If there's one thing the "Terminator" franchise is known for, it's inconsistency. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the ways in which the newest installment of the “Terminator” franchise diverges from all that came before, or is that after, 2024.
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00:00He'll be back. You can stay and die or you can come with me."
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the ways in which the newest
00:09installment of the Terminator franchise diverges from all that came before...
00:13or is that after 2024?
00:16And you've never once gone back in time before, have you?
00:21Needless to say, there will be spoilers,
00:23so if you haven't seen Terminator Zero, then go watch it and come back.
00:27Go on, hasta la vista.
00:29Number 10. Japan differs from every other Terminator movie and series.
00:35Who could honestly forget that terrifying scene of nuclear
00:37obliteration in Terminator 2 Judgment Day?
00:40Los Angeles was ripped apart in seconds.
00:42Similar moments have appeared sporadically throughout the series,
00:45but rarely have we gotten a glimpse of what happened on Judgment Day in other places.
00:50Now, thanks to Terminator Zero, we have.
00:52A nightmare grows more vivid each night. Time is running out.
00:57Soon my nightmare will be real.
00:59All previous Terminator stories have taken place in the Americas,
01:03with California receiving the most screen time since Cyberdyne Systems,
01:07the creator of Skynet, and Sarah Connor are based there.
01:10A machine? Like a robot?
01:14Not a robot. Cyborg. Cybernetic organism.
01:19Zero's setting of Japan marks the first time the franchise ventured overseas,
01:23and as we find out, while most of the world was destroyed on August 29th, 1997,
01:29Japan's buildings were still standing.
01:38Number 9. The resistance built what?
01:41Differs from Terminator 2 Judgment Day and Terminator Genisys.
01:45Whenever we've been treated to a glimpse of humanity's future in the Terminator franchise,
01:49it's been pretty dire.
01:58There are few resources, and although 2009's Salvation did portray the resistance as being
02:03a little more tech-savvy, humans rely on salvage.
02:07Yet somehow, Zero showed the resistance not only building their own time displacement device,
02:13but using it, seven years before the original T-800 was sent back to terminate Sarah Connor.
02:19Yes, Terminator Genisys had the Pops Terminator build one,
02:22but he and the tech needed to run it were from the future.
02:26Up until now, it's established that the resistance had to use Skynet's own machine,
02:31and then destroy it afterwards since it was unique.
02:33But apparently, according to Zero, humans had at least two.
02:37Listen to me, try to understand no one knows what will happen.
02:41Number 8. The big bads, plural.
02:44Differs from all the Terminator franchise, except Dark Fate.
02:48For most of the franchise, the only big bad has been Skynet.
02:52Built as a defense system by Cyberdyne Systems or Cyber Research Systems in Terminator 3,
02:57Skynet is an AI that becomes self-aware and, well, you know the story.
03:03The only exception is 2019's Terminator Dark Fate,
03:07in which the rogue AI is Legion, but it's basically Skynet with a different name.
03:12In the future that actually happened, it's called Legion.
03:16Legion.
03:17An AI built for cyber warfare.
03:20Those a**holes never learn.
03:23Zero introduces another self-aware AI into the mix,
03:26Kokoro, created through Cortex Industries with Misaki's repurposed T-800 CPU.
03:32Malcolm, you seem tense.
03:38I'm fine.
03:40No, you're scared of something.
03:43Maybe.
03:43For much of the series,
03:45Skynet sort of takes a back seat as a different artificial intelligence turns on humanity.
03:50Although it doesn't end like this for once,
03:52the big bad has a counterpart and it came from itself.
03:55What are you doing?
03:58What in the hell are you doing, Kokoro?
04:00Number 7. The internet.
04:01Differs from Terminator 2, Judgment Day.
04:04Despite being released in 1991,
04:07Terminator 2 Judgment Day was set in the then future of 1995.
04:12You just can't go around killing people.
04:14Why?
04:16What do you mean why?
04:17Because you can't.
04:18Why?
04:19Something that series creator James Cameron had not foreseen
04:22was the real-life growth of the World Wide Web.
04:25Thus, it's essentially absent in the movie.
04:28Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines did recognize the internet's impact on the world,
04:32even incorporating a modem into the TX and showing Skynet using the web to take over.
04:38With the benefits of hindsight,
04:40Zero is also able to retroactively incorporate the internet into its 1997 setting,
04:45borrowing the idea of having the T-800 connect to it,
04:48either via an ethernet cable in its tongue
04:50or by emitting dial-up tones in the same way the TX did.
04:54Luckily, that's all they took from the third film.
04:57Number 6.
04:58Mechanical Bias.
05:00Differs from Terminator 2, Judgment Day,
05:02Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines,
05:04and Terminator Genisys.
05:06There's a bit of a dichotomy within the Terminator lore.
05:08In order to save humanity from machines,
05:11humans, led by John Connor, send machines.
05:14My mission is to protect you.
05:17I'm not going to let you do that.
05:18I'm going to protect you.
05:20I'm going to protect you.
05:21My mission is to protect you.
05:24Yeah?
05:26Who sent you?
05:28You did.
05:28Yet in Zero,
05:29even the suggestion of working with a dismantled Terminator is considered heinous.
05:34Get away from that thing.
05:36Malcolm.
05:38Did it just call you Malcolm?
05:39You let that monstrosity call you by your name?
05:42That prejudice against every machine mirrors Skynet's.
05:451997's proto-resistance group destroys Enos on sight,
05:49Future's resistance commanders similarly order Misaki to be, quote,
05:52terminated.
05:53Ironically, this may be perpetuating Zero's future war.
05:57Presumably, T2's events didn't happen,
06:00as the resistance wouldn't dare reprogram a T-800 to send back to 1995.
06:04So Judgment Day wasn't averted.
06:07Come with me if you want to live.
06:08Conversely, the anti-machine attitude serves as contrast to another novel idea.
06:14Kenta's controversial act of sending a Terminator to broker peace between machines and humanity.
06:19The first of its kind in hopes of mutual salvation.
06:22You're lying.
06:23Either I'm lying or Kokoro will kill you.
06:27Humanity and Skynet coexisting?
06:30That's new.
06:31Number 5.
06:32Many, many times this path has been walked.
06:34Mainly differs from Terminator Salvation.
06:37We've already talked about the human resistance building their own time displacement device early.
06:42A quick throwaway line suggests it's not the first time they've seen Skynet
06:46have been experimenting with time travel.
06:48They wouldn't be trying it again, would they?
06:51One line that absolutely stands out, however, is Malcolm Lee's.
06:54Malcolm, what are you scared of?
06:59Judgment.
07:00The wording here is important.
07:01He isn't talking about just himself who's walking the path to judgment.
07:05If I'm correct, many, many times this path to judgment has been walked.
07:09But you also think you can change that path?
07:13I do.
07:14Fate is an integral theme to all of the Terminator franchise.
07:18Particularly that the future is not set.
07:20Typically that's John Connor's line.
07:22But instead, the role of Fate's guide is the Prophet.
07:25An older lady with facial skin grafts.
07:27The time has come.
07:30We know that in the last five days,
07:32five resistance camps have been overrun by the machines.
07:35In each case, there were no survivors.
07:38We doubt it's Sarah Connor either since the age isn't quite right.
07:41So there's a new soothsayer in town.
07:44Number 4.
07:45Apparently T-600s are hard to spot.
07:47Differs from the Terminator and Terminator Salvation.
07:51Most of what we know about the future war comes directly from Kyle Reese.
07:55All right, listen.
07:56The Terminator is an infiltration unit.
07:58Part man, part machine.
08:00One thing that stood out was his description of the 600 series.
08:03With easy to spot rubber skins.
08:05The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Terminator Salvation went further and showed these T-600.
08:10Though the fact that the latter are over seven feet tall probably would have been a giveaway too.
08:15In that movie's 2018 setting,
08:17Skynet had only begun prototyping T-800s
08:20and experimenting with the model 101 living tissue camouflage.
08:23T-800.
08:24A new Terminator.
08:25Although according to Reese, this human look was still new in 2029.
08:30Fair enough.
08:30But in Zero, they're mainstream as early as 2022.
08:34As Aiko's introduction has her fighting a T-800 model 101J.
08:42Sure, this is Salvation's anachronism.
08:45But Zero doubled down.
08:46There's no T-600 in sight.
08:49Number three.
08:502029 differs from all the Terminator franchise.
08:53Except Terminator Dark Fate.
08:55The year is 2029.
08:57Skynet's defense grid is smashed and the human resistance had won.
09:01Or had they?
09:03Not according to Terminator Zero.
09:04Which takes us as far as to the year 2045.
09:08Where the war against the machines is still going on.
09:1016 years after Connor handed Reese a picture of his mother.
09:15To say the timelines of the franchise are convoluted would be an understatement.
09:26But we'll talk more about that later.
09:30For now.
09:31It seems that 2029 is simply not as important a year to the Terminator lore as it was.
09:37Either the Colorado offensive simply didn't work.
09:40Or Skynet wasn't as defeated as Kyle Reese believed
09:43when he stepped into the time displacement device.
09:51Number two.
09:52New characters.
09:53Same family ties.
09:54Differs from all Terminator stories.
09:56Excluding Terminator Resistance.
09:59Ever since the T-800 first approached someone in a leather jacket and demanded they hand it over.
10:04There's been a Connor in the mix.
10:05You're close.
10:08Give them to me.
10:09Now.
10:09Every Terminator movie and series thus far has been centered around
10:13or included one or more members of the family.
10:17Mom, how many times have I told you it's freaky when you do that?
10:20Zero omitted all of the Connors DNA from their story.
10:23However, they still retain the paradox of family ties across time.
10:27Similar to John Connor effectively manufacturing his own existence.
10:31Malcolm Lee is Iko's son.
10:33Hello, mother.
10:36What did you just say?
10:38I said hello, mother.
10:41But in his timeline, she is sent back to 1997 before he's born.
10:45Leaving her to bring up her grandkids from an alternate timeline.
10:48I don't have children.
10:50You'll get around to it.
10:52But how?
10:54Speaking of which.
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11:11Number one.
11:12Someone should learn the tech stuff.
11:14Differs from the Terminator.
11:16The future is not set.
11:18Except as Zero points out, it kind of is.
11:20Most people picture something like this when they think of time.
11:26A straight line.
11:28Simple.
11:30Elegant.
11:30According to Reese, who quote, doesn't know tech stuff,
11:33the presence of any character sent back through time
11:35should change the future into a quote, possible one.
11:39Then you're from the future too, is that right?
11:42Right.
11:42Only the time traveler will experience these alterations.
11:46We'll let Unveiled handle grandfather paradoxes in more detail.
11:49But Zero shows how redundant it is of Skynet
11:52to send machines back in time to ensure it survives.
11:55Even as a last ditch effort and defeat.
11:57The future trying to control the past like that.
12:01It's like trying to make a waterfall flow up.
12:04As both the Prophet and Malcolm explain, it's futile.
12:07So you began to prepare for 1997.
12:11Judgment Day.
12:12We worked around the clock trying to fight the future.
12:14And always working in secret.
12:17The 2029 where Skynet is terminated will still exist.
12:21If the machines can't alter their present and just create a new and parallel one,
12:25then aren't Skynet's motives across the franchise somewhat pointless?
12:28Nullified?
12:29Or zeroed?
12:31It's an imprecise science and we're just swimming in the chaos.
12:35With James Cameron now looking to make a seventh Terminator movie of his own,
12:39what direction do you think he should take?
12:41Let us know in the comments.
12:42Things will get worse before they get better.
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