Both Sarah Connor and The Terminator made a successful return to the silver screen in Terminator: Dark Fate.
The film saw the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his iconic role as The Terminator, while Linda Hamilton reprised her role as Sarah Connor for the first time since 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Like other sequels released during the 2010s, Terminator: Dark Fate set out to create a new continuity separate from established canon. To that end, it serves as a direct sequel to Terminator 2, while ignoring the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation and Terminator: Genisys having taken place in alternative timelines.
The film opens with Sarah Connor narrating the events following Terminator 2. Judgment Day, which was to happen on Aug. 29, 1997, never happened thanks to Sarah and her son John’s efforts to destroy Cyberdine Systems in T2. However, another Terminator (which looks like Arnold) was sent back in time and has a mission which it completes in 1998.
Fast forward to 2020 and an advanced Terminator known as the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) is sent back in time to kill Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), similar to the original Terminator targeting Sarah in 1984. Meanwhile, a soldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), who has been cybernetically enhanced, is sent back through time to protect Dani.
While on the run from Rev-9, they run into an older Sarah Connor, who is still as badass as ever and is loaded with a stockpile of weapons to take on the Rev-9 and any other Terminator she crosses paths with.
However, Sarah is clearly traumatized from the events of 1998, and the memories of the Terminators haunt her. Sarah’s appearance in Terminator: Dark Fate is akin to Laurie Strode in 2018’s Halloween: she is older, battle worn and is suffering mentally from the trauma of her past, but will take back the narrative.
Once Sarah gathers enough information about Dani, she decides to join Grace in protecting Dani, believing her to be the new Sarah Connor, destined to give birth to the new hero of humanity. To that end, they set out to coordinates provided to Grace that lead them to Laredo, Texas.
In Laredo, they cross paths with The Terminator Sarah met in 1998, who has gained autonomy from Skynet and integrated into human society, even marrying a woman and raising a stepson, and living life as Carl. The Terminator decides to join forces with the trio in order to protect Dani from the Rev-9 and Legion, the new computer network that replaces Skynet as the one humans fight in the future.
Terminator: Dark Fate is the sequel fans should have gotten when Terminator 3 came out in 2003. Though T3 is an enjoyable film, some expected three terminators to appear fighting each other; in this movie, that wish is granted in the form of The Terminator and Grace fighting side-by-side against the Rev-9.
Also noteworthy is seeing Sarah Connor and The Terminator fight alongside each other, despite Sarah’s less-than-friendly feelings toward the machine. There’s nothing quite as iconic as seeing Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger firing high power rifles out of the back of a military helicopter in order to protect the fate of humanity.
Ultimately, Terminator: Dark Fate does what the first two films did successfully: Force the characters to embrace their fate, rather than fight it, and fulfilling their destiny.
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