The Terminator/machine roles of Terminator: Dark Fate are going to go into different territory by making them more human than we’ve ever seen before.
Is that something fans actually want, or will this new style of humanised Terminators have the audience crying out for return to the roots of the cold hard machines in the future?
Could it leave fans feeling totally alienated by the change that could just be adapting to allow more comedy to prevail? EW has the details…
Grace (Augmented Super Soldier Assassin/Hybrid) played by Mackenzie Davis
Grace is a human soldier that has been ‘augmented’ in the future to be part machine. So far, we know her upgrades include a HUD, boosted agility/strength and an internal armor/mesh under her flesh; this allows Grace to take more damage than your average human but she is still human and that will make her more vulnerable than the other machines in Terminator: Dark Fate.
Tim Miller on Grace:
“It would be easy to go, ‘Okay, you’re going to get some woman who’s an ex-MMA fighter or all about fitness and fighting, but I knew that she [Mackenzie] really had to connect. Because Sarah in a lot of ways is broken, and I knew that the audience would relate a lot to what had happened to humanity’s future, and as you’ll see in the film, the audience has to really feel for Grace by the end of it. And so I knew first and foremost, she had to be a great actor and Mackenzie is definitely that.”
Tim Miller told EW
Linda Hamilton on Mackenzie’s physical transformation:
“I was very happy to see Mackenzie take the mantle of turning her body into a fighting machine, hopefully she will get all the attention that I got in 1991 for what she has done to make herself ready, to make herself a warrior.”
Linda Hamilton told EW
REV-9 (Split in two Terminator Unit) played by Gabriel Luna
Tim Miller has stated to EW that Gabriel Luna’s performance as REV-9 is “fantastic” and that he is more human than other Terminators have been…
“This Terminator is a lot more human than a regular Terminator has been, which makes sense because computers are human, they understand us more every day,”
Tim Miller told EW
“We did some facial motion capture, you know occasionally you do a face replacement for a particularly difficult stunt; Gabriel did a lot of his own stunts but every once in a while you don’t, so we do facial motion capture – you reference it, you go, “So okay, do the ‘angry’ Terminator face” – Gabe does it. “Now do the ‘hunting’ Terminator face” – and it changes like a micro-fraction. Because the Terminator really is… it doesn’t feel those emotions, unless he wants to, and then he’s very human.”
Tim Miller said at REDDIT AMA (post SDCC 2019)
AGED T-800 (CSM-101) played by Arnold Schwarzenegger
“I don’t think people will be ready for what Arnold has become either, because it’s very different.”
Tim Miller told EW
What do you think about Terminators with more human behaviour, qualities and the ability to “feel”? Are you ready for it?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: EW and REDDIT AMA
11 Comments
Are they terminators or humans?…ok then act like it. Why act more human? While watching the T1000 in T2, you could relate to Sarah and Johns fear while trying to get away. Sometimes i feel like Tim Miller just dont get it.
Aren’t Terminators Infiltration units? acting more human would make infiltration easier.
This.
You are correct. It just makes for a more entertaining movie if they are not too human. Then it would end up being just like most other action movies where one human is after another.
I mean Gabriela Luna beige dressed is terrible. Terminator cant be a tourist , country singer or what. Terminator must evoke authority, fear, threat. In T1, T2 it is a muscular punk, biker, cop.
Also if Sarah Connor is a terminator hunter is not a good idea. That is, Rev9 is actually weak and not so dangerous machine.
Those characters would look too suspicious in real life. If the new chara ters are meant to be grounded, I’d say they’re doing a great job at it.
The thing about us terminator fans is, we don’t want different. We love the original concept and want more or that. That’s all we’ve wanted since t-2. Reinventing the series doesn’t work with us. We already know what we love and that is killer robots from the future waging war against humans. Hollywood does not understand that. We also want practical effects. Some cgi is fine, but there is nothing scarier than a t-800 with no flesh, chasing after someone. If this movie fails, I doubt we’ll get any more for a very long time.
Exactly. I read somewhere that Tim Miller said the franchise is based on Sarah…but isnt John (Furlong) the leader of mankind? No disrespect to Linda Hamilton, she is the only Sarah, and it wouldnt be Terminator without her, but don’t kill off John and “pass the baton.”
Maybe that was it I didn’t like with Luna’s performance. It just didn’t scare me like a Terminator should.
So this is director’s preference not actor’s choice.
Right? They keep rebuilding Arnold, why cant they rebuild and upgrade Robert Patrick to a Rev9?
I don’t understand the resistence to accept that Terminator are machines designed to infiltrate and kill targets. So, as adressed by Cameron centuries ago, a Terminator would not be a very distinctive person. The fact Arnold take the role was not the first choice, because the role asks for a normal look human. The appereance of REV-9 makes perfect sense to the core of the character.