Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate is a 2019 American science fiction action film directed by Tim Miller and written by David Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray from a story by James Cameron, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, Goyer and Rhodes. Cameron also produced the film with David Ellison. It is the sixth installment in the Terminator franchise and a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), ignoring the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015), following the return of creative control to Cameron. The film stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sarah Connor and the T-800 Terminator, respectively, reuniting the actors after 23 years. It introduces Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna and Diego Boneta as new characters. Set 25 years after the events of Terminator 2, the film sees the

machines sending an advanced Terminator (Luna), designated Rev-9, back in time to 2020 to kill Dani Ramos (Reyes), whose fate is connected to the future. The Resistance also sends Grace (Davis), an augmented soldier, back in time to defend Dani, while they are joined by Sarah Connor and Skynet’s T-800 Terminator. Principal photography took place from June to November 2018 in Hungary, Spain and the United States. Distributed by Paramount Pictures in North America, Tencent Pictures in China and 20th Century Fox (through Buena Vista International) in other territories, the film was released theatrically in the United States on November 1, 2019. Although considered an improvement over recent predecessors by critics, the film only grossed $261 million worldwide and lost $122.6 million, making it one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time. As a result, plans for future films were cancelled.

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Plot.

In 1998, three years after destroying Cyberdyne Systems,[note 1] Sarah and John Connor have retired to Livingston, Guatemala when they are suddenly ambushed by a T-800 Terminator, one of several sent back through time by Skynet, which kills John despite Sarah’s attempts to stop it. In 2020, an advanced Terminator, the Rev-9, is sent back in time to Mexico City to murder Dani Ramos, while a cybernetically enhanced soldier, Grace, is sent from 2042 to protect her. The Rev-9, disguised as Dani’s father, infiltrates the automobile assembly plant where Dani and her brother Diego work, but is thwarted by Grace, who escapes with the siblings. The Rev-9, using its ability to

split into its cybernetic endoskeleton and shape-shifting liquid metal exterior pursues them, killing Diego and cornering Grace and Dani. However, Sarah arrives and temporarily disables both entities using military-grade weaponry. Dani, Grace, and Sarah retreat to a motel, where Sarah reveals that she found them because in the years since John’s death, she has received encrypted messages detailing the locations of arriving Terminators, each ending with “For John”, allowing her to destroy them before they become threats. Grace notes that Skynet and John do not exist in her future, meaning Sarah succeeded in

destroying the former after Cyberdyne went defunct. However, humanity’s future is threatened by another AI called Legion, originally developed for cyberwarfare, which was built in Skynet’s place. When Legion became a threat to humans, an attempt was made to neutralize it with nuclear weapons, resulting in a nuclear holocaust and the AI creating a global network of machines to terminate the human survivors, who organized a resistance movement to counter Legion’s onslaughts, and Dani’s destiny is linked to their war against it.

Development.

By December 2013, Skydance Productions was planning for Terminator Genisys to be the start of a new trilogy of films. The Genisys sequels were scheduled for release on May 19, 2017 and June 29, 2018. For the second film in the planned trilogy, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was to reprise his role as the T-800. Terminator Genisys was produced by Skydance founder David Ellison and was released in 2015, but its disappointing box-office performance stalled the development of the planned trilogy. Dana Goldberg, the chief creative officer for Skydance, said in October 2015 that she “wouldn’t say [the franchise is] on hold, so much as re-adjusting”. According to Goldberg, despite Genisys’ disappointing domestic performance, the company was happy with its worldwide numbers and still intended to make new films. Production of a sequel would begin no earlier than 2016 because the company planned market research to determine its direction after Genisys. The Genisys sequels were ultimately cancelled.

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Tim Miller and Ellison talked about Miller eventually directing a new Terminator film after completing Deadpool 2. When Miller left the Deadpool 2 project in October 2016, he took on the Terminator film as his next project instead. At the request of Miller, franchise creator James Cameron subsequently joined the project. Cameron had directed and co-written the first two Terminator films, and Miller, through his company Blur Studio, had previously worked with Cameron. Ellison felt that Genisys could have been better, so he recruited Cameron as a fellow producer in hopes of creating a better film.[39][40] Cameron was intrigued by Ellison’s proposal to make a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), ignoring the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys. Cameron said “we’re pretending the other films were a bad dream.

Pre-production.

On September 12, 2017, Skydance Media confirmed that Miller would direct the new Terminator film, which was initially scheduled for release on July 26, 2019. The film’s budget was approximately $185–$196 million, split roughly three ways between Skydance, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, all of which were production companies for the film. China-based Tencent Pictures joined the project as a co-financier in April 2018, ultimately financing ten percent of the budget. Tencent was a production company on the project, and also handled the film’s distribution, marketing and merchandising in China. TSG Entertainment and Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment were also involved in the production.

Writing.

Before screenwriters were hired, Miller had asked that a group of novelists be consulted on how to reinvent the franchise.[54] Among the novelists were Joe Abercrombie, Neal Asher, Greg Bear, Warren Ellis and Neal Stephenson. Abercrombie suggested the idea of a female character who is half human and half machine, forming the origins of the character Grace. A human-machine character, Marcus Wright, was previously featured in Terminator Salvation, portrayed by Sam Worthington. The film’s story was conceived by Miller, Cameron and Ellison and a team of writers was hired to write the script. They included Charles H. Eglee, David S. Goyer and his writing partner Justin Rhodes and Josh Friedman, creator of the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Cameron and the writers watched the Terminator sequels that came after his initial films. They determined that the storylines of the later films were too complex when it came to time travel.

Castin g.

By April 2017, Schwarzenegger had joined the project to reprise his role. That September, it was announced Hamilton would reprise her role as Sarah Connor, who she previously portrayed in the first two films. Hamilton had also briefly reprised the role for the 1996 theme park attraction T2-3D: Battle Across Time, and provided her voice in an uncredited role for Terminator Salvation. Because previous Terminator films did not do well with audiences, Miller felt it was necessary to have Hamilton reprise the role. Cameron, Ellison and Miller only wanted to bring back the Sarah Connor character if Hamilton would reprise the role. The film’s storyline was devised first so the trio would have an idea to pitch to Hamilton. Cameron said that he sent Hamilton a “long rambling email with a lot of reasons why she should do it and a lot of reasons why she shouldn’t”. Cameron’s main reason why Hamilton should return was that people liked her in the role.

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Filming.

Production was intended to start initially in March 2018, but was delayed due to casting. It was then expected to start during May and end during November with filming taking place in Hungary, the United Kingdom, Spain and Mexico. In April 2018, the film’s release date was delayed until November 2019. Filming began in Spain on June 4, 2018, under the working title Terminator 6: Phoenix. Filming subsequently moved to Hungary and the United States, before concluding in November 2018. The film, like Cameron’s initial Terminator films, is rated R, whereas the previous two films were rated PG-13. Miller said the film is rated R because “the fans kind of demanded it, in a way”, saying that “the DNA of Terminator” is an R-rated movie and that “to not do it R feels disingenuous to the source material”. Initially, certain scenes were filmed in two ways—with and without R-rated violence and language.

Box office.

Terminator: Dark Fate grossed $62.3 million in the United States and Canada and $198.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $261.1 million. With a production budget between $185–196 million and an additional $80–100 million spent on marketing and distribution, early estimates stated the film needed to earn over $450 million worldwide to break even. The film ended up losing Paramount, Skydance and other studios $122.6 million. It was labeled a box-office bomb after its dismal opening weekend, and it finished as the second biggest bomb of 2019. As a result of the losses, sources close to Skydance said shortly after the release that there were no plans to continue the franchise. In the United States and Canada, Dark Fate was released at the same time as Harriet, Arctic Dogs and Motherless Brooklyn and was initially projected to gross $40–47 million from 4,086

theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.35 million from Thursday night previews, on a par with the $2.3 million that Genisys made from its Tuesday night previews in 2015, but after making just $10.6 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $27 million. It went on to debut to $29 million. Although it finished first at the box office, it was the lowest opening in the series since the original film (when accounting for inflation), which was blamed on the lukewarm critical reception, as well as the audience’s disinterest in another Terminator film. The film made $10.8 million in its second weekend, dropping 63% and finishing fifth and then $4.3 million in its third weekend, falling to 11th.