Terminator: Dark Fate


Terminator: Dark Fate is a 2019 American science fiction action film directed by Tim Miller. It is the sixth film in the Terminator franchise and a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the events of the intervening sequels. The film was written by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray. The film stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles as Sarah Connor and the Terminator respectively, and also features Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes.
The film is set 25 years after the events of Terminator 2, when a malevolent artificial intelligence known as Legion from an alternate future, sends a highly advanced Terminator, the Rev-9, back in time to 2020 with instructions to kill Dani Ramos, whose fate is to become the leader of the Human Resistance in the future. The Resistance also sends Grace, an augmented soldier, back in time to defend Dani, who is also joined by Sarah Connor and Skynet's T-800 Terminator. Principal photography took place from June to November 2018 in Hungary, Spain, and the United States.
The film was released theatrically in the United States on November 1, 2019, by Paramount Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $261 million, losing $123 million, making it one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time.

Plot

In 1998, three years after the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems, Sarah and John Connor have retreated to Livingston, Guatemala, where they are ambushed by a T-800 Terminator—one of several sent back through time by Skynet prior to its erasure—which kills John despite Sarah's efforts to protect him.
In 2020, an advanced Terminator known as the Rev-9 is sent from the future to Mexico City to assassinate Dani Ramos. At the same time, a cybernetically enhanced soldier named Grace is sent from the year 2042 to protect her. The Rev-9, disguised as Dani's father, infiltrates the auto assembly plant where Dani and her brother Diego work but is intercepted by Grace, who escapes with the siblings. Using its ability to separate into a solid endoskeleton and a shape-shifting liquid exterior, the Rev-9 pursues them, killing Diego and cornering Grace and Dani. They are rescued by Sarah Connor, who temporarily disables both components of the Rev-9 using military-grade weaponry.
Grace and Dani steal Sarah's vehicle to flee but are forced to stop when Grace suffers a metabolic crash due to her augmentations. After acquiring medicine from a pharmacy, they are confronted by Sarah, who leads them to a motel. There, Sarah explains that since John's death she has received encrypted messages pinpointing the arrivals of Terminators—each signed "For John"—allowing her to intercept and destroy them. Grace reveals that in her timeline, Skynet and John never existed. Instead, an AI called Legion, developed for cyberwarfare, triggered a nuclear apocalypse after being deemed a threat to humanity. Legion created a machine army to exterminate the survivors, who formed a resistance. In this future, Dani is a central figure in humanity's struggle against Legion.
Tracing the source of Sarah's messages to Laredo, Texas, the group evades both the Rev-9 and U.S. authorities while crossing the border. There, they encounter the same T-800 that killed John. Having completed its mission and with Skynet erased from existence, the Terminator—now self-aware and calling itself "Carl"—integrated into human society, forming a family and developing a conscience. Seeking redemption, Carl began sending Sarah the coordinates of time displacement events to give her purpose. He agrees to help them defeat the Rev-9, and Sarah reluctantly joins forces with him for Dani's sake. Anticipating the Rev-9's pursuit, Carl urges his adopted family to flee.
The group obtains a military-grade electromagnetic pulse device with the help of Sarah's contact, Major Dean. However, the Rev-9 arrives and destroys the EMPs during a shootout, forcing the group to escape by air. During the flight, Grace reveals that Dani is the future leader of the resistance. The Rev-9 boards their aircraft and subdues Carl, forcing Grace, Sarah, and Dani to parachute out near a hydroelectric dam. The two Terminators follow them.
At the dam, the group makes a final stand. Carl and Grace manage to drag the Rev-9 into a turbine, causing a massive explosion that disables all three. The Rev-9's damaged endoskeleton incapacitates Sarah, leaving Dani to face it alone. A mortally wounded Grace urges Dani to use her power core as a weapon. Though initially overpowered, Dani is aided by Carl, who reactivates and restrains the Rev-9 long enough for Dani to destroy it with Grace's power source. Carl and the Rev-9 are destroyed in the ensuing blast.
In the aftermath, Dani and Sarah watch a young Grace playing at a park with her family. Determined to change the future, they drive off to prepare for the coming war.

Cast

  • Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, the former future leader of the Human Resistance in the war against Skynet. Now a battle-hardened senior woman and left alone after John's death, Sarah hunts and kills Skynet's remaining Terminators to prevent Judgment Day and forestall the coming conflict. After learning of Dani's destiny leading a new Resistance against the rogue AI Legion and realizes her own purpose in the new timeline, she prepares Dani as she did John.
  • * Maddy Curley serves as a stunt actress and body double for a young Sarah Connor, with CGI applied to recreate Hamilton's facial likeness from the 1990s opening scene.
  • * Jessi Fisher serves as a stunt actress and body double for present- day Sarah Connor.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 / Carl: An aging Terminator built by Skynet and one of several sent back in time to kill John. After completing its mission, it gained autonomy and integrated into human society, becoming benign and later starting an emotional relationship with a woman while raising her son. It lives in Laredo, Texas and owns a drapery business. It later joins forces with Sarah and Grace to help protect Dani from the Rev-9, although Sarah continues to hate Carl for John's death. Dark Fate marks the first film in the series where Schwarzenegger appears as the titular character, but does not receive top billing.
  • * Brett Azar serves as a body double for the young T-800, with CGI applied to recreate Schwarzenegger's facial likeness from the 1990s opening scene. Azar reprises this role from Terminator Genisys.
  • Mackenzie Davis as Grace, an enhanced super soldier from 2042 who was previously taken in by Dani as a teenager. Grace was subsequently trained and raised by Dani. Grace is later part of a security detail for Dani and she sustains stab wounds while fighting off a Rev-7 Terminator. Following the attack, she volunteers to be converted into a cyborg. Augmented with robotics, she has abilities comparable to those of a Terminator for short periods of time and requires medication, nourishment and rest to replenish her strength. Her enhanced senses and abilities allow her to detect machines such as Legion's before normal humans. Grace is sent to protect Dani's younger self from Legion's Rev-9.
  • * Stephanie Gil portrays a 10-year-old Grace.
  • Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos, a young woman who works with her brother at an automobile assembly plant in Mexico City. Dani is being targeted for termination by the Rev-9. At first, Sarah believes that Dani is the Resistance leader's destined mother. However, it is revealed that Dani is fated to take on a role akin to that of Sarah's deceased son, as the Resistance's founding commander in the war against the machines of Legion, with Sarah as her mentor. In the future, Dani sends Grace back in time to stop the Rev-9 and she instructs Grace to seek the T-800 for aid by tattooing its location coordinates on her.
  • Gabriel Luna as Gabriel / Rev-9, an advanced Terminator that originated from Legion and was sent back in time to terminate Dani. Featuring a traditional solid endoskeleton covered with liquid metal, the Rev-9 possesses the ability to separate these two components into two separate, fully autonomous units.
  • Diego Boneta as Diego Ramos, Dani's brother.
  • Tristán Ulloa as Felipe Gandal, Dani's uncle and a border coyote.
  • Alicia Borrachero as Alicia, Carl's wife.
  • Manuel Pacific as Mateo, Carl's step-son.
  • Enrique Arce as Vicente, Dani's and Diego's father.
  • Fraser James as Major Dean, a United States Air Force intelligence officer and Sarah's acquaintance.
  • Tom Hopper as William Hardell, Grace's commanding officer in the Resistance.
  • Stuart McQuarrie as Craig, Dani and Diego's work supervisor.
  • Steven Cree as Rigby, a United States Border Patrol agent
  • Georgia Simon, the film's ADR voice casting director, provided the voice of Grace's mother.
  • Edward Furlong as "John Connor reference", a young version of John Connor created using CGI and motion capture.
  • * Aaron Kunitz provided the voice of young John Connor.
  • * Jude Collie served as a body double for young John Connor, onto which Furlong's facial likeness from the 1990s was applied.
  • Earl Boen appears as Dr. Silberman via uncredited archival footage from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

    Production

Development

By December 2013, Skydance Productions was planning for Terminator Genisys to be the start of a new trilogy of films. The Genisys sequels were scheduled for release on May 19, 2017, and June 29, 2018. For the second film in the planned trilogy, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was to reprise his role as the T-800. Terminator Genisys was produced by Skydance founder David Ellison and was released in 2015, but its disappointing box-office performance stalled the development of the planned trilogy. Dana Goldberg, the chief creative officer for Skydance, said in October 2015 that she "wouldn't say on hold, so much as re-adjusting". According to Goldberg, despite Genisys disappointing domestic performance, the company was happy with its worldwide numbers and still intended to make new films. Production of a sequel would begin no earlier than 2016 because the company planned market research to determine its direction after Genisys. The Genisys sequels were ultimately canceled.
Tim Miller and Ellison talked about Miller eventually directing a new Terminator film after completing Deadpool 2. When Miller left the Deadpool 2 project in October 2016, he took on the Terminator film as his next project instead. At the request of Miller, franchise creator James Cameron subsequently joined the project. Cameron had directed and co-written the first two Terminator films, and Miller, through his company Blur Studio, had previously worked with Cameron. Ellison felt that Genisys could have been better, so he recruited Cameron as a fellow producer in hopes of creating a better film. Cameron was intrigued by Ellison's proposal to make a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys. Cameron said "we're pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse." Other filmmakers on the project had suggested making the film without Schwarzenegger, but Cameron disliked the idea as he and Schwarzenegger were friends. Cameron agreed to produce the film on the condition that Schwarzenegger be involved. As producer, Cameron was involved in pre-production and script work, and also provided his input on the project. Miller felt that audiences had "lost hope" in the franchise following the last three films. He believed that Cameron's involvement would serve as a "seal of quality" which would convince fans that the franchise "was going to be handled at least in a way that the original filmmaker would want".
Cameron was involved with the film as of January 2017 and Ellison was searching for a writer among science fiction authors with the intention that Miller direct. Later in the month, Ellison said there would be an announcement regarding the future of the franchise before the end of the year, adding that it was going to be in a direction that would provide "the continuation of what the fans really wanted since T2". In July 2017, Cameron said that he was working with Ellison to set up a trilogy of films and supervise them. The intention was for Schwarzenegger to be involved, but also to introduce new characters and "pass the baton".