Terminator

The Terminator series is a science fiction franchise encompassing a series of films and ancillary media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race.

Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the original "Terminator" character, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first three films, and by Roland Kickinger (with a CGI facial likeness of Schwarzenegger) in the fourth. The latest film in the franchise was Terminator Salvation, released over Memorial Day weekend, 2009.

Films

The Terminator

The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction film released by Orion Pictures, co-written and directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn. It is the first work in the Terminator franchise. In the film, machines take over the world in the near future, directed by the artificially intelligent computer Skynet. With its sole mission to completely annihilate humanity, it develops cyborg assassins called Terminators that carry the outward appearance of humans. A man named John Connor starts the Tech-Com resistance to defeat them and free humanity. With a human victory imminent, the machines' only choice is to send a terminator back in time to kill John's mother, Sarah, before he is born, preventing the resistance from ever being founded. With the fate of humanity at stake, John sends soldier Kyle Reese back to protect his mother and ensure his own existence.

Judgment Day

Judgment Day is the 1991 sequel to the original Terminator film released by TriStar Pictures. It is co-written, directed, and produced by James Cameron and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick. After the machines failed to prevent John Connor from being born, they try again in 1995, this time attempting to kill him as a child with a more advanced terminator, the T-1000. As before, John sends back a protector for his younger self, a reprogrammed Terminator, identical to the one from the previous film. After eleven years of preparing for the future war, Sarah decides to use the same tactics the machines used on her: prevent Skynet from being invented by destroying Cyberdyne Systems before they create it.

Rise of the Machines

Rise of the Machines is the 2003 sequel to Terminator 2 released by Warner Bros., directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. As a result of the destruction of Cyberdyne at the end of T2, the Skynet takeover has been postponed, not averted. In a last attempt to ensure a victory by the machines, a new terminator, the T-X, is sent back to kill as many of John Connor's future lieutenants as possible, including John Connor and his future wife Kate. After the future Connor is terminated by an upgraded version of his previous protector, Kate reprograms it and sends it back to save them both from the T-X.

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation is the fourth installment to the Terminator film series, released by Warner Bros. on May 21, 2009.^[1] It was written by John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, Jonathan Nolan, and Anthony E. Zuiker, directed by McG,^[2] and stars Christian Bale as John Connor.^[3] After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, John struggles to become the leader, but in this future, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, who was personally recommended by James Cameron^[4]) has somehow altered it, and the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Roland Kickinger) is coming online sooner than expected. The film also centers on Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin^[5]) and how he became the man he was in the first film.

Future

While Terminator Salvation was initially planned to introduce a new trilogy, production of a fifth film has been halted by legal trouble, as well as Production Company Halcyon filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.^[6] While some anonymous sources ^[7] insist that Terminator 5 will be moving forward the majority of analysts predict that its future is in jeopardy.^[8][9] In late September 2009 it was announced that the rights for the franchise are once again up for sale as the Halcyon Company tries to pull itself out of bankruptcy.^[10] In late October of 2009, Halcyon announced it would auction off the rights to future Terminator material and is seeking $60-70 million, though thus far the only offer has been significantly less at $10,000 by director Joss Whedon. ^[11][12]

Television

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

A television series titled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles aired on the Fox network, with Lena Headey as Sarah Connor and Thomas Dekker as John Connor. The series, created by Josh Friedman, centers on Sarah and John after Terminator 2 as they try to "live under the radar" after the explosion at Cyberdyne. Summer Glau plays a female Terminator protecting the Connors. Executive producer James Middleton confirmed in Variety that the series would contain a link to Terminator Salvation.^[13] However, McG later clarified in an interview that show creator Josh Friedman "was the first to jump on and say we can't chase their story threads."^[14]

Crew

Reception

Box office

Critical reception

Cultural impact

The Terminator franchise has had a big impact on both popular culture and the film industry. The film franchise placed #17 on the top 25 greatest film franchises of all time by IGN.^[35]

Both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "Culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Also making into AFI's 100 Years...100 series, The Terminator franchise was voted the 42nd most thrilling of all time; and the line I'll be back from The Terminator placed as the 37th best movie quote of all time. The Terminator character from The Terminator has been voted the 22nd best villain of all time; meanwhile, the T-800 (of the same likeness) in Terminator 2: Judgment Day was voted the 48th best hero of all time. This is the only time the same character has appeared thusly on the two opposing lists. Terminator 2: Judgment Day appeared on AFI's top 10 list in the Science Fiction genre, ranking number 8th behind Alien.

Total Film has rated The Terminator the 72nd best film ever made, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day the 33rd. On IMDB The Terminator was ranked 159th and Terminator 2: Judgment Day 45th.

All four Terminator films have had very respectable box office gross. The Terminator has made $78 million dollars worldwide, far surpassing its 6 million dollar budget and making it a sleeper hit. Terminator 2: Judgment Day did extremely well at the box office, grossing approximately $520 million dollars globally and becoming the top-grossing film of 1991. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines did not fare nearly as well, with $433 million dollars, making it the number seven grossing film of 2003. Terminator Salvation grossed an estimated $371 million dollars worldwide, a figure below industry expectations and the lowest of any of the sequels in the series. Terminator Salvation is the most expensive independent film production in history. The series is the 16th highest-grossing film franchise of all time.

The Terminator franchise has been heavily awarded, mostly for ground-breaking special effects. Terminator 2: Judgment Day won 4 Oscars and was nominated for a further 2. Each film was nominated for a Saturn Award. The series has won a total of eight Saturns out of 12 nominations. The films have also won big at the MTV Movie Awards, with 6 wins, including a best picture for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and 4 further nominations.

The Terminator series is been considered hugely influential in its genres, especially for ground-breaking special effects. It was Arnold Schwarzenegger's ticket to stardom. It is considered one of the most influential sci-fi action series of all time.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Seasonal rankings (based on a weighted average total viewers per episode) for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the United States:

The series premiere in the United States was watched by 18.6 million viewers during its premiere timeslot on January 13, 2008.^[37]

The pilot episode received a rating of 11.1 from Nielsen Media Research on January 13, 2008. The mainstream press reviews were generally positive. USA Today gave the premiere episode 3 and a half stars out of four, calling the series, "smart, tough and entertaining."^[38] The New York Times referred to it as "one of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while",^[39] while the Los Angeles Times declared the show "has heart and feeling" and "an almost Shakespearean exploration of fate vs. character" that features "plenty of really great fight scenes, and explosions, as well as neat devices developed in the future and jury-rigged in the present."^[40] In addition, film industry journal Daily Variety declared the series pilot "a slick brand extension off this profitable assembly line" that showcases "impressive and abundant action with realistic visual effects and, frankly, plenty of eye candy between Glau and Headey."^[41] At the start of the second season, Variety praised "Headey's gritty performance as Sarah -- managing to be smart, resourceful and tough, yet melancholy and vulnerable as well" and that the Chronicles "continue to deliver", getting "considerable mileage out of the constant peril" facing the characters.^[42] The Connecticut Post placed it on its list of the top 10 TV shows of 2008: "It's smart, with thought-provoking meditations on parenthood, destiny and human nature, and features good performances by Lena Headey, as Sarah, and Summer Glau."^[43] On Metacritic, a review aggregator which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to each review, the first season currently holds an average score of 74 based on 24 reviews.^[44] The second season has a score of 67, based on only 4 reviews.^[45]

Other media

There have been several book series and graphic novels associated with the Terminator series. The films have been novelized as well.

Books

Novels

• The Terminator (first novelization) by Shaun Hutson (1984)
• The Terminator (second novelization) by Randall Frakes (1991)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day novelization by Randall Frakes (1991)
  • T2 trilogy by S.M. Stirling
    • T2: Infiltrator (2002)
    • T2: Rising Storm (2003)
    • T2: The Future War (2004)
  • Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles by Russell Blackford
    • Dark Futures (2002)
    • An Evil Hour (2003)
    • Times of Trouble (2003)
  • Terminator 2: Hour of the Wolf by Mark W. Tiedemann (2004)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines novelization by David Hagberg (2003)
  • T3: Terminator Dreams by Aaron Allston (2004)
  • T3: Terminator Hunt by Aaron Allston (2005)
• Terminator Salvation novelization by Alan Dean Foster (2009)
  • Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn (2009)
  • Terminator Salvation: Cold War by Greg Cox (2009)

Stirling, Blackford and Allston's individual series are of separate continuity. Tiedemann's novel follows on from Blackford's. Foster, Zhan and Cox's novels form a single continuity.

Other books

• T-2: Judgment Day Book of the Film by Cameron/Wisher (1991)
• The Making of T-2: Judgment Day by Shay/Duncan (1991)
• Terminator 3: ROTM - Prima's Official Strategy Guide (2003)
• The Art of Terminator Salvation by Tara Bennett (2009)
• The Official Terminator Salvation Companion Guide by Tara Bennett (2009)

Comics and graphic novels

In 1988, NOW Comics published an ongoing series with John Connor as the main character in 2029, after sending Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect his mother. The seventeen issue series was followed by two limited series.^[46][47][48]

Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights in 1990 and published The Terminator (titled Tempest in trade paperbacks to distinguish itself), where a group of human soldiers and four Terminators come to the present, to respectively kill or protect the developers of Skynet. One of the Terminators is Dudley, a human doctor with cybernetic implants, and he betrays his group as he feels he can make a difference in the past.^[49] In the following year's sequel Secondary Objectives, the surviving Terminator leader, C890.L, is reprogrammed to destroy another Terminator sent to aid him and kill Sarah Connor.^[50] In the immediate follow-up The Enemy Within, C890.L rebuilds and modifies himself to become more dangerous than ever, while a team of human assassins attempt to return to the past and kill a Skynet developer.^[51] The 1992 Endgame concludes this arc, with human colonel Mary Randall, having lost Dudley and her soldiers in the final battle with C890.L, protecting Sarah Connor as she goes into labor. Sarah gives birth to a girl named Jane, whose future leadership means Skynet is quickly defeated and never develops time travel.^[52]

Dark Horse published a 1992 one-shot written by James Dale Robinson and drawn by Matt Wagner. It followed a female Terminator and a resistance fighter battling for the life of another Sarah Connor: Sarah Lang, who has married artist Michael Connor and intends to kill him for his money.^[53] The following year they published the limited series Hunters and Killers, set during the war, where special Terminators with ceramic skeletons and genuine organs are created to impersonate leaders in the Russian resistance.^[54] Another limited series was published in 1998, focusing on the misadventures of two malfunctioning Terminators in Death Valley. They kill a man named Ken Norden, mistaking his wife Sara and son Jon for the Connors.^[55] This set up the following year's comic The Dark Years, where Jon Norden fights alongside John Connor in 2030. In The Dark Years, another Terminator is sent to eliminate John and his mother in 1999.^[56]

Terminators have crossed over with RoboCop, Superman, and Alien vs. Predator. In the 1992 RoboCop versus The Terminator and 2000 Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future, the heroes must prevent the war ravaged future.^[57][58] In 2000 Dark Horse also published Alien versus Predator versus The Terminator, where Skynet, who went dormant after Connor defeated them, have returned and are creating an Alien-Terminator hybrid. The Ellen Ripley clone (from Alien Resurrection) and the Predators join forces to stop them.^[59]

Malibu Comics published twin series in 1995. One was a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, where Sarah and John encounter two T-800s and a female T-1000. The other was a prequel exploring how Connor sent Reese and the T-800 back in time, and the creation of the T-1000 (which took its default appearance from a captive soldier). The conclusions of both series were published in one issue.^[60][61]

Beckett Comics published three series to promote Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, each consisting of two issues.^[62][63][64]

The 2007 Terminator 2: Infinity comic book series by Dynamite Entertainment (a sequel to Rise of the Machines) depicts Connor in July 17, 2009. Kate Brewster died the year before, and he is aided by a future Terminator named Uncle Bob. They create a homing signal to bring together other human survivors, beginning the resistance. The series is also tied-in to another one of Dynamite's publications, Painkiller Jane, for two issues.^[65] Dynamite are releasing a sequel Terminator: Revolution and at all the same time IDW Publishing are releasing a Salvation tie-in, possible because the former is based on the Terminator 2 license.^[66]

Games

The franchise has been expanded with many computer and video games and other game types, where many are concerned mainly with the future war, rather than the time travel.

• The Terminator (1990/1991/1992/1993, Sega CD, SNES, Game Boy, DOS, Genesis, Game Gear, NES)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, NES, Sega Master System, SNES, ZX Spectrum)
• Terminator - LCD Video Game (1991, Tiger Electronics)
• T2: The Arcade Game (1992, Arcade, Amiga, DOS, Game Boy, Genesis, Game Gear, Sega Master System, SNES)
• Terminator 2029 (1992, DOS)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Chess Wars (1993, DOS)
• Robocop versus The Terminator (1993, Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, Sega Master System, SNES)
• The Terminator: Rampage (1993, DOS)
• Terminator: Future Shock (1995, DOS)
• Terminator: SkyNET (1996, DOS)
• The Terminator Collectible Card Game (2000 trading card game produced by Precedence Entertainment)
• The Terminator: Dawn of Fate (2002, PlayStation 2, Xbox)
• Terminator 3: War of the Machines (2003, Windows)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance Mobile Phones)
• Terminator 3: The Redemption (2004, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)
• The Terminator, (2003 game for mobile phones)
• The Terminator: I'm Back!, (2004 sequel for mobile phones)
• Terminator Salvation, (2009, Playstation 3, PC, XBOX360, n/a)

Rides

• T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, at Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood, which was co-written by James Cameron.
• Terminator Salvation: The Ride, at Six Flags Magic Mountain. A wooden coaster is now open in May 23, 2009 in promotion for Terminator Salvation.

Related

• Grandfather paradox

References

External links

• Terminator Wiki on The Terminator Wiki
• Terminator (franchise) at Allmovie
• Screenplays to the films
• A Whiteboard That Explains Terminator's Entire History