Terminator: Dark Fate shocked fans by killing off John Connor in the first scene, and here’s why director Tim Miller and the crew made that choice. It’s a little sad what happened to Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth installment in the legendary franchise. Despite receiving the best reviews since the critically acclaimed and expertly edited Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Dark Fate flopped like a rock at the box office, making it the third consecutive failed attempt to start a new Terminator trilogy. At this point, it seems like the Terminator franchise is cursed: the initial concepts sounded good, but the final film failed to win over most fans. Terminator Salvation promised a feature-length look at the future war between John Connor and Skynet, but it ended up being boring for some and disappointing for most.
Terminator Genisys then attempted to reverse-engineer the previous two films and create an alternate timeline, but succeeded in confusing and annoying fans more than anything else. Dark Fate may have managed to create a good sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but by this point, it seems like most fans have given up. The most memorable moment of Terminator: Dark Fate, for better or worse, was the on-screen death of John Connor, the prophesied savior of humanity. John was shot by another T-800, which Skynet sent back in time as a contingency, although by the time it arrived, John and Sarah had effectively prevented Skynet’s existence. That’s why the sequel went this route.
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Why Terminator: Dark Fate Killed Off John Connor
The original idea to kill off John Connor at the beginning of Terminator: Dark Fate came from franchise creator James Cameron, who returned to produce Dark Fate after not being involved with the third through fifth films. Cameron wanted the moment to shock audiences, while also trying to stave off complaints that it was just another Terminator movie. Director Tim Miller and the rest of the creative team almost immediately agreed that it was the right move, albeit after being understandably surprised by Cameron’s proposal. There’s also a sense of finality to the character’s death, suggesting that even Terminator 7 won’t bring John Connor back.
Miller further explained that he was in favor of killing John for two reasons. Firstly, it creates a whole new storyline for Sarah Connor as a grieving mother and vengeful badass, and secondly, they didn’t want to cancel Sarah and John’s attempt to stop Skynet at the end of Terminator 2. , they changed the situation so that another AI machine called Legion eventually emerged, but since the original rise of Skynet was prevented, John became a man bypassed by history. He never got to become the grizzled warlord he became in the original timeline, and Miller didn’t believe fans would want to see Jon grow up to be a regular man. By killing off John, Miller and company were able to add a memorable dramatic twist to the story of Terminator: Dark Fate without taking away from the core narrative and iconic ending of Terminator 2.
