Terminator: Dark Fate: Sarah Connor wakes up, sees a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the shower and realises that everything since T2 has been a dream. Well, not exactly, Arnie appears on a beach in Mexico 1998 and kills John Connors, a T-800 from a future that never happened, following orders for years, tracking John. Sarah may have stopped the 1997 apocalypse but the altered timeline has resulted in a later AI takeover and it's name is Legion. Mexico City 2020, Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) comes under attack from a new type of Terminator, a Rev-9 (Gabriel Lona) which can shape-shift and split in two. Grace (MacKenzie Davis) an augmented human (Bionic Woman) sent from the future rescues Dani and a chase ensues. When all seems lost Sarah appears, temporarily disables the Rev-9 and all three set off on a quest to secure EMP weapons which will destroy the Rev-9.
Some truly great car chases here, better even than those in T2, especially the scoop-truck (driven by the Rev-9) battering it's way along a freeway, the shock as the Rev-9 shows that it can separate it's skeleton from the mimetic polyalloy (it's really an advanced T-1000). Some really disturbing scenes of human dismemberment tilt Dark Fate into Horror territory. Grace provides flashbacks (or rather flashforwards) of the new 2042, it's much like Skynet one except that the Resistance have more advanced machines and weapons, the terminators have tentacles. Grace was a child when Legion took control and later became a soldier, volunteering for augmentation and Time Travel. A dark present is portrayed as well, Dani's brother loses his job in a car plant due to the introduction of robots. Even jobs outsourced to Mexico are ephemeral.
Sarah is totally paranoid and necessarily so as she hunts Terminators, getting information through texts from an unknown supporter. But the death of John has left her somewhat crazed as Dani is the new target she becomes a surrogate for John. But Sarah also sardonically welcomes this turn which mean's she's no longer the "Mother Mary". She competes with Grace for the position of Dani's bodyguard. This isn't just an action movie, we have Arnie as a T-800 who has turned and developed feelings for his adopted human family. But the fight scenes are central, be it Grace head to head with the Rev-9 or Sarah blasting away at it. Dani is also able to become a fighter after some early scenes where she came across as a hysterical ingenue. Some cutting humour infuses Dark Fate, deadpan from Arnie with sarcasm from Hamilton. A satisfying edge of the seat adventure with some interesting twists, ably directed by Tim Miller with James Cameron chipping in on the story as well as producing the film. 9/10.
Don't do this again please.
