"Terminator will be back in a new trilogy" Topic

This is the best news I've heard this year. It's going to be great with or without Arnold:

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Ooh! A new trilogy, that sounds like a good idea.
(Said in my "Most sarcastic priest in the world" voice.)

They should make them prequels. I hope there's Pod Racing in the first one.

"Plot details for the fourth film have been kept under tight wraps, though are said to pick up with John Connor, heir to the rebellion, in his thirties, leading the remainder of the human race in its ever-worsening battle against the machines."

Finally! I have been buying scavenger figures for just such a setting:

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All we need now are some suitable guys/gals in post-apocalyptic (circa 2030) uniforms.

CC

I hated the last one because it gave no hope, and it violated my take on time travel paradox.

If, as the last one implied, you cannot change the past/future, what was the whole point of the series to begin with?
And, if it failed the first time, why not try it again?

It has been said that a series jumps the shark the first time it introduces time travel. In the Terminator series, it jumped it before the first scene was filmed.

"Back to the Future" treated it all as a joke, and there it worked.

More here:

imdb.com/title/tt0438488

I always wanted them to go into the fall of man and the fight to the death against the machines. That apocolyptic LA stuff, with machines running over the skulls, is very cool. Sort of Aftermath meets Mad Max.

Bring it on!

Mike

Great News! I like the idea of the movies being set in the future with battles against Skynet.

I've got a bunch of Terminators and Tech-com figures. Been running games for awhile.

Also I'm looking forward to the TV series on Sarah Connor's adventures learning the trade of terminator fighter.

The SECOND one violated the time travel paradox.

And it had that annoying, smarmy kid in it. Isn't he coked-out or in the pokey by now?

This would be nice for that, but in 28mm-30mm:

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CC

Love the picture of Reese. Ready to smash those metal mothers into junk.

Wait… didn't Skynet send the very first Terminator back in time to kill Sarah Connor because it had essentially lost the battle in the future and its only hope was to kill her in the past…??

So howcome the humans are now loosing in the future?

And Arnold just won't do for this kind of Terminator . . .

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CC

John,

You are correct. Any time travel movie has several big questions. How did it all begin? And what's point? What raelly happens if time is altered.

For example, in the Terminator movies. John Connor is the son of Sarah and Kyle. John sends Kyle back in time to save Sarah and basically himself. BUT, how did John get there the FIRST time?

Back to the Future. If Marty is basically erased, he never exists. When the future comes without him, that means someone (him) sould never go back to erase the past, and thus he would exist again.

Peggy Sue got Married did it right by only moving her mind to the past. Very good time travel movie.

And you are correct. Since time can never really be altered, why bother worrying about it. But, I guess it is simple human nature to run from a T1 with a really big gun. That's why, to me, the first one works really well since they think it is just some crazy stalker/serial killer.

My head hurts… :)

Mike

Court Jester,

I had never seen this before:

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CC

Terminator and T:2 were good movies – they wrapped up the series nicely with the end of T:2. I avoided T:3 because it messed that all up. The story was over – that's it. Anything else isn't worth watching.

Highlander's sequels proved it.

Star Trek: Enterprise, a prequel, proved it.

Wyatt

"I hope there's Pod Racing in the first one."

I want Jar Jar as a Terminator or possibly a self-aware powered swizzle stick.

I think this is going to be cool if it takes place in the skynet controlled apocalyptic future.

I think the robots sent the terminator back to kill sarah not because she had lost, but because she was the one to give birth to the guy who was going to lead the resistance against the robots and was at least causing them problems.

Inadvertently they created their own problem by making her:

A) aware of the future psycho robot problem

B) preggers

The second one was pretty good and I didn't think the third one was that bad either except for the car chase scene was way too long.

This brings new hope for me. I think that this would make a great movie.
Anything set in the Future War setting could be very cool.
Now if they can get someone to play John Connor who actually lives up to the part.
The actor from T2 had ten times the screen presence of Nick Stahl, and he didn't say a word. Talk about miscasting. Waiting for Arnold probably killed this idea when those behind T3 first tried to float this.

I already have more Future Soldiers and Endoskeletons, etcetera than I really need.
Not that I want to get rid or more. I really need to get moving on them again myself.
The EM4 Corporate security figures are close, at least they have the forage cap, head set look

Okay as long as it isn't based on the drek third movie, ughhh!

I treat this as I do Aliens III, Aliens resurrection and Highlander II et all…..

They don`t exist.

That way I am happy.

Up in the future will be good, but please have a good John Connor in T3 he was useless, oh and stupid!

Fingers crossed, but not expecting much!

Glen

Everyone needs to read The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein. He quite successfully explains that there can be no time travel paradox because the events that would make the paradox simply don't ever happen because the past dictates that they don't, while the future events happen because they will happen because the time travel makes it so.

So Kyle was sent back in time because that's what happened. And John sent him because that's what happened.

Actually, it was the second movie that violated the "rules" of time travel— and the third movie set it right again. (Although, yes, the second is the best of the bunch.)

gives a WHOLE new meaning to 'I'll be back'…doesn't it???

(kinda like the TMP bug??? 8-)

*slish..slish*…

I have been thinking 5150 would be the rules to use when I get going on this. Since everyone seems to agree they are great for coming up with your own weapons etcetera.
I have always only gone by the Canon of Cameron for my own Terminator universe.
Terminator, T2 are the sources I would use. There are some great things that were developed for the extended Future War sequence for T2 which were never used, since it was cut.

Centurion

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Also the infiltrator units that the humans called silverfish are a great idea.
They look like robotic centipedes they try to get close to humans, and then blow up.

Anybody have an idea for the Plasma gun weapon that the Endoskeletons are carrying in T3?

AWESOME! I loved the first one. Enjoyed the second one, though I could have done without Eddie Furlong (I don't like kids as stars in most movies, they detract from the experience in my opinion). The third movie ws ok, I need to see it again as I think I was drunk the night I did see it.

I'm one of those who would like to see more of the man-machine war myself.

Way back when, some freinds and I wrote some quick and easy Terminator rules for the war. We took the Paladium system, stripped it down so it took about 5 minutes to make a character, added some home rules and went at it. Being huge fans we read all the comics that came out at the time and had all sorts of ideas for terminators some from the movies/comics, some we came up wth on our own. We expanded the T numbering system, T-100 was the bare endoskeleton you see in the movies. If I remember correctly we had:

T-100
T-300 – plastic skin, primarily for large scale assaults that need to be covered until they're in close range
T-500 – An upgraded T-300, skin was better designed but still synthetic.
T-700 – First version with living skin, processor wasn't much though so it couldn't pass close scrutiny. these came in animal forms, like dogs and cats (you wouldn't believe how anti-cat a group could get after they'd been spied on by one).
T-800 – duh
T-900 – If I recall, the comics had a T-900 called the Goliath, it was a massive unit with two phased plasma guns built into it's arms.
T-1000 – again duh
T-1200 – the T-1200 was about 70% organic, it's endoskeleton was less massive then the the other models, and it was enhanced with a synthetic muscle network. The T-1200 could loiter on reconnassaince inside human security perimeters, even canines had a hard time detecting them.

For HK's we had a few of our own. In the movie the HK carries a spotlight, but we turned those into a sort of organic 'human detector'. Not all of them were these sensors but when the lights came out, people ran for basements and curled into a fetal position underneath burnt vehicles and so on. Besides the HK's you see in th emovies we had:

HK-290 'Rolling Death' – this was a reinforced endoskeleton attached to a small tank like chassis. It had a grenade launcher and a minigun attacked to the chassis. The actual humanoid could detach form the chassis and take the minigun with it :D

HK-500 'Patrol boat' Not really a boat but it was described as being about the size of a tractor trailer setup with a combination of wheels and treads. It was armed to the teeth with plasma weapons, machineguns and rocket launchers as well as the human detectors mentioned above. It moved slowly, and was often escorted by several Terminator types but was always considered the unstoppable object in the Terminator arsenal. My groups spent some serious time laying traps just for these things.

man, these memories are good. The game itself was a beer and pretzels RPG, it wasn't unusual for players to go through one or two characters in a session, atleast until they wisened up.
Missions were practically endless, we stole some from the comics, like escorting trucks carrying human embryos to secure locations. Search and destroy or scouting missions were common and easy to setup. Hell it was a test sometimes just getting from Point A to point B!

I also managed to develop some ongoing badguys. On character who survived for quite sometime had a girlfreind disappear, who showed up later and of course, turned out to be a terminator clone. I think T-850's were what we called Terminators made in the likeness of someone specific. Often times those indivudals had to be captured and interrogated thoroughly and gruesomly so the Terminator could play the part well.
I also had a T-800 that had developed it's own personality (we'd decided the T-800 was a nearly autonamous unit, designed to be fire and forget). this particular unit looked like a biology teacher in my high school who was built like a viking! He was constantly hunting the party and to play with them he would whistle 'Amazing Grace'. Often times they'd hear that and never see him.

good times, good times.

Red5angel,

Just wondering . . .

Did you do any concentration camp rescues (like the one where Kyle Reese was put to work)?

If so, how heavily fortified was the camp to be raided?

CC

I hope the new films will leave out Ahnold and time-travel altogether…

I did actually!

It also depends, we sort of had a moving timeline going. In the beginning the camps were designed more to keep people from getting out then in so a lot of the security were automated defense guns with a small group of Terminator Guards, usually T-100's. As time moved on however, the machines started to learn and started to camp out more forces. Typically I manned them with maybe 1 or 2 HK's, a couple of T-800 overseers and more T-100's. We also had a sort of random encounter table to roll on when roaming and I'd use that to sort of help randomize what was at certain locations like the camps.

The way we ran it, it was like two armies full of insurgent types. There weren't many real big standup fights, humans tried to survive and organize resistance where possible while machines tried to hunt them down as efficiently as possible. This lead to smaller concentrations of troops and bad guys. It's a real good environment for cat and mouse games.

I don't know why you guys are freakin out about time travel, first and foremost, it's hollywood, and scifi to boot so whether it fits into your view of how 'time travel' should work, it's sort of like arguing whether superman can beat up mighty mouse.
Second, I think Time Travel is part of the core of the storyline, and really what the whole thing is about. The two major themes in Terminator are, can you change things in the past to make a better future and, is it smart to make machines that don't require us to survive.

"I want Jar Jar as a Terminator or possibly a self-aware powered swizzle stick."

Meesa besa righto backo.

<shudder>

What an evil suggestion. Thought the big floppy ears would make a nice sensor suite.

What's wrong with trying to rationalize time travel? Yes, its "scifi" but that doesn't mean it is also "fantasy." Besides, for some people, this rationalization is PART of the enjoyment of the genre.

Damon.

Martin Landau was actually the original Terminator, and he was after a "Noel Anderson", not a "Sarah Connor" . . . :)

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CC

trying to rationalize it isn't the issue, basing your opinion of a scifi flick/book on your perception of something is the issue. I'd be willing to bet that there's probably not more then one or two people on this forum qualified to even speculate with any seriousness anyway.

Red5angel,

About a possible raid on a camp (which might actually be a scene in the third film in this new trilogy – though I don't claim to be a prophet) . . .

"Reese, born after the first war, was one of the last remaining humans who achieved victory over the machines.
Reese survived the capture and killing of his fellow humans only to serve in a Sonderkommando in one of Skynet's concentration camps, where he and others were forced to load huge numbers of bodies into Skynet's furnaces to be incinerated. Reese's freedom would come when a resistance movement, led by John Connor (whom Reese would unwittingly father later in the movie), freed him and the others from Skynet."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Reese

I wonder what a futuristic "Sonderkommando" camp would look like? A raid to free the captives seems it would make an interesting game.

CC
TMP link

By the way, I think this was the Shatner model terminator that could not stop moving his arms erratically:

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CC

I like post-apoc movies – road warriors, zombies, juggers, whatever. So for me it is good news. Now let's hope it is at least a decent movie.

Like all good ideas from Hollywood this will fail. The reason Terminator worked is because of Arnold and the other stars. You just wanted to see them interact. Not because it was a good story.

It looks like Time Travel did alter the past because the self assured John in T2 turned into the wimpy-whinny John in T3. There's your jump the shark.

Oh no, Basil, I've gawn crawse-oid…

"It has been said that a series jumps the shark the first time it introduces time travel"

I wonder what Dr. Who would think?

"Actually, it was the second movie that violated the "rules" of time travel— and the third movie set it right again. (Although, yes, the second is the best of the bunch.)"

My thoughts exactly. I would be happy were there no sequels. I thought the original was a perfect circle.

That said, I liked T3 a lot better than T2.

I really liked the Terminator arcade game (which I fed a lot of quarters. ;) I have the feeling the new movies will be mostly CGI shoot'em-ups. I'd rather give my money to the arcade game if that's the case….

I don't inherently dislike time-travel stories… I just don't think it's that much of a necessity or 'theme' of the Terminator films (though it very much is for things like Doctor Who)… it's a plot mechanism to justify having robots running around in Los Angeles.

As long as you have Terminator vs. humans who cares if one or the other used time-travel to get to the battle on time?

Now that the series has caught up to the machines there is no longer a need for time travel… there is plenty of conflict to be had in the aftermath of the last film.

Harlan Ellison actually sued James Cameron for using his ideas from two other Twilight Zone episodes he penned. But not the one mentioned above.

From Wikipedia

Some aspects of the story were sufficiently similar to two episodes of the TV series The Outer Limits — both episodes written by Harlan Ellison — that Ellison pursued legal action against Cameron. Cameron settled out of court and acknowledged Ellison's work in the film's credits. However, some time later, the credits were mysteriously taken out (rumored to have been removed by Cameron himself)[citation needed]. Another lawsuit was filed until the credit was reinserted.
The episodes in question were called "Soldier" (which involves a specially-trained man accidentally sent back in time) and "Demon with a Glass Hand" (concerning a time traveler who suffers memory loss and relies on a computer chip implanted in his artificial hand to give him information about his mission while assassins sent from the future attempt to kill him). There is also some similarity between the concept of Skynet and the evil intelligence featured in Ellison's short story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

Here are some of the storyboards from the extended future war storyline.
Includes one version of the silverfish that I have seen, plus the Aerial HK bomber.

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Also some deleted Resistance footage from T2.

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You were only expected to "think" about the 1st movie.

As far as I'm concerned, the next 2 were pure action.

I'm presuming, hoping, the next 3 are also pure action.

I'm not fan of the previously released 'Terminator' films, but, maybe, the new films will be more interesting?

as ever, please excuse my english

I remember a paradox from T3. It was that in order to survive the nuclear war, skynet "dispersed" itself all over the internet; so there was a bit of skynet here, and a bit there, in every computer connected to the web.

But a nuclear war it´s the best way to destroy the WWW, as it destroy the electric grid, the computers located in the attacked cities, the communication grid, etc..

So basically by doing that way, skynet would destroy itself

One thing I noticed about T3 is that they didn't use the traditional Terminator music much.

Bring back the Terminator Tune!!!!!!!!

"But a nuclear war it´s the best way to destroy the WWW, as it destroy the electric grid, the computers located in the attacked cities, the communication grid, etc.."

True. In a post apocalypse world the last thing that will be working is the WWW. No communication links. No reason even to try to restore the WWW.
There's nothing to buy online. There's no way to bill anyone for using the service. Most computers destroyed by EMP.

The WWW is supported by a highly industrialized and specialized society. If one has to scavenge to survive they aren't going to be stringing wires all over the countryside or treking to China to get some computer parts.

I want Jar Jar as a Terminator

"meeza be back…"

"True. In a post apocalypse world the last thing that will be working is the WWW. No communication links. No reason even to try to restore the WWW.

What about 'Chuck Norris Facts' and TMP?

Actualy, I think Skynet would have some nooks and crannies to get into with satelites and government computers in fallout shelters at least.

"Bring back the Terminator Tune!!!!!!!!"

Sentient Bean, you will probably enjoy this then:
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Original Terminator movie trailer:
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The sequel might actually be based on some of the scenes shown here:
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Or the prequel might actually start here:
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CC

Put me down as another who is decidedly unenthusiastic about more Terminator movies. It sounds like we'll see another Matrix-style debacle.