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James Cameron Announced His Return to Terminator

I prefer to have the choice to watch, or not, than have fans telling people to not make a movie, leaving no opportunity at all. You're not required to go see it or pay for its production.
 
That was a famous film quote.

If I refer to someone as "Saint dickless", it doesn't mean that person has a dick. Not everything is sexual.

It's still my damn opinion. I'm sorry if you cannot deal with the fact that my favorite TERMINATOR movie isn't yours. Then again, I guess I'm really not that sorry.
 
I prefer to have the choice to watch, or not, than have fans telling people to not make a movie, leaving no opportunity at all. You're not required to go see it or pay for its production.
True but after three failures in a row its obvious more are choosing to stay home.
 
It's still my damn opinion. I'm sorry if you cannot deal with the fact that my favorite TERMINATOR movie isn't yours. Then again, I guess I'm really not that sorry.

Not about your opinion. And why are you making this a personal attack? You misunderstood what somebody said and I tried to clear it up for you.
 
No I did not. I think you're confusing me with the poster who used the famous film quote. You're getting so tied up in your anger you can't see that I was trying to help you out.
 
Here's the easiest way to wrap up Terminator once and for all:

Kill whoever invented time travel, before they can invent it.

Since Skynet's entire existence is dependent upon time travel, that would cause the whole house of cards to come crashing down. If time travel never exists, then Skynet will never exist, and Judgment Day will never happen.

You can tell that I preferred the Future Coda ending to T2. ;)
 
The Terminator and T2 are two of my all-time favorite movies, so my heart is saying *in Arnold's voice* GIVE IT TO ME... NOW!! Especially with Cameron involved in 'any' way. But my brain is saying that maybe the ship has sailed for the Terminator franchise. The domestic box office returns Genisys were terrible, and if it weren't for the world-wide returns, the movie would have flopped. My point, I'm just not sure there's any interest in Terminator anymore. At least not as far as being a blockbuster franchise goes. I kind of feel like the only way to make it work would be to return Terminator to it's roots of lower budget, sci-fi action/horror. I'm not saying a $6 million budget like the original The Terminator (which would be about $14 million today), but maybe something closer to $50-$60 million, similar to Deadpool or the Resident Evil movies, at least as far as the production goes. Just my thoughts.
 
I prefer to have the choice to watch, or not, than have fans telling people to not make a movie, leaving no opportunity at all. You're not required to go see it or pay for its production.


Well, I don't know if that refers to me. But I have to say, that if they really do feel they have to make another Terminator movie, that they take a page from Salvation. I really liked what they did with that movie. They set it far enough into the future as to give it a different angle and the feel was more militaristic, as it should be if Skynet has more control. I know people have their problems with Salvation, but I think one way to avoid many of the problems that keep being revisited is to set it further into the timeline to move things forward. The past 3 movies all hinged on revisiting the same problems, which in itself I felt was a problem that got them into a creative rut. You can only reinvent yourself so many times. Genysis was an interesting concept executed poorly and felt too fankwankish. I think the key lies in going beyond.

Oh and btw, I never did end up seeing it in the theatres. I saw it months later at home. Never had much high hopes for it, but it still managed to disappoint. I thought I'd heard that they didn't want to touch the franchise for awhile after those disappointing returns. I just don't see where they could go creatively without repeating what's already been done, unless they make it such a departure that many complain that it doesn't look like the Terminator they know and love. So, you see, they're in between a rock and a hard place with that one.

I think Ralphis' ideas of going back to its roots to give it a similar tone to the first movie is an interesting idea. I'd love to see a return to the imminent danger of these Terminators running rampant all over the country in a Skynet controlled world.
 
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I think I am one of the only people that really liked Part 3, with its shocker ending that yet still made sense and completed the time loop, and still felt like a Terminator movie, and really disliked Part IV and everything they did in the future.

Salvation just coudln't compete with the mentals generated in fan's heads for decades after the introduction scene of the first Terminator.
 
Here's the easiest way to wrap up Terminator once and for all:

Kill whoever invented time travel, before they can invent it.

Since Skynet's entire existence is dependent upon time travel, that would cause the whole house of cards to come crashing down. If time travel never exists, then Skynet will never exist, and Judgment Day will never happen.

You can tell that I preferred the Future Coda ending to T2. ;)

If I recall right, it was Skynet itself that invented time travel (being the only existing intellect at that point capable of it). And as seen in both the movies and the various other media, Skynet has no problem with using time travel excessively to change the rules and move the goalposts, both to ensure its' own creation (sooner or later) and to ensure it survives the human resistance (at least long enough to develop time travel, at which point the goalposts get moved again). It's a loop that seems impossible to break at this point - without breaking the space/time continuum itself in the process.
 
I thought that T2 just changed the date of judgement day, but had nothing to do with its initial happening. The residual terminator chip from the future caused skynet to happen sooner. When that was taken out of the equation, the timeline (and original date of judgement day) was restored. I don't remember a "Future Coda" ending ? other then them thinking judgement day had been avoided, only to find out in T3 that it was merely postponed.

I don't think time travel had anything to do with Skynet's initial existance.
 
I don't remember a "Future Coda" ending ? other then them thinking judgement day had been avoided

The alternate Future Coda ending (to T2) explained flat-out that Judgment Day never happened and that Skynet never existed. In this timeline, John Connor was a U.S. senator.
 
I don't remember a "Future Coda" ending
Here ya go, T2's deleted ending (though you might want to pop a few painkillers first; it's awful):

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I thought that T2 just changed the date of judgement day, but had nothing to do with its initial happening. The residual terminator chip from the future caused skynet to happen sooner. When that was taken out of the equation, the timeline (and original date of judgement day) was restored.
That's certainly my understanding of T3's plot, at least. I once made a handy chart for the series through Salvation:

TTT_zps608069c2.jpg


------------------------------
I generally believe, as a matter of artistic theory, that fictional worlds can be extended in interesting ways forever. Which isn't to say we should have endless stories about any given character, but if you expand and switch things up enough, and aren't beholden to a particular character of even genre, you can find interesting stories anywhere. The MCU is the perfect example of this - we start with Iron Man, then meet his father in The First Avenger, then follow his friend Peggy in two TV seasons, neither of which have anything to do with the story of Iron Man 1. (And, of course, that's just one branch-off of many.)

The Terminator franchise, however, strikes me as the notable exception to that rule. No, I don't want to see any more of the Connors - and I'm a guy who unapologetically loves T3 in its theatrical form. No, I don't want to see more future war/time travel shenanigans. No, I don't want the Sarah and John Connor Chronicles, with its teenage John crushing on a sexy female robot and maybe vice versa, and a Dr. Silberman that's not Earl Boen. Do not want, not one little bit.

... Of course, in his original T2 script, Cameron figured the future human Resistance would be largely South American, as there would have been comparatively few nuclear targets/strikes in the Southern Hemisphere. So now that I type this, I can actually start to picture a movie about a badass woman growing up in the jungles of Brazil or what-not, and enlisting in a suicidal trip to North America for an assault on Skynet, ending with the original T-800 being sent back to T1. (Just how the T-1000 was sent back, and why it wasn't also sent to 1985, strikes me as best left completely unexplained. In other words, such a movie needn't directly reference T2 at all.)

Damnit - guess I thought of a possible one last film in spite of myself. :p Although, to be fair, I've more or less had this idea in some form since before Salvation even came out.
 
^I instantly see a problem with that timeline chart. It seems to indicate that the "original" timeline was altered by the events of T1, except John Conner existed in that timeline, as did the photo of pregnant Sarah in her jeep, forming a causal loop. If one also takes into account the "Cyberdyne" deleted scene from T1 the same applies to the development of Skynet, which seems thematically appropriate as it means both Conner and Skynet created themselves and each other at the same time.

It's in T2 where things seem to veer off course, though it's not clear how or when the exact point of divergence is. If I had to guess, I'd say it was Sarah's "No Fate" dream, where she decided to go after Dyson. If you listen closely they're talking about crossing the border into Mexico to go into hiding and in T1, Reese mentions how Sarah and John were both in hiding before the war. So it seems originally they all ran and waited out Judgement Day and the T-1000 either never found them or they took it out under different circumstances.

Note: It can't be Skynet sending back the T-1000 as per the unfilmed extended future war prologue scene in T2, it and the original T-800 were supposed to have both been sent back at the same time and "Uncle Bob" got sent back immediately after Kyle. Indeed, logically speaking the T-1000 would have been the first as it was more advanced and targeted specifically at John. It's failure would mean the second attempt is earlier in his causal timeline, at Sarah. Of course the second "shot" is what prepared them to be ready for the first one. More causal loops! ;)
 
I figure there has to be an unseen original timeline where John's lineage is unimportant, and he's just a guy who stands up and fights, and is about to lead the machines.... T1 has to be a later iteration in the time loop.
 
^ Halfway agree... in my original, pre-T1 timeline, John is still Sarah's son, but not by Reese.

That's tough to support going by Cameron's scripts. Granted it's merely implicit in T1 that John knew full well who Kyle was when he sent him back, but in the T2 script it's explicit.
At the far end of the room, a young soldier stands
surrounded by a team of technicians. KYLE REESE. Sarah
Connor's defender, teacher, and lover in the first film.
A simple soldier who is about to walk point-blank into the
gaping maw of history. At the moment, he is the center of
activity. As he finishes stripping off his battle
uniform, the techs begin smearing his body with a
conductive so the time-field will follow his outline.

Reese looks around at all the activity. Battle and the
prospect of death have never scared him. But the
importance of what he is about to do terrifies him.

The techs move aside and suddenly John Connor is standing
beside him. Connor... their grim messiah. Their leader.
He fixes Reese with an intense gaze. There is so much he
wants to say, but cannot bring himself to. Finally Reese
speaks.

REESE
Did you know I'd be the one who
volunteered?

Connor nods.

CONNOR
I've always known. Sarah told me.

Reese nods. Suddenly understanding everything.

REESE
That's why you moved me to your
unit? Kept me so close.

Connor shrugs enigmatically.
One of the techs interrupts them

TECH
We're ready, Sergeant.

THREE ENORMOUS CHROME RINGS, one inside the other, are
suspended in a circular hole in the center of the room's
floor. John and Reese approach them.

Reese steps onto the first ring. It bobs under his
weight. We see that the rings are freely floating in a
magnetic field. Reese steps to the inner ring and looks
into the hole. A vast echoing darkness below. He looks
back at John. The messiah is waiting for him to step into
the bottomless pit.

CONNOR
Sometimes you have to put your faith
in the machine.

Reese takes a breath, then steps into open space and is
buoyed up by an unseen field of force. He floats in the
middle of the rings. The techs start the time
displacement sequence.

THE RINGS BEGIN TO MOVE, slowly rotating around each other
on different axis like some complex gyroscope.

THE FLOOR BEGINS TO SPLIT OPEN, like wedges in a pie which
begin to pull back from the center. The rings are
spinning faster now, suspended in space in the middle of
the receding floor wedges. The rings begin to descend.

JOHN AND REESE LOCK EYES as they move apart. Reese is
dropping into an unbelievably vast circular space... the
time-field generator. John watches him go, until Reese is
a tiny figure. The rings are spinning so rapidly now they
almost disappear, becoming a sphere of whirling steel.
Technicians pull John back from the edge.

LIGHTNING BEGINS TO ARC across the vast room below. A
huge charge of energy is building up. Everyone takes
cover behind blast walls they have set up. They put on
goggles like they used to do at A-bomb tests. This is
going to be big.

The chamber below has become a Hell of energy with Reese
at its center. The drone and crackle of the machines
builds to thunder, there is a BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT!

When the glare fades the floating rings are empty. They
slow to a stop, seared and smoking. Reese is gone.

FUENTES, one of the officers, turns to Connor.

FUENTES
Now what happens to Reese? I mean,
what did happen?

Connor's gaze seems far away from this time and place.

CONNOR
He accomplishes his mission and in
doing so, he dies.

FUENTES
He is a good soldier.

Connor solemnly nods.
CONNOR
Yes... He's also my father.

FUENTES
Mother of God!

Fuentes stares at Connor in amazement. He has just been
given a glimpse into his leader's private Hell. Connor
turns from the smoking chamber. He seems suddenly ten
years old as his features drain of strength, shoulders
sagging.

Fuentes shouts an order to a waiting Sapper team.

FUENTES
Sapper team. Set your charges.
Let's blow this place back to Hell.

Connor shakes his head no. Mustering his strength.

CONNOR
Not yet. There's one more thing we
have to do.

TIGHT ON MASSIVE DOORS OF STEEL, covered with a thin sheet
of ice. Locking bolts slam back. Ice shatters like glass
as the doors begin to open. We are in--


INT. COLD STORAGE FACILITY

Connor walks into the darkness, followed by a few
technicians. They are in a vault-like cold-storage room.
Hanging in steel racks from ceiling tracks are hundreds of
what appear to be men. They are in rows of ten. Within
each row, each of the bodies are absolutely identical.

Connor signals the techs to remain by the door and walks
out among the dark bodies. They are UNACTIVATED
TERMINATORS. He stops at a row in which they are
identical to the terminator which was sent to kill Sarah
(the Arnold model).

He walks to the end of the row. There is one empty rack.
He faces the terminator in the next rack. Its eyes are
closed.
John seems distant as he studies that face.
Fuentes enters the chamber, pushing past the technicians.
Calls for his leader in the darkness.

FUENTES
John?... John?...

TIGHT ON CONNOR, his face pensive as Fuentes calls his
name. Fuentes voice slowly dissolves to ANOTHER VOICE. A
woman's. Echoing as though from a great distance...

CUT TO:

I know they never filmed this, but I see this mostly as a matter of authorial intent and this is what Cameron wrote.

I also rather think it's thematically vital in order for Sarah's decision in T2 to attempt to stop the war to be meaningful. "No Fate" means they have free will: "the future is not set". What better way to express that if Sarah simply chose differently, even though all of the external factors were 100% identical. Across infinite versions of this moment within the mobius loop of causality, Sarah Conner chose to cross the border and go into hiding...until she chose otherwise for no other reason than because she has free will.
 
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