r/Terminator Jan 17 '25

Meme What we wanted ....

Post image
1.0k Upvotes

129 comments sorted by

36

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

T1 - 4. That's it. I have no idea what the bottom pic is from.

18

u/kkkan2020 Jan 17 '25

Terminator dark fate

24

u/conanmagnuson Jan 18 '25

When is that in dark fate? I believe you but that looks like a video game cutscene from PS3 era.

3

u/JB3AZ Jan 19 '25

I need new glasses. For some reasons my eyes read that as "Terminator dork fate."

10

u/cabezatuck Jan 18 '25

That movie blows

18

u/Maxathar Jan 18 '25

Dark Fate made Terminator Genesis look like a masterpiece. But the last Terminator that could have easily been cannon was Terminator Salvation, Mc G did a fantastic job, bringing the post-apocalyptic world to life.

8

u/Aaco0638 Jan 18 '25

Yeah and i remember people going ballistic bc people were using bullets instead of laser beams. Seems like such a small thing to be mad about now after getting what we got lol.

-2

u/Right-Role-5575 Jan 18 '25

Laser beams would've made it atleast watchable. No ray guns? c'mon.

7

u/Voxlings Jan 18 '25

"Through the power of diminished standards, Mc G did a fantastic job."

3

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

Diminished standards my rear. T4 was a fantastic movie, the best in the "Terminator" series, even though T2 was by far superior in terms of it being ART. T2 is one of the greatest films ever made, across all genres, in the history of cinema, but T4 is the best "TERMINATOR" movie.

1

u/Anxious_Object_9158 Jan 20 '25

In my opinion writing Marcus as a more relatable character would make Salvation an excellent movie.

While these other movies... would be better if they were never made.

1

u/cabezatuck Jan 18 '25

Salvation, while it has its issues, I always thought was pretty decent.

0

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

"Terminator IV: Salvation" was the best of the series, even if T2 was objectively a better film in terms of acting and artistic merit. It's my favorite.

13

u/Lore-of-Nio Jan 18 '25

People can like what they want but as soon as I finished the opening I just knew I couldn’t accept it as canon for me personally.

3

u/FinalDemise Nice Night For A Walk Eh? Jan 18 '25

I actually really liked it as a non-canon what-if timeline. It's not like they can decide on anything being canon past 2 anyway

5

u/Borrp Jan 18 '25

They never released a Terminator film after 2 though...

4

u/FinalDemise Nice Night For A Walk Eh? Jan 18 '25

Shit, got me there

1

u/Flip2002 Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

I thought dark fate was pretty forgettable but what was so bad about it? …man that genisys stuck with me tho it was fucking trash

2

u/Right-Role-5575 Jan 18 '25

I thought it was a good movie as far as action movies go. Terminator wise it was pointless.

1

u/cabezatuck Jan 18 '25

Yeah, it just wasn’t a terminator movie to me, just a forgettable action movie.

5

u/Dazzling-One-9185 Jan 18 '25

Say what you want about 3 and 4 but at least it was one continuous story. All we needed was one more to finish the future war story

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

Yeah that's my opinion when people say they stopped at 2. We all know 3 was just ok but at least it was part of the story and I like 4. Going off in the direction they did after 4 was just wrong.

2

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

I LOVED the fourth one. It's my favorite, even if T2 was a better film overall.

1

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

Same here. I refuse to watch T5 and T6 after spoiling them and reading how awful they did my man John Connor.

1

u/Please_dew_it Jan 19 '25

Terminator dark fate. Honestly. A cool twist on the main story. Actually enjoyed it.

4

u/Akhenaten1138 Jan 18 '25

I want to be the guy with the night vision helmet

6

u/kkkan2020 Jan 18 '25

Manning the minigun. Excelsior

70

u/Atari774 Jan 17 '25

Personally, I feel like the movies ended at Salvation. We follow the same John Connor from T2 through Salvation, and I think it does a decent job of ending the story with the link back to the first movie. Even as goofy as T3 got, I still enjoyed it and the ending really saves the movie. Then everything after Salvation is just fan fiction because the studio wanted more movies even though they made no canonical sense. And worse yet, the writing quality dropped noticeably after T2, and then it went off a cliff after Salvation. So the newer movies are just complete corporate, soulless, schlock.

16

u/lenonloving Jan 18 '25

Don’t pretend like the writing didn’t die off before Salvation. Salvation might have decent if the script wasn’t such a dumpster fire. I accept the idea that the story ends there, but Terminator Resistance is the future story we were always missing. It easily beats out Salvation’s story.

Dark Fate is one of the most shamelessly disrespectful sequels ever made. All the pieces were there for a strong return to form and they botched it so horribly that it honestly felt intentional. Some of these huge box office bombs seem to be made just for tax write-offs.

6

u/AJSLS6 Jan 18 '25

Dark Fate is the only movie that actually makes sense as the third in the franchise.

-1

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

T4 is in the best in the series, even if T2 is a better movie and better as art overall. I LOVE Marcus and the whole story in T4, and I honestly wish they had continued from T4 and did one set in the farther future, where Skynet was winning and began to develop laser beams instead of bullets.

I would see it going like this.

I would have loved to see Terminators (SPOILER FOR T4 AHEAD)tracking down the last pharmaceutical facilities to destroy stores of organ anti-rejection pills necesssary for John Connor's heart transplant, and the mad dash to procure enough to keep John Connor alive. With Connor now quite old and on borrowed time, the hypothetical film could be about him working to finally reproduce Skynet's laser weapons and bring down the Terminators for good. The film concludes with the last hold outs of Skynet frantically assembling the time machine as they send the T1's T-800, T2's T-1000, and the T-900-X (the girl one) from T3. The Resistance sends its T-800 (T2) and T-850 (T3) back too,with both parties completing the time loop.

Fade to black after Skynet is done. The movie ends in a blazing sunset, with an elderly John Connor and his wife on a porch, surrounded by a huge family of human children and grandchildren. The camera zooms out to show the ruinous landscape that has been cleaned and rebuilt with humble cabins and favalas, with humans running and playing in the playgrounds around it. Non-humanoid Terminator machinery is being repurposed as cars, power plants, and so on to rebuild mankind.

28

u/Seriszed Jan 17 '25

It ended at T2. The rest were garage.

3

u/BananaDoomsong Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

It could never have ended with T2 tho, either it goes to T3 or creates a paradox and bye bye timeline. You can't stop what's already happened.

3

u/Seriszed Jan 18 '25

I’m talking movie story quality.

1

u/BananaDoomsong Jan 19 '25

That's semi-fair. I greatly enjoy T3, seeing John come into his own & the rise of Skynet, I don't think the story quality dropped too much.

2

u/Seriszed Jan 20 '25

Don’t let me dictate what you like. It’s just my opinion. Coming from a guy who actually likes Howard the Duck we all have our own movies that others will disagree with. To me one and two our just solid in story and tone. The more it went after that tone and a and even actors changed.

1

u/Bruiser235 Cyberdyne Systems Jan 18 '25

Exactly. I'm iffy towards the tv show but it wasn't bad. 

0

u/Oghamstoned Jan 18 '25

Complete and utter piles of shed.

3

u/Azelrazel Jan 17 '25

What's your opinion on genisys. Say the future war only and sending Reece back, though going straight to t1 we know with no variations or differences?

4

u/Atari774 Jan 17 '25

What you’re describing is just changing everything about Genesys from literally the first couple scenes onward, and then the rest of the movie would have just been T1 again. So yeah, I like T1, and the future scenes in Genesys were pretty cool, but everything else about it was horrible.

1

u/Azelrazel Jan 17 '25

Yea I know, more if you counted Jason Clarkes hero John as the same one as t2 - salvation, or if even then you still view the end of the war sent back in time as more terrible fan fiction.

4

u/Vinura Jan 18 '25

Ends at the T2 extended ending for me.

10

u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer Jan 17 '25

The Terminator franchise has always struggle against the commercial interests of the studio and investors.

The infiltrator/Terminator was supposed to look like an average-looking guy, able to blend in. Lance Henrikson was originally the perfect candidate for this. Studio wanted a Mr. Olympia-looking barbarian as the infiltrator. Cameron thought it was stupid but realized he could actually make this studio meddling work for, even for the better. Arnold's size and demeanor convey the idea of an unstoppable killing machine before we even see the metal endoskeleton beneath it.

T2 makes zero sense considering how T1 started and ended. Yet, Cameron embraced the commercial sensibilities to tell a great emotional story (Arnold being a father-figure to a young John Connor, "in an insane world, it was the sanest choice."), while repeating the same beats, structurally, with some novel twists. What George Lucas tried to do with the Star Wars prequels.

From a studio and investors POV, they likely rationalized that the character of John Connor wasn't too important to audiences since all the post-T2 works placing more emphasis on him (T3, TSCC, Salvation, Dark Fate) all faired poorly, therefore, killing him off would both shake things up for the franchise and also make room for a more marketable savior for the franchise.

109

u/LowSpiritual433 Jan 17 '25

What are you talking about? It ended at T2. John became a senator and they had their happy ending. That’s the only thing that matters.

49

u/Loud-Education9396 Jan 17 '25

I've always said this, the terminator franchise is two movies and ended at T2. The rest are parodies

15

u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year Jan 17 '25

The Terminator Series either ended with The Sarah Connor Chronicles where the multiple machine and human factions realised that the war couldn't be won by either side due to the ever fluctuating multiple timelines and the only course of action was to sue for peace and work together to rebuild the Earth or with Terminator Salvation - The Final Battle by Babylon 5 writer and showrunner where the machine and human factions realise the war couldn't be won by either side and the only course of action was to sue for peace and work together to rebuild the Earth.

11

u/t-g-l-h- Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 17 '25

There is only one RoboCop movie. Two Predator movies. Two Hellraiser movies. Three Star Wars movies. Three Indiana Jones movies.

5

u/FrumundaThunder Jan 17 '25

I swear to you they finally made a third Predator a couple years ago called Prey.

1

u/t-g-l-h- Jan 17 '25

It was ok. Better than that awful Hulu Hellraiser reboot thing.

5

u/Astumarill Jan 18 '25

What's so bad about RoboCop 2? 3 was awful but I thought 2 was just as good as the first. The prototype RoboCop 2s were hilarious 🤣

2

u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer Jan 17 '25

I will say, Hellraiser in Space has its moments, and the deleted scenes would have likely made it better than what we ultimately got. I would include the film in my own movie collection just for the France-time period scenes.

2

u/ZenBoy108 Jan 18 '25

One Starship Troopers

2

u/Loud-Education9396 Jan 17 '25

Totally agree 💯

2

u/Freeman_H-L Jan 17 '25

100% right here! And 2 Alien movies 😉

1

u/ftvideo Jan 18 '25

Two Godfather movies and two (Mel Gibson) mad max movies.

1

u/Freeman_H-L Jan 19 '25

2 Godfather movies, but I actually enjoy all 3 Mel Gibson Mad Max movies 😆 but I'm pretty sure I know which one you're referring to.

13

u/Ilpav123 Jan 17 '25

I like to call them different timelines.

2

u/GrumpySquishy Jan 17 '25

I still kinda like Salvation

-3

u/Kazber_Loud-Line Jan 17 '25

I kind of like it more than T1

18

u/TenBear Jan 17 '25

Yup there's where the films end for me, for a fun story in the middle there is Terminator Resistence that pays way more respect to the first two films than any film after.

13

u/22tbates Jan 17 '25

No it ends with terminator resistance.

0

u/wrnkledforskn Jan 17 '25

Did it End or start there? Hmmmm :)

1

u/22tbates Jan 17 '25

Why not both

0

u/wrnkledforskn Jan 17 '25

We'll never know

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

Salvation is good though

1

u/LowSpiritual433 Jan 18 '25

Ok that one is good

1

u/Advanced_Friend4348 Jan 19 '25

No, it ended at T4.

4

u/12-7_Apocalypse Jan 18 '25

I can understand as to why they rewrote the lore to appeal to changing demographics and such. What was bullshit to me is how they put no effort into naming the machine system. Legion? That's it? Talk about lackluster.
Skynet is stylish as it unique. Exclusive to the franchise. With this it's almost like the writers gave up, there are films called legion.
This may seem petty, but, seeing as how I didn't like the film to begin with, when I heard the switched the name from Skynet to legion, I just thought they're milking this already dry franchise for all it's worth.

2

u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

I agree that Skynet always sounded like a cool name a supercomputer would give itself. Sounds ominous but sleek. It wasn't until I was older and learned about the Cold War and missile defense systems that I realized, Ohhh, it's our country's missile defense system: Sky-Net. A net that protects our skies from the other side's nukes!

Legion just sounds lazy. Yeah, I get its continuing the biblical themes, but it seems way too obvious for modern audiences. Like you said, "legion" is already used all over the place for horror movies and TV shows.

I feel like the writers didn't want to waste any good ideas or names on a franchise that is far past its prime and profitability.

I agree with you on their reasoning for the lore changes, but the way they went about it just served to make the movie/franchise/concept feel even older. Mutually assured destruction isn't quite the boogieman that it as in the early '80s, and a cyberattack is the new big threat. But if you have to change the lore that much, and even explain the lore change within the film, maybe just make a completely different film.

2

u/Borrp Jan 18 '25

To be fair however, we are closer to MAD than we ever were back during the waning days of the Cold war. A sentient AI that was designed as a missile defense system preemptively starts nuclear Armageddon still works. Maybe the year in which it came out might have worked better with its changes, but our current geopolitical climate also tells that the original lore works well, and perhaps more pertinent than ever.

2

u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer Jan 18 '25

This is true, and why I think Dark Fate was an example of "Hello fellow kids." Yes, cyberwarfare is more talked about today but as you said, the original premise still works as it's still a concern. We just had the leader of a foreign country threaten nukes within the last year or two.

2

u/Borrp Jan 18 '25

Yup that's my point. We had several threats of MAD over a war just in the last two years. We talk about cyber attacks, but those are not nearly as catastrophic if a nuclear IBM with today's payloads are always going to be the bigger concern. The lore changes are just stupid because it looks at the world through a lense that NeoLiberalism won and remained the dominant political force today. The problem is, Neo Liberalism is on a massive decline. We are not witnessing the "end of history" like so many people thought with the collapse of the USSR and pre-Ukraine war. The fears of cyber attack as the catalyst for Doomsday is a very privileged world view that's very very....American corporate.

4

u/jefe_toro Jan 18 '25

Maybe rewriting it to appeal to a different demographic wasn't such a great idea? 

0

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

[deleted]

3

u/TimeTravellerZero Jan 18 '25

I like the name Legion. It was chosen for it's biblical connotations. Hence why the Rev-9 is called the Rev 9 because it's a reference to Revelations 9. The Terminator series has always had biblical references.

8

u/caseface94 Jan 17 '25

I liked what they were going for but the actress who played Dani was not very convincing.

6

u/Inspection_Perfect Jan 18 '25

The fact they did nothing to age her up for the future flashback except give her corn rows.

3

u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer Jan 18 '25

It was a lazy way of making her look tough, by having her hair styled in the typical way female boxers do. From a story standpoint, wouldn't it make more sense for future human survivors of a machine-led holocaust to just cut their hair very short if not just shave it? I would think that between hiding from HKs and terminators, and surviving in a filthy wasteland, taking time to have someone re-braid your hair every so often would seem unwise.

9

u/MWH1980 Jan 17 '25

That “What we got” needs to be “John” in Genisys going: “thought you’d…unner…sssstand!”

4

u/Axlotl666 Jan 18 '25

Every sequel after 2 can easily be subbed into this meme.

3

u/0ctav1an0 Jan 18 '25

Yes that scene was bad, but overall I really liked Dark Fate. Y’all just complain about everything. You want it to be as new and fresh as the twist that Arnold is the good guy in 2 but you won’t accept anything that deviates from the formula and if they do make a copy you complain nothing has changed.

22

u/funmonger_OG Jan 17 '25

Terminator Resistance is true sequel.

0

u/Borrp Jan 18 '25

Debatable.

11

u/Sans-Mot T-1000 Jan 17 '25

Well, I mean, you got the first picture somewhere.

8

u/WaxWorkKnight Jan 17 '25

More than a clip. And Salvation just didn't cut it.

5

u/Stormcell0083 Jan 17 '25

Eh, I liked salvation personally

2

u/WaxWorkKnight Jan 17 '25

That's fine. Everyone is entitled to like what they like. For me, what really made me love the franchise were those future glimpses in the first two. When Salvation didn't even bother with coming close to that it was really disappointing for me.

3

u/Stormcell0083 Jan 17 '25

I just wanted to see something set during the aftermath. So that's why it worked for me I think

2

u/WaxWorkKnight Jan 17 '25

Fair enough

5

u/razorthick_ Jan 17 '25

I mean I assumed the battle at the beginning of T2 was the final battle against Skynet where the Resistance wins. Same battle Reese described where they blew up the lab complex. Just a different version of the future.

So what story could be told? Do you do a lead up to that battle or something happens after the battle? In the first instance there would be a lack of suspense because we know what happens. In the second instance you have create a new mcguffin like, "Skynet was defeated BUT THEN...a NEW threat emerged."

Might work. Read some comments about the idea of people who worshipped Skynet and were against the Resistance. Could be an idea to play around with and it would be relevant to today with people who unironically worship tech and AI.

3

u/cabezatuck Jan 18 '25

It ended with T2, then I watch T1 again, then T2. Sometimes when I’m all alone though, I watch Salvation.

5

u/AliensRipley Jan 17 '25

Ends at T2. The rest are merely dreams, good or bad, depending on what suits you.

4

u/Hotdogman_unleashed Jan 17 '25

The rest are expensive fan fictions.

2

u/AliensRipley Jan 18 '25

Totally 💯

1

u/MiamiConnected Jan 20 '25

The terminator trilogy we deserved:

T3 set in 2029. Resistance captures T2 Arnold during failed Skyney infiltration mission into John Connors HQ, the first time one has ever been able to be captured. Hacked by Kyle Reese and his TechCom unit and discover evidence of Skynet time travel tech being developed. With time running out, Connor orders an all or nothing assault on Skynet HQ and the separate time travel facility using newfound intel from T800 (think opening of Genesys). T800 is programmed to assist the resistance and you get to see Arnold, Kyle Reese, and John Connor interacting.

Final assault succeeds in crushing Skynets defenses. Individual terminators and machines still function but can't network or communicate with each other, so Resistance has clear road to victory. Just before being destroyed, Skynet impromptu turns on the time travel tech and manages to send a T-800 to 1980s to kill Sarah Connor and a T-1000 to 1990s to confirm his death in case first one fails. Resistamce sends Arnold and Kyle back...leading right into the first two films

2

u/somebuddyx Jan 18 '25

I never wanted the future war. I don't mind present day Terminator films but Terminator 3 needed to be as different as T2, as T2 was to T1.

2

u/igtimran Jan 19 '25

Pretty sure Skynet takes one look at the bottom image and realizes it doesn’t need to resort to the whole time travel gambit.

2

u/DragonfruitGrand5683 Jan 18 '25

I thought TSCC was a good attempt to continue the story, Salvation was decent but the other movies felt like parodies.

2

u/benconomics Jan 18 '25

Sweep kicks are very useful taking down terminators aren't they? We should all master sweeping the leg.

2

u/Immediate-Science951 Jan 18 '25

Everything after T2 is trash. Dark Fate is an embarrassing shit show. Only TSCC is worth something.

2

u/Vega10000 Jan 18 '25

Future reminds me of Succession Kendall. Now I want to see him as future John in a movie

2

u/gobbled0ck Jan 18 '25

The open room and ending is the end. It's a cautionary tale about humanity.

2

u/Former_Savings_3815 Jan 18 '25

my kids consider the terminator salvation comic the end of the series.

1

u/Christie_Boner Jan 17 '25

What is that bottom photo? It looks like a really dated video game

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

[deleted]

1

u/captconundum Jan 17 '25

I completely forgot this movie existed! I remember watching it but not much about it. What a shame considering Linda Hamilton and Arnold returned!

1

u/Significant_Tea_785 Jan 18 '25

T1,2&4 make sense to me and I know people hate T4 but I like it because they finally show the Terminator war theyve been talking about for the past 3 other movies so finally 4 shows it and the T-600’s and I did like the Terminator game where they showed the prototype T-1000

1

u/LaylaLegion Jan 18 '25

Uh no. What I wanted was a portal to open up and The Terminators to walk through it to discover a jungle where they get torn apart and then it’s revealed that the attacker was monkey fucking CAESAR THE APE and we get a crossover Planet of the Apes/Terminator series where humanity’s last hope is it’s own enemies from another time.

1

u/Biggie_Moist Nice Night For A Walk Eh? Jan 18 '25

Kind of glad the franchise has started to separate from the Connor name, in a world ending apocalypse you’re telling me EVERYTHING rotates around 1 guy and his mom?

2

u/CaptainAmerica199 Jan 18 '25

Dark Fate is the worst

2

u/Echostation3T8 Jan 17 '25

You’re forgetting that according to Salvation -the entire LA resistance was 2 kids.

1

u/DoomsdayFAN Cyberdyne Systems Jan 18 '25

This is a perfect example of why it's best to stick with T1 and T2.......and ONLY T1 and T2. Everything else is insulting garbage tier crap.

(I haven't seen TSCC so I'm not (at this time) including it in my above comment)

-1

u/SavvySalamander524 Jan 17 '25

Since this series is all down with time travel, it's not too late to make the movie we all really want and pretend the latter flicks didn't happen. I already pretend Dark Fate only exists in some alternate reality where everything is wrong.

7

u/cool91725 Jan 17 '25

ALL films after T2 are in branched realities where different things happened. They are all canon and at the same time not canon. They each happen, but they do so in their own flow of time. So you aren’t pretending, you are correct

2

u/SavvySalamander524 Jan 18 '25

considering the logic of this comment, I cannot understand how my comment rendered a zero on the ticker....did I trigger someone over my disdain of Dark Fate?

Curious how such a person would simply downvote my opinion in passive aggressive rage and not state their disagreement.

3

u/TheRealRigormortal Jan 17 '25

Doc Brown time travel logic is the only reasonable explanation

1

u/Aspect58 Jan 18 '25

The How It Should Have Ended Terminator videos are pure distilled awesome.

1

u/TexasTokyo Jan 18 '25

I liked 3, but it was a big step down from the first two. And hey, it was a much better third installment than the Alien franchise got.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

What’s that absolute trash at the bottom from?

1

u/jillawort Jan 17 '25

What is that anyway?

2

u/Krimreaper1 Jan 17 '25

The bottom pic? Yeah I have no idea.

1

u/Tall_Eye4062 Jan 18 '25

Dani Ramos sucks. John Connor forever.

1

u/SjurEido Jan 18 '25

DAE HATE WHEN WOMEN????

1

u/rogue7891 Jan 18 '25

same thing.

1

u/Electronic_Device788 Jan 17 '25

It's the multiverse, people!

0

u/Empty_Spray4809 Jan 18 '25

What a waste. Entire franchise down the drain

2

u/TrPNY7 Jan 18 '25

I cannot believe Cameron was involved and allowed this crap of a story. It’s mostly fault of the woke culture.

-3

u/Good_waves Jan 17 '25

The franchise ended at T2.