SARAH CONNOR

We salute the real hero of the Terminator saga, and her extraordinary triple-tiered arc

THE INNOCENT

When we first meet Sarah Connor, the most terrifying things she has to worry about are getting the order right at her waitressing job or maintaining a perfect ’80s perm. Given the Exceptionally Heavy Shit she endures in The Terminator — forced to flee from a murderous cyborg assassin, watching friends and family murdered by said cyborg assassin, learning she is the matriarch of a human resistance a hundred years hence — she takes it pretty well. As a protagonist, she’s justifiably vulnerable and fallible, but the fact she meets such an unthinkable challenge with resolve and even tenderness hints at her future greatness.

THE WARRIOR

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, we meet a very different Sarah. Her nowteenage son John reveals in passing how her life changed irrevocably since the events of the first film: how she threw herself into preparing for the war between the humans and the machines with a militant obsessiveness that almost made her lose her humanity (witness the moment John mistakes her bullet-wound check for a hug). In a film with two Terminators, Sarah is arguably the toughest character on screen — her tank-top-and-sunglasses look remains incalculably iconic — but, despite everything she’s seen, she still ultimately allows herself a little hope.

THE VETERAN

For all its flaws, recent sequel Terminator: Dark Fate finally recognised that the true hero of the series was not made of metal, but mettle. A now 60-something Sarah wears the wars and tragedies on her face, but she still keeps the pain hidden behind a pair of shades and a Kevlar bulletproof jacket; she’s seen it all, and a couple of relentless cybernetic organisms aren’t going to phase her at this point. It’s a remarkable arc travelled, from naive college student to grizzled footsoldier, and there’s a pleasing circularity in her eventually acting as mentor to Dani just as Kyle was to her. Her legacy lives on.