In many ways, Terminator Genisys is more of the same in the Terminator mythos. WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 is sent back in time to 1984 by Skynet as the human resistance breaches its base of operations in 2029. Shortly thereafter, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back to prevent the Terminator from killing Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) before she gives birth to John Connor (Jason Clarke), the prophet-like human responsible for Skynet’s ultimate demise. The first few minutes of the film are almost frame-for-frame reshots of James Cameron’s initial chapter of this futuristic franchise, offering the added perspective of the moments leading up to the Terminator and Kyle being sent back in time. Then another, “old, but not obsolete” T-800 shows up and suddenly everything old is new again. Sort of.
As has been established in previous Terminator tales, Skynet is determined to end humanity no matter what. This time Skynet has rescheduled Judgment Day from 1997 to 2017, a time when humanity’s dependence on computers and the interconnectivity of pretty much all operating systems, from handheld devices to military mainframes, is a convenience that could easily become a threat. And Danny Dyson (Dayo Okeniyi), son of Skynet creator Miles Dyson (Courtney B. Vance), has created the ultimate app to usher in the apocalypse.
Left to right: Jason Clarke plays John Connor and Jai Courtney plays Kyle Reese in “Terminator Genisys” from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.
But humanity’s resolve to survive is just as strong as Skynet’s desire to rule the world. So, in this new fractured timeline a reprogrammed T-800 was sent back to 1973 by an anonymous sender to be a guardian to, not terminator of, a much younger Sarah. Somehow being raised by a Terminator after her parents were killed has created a Sarah (once known for convincingly crazy tirades about how, “The future’s not set. There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”) that is now a kind-hearted girl (not woman) who talks about there being only one path and calls the older T-800 “Pops”. She also looks way too young for Kyle to be looking at the way he is, even though her character is supposed to be about 20 years old and their inevitable coupling is no secret.
On one level, Genisys gives Terminator fans most of the things they are looking for: bot battles (including appearances by the likes of a liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 played by Lee Byung-hun), familiarly witty one-liners such as, “Come with me if you want to live,” and an upgraded Terminator with advanced technology that seems like it will be impossible to overcome (unless you have some magnets). We also get a lot more of an adult John Connor than we usually get. But this John isn’t exactly the one you might be expecting. That’s actually the big twist of this movie, but I’m not going to be the one to spoil that surprise.
Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor in “Terminator Genisys” from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.
On another level, however, Genisys hits the restart button on the Terminator franchise. Not that it’s a reboot; it exists within the same universe as the other Terminator films. But with the technological advancements that have been made since the release of the first two movies, there’s a lot more to work with when it comes to machines taking over the lives of humans. In fact, the Genisys operating system (and the personification of Skynet by Doctor Who‘s Matthew Smith) almost seems like a commentary on how intertwined most people are with their various electronic devices these days, blind to the potential repercussions of constantly looking at a screen. Plus, it just seems kind of silly for a 2015 audience to still go along with the idea that Judgment Day was in 1997 rather than being an impending doomsday.
Aside from some somewhat stale acting, questionable casting and a cuddly (not chaotic) Sarah who simply is not convincing as the mother of the human resistance, Genisys is not nearly as disastrous as many have predicted. There are a few things that will likely make more sense when they are further explored in future Terminator installments (namely a subplot in which J. K. Simmons is a police officer whose seemingly deranged interest in the Terminators stems from him barely surviving the initial 1984 encounter). Which is to say that, despite its shortcomings, Genisys offers hope for the future of Terminator movies.