IF there is any film franchise potentially in need of hitting the reset button, it’s the Terminator series. Launched back in 1984 with The Terminator, a low-budget cult classic sci-fi thriller, and continued in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, one of the most spectacular and groundbreaking action blockbusters of all time, the franchise sent itself down several different and twisting narrative roads over the course of three more movies and an acclaimed but shortlived TV show. But now a new film, Terminator: Dark Fate (out Nov. 1), is taking a different tack. The story threads pursued in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys have been jettisoned in favor of a direct sequel to writer/director James Cameron’s first two films. The contorted continuity that plagued the later entries is, appropriately for a tale about the future, a thing of the past. What makes this instantly compelling is the return of two key personnel who have been long missing: Cameron, who reacquired the rights to his signature franchise and decided to take an active role in conceiving the story and producing the film, and Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah Connor in the original two movies and returns as the series’ heart and soul for the first time in 28 years. Of course, the iconic star of the series, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is back as well, while the movie introduces a fresh cast including Mackenzie Davis (Blade Runner 2049),
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been playing various T-800s for 35 years, but in Dark Fate he is at last reunited with Linda Hamilton and James Cameron.
Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and Natalia Reyes. The director is Tim Miller, who made his directorial debut in 2016 with Deadpool after working for years as a visual effects specialist. Miller came on board after meeting producer David Ellison, who was behind the previous attempt to reboot the franchise with Terminator Genisys. “Even despite Genisys not playing as well as expected, he didn’t want to give up,” says Miller. “He still wanted to take another bite of the apple and he thought I might be a good candidate to help because The Terminator was a very formative movie for me. I have a great affection for the franchise and really wanted to see it come back in a big way.” It was Hamilton’s return as Sarah Connor—who in the original movie was the target of the first Terminator played by Schwarzenegger—that most drew Miller toward Dark