Terminator Genisys (July 1st, 2015)

[jye4ever]

lol lord...........

Not bad for $40.00 right, $50.00 if you want a cell phone photo.

 

[Matt S]

Not bad for $40.00 right, $50.00 if you want a cell phone photo.

I refuse to meet many celebs for that very reason. Too impersonal....

 

[Khev]

Yeah this kinda bugged me - ''oh that old chestnut''. What's your theory on why that would happen here?

That old chestnut indeed. We know from T1 that "we smashed their defense grid, we'd won" but the opening of T2 did show armies of Endos walking around. So if you put the two together you get "smashing defense grid = winning even against an army of free range Endos." Now I can see no conceivable reason why an Endo would actually run out of power due to the remote destruction of anything. BUT...I would guess that "smashing the defense grid" allowed the Resistance to access Skynet's mainframe or something and actively send out a mass broadcast to all machines that the war was over and to self-deactivate. Not self-terminate, just go into immediate power down mode due to having no more directives.

And for me that's actually kind of cool. There was something creepy about all the machines just becoming completely lifeless. The Endos didn't even spasm for a second as if in pain before dropping (like the Chitauri.) They were just in full destruction mode and...simply stopped. Became lifeless metal. It actually makes the Resistance's victory a bit unsatisfying in kind of a harsh way. The machines didn't scream in rage, cry in pain, go "nooooo!" or anything. They just stopped. Revealing that the entire "war" wasn't two groups against their hated enemies. It was just humans against out of control appliances. The appliances didn't know they were defeated. They didn't care. They were never anything in the first place.

Imagine dropping something into your kitchen sink and you reach down to get it. For whatever reason the garbage disposal switch gets flipped on and it starts mangling your fingers. You scream in pain and rage until someone else hits the switch again and turns it off. You pull out your bloodied hand, victorious, but that disposal didn't give a CRAP that it mangled you, OR that it is now "defeated." It's simply off. *shudder* Makes the whole "war" seem like this pointless catastrophe. No conflicting "ideals" or sentient beings on both sides. Just people who tragically turned on the disposals and took years to switch them off. All that to say that I really *like* the chestnut of troops and HK's just going limp. Much more than the screaming T-1000 in fact (though in the context of T2 I think the T-1000's death really worked and I wouldn't want it changed.)

Good post. Although knowing myself, I may simply be incapable of giving a Terminator film a pass on certain things, always sort of wanting them to be 'more'.

I hear you. But you'll always have T1 and T2 as good movies that did everything "right." Since those will never be threatened (meaning the actual movies themselves will never go away) I think there's room to still have more good movies even if they do some things "wrong" in relation to the previous two. Someone joked to me about how I'll probably flip out if they ever replace Chris Evans with Channing Tatum or Will Smith or something as Cap. And honestly, if they do something "lame" but make it somehow still entertaining I really think I'd be okay with it. I've got The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier, and now Age of Ultron. They can get a little wild from here on out as long as I can still have a good time.

 

[Khev]

Yes it's the same T-1000 apparently. I think the idea is they managed to hide from him in all the intervening years, all the while knowing that they would have to come out of hiding in may 1984. They prepared their facility with the acid drums in the meantime, fully expecting him to trace them back there. There they could kill him. Why they didn't do so earlier - perhaps they couldn't afford to risk it until they had rescued Reese

I've gone back and forth as to what I thought they were trying to say with the Lake House T-1000. But you're exactly right. The acid drum trap has to imply that he was still at large in 1984 and that they anticipated him re-engaging when Reese appeared.

 

[a-dev]

That old chestnut indeed. We know from T1 that "we smashed their defense grid, we'd won" but the opening of T2 did show armies of Endos walking around. So if you put the two together you get "smashing defense grid = winning even against an army of free range Endos." Now I can see no conceivable reason why an Endo would actually run out of power due to the remote destruction of anything. BUT...I would guess that "smashing the defense grid" allowed the Resistance to access Skynet's mainframe or something and actively send out a mass broadcast to all machines that the war was over and to self-deactivate. Not self-terminate, just go into immediate power down mode due to having no more directives.

''I can work with that''

I've gone back and forth as to what I thought they were trying to say with the Lake House T-1000. But you're exactly right. The acid drum trap has to imply that he was still at large in 1984 and that they anticipated him re-engaging when Reese appeared.

In T1 the only reason the T-800 finds them after the police station assault is because Sarah calls her 'mother' and gives her the contact number for the motel. If there had been time to figure out what happened I'd say Reese would have been pretty pissed at Sarah! But from there it was non-stop till the T-800 was destroyed and Reese was dead. Sarah got him killed in a way. Huh.

In T2 the reason the T-1000 finds them after Pescadero is because it anticipates a possible attempt on Dyson's life. If memory serves that's the first time you see him in about 20-30mins of the film. I wonder what he was doing in between, what other leads he could have been following up? Did he find out about Enrique's camp and go there first? Maybe he should have skipped that and went right to Dyson's house or to Cyberdyne.

Anyway, the point - the destruction of the T1 T-800 and T2's T-1000 all occurred in a short time, like 2 days at most. So the question might be asked how it is that in Terminator Genisys Pops and Sarah avoid confrontation with the T-1000 for years apparently. Well Sarah's parents were dead, no known siblings or anyone else to go rescue. It was just Pops and a child Sarah. Pops really could have dictated everything they did and didn't do so as to become invisible, leaving no trail to be followed. (this would have worked in T1 but perhaps Reese wasn't explicit enough about the danger of Sarah contacting anyone) Furthermore there would be no third person pushing for a pre-emptive strike on Skynet like adult Sarah did in T2. So Pops and Sarah could have avoided the T-1000 until 1984, presuming they were very careful.

 

[KneelBeforrSmallville]

After reading all your theories I am more interested in the Matt Smith character. Perhaps he is from an alternate universe/timeline and he's the one responsible for this new series of events.

Has anyone found any interviews from the cast/crew on the main questions? I'm going to assume they are just saving these for a sequel.

On the topic of Hamilton and Biehn, I have always wanted to meet Hamilton. I heard she was actually really cool and down to earth. I met Biehn years ago at my first con, I was stoked!!! He was awesome too, very personable and it was a smaller event so we got to chat for a bit. He was the man. Flashfoward to a few months ago I saw him again but he was definitely much more reserved and quiet, he may of had a cold or something.

Anyways, I'm on board with Genisys. Definitely not my favorite in the series or of the year but It sure was entertaining and at least the script wasn't mindless.

 

[a-dev]

The alternate dimension theory of Matt Smith could explain why a T-800 is still sent to 1984 despite all this new stuff going on - if the skynet of this particular universe doesn't know anything about Matt Smith or the plot to kill Sarah Connor as a child by way of T-1000 in 1973. ''Our'' Skynet didn't even have sufficient information to do that, it only knew where she lived in 1984 as per T1. Our Skynet proceeds with the original plan as we know it. Matt Smith is an invader of the typical timeline that we know, not even our skynet is aware of him. Coming from an alternate dimension and perhaps somehow being able to see the outcomes of the actions in our timeline he is in a position to enact some new changes.....although why these new changes don't immediately figure into the knowledge of our skynet and John Connor in 2029 is where my head explodes....

 

[karamazov80]

TG. . .they were fighting a Nintendo boss battle.

Correct, the action was geared toward being fun and special effect-y, like pretty much every MCU film (including the first Avengers).

Damn. I'm not a hardcore Marvel Universe defender, but I would never go that far with running down their films. You make it sound no better than the Bay Transformers movies!

 

[DiFabio]

Not sure why Endo skeletons would power down with the destruction of Skynet's defense grid or whatever (since obviously they aren't connected to the "grid" when they go to a past decade) but it was more plausible than when it happened to the Chitauri.

Yeah this kinda bugged me - ''oh that old chestnut''. What's your theory on why that would happen here?

 

[cmiller99]

That last bit about "the soldier approached the endoskeleton and pushed over and grinned" sounds like the ****ing Phantom Menace

 

[DiFabio]

That's dated May of 1990 too.


Cameron would have done it justice though, I highly doubt it would play out like the Phantom Menace or Avengers. Yeah it says "idiot grin", but also see the Valley Forge and "tears streaming down their face" descriptions.

 

[Khev]

That's dated May of 1990 too.

That's cool. Lucas and Whedon ripped off Cameron's early draft and because of that people will think the opening of Genisys is derivative. Nice to know it isn't.

 

[YankeesFanboy]

Y'all really want this future war movie to happen, huh?

 

[Khev]

I have always wanted to meet Hamilton. I heard she was actually really cool and down to earth.

I'm going to go with one of my friends and instead of waiting in line to get her autograph I'm just going to shove past everyone. My friend is going to pretend to get annoyed and try and stop me but I'm just going to squeeze his hand and make him collapse in front of her. I'm sure she'll think that will be a hilarious way for me to approach her table and will want to just chat and chat and answer all my questions.

The alternate dimension theory of Matt Smith could explain why a T-800 is still sent to 1984 despite all this new stuff going on - if the skynet of this particular universe doesn't know anything about Matt Smith or the plot to kill Sarah Connor as a child by way of T-1000 in 1973. ''Our'' Skynet didn't even have sufficient information to do that, it only knew where she lived in 1984 as per T1. Our Skynet proceeds with the original plan as we know it. Matt Smith is an invader of the typical timeline that we know, not even our skynet is aware of him. Coming from an alternate dimension and perhaps somehow being able to see the outcomes of the actions in our timeline he is in a position to enact some new changes.....although why these new changes don't immediately figure into the knowledge of our skynet and John Connor in 2029 is where my head explodes....

Maybe Skynet of the future was somehow able to access police reports detailing Reese's actions in the department store ("Unit 117 responding to electrical disturbance in alley...") and so the T-1000 knew to go there whereas he didn't know where the T-800 would be at that exact second because they didn't connect him to the punks that were killed.

Y'all really want this future war movie to happen, huh?

I did at one point but now I'm good with what we got in Genisys. Ideally we would have seen one featuring Michael Biehn in the mid-90's.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

I thought this was kind of funny

 

[Khev]

 

[DiFabio]

Y'all really want this future war movie to happen, huh?

Not any more. I'm past it.


I watched The Terminator and Terminator 2 back to back the other night and I'm fine with the future sequences. The battlefield against the HKs with Reese, the female fighter, then the bunker with Sarah Connor photo and the T2 prologue with John Connor is good enough for me in the end. It would have been nice to see that introduction play out with the Michael Biehn, Michael Edwards, the Skynet and time displacement complex in Cameron and Stan Winston's hands, but what ever.

While not as fulfilling as that original screenplay would have been, Genisys kinda sorta scratched that itch I guess. Atleast I got to see something like it on the big screen.

 

[Khev]

The only thing that I thought the Genisys prologue could have played up a little more was the "one way ticket" nature of Reese's mission. Yeah they commended Reese for his actions and this being "the end of the war" but for them he was disappearing forever. Might as well have been killing himself. Biehn had the slightest hint of melancholy when he said, "I can't. Nobody goes home..." so I guess I assumed a little more of a farewell on the front end.

But it WAS Courtney so for all we know the Resistance fighters were just waiting to high five each other when he finally disappeared from their lives.

 

[EVILFACE]

I did at one point but now I'm good with what we got in Genisys. Ideally we would have seen one featuring Michael Biehn in the mid-90's.

I would like to know who sent Pops back.

 

[Khev]

I would like to know who sent Pops back.

Absolutely but we were just talking about a single movie showing the whole "future war." I definitely want to see a movie released in our future explaining who sent Pops.