‘Terminator’ Movies Then and Now: 35 Years of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Killer Robot Remembered

Terminator — and its tale of cyborgs from the future coming to the present to slay the one man destined to destroy them — is one of Hollywood’s most enduring franchises with five previous films in release, a TV series spin-off and, now, a sixth movie that pretty much ignores everything after the original and its direct sequel. That said, Terminator: Dark Fate does reunite stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton plus features the return of franchise creator James Cameron as producer and co-writer of the story — with Deadpool‘s Tim Miller serving as director.

Like Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys before it, this is supposed to be the first in a new trilogy (the box office, as usual will determine whether or not that’s the case). In Dark Fate, the machines — under the umbrella of Legion instead of Skynet this time — send Terminator Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) back to the present in order to murder Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), who will some day be a part of the human-led Resistance against the machines. The Resistance of the future, in turn, sends one of their soldiers, Grace (Mackenzie Davis), back to protect her. As things unfold, the duo encounter and begin working with Sarah Connor and the T-800 (Linda and Arnold, respectively).

Explains Linda, “Terminator: Dark Fate picks up Sarah’s story 27 years after we’ve seen her in Judgment Day, so we don’t really know where she’s been, but her situation has changed. She’s still fighting the fight, but doesn’t have the same mission, because … well, I can’t tell you why. But she’s an island; a friendless woman carrying on a fight. Really not the same fight, but against the machines.”

She admits that she wasn’t sure she wanted to reprise the character so many years later: “Although I’ve had a fantastic life with Sarah Connor, I sort of had gone so far away from there and didn’t know. I felt that what I had done in the first two movies was a very thorough sort of arc and didn’t want to come back unless there was something new to add. But I was so intrigued by the fact that all this time has passed and the situation has changed and it gave me somewhere that I might be able to go. Coming back was surreal, but only for a minute, because there you are, 27 years older, but we had a job to do.”

Please scroll down for a behind-the-scenes look at the Terminator franchise.