelhouse. Maybe he's the new Miles Dyson character. Then near the end of the movie he cracks open a can of whoopass (a plausible amount for an old guy) during an action scene and surprises the other characters. BA-DUM-TSSS! There's his one-liner.
Arnie still gets acting jobs in his old age because he's an iconic face with charisma and comic timing. Not because he's a tough guy. Cameron should adapt & use him that way this time.
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