Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
This is how Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese describes Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 in the 1984 film The Terminator. He didn't know how right he was. The Terminator just keeps coming back. The perfect pop culture metaphor for a franchise that can't be killed.
In 1991 a sequel followed. At that time the $100 million budget of Terminator 2: Judgment Day made it the most expensive film ever produced and it was a cinematic juggernaut (I did my bit by spending my pocket money to go and see it two weekends in a row).
And from there the Terminator just kept rising from the ashes (or still burning wreckage of a crashed truck/plane/HK). A trilogy of novels set after the events of T2 follows Sarah and John Connor who have fled to South America.
A television series followed. Before Lena Headey was the ruthless Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones she was the equally determined Sarah Connor in the The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
There were a further three movie sequels (with varying degrees of coherence), the most recent being an alternate timeline Terminator: Genisys which brought back a lot of the attitude of the first film (but positively tied itself in time-travel knots).
James Cameron announced earlier this year that he will produce the sixth installment of the Terminator franchise, with shooting due to start next year. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 90s action star who never really went away, will reprise his role.
Last year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of T2 a 3D version was released and this will hit New Zealand screens briefly next week. I'd say get your tickets booked lest you miss out but... he'll be back.
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