Terminator: Dark Fate Makes Schwarzenegger’s T-800 A Real Human And That’s A Good Thing

SPOILER WARNING: Huge Spoilers For Terminator: Dark Fate Below

Viewers have come across a lot of terminators in the various sequels of the movie which began it all. As is almost tradition at this point, Terminator: Dark Fate manages to bring in yet another terminator. But it does so in a unique way which also brings back the T-800 Arnold Schwarzenegger model.

Terminator T-800 Kills John Connor

T-800 is one of the most memorable sci-fi villains of 20th century cinema. These emotionless killing machines will do anything to achieve their target. The one we all see in the first Terminator movie was just one in an line of murder machines.

In the opening of Terminator: Dark Fate, Sarah Connor is enjoying life with her son John after the events of Terminator 2. But happiness turns to loss due to the sudden arrival of another Terminator who kills John. It is revealed that before the timeline change which resulted in the elimination of Skynet, it had sent multiple T-800s into the past to try and kill John. As Sarah mourns the loss of her son, the T-800 does something strange. It simply drops the gun and goes into the ocean. But his journey actually began from there.

The New T-800 Gains Emotions And Humanity

Since the events of Terminator 2 had effectively prevented Skynet from ever coming to be so the T-800 doesn’t have any further specified objective anymore. So with nowhere to go, it finds itself back in Texas where it saves a woman and her child from an abusive lover.

This event changes its life for the better. The Terminator (who now goes by Carl) eventually ends up marrying the woman and even becomes a surrogate father to her son. He ultimately ends up settling down in his peaceful human life and essentially does what no Terminator was programmed to do.

As a result of his time with his own family, the T-800 learns to appreciate love and family. This in turn makes him regret the pain that he had brought Sarah Connor when he shot her son dead. To make amends he tries to give Sarah Connor a sense of purpose too. But just because he doesn’t fight doesn’t mean that he can’t. Carl helps save the life of our new heroine Dani from the Rev-9. In the end, he even sacrifices his own life to save everyone, mimicking the fate of the earlier T-800 who fought for John Connor.

This is the most effective development in the entire Terminator franchise of androids showing not just sentience but full grown human emotions. So, while the death of John Connor is a major loss, but it shows that the future doesn’t always bring doom. Also the positive portrayal of women here is something to cherish and for misogynists to get angry over. 

Terminator: Dark Fate is now in theatres.

Check out the final trailer of Terminator: Dark Fate below, before catching the movie in theatres:

(Source: screenrant.com and theverge.com)