Our movie today is the sixth movie installment in The Terminator “franchise” which began in 1984. Here we are thirty- five years later with, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprising their original roles as the original “Terminator” and Sarah Connors. I really enjoyed the 1984 original and have seen bits of the sequels, but going into this movie, I wasn’t quite sure of where Sarah has been.
The movie begins in the near future, the world devastated by Terminators, hunting down the rebel forces of the remaining humans. The human resistance army is being decimated by the terminators, but they have a new weapon against the robot army, “augmented humans”.
Suddenly, we are in 1998 and we see a young John Connor being killed by our original terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, I am a bit confused here as I haven’t see every Terminator, but I’m thinking killing John in this scenario hasn’t happened in the other movies.
Now, back in current time, we have to separate “arrivals” of hunter/killer terminators from the future via something of a cosmic egg drop, a woman and man. It is now that we are also introduced to Dani Ramos, who lives with her father and brother in Mexico.
Soon, Dani is under attack by the male terminator and HELLO the female terminator comes and saves her. Unfortunately the father and brother are killed, but who didn’t see that coming right?
Now comes the compulsory high speed car/truck battle on a busy highway, the male terminator splitting in two (something new) so he can drive the truck and also become part of it (he’s like a two fer deal). Trucks blow up, flames everyone and who comes to same the day, but WELCOME BACK Sarah Connor, played by a bad ass Linda Hamilton. They escape from the Terminator, but he is on their trail.
We soon learn Grace, who we assumed was a Terminator is actually an augmented human, a hybrid soldier of the future. Grace was sent from the future to protect Dani Ramos, but won’t say why. Sarah asks Grace about the battle against SkyNet. Grace has never heard of SkyNet, instead in the future the battle is against something called “Legion.” Legion created artificial intelligence for cyber warfare, which then created the Ultimate Terminator, who is killing mankind.
So, Grace was sent back from the future to save Dani. So we make the assumption that Dani is going to be the mother of the future leader of the resistance, a Sarah Connor 2.0 basically. So, is she pregnant now? I’m thinking at the cast and I’m not seeing a baby daddy anywhere.
But, who we do find is the original Terminator, Mr Arnold himself, who has been trapped on earth, after the destruction of SkyNet. We don’t see this, as SkyNet was destroyed in one of the earlier sequels.
So, Arnold is now the owner/operator of Carl’s Draperies, whose business motto is
“We never leave you Hanging” Arnold has a very nice cabin the woods, and lives
with a woman and helped to raise her son from infancy. Sarah, not a fan of Arnold,
questions hasn’t the woman ever noticed you never sleep and weigh four hundred
pounds. He explains they do not have a physical relationship, but he has good
characteristics that she appreciates as in he’s a good listener, he’s funny and he
never complained about changing diapers. This is just a little too much for me, a
Terminator hanging and designing curtains? Arnold?
As we are discussing drapery options with Arnold, the new Terminator is hot on their trail. Arnold who has grown a conscious (who knew that was possible) and wants to make amends for John’s death. He joins forces with Grace and Sarah in protecting Dani.
We finally learn the truth of why Dani is so important in the future, and it’s a nice fit in today’s environment of empowered women. This is a Terminator movie, the characters may change, but you know what you are getting into when you purchase the ticket. Legion is the new SkyNet, and there is always a new model of Terminator with fancy embellishments. The whole Arnold as a Drapery business owner, hiding in plain sight for decades, is just too out there for me.
I enjoyed the strong female leads of Grace, Sarah and Dani banding together against the coming future. Linda Hamilton, as Sarah, remains true to her character after all these years, doing everything she can to save the future, which she does “for John”, forever a grieving mother.
Terminator Dark Fate is rated C plus. It wasn’t bad, wasn’t that good but it was worth the ticket price to see Arnold and Linda Hamilton back together again. Unless you have seen every Terminator movie ever made (a true Terminator superfan), I recommend a matinee ticket purchase only. Better yet, wait a month or two for a blizzard, go to Red Box, throw a pizza in the oven, grab a bottle of South American Red settle down on the sofa and binge watch the whole franchise.
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