IMAGE CREDIT: COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES
says the actor. “I wanted to be the perfect hybrid of that. The But Miller maintains that the standard set by the powers of the character kind of lent itself to that anyway— franchise itself did not put any undue pressure on to be the perfect hybrid between the T-800 and the T-1000. Terminator: Dark Fate. “It’s pretty hard to raise the bar on So I gained 14 pounds of muscle and I had never done that things like Avengers: Endgame or Avatar, or things like that,” before.” he explains. “Everybody likes a good spectacle but I think it Luna also earned the respect and approval of the man doesn’t have quite the same impact as it did when you saw who laid the groundwork for every Terminator since 1984. that first liquid metal man in Terminator 2. I like action and “He’s a hard-working guy and takes the role seriously I like spectacle, but I’m not like, ‘Oh my God, I have to do because he’s young and very agile and in good physical something I’ve never seen before.’” condition,” Schwarzenegger says about the new cyborg It was not about staging the biggest, most over-the-top on the scene. “He was willing to train really hard to action scenes possible for the filmmaker, but creating build his body and do all the stuff that he needed to do.” sequences that advanced the characters and story: “That Schwarzenegger adds that he pushed himself in the gym is one of the big things I learned about working with Jim as well to get back into T-800 form: “I trained my ass off for Cameron. Here’s a guy who approaches it from character the film. When you get to my age, you have to train twice as first and then does an action scene, and the action scenes much to get the same result as you did 20 years ago.” always seem to support the character so well. That’s one of Even though Luna is literally half Schwarzenegger’s the things I love best about his movies.” age, he said he had to up his own workout game once Although Terminator: Dark Fate essentially plays out as if the celebrated action star the three films after Terminator showed up on the set. “If 2 don’t exist, Miller insists I wasn’t inspired already, that the new movie stays true which I already was, his to the continuity and canon TO BE PART OF encouragement, his knowledge, established in the first two THE CONTINUATION and everything he could share movies. OF THAT STORY with me just left a super strong “I don’t feel like I’m changing THAT I WATCHED imprint and became part of my the mythology,” he says. “I WITH MY JAW ON life,” says Luna. “Now it’s just think it’s a continuation of the THE FLOOR WHEN what it’s all about. The training cause and effect that [James hurts in the beginning, but you Cameron] set up in the other I WAS 12 YEARS keep on going and eventually it Terminator movies—which is OLD IS JUST stops hurting.” simply if you make a change INDESCRIBABLE. As for the T-800 himself, in the past, it will change the Schwarzenegger suggests the future. So you have to expect cyborg is pretty much the that what happened before, — GABRIEL LUNA same T-800 you saw in the or the history that Sarah had other movies, but Miller hints been told of the future, was at something a little different: “This version of Arnold is going to change. I don’t look at it as changing mythology. I something that Jim has been thinking about for a long look at it as the natural outcome of the set of rules that Jim time,” teases the director. “I think it’s a really great way for established in the first two movies.” him to come back to the franchise. I understood the other As for how this movie picks up the story where it left off movies and the way they handled him, but I didn’t want to at the end of Terminator 2, one of the stars of both is clear do that again. I really thought that the way to do something about it. It was Hamilton whose Sarah Connor memorably unique for this film was to have Arnold’s backstory and said, “the unknown future rolls toward us” at the end of the the way he interacts with the rest of the characters be second film. Now Hamilton explains, “This film is a direct something we hadn’t seen from that character before… but sequel to Judgment Day, but many years have passed. The I also think it has the expected amount of Arnold kicking story and timeline track very well.” ass.” Perhaps the most exciting thing, however, is the “Arnold kicking ass” was a cornerstone of The Terminator anticipation of seeing Linda Hamilton and Arnold and Terminator 2: Judgment Day with the latter film in Schwarzenegger once again fighting together for that particular setting a benchmark for action, stunts, and unknown future. “One day I had them both looking down spectacular set-pieces that almost every high-stakes action the sights of long guns aimed at me,” says Gabriel Luna. movie since has aimed to match or exceed. “I would say “And I’m looking at both of them, thinking, ‘Holy fuck, this [this movie] is huge action-wise,” says Schwarzenegger, is a Terminator movie you’re in right now.’ To be part of the who certainly knows his way around the genre. “I was very continuation of that story that I watched with my jaw on the satisfied with the ideas and the big action that this movie floor when I was 12 years old is just indescribable.” has. It’s really wild.”
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