Come With Me If You Want To Live....Again

Today I learned that the Terminator re-launch is set to take off June 26, 2015. It will reportedly star 65 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger returning as the titular character, but there are other casting rumors bouncing around of Dwayne Johnson as well. I’m assuming this will be in place of two sequels that were originally intended to follow Terminator Salvation (2009). With the release of Terminator Salvation I gave myself a pat on the back for wrapping my head around the chronology of the Terminator universe, which has thus far taken place between 1984 and 2018. Considering Terminator is the only series where I’ve heard scenes referred to as “future flashbacks”, I’d say that’s darn good. Though, in truth, a lot of my time watching TS was spent whispering, “Papa, can you hear me?” as Anton Yelchin’s character Kyle Reese was the teenage, soon-to-be father of Christian Bale’s 34 year old character John Connor in 2018. This is before Reese is sent back in time to 1984 to save Sarah Connor and ensure John’s conception. Whew! Still, Terminator Salvation was a great movie with stunning visual effects and action, a coherent and interesting storyline (considering the time travel), and complex characters that I had looked forward to seeing again.

A pivotal moment in the film comes in the form of John battling a new T-800 model 101 Terminator (a.k.a ‘CGI Arnold in the buff’ circa 1984). However, it appears this age progression of the cyborgs throughout the series was all a part of James Cameron’s master plan since, within the Terminator universe, Terminators of the same "model" share identical characteristics, which allows “multiple Terminators to be portrayed by Schwarzenegger (with varying model iterations accounting for Schwarzenegger's physical aging as the series has progressed).” Well played, Cameron; well played. I guess that’s why Cameron is the director of the two highest-grossing films of all time: Titanic and Avatar.

Nevertheless, unless some serious CGI or X-Men: The Last Stand type digital skin-grafting is used, I fear that, despite model iterations, Schwarzenegger may be looking less like a terminator on the hunt and more like a terminator that’s getting too old for this sh--. But I guess he foreshadowed it best when he said:

I’LL BE BACK


Photo courtesy- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Terminator1984movieposter.jpg