The Corner Penthouse

Terminator: Dark Fate is the sixth installment in the 35-year-old Terminator franchise. Yeah, there are SIX of these films now, plus a television series. I remember when there were only two movies. Before I tell you more about Terminator: Dark Fate, be forewarned that there will be SPOILERS...


Terminator: Dark Fate is set in 2020, decades after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) prevented Judgment Day. A lethal Terminator REV-9 (Gabriel Luna) is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance, Daniella "Dani" Ramos (Natalia Reyes). In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally, another T-800 unit (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and enhanced super-soldier Grace (Mackenzie Davis), in order to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.


Although this is the sixth film in the franchise, it completely ignores the third (Rise of the Machines), fourth (Salvation), and fifth (Genisys) films. It chooses to diverge the timeline right after the second film (Judgment Day) into a new story arc. Never is this more apparent than when a random T-800 (a de-aged Schwarzenegger) goes back to 1998 and kills a teenage John Connor (young Edward Furlong's head grafted onto a body double) in the first four minutes of the film!!! Yes, the future savior of all mankind, the person that is the impetus of the ENTIRE Terminator mythology, is effortlessly killed off in the opening minutes. What couldn't be done by the liquid metal T-1000 in ALL of Terminator 2 is done by a lowly T-800 in mere seconds here. Everything that Sarah went through in the first film, and Sarah and John went through in the second, is now rendered completely pointless. So, Dark Fate starts off by slapping all Terminator fans right in the face.


"Why was John Connor killed off?", you might ask. Well, it's so the story could focus on a new female "future hero" because female-centric movies are the current Hollywood fad. Not that there's anything wrong with female action heroes; you have one of the best (Sarah Connor) in this film. It's just that, due to toxic feminism (as opposed to regular feminism - the good kind), existing movie franchises are being twisted into pretzels just to kowtow to a female audience that deserves good original stories, not rehashes.


While I love female action heroes, they need to feel organic, and not shoehorned in order to check off a few boxes...and, boy, does this movie feel like it was designed in check off boxes. The new "future hero", Daniella "Dani" Ramos, checks off both the "female" and "Latino" boxes on the Diversity Checklist. Grace, the new augmented human "good guy", appears to check off the "lesbian" box. It's no coincidence that she is given a quazi-butch appearance and, in the two instances in the film where she has to choose between taking clothes from either a male or female, she picks the male's clothes BOTH times - even when the uniform is the same, regardless of whose she stole. Again, nothing wrong with diversity, as long as it feels organic and natural. Nothing in this movie feels like it should naturally be there.


They didn't even need to kill off John Connor in order to have a new female hero. With the timeline altered by the termination of Skynet and the eventual creation of a new evil AI named Legion (the one now sending back Terminators), there could have been a new "future hero", with John taking a smaller role in the new war. Heck, maybe his daughter - let's assume he has one by 2020 since he'd be 35 years old - ends up being the "future hero" of the new war against Legion. As convoluted as some of these idea may sounds, they're far less convoluted than what we got here.


According to the new, twisted mythology, Skynet WAS defeated in 1995 as seen in T2, but a new "AI built for cyber warfare" was created that rose up and waged a war against humanity. This new AI is called Legion, and Grace was sent from the future to protect Dani from being terminated because she's an integral part of winning the war against Legion. Of course, if that's the course of this new timeline, you may be wondering how a non-existant Skynet was able to send a random T-800 back to 1998 to kill John. Well, the movie's BS answer is that in the original timeline, pre-1995 destruction of Cyberdyne, the future Skynet sent back MULTIPLE random Terminators to MULTIPLE random points in time in an effort to kill John. Apparently, an intelligent computer system like Skynet decided that instead of a calculated effort, it would simply "throw a lot of shit at the wall" in the hopes that some of it would stick. Yeah, Dark Fate's story is not for those of you with brains.


The first half of the movie takes place in Mexico, so be prepared to read a lot of subtitles. I have no idea why they chose to set the story there, since it doesn't have any great effect on the story (other than to check the "Latino" box). They could have, just as well, set it in Canada. Of course, they set it in Mexico so they could touch upon the U.S./Mexico border politics. Also, it brings up another plot hole: Sarah can't cross the border because she's a wanted fugitive. She also goes to all of the "Terminator landing" locations that are texted to her so she could kill them. I find it hard to believe that every one of those locations has always been in Mexico where Sarah has, apparently, been living. How would she kill those that land in the U.S.? What if any of them land in other countries? Does she take a boat over to Africa and team up with the warriors of Wakanda to kill them there, too?


Arnold doesn't show up until halfway through the film. He's the random T-800 that killed John back in 1998, because the one we all know and love was melted in the steel factory at the end of T2. Why did he stick around after completing his mission? Honestly, I don't know. Some BS is giving that he wanted to stick around to "learn from humanity", but that's a big slice of bologna I don't want on my sandwich. A killing machine that completed its mission would, in all likelihood, self-destruct or shut down. It would not decide to "adopt a family" and live like a retired old man with a drapery business.


Aside from the bastardization of the original Terminator mythology, it's not as bad as Genisys. Yes, I know that's not saying much. If you pretend that it's not an official Terminator film, it's not an entirely bad way to pass two hours. The movie looks FANTASTIC in 4K, though some of the night and underwater scenes in the last 30 minutes were too dark to see anything clearly. The action scenes were great. MacKenzie Moss does an excellent job as Grace, and makes her the most likable character in the film. The new Terminator "REV-9" villain, who, of course, is male - because a male just has to be the "bad guy" (see: Ghostbusters 2016) - is well-played by Gabriel Luna (Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider on season 4 of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), even though he's not as menacing as Robert Patrick because he talks more than a emotionless Terminator should. The REV-9 is the T-1000 with a lot of upgrades made possible by the advances in computer graphics in the past 30 years, such as the ability to separate its morphable skin from the endoskeleton underneath to function as two independent units. That does present a possible plot hole (since the mechanics behind the REV-9 are never explained): If the endoskeleton is metal, how is he able to morph while attached to the endoskeleton?


Terminator: Dark Fate is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 2:08:05. Audio languages include English, Spanish, and French. The film includes English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles. The first print run includes a beautiful embossed slipsleeve.

Here's a list of all of the bonus features that can be found on the Blu-ray disc. The UHD disc does not contain any bonus features.

• Deleted and Extended Scenes (8:54) - The six scenes are: "I Need Your Car", "Internet Cafe", "Augmentation Volunteer", "The Crossing", "Alicia Confronts Sarah", and "Let Me Save You".
• A Legend Reforged (20:11) - A "making of" featurette examining the story, James Cameron's involvement, the return of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and much more.
• World Builders (32:46) - An exploration of the digital effects and set design.
• Dam Busters: The Final Showdown (8:30) - The making of the movie's climax at the dam.
• VFX Breakdown: The Dragonfly (2:33) - A visual effects progression of the future battle scene.

Included in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo Pack is a second standard Blu-ray disc, which contains the movie and all of the bonus features listed above. A digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard two-disc black UHD Blu-ray case.


Terminator: Dark Fate is available on 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, and DVD. If you'd like to complete your Terminator collection, you'll also need to buy the Terminator Anthology (contains the first four films), Terminator: Genisys, The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 1, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 2.


All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. The item was provided by Paramount for review on this site.