The 7 Best And 7 Worst Things From The Terminator Franchise
Terminator movies: some are good, some are bad, and some are harder to watch than a nuclear apocalypse. Here's what we love — and hate — about this iconic film franchise.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Terminator movies. Some are good, some are bad, and some are harder to watch than a nuclear
00:06apocalypse. Here's what we love — and hate — about this iconic film franchise.
00:11As maligned as its reputation may be among fans and critics,
00:14Terminator Salvation is a criminally underappreciated entry in the wider Terminator
00:19franchise. One of the things that makes the 2009 film stand apart from the rest is that it makes
00:24an effort to break from the usual narrative formula of the series, trying to change what
00:28a Terminator movie can be. Though the film itself leaves room for improvement, Salvation offers a
00:33surprisingly refreshing installment in the franchise, especially compared to its more
00:38contrived follow-ups.
00:40"'Come with me if you wanna live.'"
00:41After several movies teasing an epic war for survival between humanity and sentient machines,
00:46Terminator Salvation is actually set during the post-apocalyptic conflict,
00:51after Skynet has unleashed a devastating nuclear attack. Rather than relying on the standard
00:56Terminator plotline of protagonists on the run from a relentless killing machine, Salvation is a
01:01war story, one that finds humanity on the back foot. Instead of a prophesied hero embracing
01:07their wartime destiny, Salvation follows a rugged survivor as he attempts to navigate the war-torn
01:13world — and it's all the better for it.
01:16The most obvious shortcoming of the Terminator franchise is that there are way too many sequels
01:21and reboots to the first two movies. These follow-ups tend to get lost in their own
01:25failed attempts to continue the original story, often playing with continuity in radically
01:30different ways while noticeably suffering from diminishing returns in quality.
01:34Since 1991's Judgment Day, there have been four additional Terminator movies, none of which
01:40reached the critical acclaim of the first two films. The franchise reached its low point in
01:442015 with Terminator Genisys, which holds a paltry 26% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
01:51Though 2019's Terminator Dark Fate enjoyed the highest acclaim since Judgment Day,
01:56with a 70% Rotten Tomatoes score, it was still a financial disappointment,
02:00earning just $261 million at the worldwide box office.
02:04Composer Brad Fiedel's theme and score for the first two Terminator movies are relatively simple
02:10but instantly recognizable. The 1984 original film features a stripped-down industrial sound,
02:17driven largely by synthesizers, oscillators, and ambient noise to set the mood.
02:22These minimalist sensibilities balance the grounded 80s setting with the futuristic
02:27stakes at play. Fiedel returned to score Judgment Day. For the sequel, he maintained
02:32the iconic themes from his previous work while upping the ante in terms of instrumentation.
02:37Specifically, he introduced full orchestration to the score, allowing for a fuller and warmer
02:43sound in order to take advantage of the heightened scope and elevate the story's quieter moments.
02:48Fiedel's work on the score for the first two movies subtly laid the musical foundations
02:53for the entire franchise, and his influence has been felt across every subsequent film.
02:58What day is it? The date!
03:00Twelve.
03:01May.
03:02Thursday.
03:03What year?!
03:04The first few Terminator movies take a relatively simple approach to time travel mechanics.
03:09Soldiers from the future travel back in time to alter the course of history by killing those
03:14who would shape humanity's destiny. Salvation largely shirks the time travel component of the
03:19franchise altogether, telling a complete story set within one relative period without anyone
03:24traveling through the time stream. This tight approach to time travel descends into progressively
03:30more complicated timeline mechanics after Salvation, however, making the science fiction
03:35elements more confusing and intrusive to each film's story.
03:39Genesis introduces the concepts of temporal paradoxes and divergent timelines caused by
03:44tampering with the space-time continuum, with the characters' lives affected by these drastic
03:49changes. Dark Fate goes one step further by completely changing the future conflict,
03:54as a different sentient A.I. replaces Skynet and successfully assassinates John
03:59Connor before he can save humanity, disrupting the original timeline.
04:03Both of these films take a relatively clean take on the concept of time travel and model it,
04:08leading to a confusing and entirely unnecessary mishmash of continuities.
04:13The first couple of Terminator movies use pacing in a similar way. With the Terminators scouring
04:18the greater Los Angeles area for their intended targets, the lead characters are forced on the
04:23run before regrouping to take on the antagonist. This premise provides a perfect opportunity for
04:28filmmakers to ratchet up the tension as the heroes lie low, only barely evading their cybernetic
04:34pursuers before the big action setpieces kick off. When the movies do cut loose for these action
04:39sequences, they deliver on this sudden, cathartic release of tension and suspense to great effect.
04:45All in all, the Terminator movies are a masterclass in action movie pacing,
04:49knowing just when to come up for air before diving right back in.
04:53The Terminator franchise has always enjoyed the occasional moment of humor,
04:57employed throughout the movies to break up the tension for the audience.
05:00What the films following Judgment Day tend to forget, however, is that the funnier moments
05:04in the first two movies were subtly employed so as to not detract from the narrative's stakes
05:09and overarching tone. The questionable use of humor is apparent as early as Terminator 3
05:14Rise of the Machines, and does not noticeably improve in its follow-ups.
05:19"...talk to the hand."
05:20Genesis and Dark Fate continue to poke fun at the characters in increasingly awkward ways,
05:25with the latter portraying a retired T-800 who became an interior decorator.
05:30Though the early movies were not without levity, the later Terminator entries' sense of humor
05:34ventures into camp and self-parody in ways that threaten to derail each story's atmosphere.
05:40While the franchise as a whole is known for its bombastic action, the original Terminator
05:45opts for a more grounded, intimate approach to its thrills. The first movie is almost paced
05:50like a slasher movie, as the T-800 brutally eliminates anyone who gets in its way. The only
05:56major things differentiating the Terminator from typical slashers is a preference for guns over
06:01knives — and a metallic endoskeleton, of course. These horrific sensibilities are on full display
06:07when the T-800 breaks into Sarah's apartment and kills her roommate Ginger along with Ginger's
06:13boyfriend. Sarah desperately calls her apartment to warn her friends of the threat, but they're
06:18already preoccupied. In true slasher movie fashion, after their romantic interlude, the
06:24couple are murdered by their stalker. This moment showcases just how relentless the Terminator can be
06:29while demonstrating that the movie is just as terrifying as it is exciting.
06:35"...I'll be back."
06:36Arnold Schwarzenegger's career was catapulted to new heights by the Terminator,
06:40and the franchise has always maintained its connection to the legendary action hero.
06:45Though Schwarzenegger is a welcome sight in the first few films, the franchise goes to ridiculous
06:50lengths to bring him back and allow him to reprise his star-making role. By Salvation,
06:55it starts to feel like the narrative needs to move beyond Schwarzenegger, but the film series
07:00itself has always existed in the actor's shadow in a way that prevents it from forging new ground.
07:05Salvation was produced while Schwarzenegger was serving as governor of California,
07:09prompting the 2009 movie to use CGI and a body double instead. The appearance feels forced and
07:16distracts from the movie's climax rather than adding any sense of resonance or relevance to
07:20the finale. Dark Fate also shoehorns Schwarzenegger's T-800 into the story, with the cyborg
07:26living in self-imposed retirement for decades before emerging to conveniently team up with
07:32Sarah late in the film. It's past time for the Terminator franchise to move past its biggest star.
07:38Judgment Day introduces the fearsome T-1000, a more advanced Terminator from the post-apocalyptic
07:44future. The T-1000's unique composition allows him to transform his body into different forms
07:50as he stalks John and Sarah Connor. A breathtaking technical achievement in 1991, the special effects
07:56to bring the T-1000 to life still hold up today as a visually impressive feat. James Cameron worked
08:03closely with Industrial Light & Magic on Judgment Day, with approximately $5 million from the
08:08production budget spent on visual effects. This investment more than paid off, with the liquid
08:13metal arguably standing out as the most memorable visual effect in the franchise.
08:18The Terminator films following Judgment Day each have a tendency to employ twists
08:23late in the story to surprise their audiences and up the stakes. However,
08:27these twists rarely connect with audiences and serve more as distractions than anything else.
08:32For example, Terminator Genisys posits that an alternate timeline version of John has been
08:38transformed into a time-traveling Terminator himself. Dark Fate, meanwhile, reveals that
08:43the retired T-800 has secretly been feeding Sarah information to track down other Terminators,
08:49a plot point that makes less and less sense the more one thinks about it.
08:53Still, it could always be worse. In the unused original ending for Terminator Salvation,
08:58John Connor is killed off altogether before his face is grafted onto Marcus' who then
09:04unceremoniously massacres the rest of the movie's lead characters.
09:08At a time when female action protagonists were a rare sight in major Hollywood productions,
09:13Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor became one of the most recognizable sci-fi action heroes in history.
09:19The Terminator sees Sarah transform from a normal woman in a dead-end job to a hardened fighter who
09:24delivers the killing blow against the T-800. This character evolution continued into Judgment Day
09:30and Dark Fate, with Sarah becoming a seasoned veteran who is quite capable of taking down
09:35Terminators by herself.
09:36"...I'll be back."
09:43Hamilton's performance is a huge part of Sarah Connor's depiction not just as a survivor,
09:48but as a warrior, too. Hamilton made Sarah a bona fide action hero, channeling her trauma
09:54into a steely resolve. To balance this, Hamilton displays a tragic vulnerability in Sarah, too,
10:01giving the franchise its most nuanced performance by far.
10:05There are a few effective plot twists in the Terminator franchise, but some of them were
10:09infamously spoiled for audiences by the movie's marketing campaigns. In the beginning of Judgment
10:15Day, the T-800 is positioned as another model sent back to assassinate John before it saves
10:20him from the T-1000 in the nick of time. It's a thrilling twist if you don't know it's coming,
10:25but this heroic change in direction for the T-800 was spoiled in the film's trailers.
10:31"...This time, there are two. Terminator Two."
10:38Meanwhile, Salvation revolves around Marcus discovering he's a cyborg after he's inspected
10:43by human freedom fighters during the war against the machines. This twist was similarly spoiled
10:48in the trailers and television ads for the film. As a result, audiences were aware of
10:53Marcus' cybernetic secret long before he discovered it for himself.
10:58Armed with a whole arsenal of weaponry and some of the most iconic catchphrases in cinematic history,
11:03Arnold Schwarzenegger became a household name thanks to The Terminator. The 1984 film almost
11:08totally revolves around Schwarzenegger's performance as the T-800, with his stoic
11:12demeanor and chiseled physique defining the franchise as a whole. Seven years after
11:17portraying the ultimate sci-fi antagonist, Schwarzenegger's turn as a very different
11:22T-800 in Judgment Day effectively reframed him as the heroic face of the franchise.
11:27There's a reason why the film series keeps bringing back Schwarzenegger to reprise his
11:31fan-favorite role, even when it works to the story's detriment. Decades after his debut as
11:36the T-800, Schwarzenegger never feels like he's phoning it in as the futuristic killer,
11:42even with lesser material to work with in later films.
11:45The Terminator series is prone to the worst kind of sequels, ones that not only dilute
11:50the quality of the franchise, but also actively make plot points from previous installments
11:56irrelevant. This unfortunate trend begins as early as Judgment Day, with the revelation
12:01that Terminators have shifted their priorities towards assassinating John after failing to kill
12:06Sarah. However, the subsequent set of sequels do even further harm to the overarching story
12:11and its legacy. For example, Rise of the Machines reveals that machine-driven Armageddon
12:16was inevitable all along, rendering Sarah and John's efforts in the second movie totally useless.
12:22Dark Fate is the most egregious of all in this regard, with the movie opening with a T-800
12:27successfully assassinating John before he can fulfill his destiny. This nullifies the struggles
12:32that Sarah endured to survive in the preceding films, and the sequel scrambles to find new
12:37ways to continue the story.