TERMINATOR: DARK FATE Star Reveals Original Sequel Plans And Shares Thoughts On Why The Movie Underperformed

Terminator: Dark Fate received mostly positive reviews, but underperformed at the box office. Now, star Mackenzie Davis has shared her take on what went wrong and what she knows about the sequel...

By JoshWilding - Dec 01, 2020 12:12 AM EST

Filed Under: Terminator

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.

Which of these Terminator: Dark Fate Easter Eggs was your favourite? Have we missed any that you ended up spotting? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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71 Comments

1 2

Kingdork - 12/1/2020, 12:50 AM

I like her take and her perspective on this. As a movie Dark Fate was fine, but yeah as the 6th entry in an uneven franchise it felt both inconsequential and unnecessary. Just trading water.

dracula - 12/1/2020, 12:54 AM

@Kingdork - Really a big part of what people didn't like was the treatment of the previous stories in the continuity (the first two). Really if they wanted to tell the same story with new characters, they should have done a full reboot. No Arnold or Linda. Im sure Gabriel Luna could have taken over just fine.

Kingdork - 12/1/2020, 1:05 AM

@dracula - Totally agree. But to me the franchise is such a mess that I just didn't care for continuity, but I get it. If you care about it just the first 5 minutes alone are hard to swallow.

It bothered me more in something like Force Awakens because Star Wars is known first and foremost for its lore, world-building and diegetic history. Terminator is like heh whatever at this point.

dracula - 12/1/2020, 12:51 AM

Underperformed for a few reasons.
1.They just repeated the same plot with new names.
2.They killed John Conner in the first minute.
3.they said Edward Furlong had some role in the movie and he didn't.
4.This was the third attempt at trying to get a new trilogy off the ground, first Salvation, then Genesis, now Dark Fate.

DaHyro - 12/1/2020, 12:53 AM

@dracula - Well... the Edward Furlong thing was a bummer, but it’s not like people didn’t go see it because he wasn’t in it.

dracula - 12/1/2020, 12:54 AM

@DaHyro - true, but the Furlong thing connects to the pointless killing of John Conner.

Twenty23Three - 12/1/2020, 1:03 AM

Removing skynet and replacing it with an evil AI that was exactly the same down to the facial design of the robots it sent through time, and giving it a generic ass name like ‘Legion’ should have never made it to film. Feels like a script written by a teenager

THEKENDOMAN - 12/1/2020, 1:03 AM

My darling Mackenzie, the movie underperformed because it wasn’t that we are exhausted with the franchise, it’s just we didn’t see the point of you being in it. Your character was pointless and the other girl unnecessarily sentimental, I personally would had preferred Sarah and Mexican Character (can’t remember her name, another less memorable character but I can ride with it) and Carl. You know what, scratch that, I would had just loved Carl and Sarah fighting machines, they should just made a story out of that.

THEKENDOMAN - 12/1/2020, 1:05 AM

And I must further say, the action was fun.

tmp3 - 12/1/2020, 1:09 AM

I liked her in Blade Runner

THEKENDOMAN - 12/1/2020, 1:13 PM

@tmp3 - She’s in blade runner? Still haven’t seen that but I’ve heard good things . Need to see that this weekend actually

MUTO123 - 12/1/2020, 1:09 AM

It’s the best of the movies that aren’t 1 and 2.

Granted, that’s like saying an undercooked burger is better than a raw hunk of meat, but still...

kitheka - 12/1/2020, 1:16 AM

It was a decent film and I enjoyed it when I watched it recently. Action was fun. This franchise though should die, general audience simply doesn't have the interest.

THEKENDOMAN - 12/1/2020, 1:17 PM

@kitheka - I half agree with you but on the other hand with a good script or rather an original script under direction of Micheal Mann, something beautiful can be done.

Se4M4NSt4ine - 12/1/2020, 1:29 AM

"It was gonna be a sort of timeline thing, where there'd be another timeline that you'd explore”

So pretty much like every other Terminator film?

dracula - 12/1/2020, 1:38 AM

@Se4M4NSt4ine - guessing she means different versions of people coming from different versions of the future as things change because of changes they make. Which they actually played around with in the tv show.

Se4M4NSt4ine - 12/1/2020, 2:16 AM

@dracula - yeah I got what she meant, but the films did the exact same...

They stop bad guy from coming back to change the lineal future. Next film, they stop bad guy from coming back to change the lineal future...

THEKENDOMAN - 12/1/2020, 1:18 PM

@Se4M4NSt4ine - 😂😂😂

globaltravels - 12/1/2020, 1:34 AM

Yet another woke feminist agenda driven film that takes established male characters and shits all over them in the name of “progress” and appealing to the “next generation of fans”

Can’t imagine why this failed so miserably yet was praised by the sjw blue check mark brigade

Twenty23Three - 12/1/2020, 2:25 AM

@globaltravels - I’m guessing a lot of people tend to make excuses to walk away from talking to you

1 2

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