Older, darker ‘Terminator’ lives out its ‘Fate’
SAN DIEGO – After a few iffy entries, the “Terminator” franchise is back in action with old icons, new characters, crazy explosions and so, so many f-bombs.
The stars of the original 1984 “Terminator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, were on hand at San Diego Comic-Con to debut unveil blistering new footage for “Terminator: Dark Fate” (in theaters Nov. 1).
“Of course, I needed to come back. I’m addicted to ‘Terminator,’ ” Schwarzenegger said, adding that James Cameron’s first film “launched my actionmovie career. From that moment on, everything changed.”
“Dark Fate,” the sixth “Terminator,” is a direct sequel to 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” in which Sarah Connor (Hamilton) destroyed Cyberdyne and staved off a robot apocalypse.
“She hopes it’s good. We wouldn’t have a movie if it was,” said “Dark Fate” director Tim Miller. “Sarah is living with the consequences of that decision, and we see how it rolls out 27 years later.”
This time around, a futuristic enhanced human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and Sarah – who has been hunting Terminators in the ensuing years – need to keep young Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) safe from a new, cutting-edge Terminator (Gabriel Luna). For help, the women track down the old T-800 (Schwarzenegger), who now calls himself “Carl,” for extra firepower.
While a return was a no-brainer for Schwarzenegger, Hamilton needed some time. “I really gave it careful consideration,” she said. “I felt the first two were (great)Why, and you want to retire a champion. But it was the passage of time . ... I felt there was a world of richness I could explore, and then rock it as a woman of a certain age.”
Hamilton did a lot of dieting and training to get back to her “T2” shape. “People will always talk about the training and the body, but the real work I did was the exploration of a woman who’s an outsider, and life hasn’t worked out so well . ... I had to go to my deepest sorrows and place of loss, and that’s what makes Sarah Connor Sarah Connor.”
There was a lot of cursing among cast members on the panel – Luna gave Schwarzenegger $20 after losing a bet on how many f-bombs Miller would drop – and the director promised that “Dark Fate” would be rated R.
“It wasn’t always that way,” Miller said. “It was because the fans demanded it in a way. I had a whole other plan, but the thing is, the DNA of ‘Terminator’ is an R-rated (expletive) movie.”