Arnold Is Back for Terminator 5

[ThePhantasm]

I'm not sure you could pull off something like the original Terminator films now, even in a reboot. Its kinda like the Alien movies where the moment for that seems to have past. Now if you make another "Alien" movie there's a "been there, done that" feel. What the franchise really needs is a new twist on the story that doesn't threaten the old films' continuity but doesn't reboot / rehash them either...

 

[Thundercrack85]

I'm not sure you could pull off something like the original Terminator films now, even in a reboot. Its kinda like the Alien movies where the moment for that seems to have past. Now if you make another "Alien" movie there's a "been there, done that" feel. What the franchise really needs is a new twist on the story that doesn't threaten the old films' continuity but doesn't reboot / rehash them either...

True, but I still preferred Prometheus over Alien 3.

Perhaps not the best example.

Still, there is a lot of stuff you can do the original two didn't go into.

I think they crossed the "threaten the old film's continuity" line when they made Terminator 3 - a subpar movie that basically undid Terminator 2. And then rehashed half of it, in an inferior way.

 

[Doc Ock]

This is just a random idea:

The film is set thirty years after the human victory over Skynet alluded to in Terminator 2. It ignores T3 and T:Salvation. This future is post-apocalyptic. Humanity has been trying desperately to rebuild, but life has been difficult. Human beings are divided into three groups: those who long for restoration and remember John Connor as a sort of messianic hero, those who live in fear and awe of Skynet and worship the no longer functioning shells of past Terminators, and those who are ambivalent to either belief system and are just survivors.

It is revealed that, before the time displacement machine was destroyed, Skynet used it to send three robots - two Terminators and one Establisher, a sort of Skynet high-tech engineer - into the future to reestablish Skynet. The Establisher would deconstruct one Terminator in order to retrieve the microchip and recreate Skynet technology. The other Terminator is there to protect the Establisher. Now the hero(es) of the story must destroy these Terminators from the past, fighting through those who worship and protect the Terminators to do so.

I really like this idea, particularly fighting the past to ensure the future?

 

[ThePhantasm]

True, but I still preferred Prometheus over Alien 3.

Perhaps not the best example.

No, that was my point. Prometheus did something new with the franchise. That's what the Terminator franchise needs.

 

[Matt Mortem]

No, that was my point. Prometheus did something new with the franchise. That's what the Terminator franchise needs.

Absolutely. A Terminator Prometheus would be rad.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Absolutely. A Terminator Prometheus would be rad.

What would that look like?

 

[ThePhantasm]

I really like this idea, particularly fighting the past to ensure the future?

Yeah, one theme in the other Terminator films was about either looking at the future in fear or looking at it in hope. This would be a reversal on that... does the past, full of heroes like John Connor, give you hope? Or does it make you afraid that evils like Skynet could rise again?

I'm just spitballing though... I'm sure there's other good ideas / options for a new story...

 

[ThePhantasm]

What would that look like?

It could look like a lot of things really. It would basically need to be a new story / arc set in the same universe but not resting so heavily on John Connor / Sarah Connor / Kyle Reese and the T-800. Frankly those characters and the themes associated with them have been played out I think. It needs to be a fresh story.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Well, I did like one theme the show was going for, namely terminators gaining their own independence from Skynet.

There was a faction of terminators who wanted to end the war.

Still, I think the franchise is beyond repair. Time to start over.

We'll see what they go for.

 

[gwynplaine]

I'm not sure I want to see Arnold back in anything anymore, including Terminator 5.

 

[ThePhantasm]

The only way I'd be interested in a reboot, to be honest, is if James Cameron were heavily involved, at least as producer.

Otherwise, I'd like something more fresh and new. I don't think the franchise is beyond repair. You could say the same for the alien movies, but Prometheus breathed fresh life into the franchise.

 

[Thundercrack85]

After Salvation, I really don't care anymore.

I'd rather take my chances with a fresh start than something that tries to tie four, very disjoined films together.

Or do a half-assed reboot like Star Trek if you must. Have John Connor from another timeline show up. Or them find the remains of a mysterious terminator, if you want to be more cryptic.

 

[mikeboydus]

How about a cyberpunk reboot, no time travel, and set in the near future. Could possibly be worked as a direct sequel to T2.

Its 2029, Cyberdyne Systems is a global conglomerate that manufactures software and hardware that makes appliances, cars, houses, you name it...Smart. They also produce Hunter Killer drones and older style Terminators for first world militaries. The company is on the verge of introducing an advanced nanotech neural interface that will revolutionize the world. Unknown to the world, there has been a hostile takeover within Cyberdyne Systems. A next generation AI, Skynet, has seized control of the company and taken control of its leadership directly by hacking their prototype neural interfaces. It has produced an advanced Terminator, a cyborg, that can infiltrate human society and elimnate threats to it and its planned new order. In opposition to this an underground resistance of conspiracy theorists, anarchists, and hackers emerge.

Using a type of "psychohistory" (method of calculating the future) or maybe even a technology that sees into the future, it determines that it must terminate a bright computer science major named Sarah Connor. (or Senator John Connor who plans to run for US President in the direct sequel to T2) The Resistance is able to hack the same data and launches a mission to find and protect Sarah. (or John) The Resistance sends a veteran soldier (Kyle in the reboot) to hunt down and safeguard them, while Skynet sends the advanced Terminator to terminate its objective.

Instead of being in just LA, like the original, it could be a globe hopping run, with high action set pieces, even on an orbital station. It could also tie into an actual cybernetic revolt, as the main characters face a countdown to Judgement Day where Skynet plans on infecting the entire planet with the neural interface nanites, turning humanity into a massive gestalt hive mind under its control.

Im not sure about the ending. Possible ideas: Major battle at Cheyenne Mountain to destroy Skynet, possibly with help from a prototype nanoassembled machine, like the T-1000, that revolted against Skynet. This could set up a sequel with a Grey Goo scenario as the intelligent nanobot swarm begins to replicate and consume all life. (In the T2 sequel, maybe John uploads his consciouness, e.g. Lawnmower Man style, and fights Skynet in cyberspace. With Skynet destroyed, he becomes a sort of cyberspace messiah or god in the machine. The film would serve as a bookend to the Cameron films, meaning no sequel. Instead of the film being Terminator "3", I would call it Terminator: Trinity) Thoughts?

 

[dude stannis]

Yeah, really, shame on JJ Abrams for making Star Trek actually enjoyable for the first time in years.

But what about all the technobabble?

 

[Gianakin_]

Still not as bad about reboots as Giankin is in the Oldboy threads, who basically says no one should ever reboot or remake anything in any artform ever. That is to say, I exploded, especially after saying he wants to be in Hollywood.

I don't know why you keep calling me out on my opinion and why it's stuck so much in your head, but this is getting ridiculous.

And, to stop you from putting words in my mouth, I love the idea of reboots. It's the remakes I don't like (and yes, there is a difference to me).

That Hollywood comment is just mean and completely uncalled for.

 

[jmc]

I just really wish this series was never turned into a 'franchise'. Films one and two should have been it, it's clearly what Cameron wanted, everything afterwards has been a cash grab on the Terminator name as will any future installments. I'd prefer we just get some original blockbusters for a change, do something else with killer robots for crying out loud and leave what little dignity this series has left alone.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Original blockbusters are all but dead now.

 

[Solidus]

I just really wish this series was never turned into a 'franchise'. Films one and two should have been it, it's clearly what Cameron wanted, everything afterwards has been a cash grab on the Terminator name as will any future installments. I'd prefer we just get some original blockbusters for a change, do something else with killer robots for crying out loud and leave what little dignity this series has left alone.

Not really Cameron did have an idea and plan for T3, he wanted to do it, but he wanted to get some other projects out of the way. In 99 he was on board doing it but Kassar and Vanja had already paid for a (crappy) script. Cameron did not want to use that script (because it was terrible) and said let me write my idea down. Of course that would have cost more money so it never went through.

Once you go past a first film, it is a franchise.
However there are some original stuff still coming out, it's not dead. I mean this year alone we have Pacific Rim and Elysium coming out.

 

[Piper Maru]

I really hope the terminator makes prank calls!

 

[Destructus86]

So...what was wrong with Salvation?

 

[bullets]

Not really Cameron did have an idea and plan for T3, he wanted to do it, but he wanted to get some other projects out of the way. In 99 he was on board doing it but Kassar and Vanja had already paid for a (crappy) script. Cameron did not want to use that script (because it was terrible) and said let me write my idea down. Of course that would have cost more money so it never went through.

I hate life sometimes. We could of gotten a great Terminator 3.

 

[ThePhantasm]

So...what was wrong with Salvation?

1. If Skynet knew Kyle Reese was John Connor's father, why did they not kill him immediately rather than capturing him, thus causing Connor to disappear because he could never be concieved?

2. Why does the future not look like the future we see in the first two Terminator films? Where are the laser guns? If they are developed later, how the heck does a human race with very limited resources accomplish that?

3. Why does Skynet even know Kyle Reese exists? Kyle says all records of his existence were erased long ago.

4. Why does John Connor mistrust all Terminators (such as Marcus) when a) in the past he had a Terminator who he regarded as a pseudo-father-figure b) he has been shown as a kid to be a technological whiz who can easily reprogram stuff and c) we learn in T2 that it was Connor who reprogrammed the T-800 anyways?

Just a few off the top of my head.

 

[Thundercrack85]

1. If Skynet knew Kyle Reese was John Connor's father, why did they not kill him immediately rather than capturing him, thus causing Connor to disappear because he could never be concieved?

I never understood why fans, or apparently the people who wrote Salvation believed that.

If time travel worked that way, John (and the T-800) would have ceased to exist the moment the threw the original terminator's chip into the molten steel at the end of Terminator 2. It's not like Back to the Future. Each timeline is separate.

This is a major problem I had with Salvation. It ignores what was established in Terminator 2. The Kyle Reese in Salvation is irrelevant. He's not the Kyle Reese who fathered John in another timeline.

Granted, Skynet might not know that, but John should.

 

[Solidus]

No not necessarly and I'm not going to get deeply in this again. But the reason John did not disappear at the end of T2 was because that was not the end of Skynet, and Cameron had a plot for it. T1 and T2 had one timeline, and it was circular. Then they changed it and did create multiple timelines. But still the point remains, if Kyle was killed....that means he would not be sent back therefore John would never be born especially born as a child that knows about the machines and prepares for war.

T2's original ending was cut because it would not work that way. Whatever way the writers wanted to put it, T2 was not the end of Skynet, just the beginning.

 

[SoulManX]

How about a cyberpunk reboot, no time travel, and set in the near future. Could possibly be worked as a direct sequel to T2.

Its 2029, Cyberdyne Systems is a global conglomerate that manufactures software and hardware that makes appliances, cars, houses, you name it...Smart. They also produce Hunter Killer drones and older style Terminators for first world militaries. The company is on the verge of introducing an advanced nanotech neural interface that will revolutionize the world. Unknown to the world, there has been a hostile takeover within Cyberdyne Systems. A next generation AI, Skynet, has seized control of the company and taken control of its leadership directly by hacking their prototype neural interfaces. It has produced an advanced Terminator, a cyborg, that can infiltrate human society and elimnate threats to it and its planned new order. In opposition to this an underground resistance of conspiracy theorists, anarchists, and hackers emerge.

Using a type of "psychohistory" (method of calculating the future) or maybe even a technology that sees into the future, it determines that it must terminate a bright computer science major named Sarah Connor. (or Senator John Connor who plans to run for US President in the direct sequel to T2) The Resistance is able to hack the same data and launches a mission to find and protect Sarah. (or John) The Resistance sends a veteran soldier (Kyle in the reboot) to hunt down and safeguard them, while Skynet sends the advanced Terminator to terminate its objective.

Instead of being in just LA, like the original, it could be a globe hopping run, with high action set pieces, even on an orbital station. It could also tie into an actual cybernetic revolt, as the main characters face a countdown to Judgement Day where Skynet plans on infecting the entire planet with the neural interface nanites, turning humanity into a massive gestalt hive mind under its control.

Im not sure about the ending. Possible ideas: Major battle at Cheyenne Mountain to destroy Skynet, possibly with help from a prototype nanoassembled machine, like the T-1000, that revolted against Skynet. This could set up a sequel with a Grey Goo scenario as the intelligent nanobot swarm begins to replicate and consume all life. (In the T2 sequel, maybe John uploads his consciouness, e.g. Lawnmower Man style, and fights Skynet in cyberspace. With Skynet destroyed, he becomes a sort of cyberspace messiah or god in the machine. The film would serve as a bookend to the Cameron films, meaning no sequel. Instead of the film being Terminator "3", I would call it Terminator: Trinity) Thoughts?

I like it!