The next Terminator movie should fix one glaring villain problem that’s plagued much of the franchise. The first two Terminator films may be sci-fi classics, but parts 3 through 6 range from disappointing to terrible. The sharp decline in quality in recent years has turned many viewers away from the saga, and the box office failure of Terminator: Dark Fate was ample evidence of this. Where the next film’s property will be sold and when that might happen is currently unknown.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day took the original slasher formula and brought it to blockbuster proportions. The sequel broke new ground in many ways, but it also told the full story and set the bar so high that no sequel could top it. The various Terminator sequels had unique or interesting premises, but lacked the freshness and inventiveness of Cameron’s entries. When the next Terminator movie comes out, it will also have to deal with a pretty big problem with its villains.
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The Next Terminator Villain Must Be Terrifying
The original Terminator, which Sting rejected, is iconic for many reasons, including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s icy performance as the T-800. The first outing is usually called a slasher film, and that’s a perfect description. He may use guns instead of knives, but the T-800 is an unstoppable rubber-masked killer just like Michael Myers. He’s a terrifying creature, just like Robert Patrick’s T-1000. The liquid metal villain is a nightmarish creation, and Cameron wisely frames many of his scenes—like the murder of John Connor’s adoptive parents—as horror set pieces.
Subsequent films were so focused on creating villains with unique abilities that they forgot to make them scary. The TX (Kristanna Loken) was a dull mix of T-800 and T-1000, Jason Clarke’s T-3000 was too boring – with too much of a design – while Dark Fate’s Rev-9 was simply unforgettable. Meanwhile, Salvation didn’t even bother creating a main villain. Terminators were meant to create horror as well as chaos, but the emphasis on the latter in later sequels was a big mistake. The next Terminator reboot should focus on this issue and remember what made the first entries work so well.
Will Terminator 7 Even Happen?
Dark Fate really left the saga in a mess. Just like the previous failed sequels, it left teases for future outings that will never happen. In truth, Terminator is too valuable a property to be left alone forever, and it will return once again, but it in five years or 20. Reinventing a series with such an established formula will be no mean feat either, though hopefully, it will pull back on the large-scale action of later entries to tell a more intimate chase story.
Of course, it’s easy to argue that the next Terminator that needs to give up time travel needs to make its villain scary, but that’s another challenge to make that happen. Simply copying what made the T-800 or T-1000 so formidable will not work. Movies like It Follows took the series’ basic formula and proved that it was still possible to create a menacing, inhuman stalker. Ultimately, the concept of Terminator 7 will determine whether it brings audiences back, but capitalizing on the horror inherent in the idea wouldn’t be the worst idea either.