MovieChat Forums > Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) Discussion > what would YOU have done for T6?

what would YOU have done for T6?

posted 5 years ago by bozo_500 (13130)
28 replies | jump to latest

and you still got same team of Arnold, Linda, Furlong, Cameron producing, Tim Miller directing. but you can change/rework the 'Dark Fate' story.

Imo:

a return to the lower budget hard R/18 rated dark horror noir of T1 (budget 100m, less CG more practical stuff makeup/animatronics/real explosions/blood squibs, set at night in LA whole film over course of few hours - also inspiration from those nasty late 80s/early 90s Terminator comics). that feel of a doomed world only few people know about..

No trilogy starter either just a self contained story maybe even a wrap of the saga.

Opening credits: (Brad Fidel scoring) T1 style block capitals interspersed with recreation of 2029 blue night battles. Exactly like T1/2. We see fleeting glimpses of the end of war/time chamber/terminators being sent back (CG 1984 Arnold/Biehn, 1991 Arnold/RPatrick) - basically the fan pleasing blue night purple plasma future war T3 movie that cameron should've directed in the late 90s but instead of a whole movie or opening 20minutes its just a minute or so spread throughout the opening credits like Superman II (and maybe Cameron could've taken time out of his Avatar sequels to direct the future war segment like he did the T2-3D ride)

Plot: present day. CG 1984 Arnold T800 comes back to kill john conner (like the opening to T:DF but the whole movie).no protector/grace or Rev9. at some point Sarah Conner turns up saves john and they try figure out wtf is going on and how another T800 has been sent back. they track down Miles Dysons son Danny who tells them he had continued his dads work at 'new cyberdyne' (called something else) and set about developing AI based on old backed up research from Cyberdyne (he since resigned but the work continued) and that a few years ago a man who claimed he was from the future had been caught trying to blow up the company building ...they find out the man had been put in a mental hospital (like sarah was) so they head there for more info/break him out. the man turns out to be...Kyle Reese! (Michael Biehn). he explains he had been sent back from further in the future (2050s) in a last ditch effort to prevent a far worse fate than T1/T2 from happening where another AI ('Legion') will end up taking control of the entire planet and killing everyone (no resistance winning the war - all they were able to do was send back Reese to try prevent it like Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys).. reese feels some kind of connection to sarah but cant be sure why .. then the T800 tracks them and kills Reese as Danny is killed by SWAT (just like his old man lol) there follows relentless gritty night-time brutal action scenes as John/Sarah fight the Terminator (as in T1 the T800 is an absolute mofo to kill. no bullet in chest BS like TG).

sarah and john make their way to 'nu cyberdyne' to try and do what Reese failed to. but the T800 tracks them. eventually they disable the T800 but in doing so sarah is fatally wounded (like Reese at the end of T1). they retrieve the T800s cpu and are able to 'play' its memory and they find out that this 3rd terminator had killed john in 2029 (john watches the terminator footage of his own death) and that skynet sent it back before the time machine was destroyed. then theres the big twist where they finally uncover the T1 time loop (Sarah, Kyle, John, skynet, the terminators) and realise skynet/judgement day/the rise of the machines is inevitable and should have happened/has to happen. and that if its prevented (like they tried in T2) chaos endures and splinter realities happen (like T345) leading to the eventual far worse 'Legion' fate which results in humanity wiped out. so its either the Skynet future or the far worse Legion future.

as sarah dies from her injuries as she tells john to reset the future in order for the original T1 time loop to take place and close itself - which means allowing 'nu cyberdyne' to resume its work on the T800 cpu which would bring about judgement day (probably in the next few days/weeks as soon as the cpu is discovered and plugged in).

final scene ends with john in truck/jeep (the photo of his mother on the dashboard) travelling to mexico to gear up for the inevitable battle that lays ahead..

so I guess its not only a complete reworking of DF adapting some stuff (Legion, T800 killing John) its kind of a reworking of T1 (evil Arnie, same night-time dark horror noir feel) T2 (mental hospital, Dyson, cyberdyne building, ultimately undoing what they did in that movie, plus the reverse of Good T800 v Sarah/John) with T3 (judgement day is inevitable end, T800 killing John in the future), T4 (uncertainty regarding the future) and even some Genisys lol (alternate realities/the ending in 'nu Cyberdyne')

something like this trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdnMTM5_6Cg

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

1.keep john alive
2.adult john team up with Sarah
3.time traveling terminator joins sarah & john
4.same bad guy as this one is fine
5.build a human resistance to prepare for the comming war

[–] huwdj (4567) 5 years ago

I think I generally agree with that. I thought the massive CGI sequences were boring, unoriginal and stupid. A darker, simpler and hopefully tenser storyline would have been much better.

[–] bozo_500 (13130) 5 years ago

Yes my story would be minimal CG no expensive fancy pants new T1000 style terminator. Or fancy Fast&Furious meets Marvel style CG stunts. Really it'd have just been deaged 1984 Arnold that they did so well in TGen (obviously for duration of the film but its not like hed be on screen constantly)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

For me, my story would be a horror reboot, small scale, low budget beginning with the future war between SkyNet and the human resistance. It would keep legendary things in tact still, such as names, family tree, important events etc.

This would serve to be the FIRST TIMELINE, not an already looped timeline which T1 suggests.

It begins in the year 2023, when it shows a squad of resistance fighters assaulting a SkyNet weapons laboratory discovering crates upon crates of plasma rifles. They steal the weapons, evening the odds against the newly created T800's appearing more and more on the hopeless battlefields.

I would then show a scene showing Connor established as the leader of the resistance. During the meeting, a Terminator disguised as human infiltrates, severely wounding Connor, giving him the facial scar we all know. The T800 is destroyed and Connor gets medical attention.
Skip a year later and the human resistance are fully aware of several things now: terminators infiltrate disguised as humans; they use human slaves for the skin and that SkyNet is up to something deep in the mountains on the outskirts of L.A.
Despite a few scenes here and there depicting rescuing slaves from all over the US mainland, Connor and his men plan to assault the mountainous base to find out what SkyNet is up to. They assault successfully and discover a Time Machine, with co-ordinates set for almost 80 years in the past: 1957. His comm unit hacks the time machine computer, discovering that a T800 had been sent through but they are unsure of the robot's mission due to it's top secret nature and that the location is New York, U.S.A.

Connor; aware of SkyNet's personal hatred against him for creating a resistance, puts two and two together, theorizing that SkyNet has sent back a Terminator to possibly hunt down his ancestors: his grandparents James and Jona Connor, who were living in New York up until the 60's (something he remembers his mother, Sarah, telling him when he was young)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

PART 2 Continued:

John, viewed as a Messiah by most, is not short of offers from his men who wish to go through the time machine to hunt down the Terminator and destroy it. After all, if what Connor theorizes is true, then this machine is aiming to kill his grandparents, therefore killing Connor before he is even born (something which the soldiers themselves question if killing Connor's grandparents would even affect the future Connor).

Taking no chances, one soldier called Lance Benson, offers to go back. Benson, being his best man which Connor is aware off, is sent back to 1957.

From this point, it would become a claustrophobic horror story with the T800 eventually killing the grandfather while Benson dies whilst destroying the T800. The grandmother (3 months pregnant with Sarah) would live on protecting Sarah until possibly in the future, in a sequel, another Terminator would get sent back to 1982 to target Sarah. In the sequel, Sarah actually views her mother insane due to an "encounter with a robot from the future" (sort of a mirroring homage to the relationship between T2 John and Sarah). But I haven't thought much about what would happen thereon.

I would choose Brad Fiedel as composer and if not him, then John Carpenter.

[–] janelsenor (2044) 5 years ago

I would have canceled it.

[–] FootOfDavros (8198) 5 years ago

Exactly. Not made it at all would be my answer.

The terrible fan fiction suggestions to get it right on here - from guys happily shooting down how they've got it wrong - just shows that even people who I'd guess would claim to love Terminator / T2 have no clue how to expand on these films.

The loop is closed. Nothing further required.

[–] bozo_500 (13130) 5 years ago

I did my best *shrugs*

[–] FootOfDavros (8198) 5 years ago

Ha 😂 sorry 👍

You know what I mean though - the T2 story, enhancing the original by using the arm as part of the same whole, then closing the loop was perfect leaving nowhere to go other than Roger Moore eyebrow raising retconning if you try to expand on it.

However in the spirit of fan-fiction, whilst preserving the timeline, here's my idea:-

T3: The story continues with an adult John Connor wavering on madness as he can't escape the psychological horrors of his past. Trapped in an existence of recurring nightmares and being on edge, constantly misinterpreting signs as the new dawn of Skynet. His family life completely hits an end point so he takes to the road, driving across country (and away from his demons!).

On this journey he eventually runs into the man who would have become the basis / model for the T-800 had Judgement Day come to pass. In his warped state of mind he believes this innocent man must be killed to stop any possibility of Skynet ever existing and resolves to kill him. Meanwhile his wife (with a psychologist in tow) tracks him down, still in love with John and determined to help him defeat his psychosis...

There's no time travel. No actual Terminators. Just a man's psychological struggle! Let's think Joker meets Logan. A sure-fire winner 😄

[–] bozo_500 (13130) 5 years ago

lol that actually sounds pretty interesting. And would've cost about a sixth of Dark Fate to make! (plus the ultra realistic gritty takes on properties is paying off big time for likes of Joker/Logan)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Not bad as an idea, but it would probably tank since it's light on big action set pieces. I do like the idea of a psychological drama though.

How about turning the formula on its head altogether? Come up with a plot/story where Connor and/or Sarah must keep a Terminator from being destroyed and/or completing a mssion. It tells them that it needs their help to kill a person that's critical to stopping Skynet.

Their dilemma: Is it telling the truth or is it trying to trick them into ensuring Skynet's success? And, is it morally right to kill one person, if it means billions will saved as a result?

Again, more talky drama than action so it prolly wouldn't make huge money. But, it wouldn't need to since the budget would be correspondingly small.

[–] mrbnk (419) 5 years ago

That's much more compelling than anything post T2.

[–] FootOfDavros (8198) 4 years ago

Thanks. Not sure why but this idea just came back to me this morning!

Surely with today's deepfake technology we could have a convincing Arnie for John Connor to stalk.

[–] FootOfDavros (8198) a month ago

Wow, amazing - This just appeared on my youtube feed:-
https://youtu.be/D_bz1bFk7po?si=XUCmpVOcDnSCknUe

And I was reminded of this!

If this scene hadn't been deleted from T3 it would have set up this sequel perfectly...

[–] TMC-4 (20160) 5 years ago

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Terminator-Dark-Fate-flop/answer/Mateo-Jaki%C4%8Devi%C4%87

War continues and Skynet is unable to kill John Connor. John Connor has kids and he dies at some point, but his kids lead the resistance and gain many victories against Skynet. Skynet realizes that since they can’t kill John Connor, they go for the second option, and that is to send a terminator back in time to kill John’s wife, therefore, the two would never meet and their children who would lead the resistance would never get born in the first place. So Skynet sends their most advanced terminator to do that while the resistance sends their enhanced human to protect John’s future wife. John’s future wife isn’t really happy when she hears that and the two upon meeting can’t really stand each other, but later they get to know each other better and accept the fact. As for Arnold’s character T-800 named Carl, I assumed that he was sent at some point in the past to kill John, but he failed and instead of getting destroyed, he was reprogrammed.

[–] mcqueen (1150) 5 years ago

for starters, john did not need to die

[–] exithereplease (3553) 5 years ago

This:

a return to the lower budget hard R/18 rated dark horror noir of T1 (budget of 100m max. with less CG more practical stuff makeup, animatronics, blood squibs). No trilogy starter either just a self contained story maybe even a wrap of the saga.

I'd take it down to $40 million max.

[–] tom8 (3119) 5 years ago

mackenzie davis playing with a dildo for 90 minutes........ still beats dark fate by a landslide