Terminator: Dark Fate was directed by Deadpool's Tim Miller and featured creative input from James Cameron (much to Miller's chagrin, as we would later learn), but still failed to hook moviegoers. Reviews were mostly positive, though that wasn't reflected in the reboot/sequel's meagre box office haul; Dark Fate grossed just $261 million worldwide!
It's pretty obvious that we're not getting a sequel now, but during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, star Mackenzie Davis dropped some hints about what a follow-up was set to entail.
"It was gonna be a sort of timeline thing, where there'd be another timeline that you'd explore," she revealed. "Like, there's no resurrection, but she came from the future, so..." When the interviewer suggested that the follow-up might take place in the future, Mackenzie confirmed that, but refused to give too much away just in case the idea is used somewhere down the line.
As for what went wrong with Terminator: Dark Fate, the actress added: "As far as the box office and stuff, it's Terminator 6, nobody saw the last three, I get it, it's okay, I don't think that means what we made was bad, but I understand that the audience's appetite has been exhausted."
"How much you attribute that to there being three women in the lead, I don't know, I never really wanted to engage with that stuff because I can't control it. I am a woman and I really liked the part and I felt proud of what I did, so I couldn't be like, 'No one's seeing it because they're sexist.' It seemed like an easier answer for me to be like, 'Alright, six is too much, now we know.'"
The future of the Terminator franchise remains a mystery, especially after Dark Fate's disappointing performance. It wouldn't be surprising to see it return to the small screen, though, because it's clear that there's not really much of an appetite there for any further movies revolving around what has become a familiar, and arguably stale, concept.
Click on the "Next" button below to check out some
awesome Easter Eggs from Terminator: Dark Fate!
Best. Easter. Egg. Ever!
As Easter Eggs go, this one really is phenomenal.
Look closely on Carl's van and you'll see that the number for "Carl's Draperies" is 888-512-1984. Now, that's clever in its own right - May 12th, 1984 is the day
Terminator was released in theaters - but do you know what happens if you end up calling that phone number?
Well, you'll hear a recorded message from Carl in which he promises to call you back and signs off with one of Arnie's trademark catchphrases: "Hasta la vista." Seriously, go give it a try!
Arnie's Trademark Sunglasses
Now, you hardly need us to tell you that a certain pair of sunglasses are an iconic part of the T-800's appearance. The T-801 wears them in the movie's opening sequence (which revisits the day of John's death) but later on in the movie, the domesticated robot decides against taking them with him.
It's a cool throwback fans of the franchise will appreciate and it's also at this point we very (and we do mean very) briefly get to hear that familiar Terminator theme from the classic soundtrack.
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Terminator 3 isn't a movie appreciated by most fans but
Dark Fate does pay homage to the T-X Terminator. At the end of the threequel, Arnie's T-850 defeats his technologically superior rival by removing his power core and jamming it into her head to end the villain once and for all.
Well,
Dark Fate ends in pretty much the same way with Dani forced to use Grace's power core to stop Rev-9 by, you guessed it, shoving it straight into his head. The T-801 also ends up sacrificing himself by the time all is said and done in order to ensure that this powerful Terminator is stopped.
"Mother Mary"
This isn't a reference to any of the other Terminator movies but it's a cool line regardless. At one point, Sarah Connor refers to herself as "Mother Mary," something which should make sense if you're at all familiar with The Bible and the story of Jesus Christ. Sarah is, of course, referencing the fact that as the mother of John Connor, she too was once prophesised to give birth to a savior.
A less direct nod to The Bible is Rev-9's very name. That appeared to be a nod to chapter nine in the Book of Revelations, a tale which tells the reader about the end times as the sky darkens from smoke from "the Abyss" and a good portion of humanity is "killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur." Needless to say, that sounds an awful lot like a certain robot apocalypse!
Recognise Those Catchphrases?
Throughout the movie, we get a lot of references to some of the franchise's most iconic lines. For example, "I'll be back" is said by Sarah Connor rather than Arnie himself at any time. Grace also gets to deliver a new take on "Come with me if you want to live!" when she first meets Dani.
Even cooler than that, though, is Rev-9 saying "Say, do you know where I can get my hands on a chopper?" in an obvious nod to "Say, that's a nice bike'" from
Judgement Day. Our favourite, though, is Grace talking about "100 dead cops" being left if they were to face Rev-9 and that's bound to be an Easter Egg referencing the T-800 slaughtering a whole building full of officers in
Terminator.
Marcus Wright
Unless you're a hardcore
Terminator fan, something tells us you've already forgotten Marcus Wright's name. Well, he was the human/android hybrid played by Sam Worthington in 2009's
Terminator: Salvation. While that timeline no longer exists,
Dark Fate arguably still references it.
How? Well, the very existence of Grace (another human/android mashup) proves that the technology which made Marcus what he is was also created in the timeline without Skynet and John Connor.
A Dark Miles Dyson Throwback
This is either a genius Easter Egg or we're reading into things way too much. Now, there's no sign or even a single mention of Cyberdine's Miles Dyson in
Dark Fate but there may be a surprisingly, well, dark throwback to
Judgement Day. In a flashback to Grace's past and our future, we see a plane falling out of the sky as the world's electronics simply stop working thanks to Legion.
Remember that Miles' plan for the neural net processor was for planes to fly themselves. Well, the emergence of the new Skynet ended up doing the opposite as Legion caused them to literally fall from the sky as the world quickly descended into chaos thanks to this villainous A.I.
A Familiar Song
During a recent interview with
SYFY Wire, director Tim Miller actually revealed on Easter Egg he was adamant about including in the film.
"The Dwight Yoakam song 'Guitars, Cadillacs,' that's my little Easter egg, because, you know, that's the [Terminator 2] scene that [Schwarzenegger]'s walking into the bar and they play that," the filmmaker explaind.
"That was my big one."
In case you missed it, you can hear the song playing when Rev-9 first arrives in the present day.
A Recognisable Interface
As you might expect, Rev-9 has a very technologically advanced way of seeing the world but when we briefly get to see how Carl views things, it's an immediately recognisable reference to
T2.
In fact, as he looks up at Sarah and Dani, that switches off in nearly the exact same way as when the T-800 sunk into that molten steel. This was a fun throwback to that classic film for sure.