Summary

• Terminator: Dark Fate repeated the mistake of killing off a beloved character in the opening scene, similar to Alien 3's controversial move.
• John Connor's sudden death in Dark Fate was criticized for being mean-spirited and a slap in the face to invested fans of the franchise.
• Despite attempting to shift focus to Sarah Connor, Dark Fate's Carl subplot was a misguided attempt at pathos in the Terminator series.

Even though James Cameron didn’t care for one sci-fi franchise’s infamous twist, The Terminator movies started strong with director James Cameron’s The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but the franchise soon fell apart. In the decades that followed, the Terminator series repeatedly struggled to regain its initial critical acclaim. 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was tonally uneven, with a brutally bleak ending that felt completely unearned. 2009’s Terminator: Salvation was an ill-fated attempt to switch gears into post-apocalyptic action.

A lot went wrong with Terminator: Genisys, but the finished movie’s incomprehensible timeline and muddled character focus is what made it a dud. As such, 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate seemed like the franchise’s last hope. Directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller, Terminator: Dark Fate had a script from David S. Goyer and a story by The Terminator creator Cameron. This R-rated Terminator sequel ignored everything after Terminator 2: Judgment Day and brought back Linda Hamilton, a move that seemed set to fix the franchise. Instead, Terminator: Dark Fate was critically derided and became a major box office bomb upon release.

Terminator: Dark Fate Killed John Connor Like Alien 3 Killed Newt And Hicks

Alien 3 and Terminator: Dark Fate Made The Same Opening Scene Mistake

The 2019 reboot made a lot of strange decisions, but among the most inscrutable was Terminator: Dark Fate borrowing Alien 3’s opening scene. Director David Fincher’s Alien 3 infamously began with the revelation that Newt and Hicks, the likable survivors of Aliens, both died off-screen before the sequel began. This was a shockingly bleak twist since Newt was a small child and Hicks seemed like a potential love interest for Ripley, meaning viewers were understandably invested in their survival. Moreover, this twist made the entire story of Aliens redundant as it meant Newt and Hicks didn’t really survive.

This reveal was widely hated, which made it fascinating when Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene killed off John Connor just like Alien 3 killed Newt and Hicks. Since Terminator: Dark Fate retconned every sequel after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it effectively acted as a second sequel and a direct continuation of that movie’s story. Thus, Alien 3 and Terminator: Dark Fate both took vulnerable characters who viewers spent the entire preceding movie following and pitilessly slaughtered them in their opening minutes. In both cases, this bizarrely grim opening gambit was enough to put many viewers off the movie’s plot.

James Cameron's Alien 3 Comments Make Dark Fate's Story Surprising

Cameron Didn’t Approve Of Alien 3 Killing Hicks And Newt

It was always going to be strange for Terminator: Dark Fate to kill John Connor when the character was, alongside his mother Sarah, the protagonist of the series. However, what made this choice particularly wild was the fact that Cameron himself complained about Alien 3’s opening scene years earlier. Cameron said during a DVD commentary track for Aliens that the scene was “Just kind of a slap in the face of the fans who invested in Newt and Hicks and all of those character relationships.” Cameron’s comments echoed the attitude of many viewers and critics, but now ring hollow.

Where Newt and Hicks’ deaths took place off-screen before the sequel began, John Connor appears alive and well in Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene.

Since Cameron didn’t care for the decision to ax Hicks and Newt, it is surprising that the director opted to kill off John Connor in much the same way. ittedly, John Connor’s death is a little different from Newt and Hicks’ deaths. However, the differences mean that Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene is arguably even more of a slap in the face. Where Newt and Hicks’ deaths took place off-screen before the sequel began, John Connor appears alive and well in Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene. He’s then gunned down by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800n in a gruesome, sudden public assassination.

Killing John Connor Hurt Dark Fate's Story

Terminator: Dark Fate Started Out On A Grim Note

What makes Connor’s death so hard to stomach is his existing relationship with the T-800. The Terminator series needed to move on from John Connor, but killing the character off wasn’t the only way to achieve this and the T-800 killing him was just mean-spirited. John Connor spent the entirety of Terminator 2: Judgment Day warming to the T-800, gradually growing to see him as something of a stoic surrogate father figure and grieving his death in the movie’s finale. Even in Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene, he momentarily recognizes Schwarzenegger’s character before realizing his mistake too late.

It was tough for viewers to get invested in Terminator: Dark Fate’s story after this opening scene

The Terminator that kills John Connor is not the same one from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but it is still brutal to see him shot by a former friend. It was tough for viewers to get invested in Terminator: Dark Fate's story after this opening scene since Sarah Connor’s drive to protect the life of her son defined her character arc in earlier movies. If John Connor died in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as was originally planned, Sarah’s story may have successfully followed a new path. However, the franchise subsequently invested too heavily in him.

Dark Fate's John Connor Death Wasn't As Bad As Alien 3 Newt And Hicks Snub

Alien 3’s Opening Was Worse Than Dark Fate’s Big Twist

Terminator: Dark Fate arrived after Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation, Terminator: Genisys and even TV’s Terminator spinoff The Sarah Connor Chronicles spent years focusing on John and Sarah. As a result of this sustained focus, the sudden death of John was less subversive and more pointless. That said, John’s death still wasn’t as misguided as Alien 3’s opening scene. Alien 3’s decision to kill off Hicks and Newt telegraphed just how downbeat and relentlessly grim the rest of the sequel’s story woiuld be, warning viewers to abandon any hopes of an enjoyable adventure like Aliens.

Terminator: Dark Fate is far from a misunderstood classic, but it did undeniably attempt to do something new with the series.

In contrast, Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene served to shift the franchise’s focus to Sarah rather than John. It didn’t work and Terminator: Dark Fate’s Carl subplot might have been the silliest attempt at pathos in the history of the series. However, it wasn’t as pessimistic and miserable as Alien 3 and the reboot did at least offer a few fun action sequences. Terminator: Dark Fate is far from a misunderstood classic, but it did undeniably attempt to do something new with the series. This made Terminator: Dark Fate killing off the Terminator franchise’s hero more understandable.