couldve been more like T1 meets 12 Monkeys meets Devs
Same Dark Fate team of Arnold, Hamilton, Davis, with Miler directing, Cameron producing .. but a return to the lower budget hard R/18 rated dark horror noir look 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 80s/early 90s Terminator comics). With the look and feel of 12 Monkeys without the quirky Gilliam stuff (the grimy alleyways with graffiti messages/logos.. a lone soldier from the future in rags trying to make sense of it all.. mental institutes.. insane characters.. a circular time travel loop) and the Garland look/aesthetic of Ex Machina/Devs for the conclusion (and dealing with determinism/predestination/many worlds stuff). Overall that feel of a doomed world only few people know about..
E.g.
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)
Present Day 2020: Grace arrives in night time LA/her mission to prevent judgement day (no Legion, Rev9, Dani Ramos)... starts looking for Sarah and john conner.. trying to piece together the events of T1/2 via info from the future and past (more fleeting flashbacks/fowards to the classic Cameron blu lit future war - not the grey washed out Salvation looking Legion war)...Grace is arrested and ends up in mental institute .. Sarah breaks her out and reveals John was killed by a terminator in 1998.. but that terminator (Arnold) is still out there somewhere, probably on its way to kill Grace (and with Grace coming from the post apocalyptic future means it all still happens and that the T800 will be preparing for judgement day, maybe even the one that instigates it) ... they go on the run trying to stop the rise of skynet/judgement day and are pursued by the unstoppable older T800 (no easy way to stop it as in T1) .. there follows relentless gritty night-time brutal action scenes with the terminator, police, SWAT etc eventually end up at Cyberdyne 2.0 (but called something else) but this time its more like 'Devs' a hi-tech building in the middle of nowhere - they meet the one in charge (maybe Danny Dyson or maybe Robert Patrick as he is now as the head of skynet) who has been waiting for them and they end up in a viewing room and he shows them past/future multiple realities/many worlds stuff (wed see images from T1/2 but also fleeting glimpses of T3/4/5 and more - sarah could make a 'meta' joke about being glad she didn't appear in those timelines) .. and he's spouting all determinism/predestination vs many worlds gobbledygook about how every timeline would invariably lead to judgement day ..and it turns out Sarah is the key to the whole thing.. its always been between Sarah Conner and the Terminator... then the terminator would emerge and it'd be revealed that Dyson or RPatrick has been controlling it.. turns out he's gone insane trying to course correct all the timelines to try and avoid judgement day... the terminators original programming kicks in and kills him, and then goes after sarah & grace, then it'd be the usual end battle with the terminator in a factory (and maybe thered be revealed another new terminator for the finale like an early T1000/deaged RPatrick? or maybe best to just keep it to Arnold)..Grace or Sarah gets terminated saving the other but does the remaining survive?. and is skynet/judgement day prevented once and for all? (i.e. wraps up the saga) Or is it all destined to fall into a 'dark fate' of a never ending loop? (i.e. potentially more sequels)