Terminator: Dark Fate

Plot

In 1998, three years after the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems, Sarah and John Connor have retreated to Livingston, Guatemala, where they are ambushed by a T-800 Terminator—one of several sent back through time by Skynet prior to its erasure—which kills John despite Sarah's efforts to protect him.

In 2020, an advanced Terminator known as the Rev-9 is sent from the future to Mexico City to assassinate Dani Ramos. At the same time, a cybernetically enhanced soldier named Grace is sent from the year 2042 to protect her. The Rev-9, disguised as Dani's father, infiltrates the auto assembly plant where Dani and her brother Diego work but is intercepted by Grace, who escapes with the siblings. Using its ability to separate into a solid endoskeleton and a shape-shifting liquid exterior, the Rev-9 pursues them, killing Diego and cornering Grace and Dani. They are rescued by Sarah Connor, who temporarily disables both components of the Rev-9.

Grace and Dani steal Sarah's vehicle to flee but are forced to stop when Grace suffers a metabolic crash due to her augmentations. After acquiring medicine from a pharmacy, they are confronted by Sarah, who leads them to a motel. There, Sarah explains that since John's death she has received encrypted messages pinpointing the arrivals of Terminators—each signed "For John"—allowing her to intercept and destroy them. Grace reveals that in her timeline, Skynet and John never existed. Instead, an AI called Legion, developed for cyberwarfare, triggered a nuclear apocalypse after being deemed a threat to humanity. Legion created a machine army to exterminate the survivors, who formed a resistance. In this future, Dani is a central figure in humanity's struggle against Legion.

Tracing the source of Sarah's messages to Laredo, Texas, the group evades both the Rev-9 and U.S. authorities while crossing the border. There, they encounter the same T-800 that killed John. Having completed its mission and with no Skynet to give it further instructions, the Terminator—now self-aware and calling itself "Carl"—integrated into human society, forming a family and developing a conscience. Seeking redemption, Carl began sending Sarah the coordinates of time displacement events to give her purpose. He agrees to help them defeat the Rev-9, and Sarah reluctantly joins forces with him for Dani's sake. Anticipating the Rev-9's pursuit, Carl urges his adopted family to flee.

Cast

Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, the former future leader of the Human Resistance in the war against Skynet. Now a battle-hardened senior woman and left alone after John's death, Sarah hunts and kills Skynet's remaining Terminators to prevent Judgment Day and forestall the coming conflict. After learning of Dani's destiny leading a new Resistance against the rogue AI Legion and realizes her own purpose in the new timeline, she prepares Dani as she did John.

Maddy Curley serves as a stunt actress and body double for a young Sarah Connor, with CGI applied to recreate Hamilton's facial likeness from the 1990s opening scene.

Jessi Fisher serves as a stunt actress and body double for present- day Sarah Connor.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 / Carl: An aging Terminator built by Skynet and one of several sent back in time to kill John. After completing its mission, it gained autonomy and integrated into human society, becoming benign and later starting an emotional relationship with a woman while raising her son. It lives in Laredo, Texas and owns a drapery business. It later joins forces with Sarah and Grace to help protect Dani from the Rev-9, although Sarah continues to hate Carl for John's death. Dark Fate marks the first film in the series where Schwarzenegger appears as the titular character, but does not receive top billing.

Brett Azar serves as a body double for the young T-800, with CGI applied to recreate Schwarzenegger's facial likeness from the 1990s opening scene. Azar reprises this role from Terminator Genisys.

Mackenzie Davis as Grace, an enhanced super soldier from 2042 who was previously taken in by Dani as a teenager. Grace was subsequently trained and raised by Dani. Grace is later part of a security detail for Dani and she sustains stab wounds while fighting off a Rev-7 Terminator. Following the attack, she volunteers to be converted into a cyborg. Augmented with robotics, she has abilities comparable to those of a Terminator for short periods of time and requires medication, nourishment and rest to replenish her strength. Her enhanced senses and abilities allow her to detect machines such as Legion's before normal humans. Grace is sent to protect Dani's younger self from Legion's Rev-9.

Production

Development

By December 2013, Skydance Productions was planning for Terminator Genisys to be the start of a new trilogy of films. The Genisys sequels were scheduled for release on May 19, 2017, and June 29, 2018. For the second film in the planned trilogy, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was to reprise his role as the T-800. Terminator Genisys was produced by Skydance founder David Ellison and was released in 2015, but its disappointing box-office performance stalled the development of the planned trilogy. Dana Goldberg, the chief creative officer for Skydance, said in October 2015 that she "wouldn't say [the franchise is] on hold, so much as re-adjusting". According to Goldberg, despite Genisys' disappointing domestic performance, the company was happy with its worldwide numbers and still intended to make new films. Production of a sequel would begin no earlier than 2016 because the company planned market research to determine its direction after Genisys. The Genisys sequels were ultimately canceled.

Tim Miller and Ellison talked about Miller eventually directing a new Terminator film after completing Deadpool 2 (2018). When Miller left the Deadpool 2 project in October 2016, he took on the Terminator film as his next project instead. At the request of Miller, franchise creator James Cameron subsequently joined the project. Cameron had directed and co-written the first two Terminator films, and Miller, through his company Blur Studio, had previously worked with Cameron. Ellison felt that Genisys could have been better, so he recruited Cameron as a fellow producer in hopes of creating a better film. Cameron was intrigued by Ellison's proposal to make a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), ignoring the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), and Terminator Genisys. Cameron said "we're pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse." Other filmmakers on the project had suggested making the film without Schwarzenegger, but Cameron disliked the idea as he and Schwarzenegger were friends. Cameron agreed to produce the film on the condition that Schwarzenegger be involved. As producer, Cameron was involved in pre-production and script work, and also provided his input on the project. Miller felt that audiences had "lost hope" in the franchise following the last three films. He believed that Cameron's involvement would serve as a "seal of quality" which would convince fans that the franchise "was going to be handled at least in a way that the original filmmaker would want".

Cameron was involved with the film as of January 2017 and Ellison was searching for a writer among science fiction authors with the intention that Miller direct. Later in the month, Ellison said there would be an announcement regarding the future of the franchise before the end of the year, adding that it was going to be in a direction that would provide "the continuation of what the fans really wanted since T2". In July 2017, Cameron said that he was working with Ellison to set up a trilogy of films and supervise them. The intention was for Schwarzenegger to be involved, but also to introduce new characters and "pass the baton".

Pre-production

On September 12, 2017, Skydance Media confirmed that Tim Miller would direct the new Terminator film which was initially scheduled for a theatrical release on July 26, 2019. The film's budget was approximately $185–$196 million, split roughly three ways between Skydance, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Chinese company Tencent Pictures joined the project as a co-financier in April 2018, ultimately financing ten percent of the budget. Tencent also handled the film's distribution, marketing and merchandising in China. TSG Entertainment and Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment were also involved in the film's production.

Writing

Before screenwriters were hired, Miller had asked that a group of novelists be consulted on how to reinvent the franchise. Among the novelists were Joe Abercrombie, Neal Asher, Greg Bear, Warren Ellis and Neal Stephenson. Abercrombie suggested the idea of a female character who is half human and half machine, forming the origins of the character Grace. A human-machine character, Marcus Wright, was previously featured in Terminator Salvation, portrayed by Sam Worthington.

The film's story was conceived by Miller, Cameron and Ellison and a team of writers was hired to write the script. They included Charles H. Eglee, David S. Goyer and his writing partner Justin Rhodes and Josh Friedman, creator of the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Cameron and the writers watched the Terminator sequels that came after his initial films. They determined that the storylines of the later films were too complex when it came to time travel. Weeks were spent working on the story which was eventually envisioned as a new Terminator film trilogy. Goyer wrote a draft for the first film in the trilogy that would ultimately become Terminator: Dark Fate.

Goyer moved on to other projects. By November 2017, Billy Ray was brought in to polish the script. Ray rewrote much of Goyer's draft. Miller wrote the film's action scenes, while Ray handled the characters. Cameron had a list of action scenes, for no particular film, that he had wanted to shoot over the years. He gave this list to Miller, so he could work them into Terminator: Dark Fate. The list formed the basis for scenes involving a dam and a Humvee underwater. As the start of filming approached, Cameron felt that the script needed improvement and made the changes himself. The film's story credits were given to James Cameron, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, David Goyer and Justin Rhodes; screenplay by David Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray. Cameron said that he and Miller ultimately had many disagreements about the film, but he described it as being part of the creative process. Among their disagreements was whether the human resistance would be winning or losing to Legion in the future. Miller wanted the humans to be losing, while Cameron felt differently. Miller said, "Legion is so powerful, the only way to beat it is going back in time and strangle it in the crib. Jim says, 'What's dramatic about the humans losing?' And I say, 'Well, What's dramatic about the humans winning and they just need to keep on winning?' I like a last stand. It's not his thing." Miller also had disagreements with Ellison.

Miller said that the destruction of Cyberdyne at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day is an event which would change the future "but no one knew how. And I don't think the movies that came after it really explored that in a clean way like I believe we are, with true consequences, and it makes perfect sense for Sarah to be the one to face those consequences since they were her choices to begin with." One consequence would be the death of John Connor, who was initially meant to become the future leader of the human resistance against machines. The decision to kill the John Connor character came from Cameron, who wanted to surprise audiences who had become invested in the character's mythology: "It's like, 'Let's just get that right off the table. Let's just pull the carpet out from underneath all of our assumptions of what a Terminator movie is going to be about. Let's just put a bullet in his head at a pizzeria in the first 45 seconds.'" Cameron said that John's death serves as "a springboard for the story to show Sarah's ultimate trauma from which she only begins to recover right at the end of the new film. She's driven by hatred, by revenge. (...) Her badassery comes from a place of deep hurt and deep pain."

Casting

By April 2017, Schwarzenegger had joined the project to reprise his role. That September, it was announced Hamilton would reprise her role as Sarah Connor, whom she previously portrayed in the first two films. Hamilton had also briefly reprised the role for the 1996 theme park attraction T2-3D: Battle Across Time, and provided her voice in an uncredited role for Terminator Salvation. Because previous Terminator films did not do well with audiences, Miller felt it was necessary to have Hamilton reprise the role. Cameron, Ellison and Miller only wanted to bring back the Sarah Connor character if Hamilton would reprise the role. The film's storyline was devised first so the trio would have an idea to pitch to Hamilton. Cameron said that he sent Hamilton a "long rambling email with a lot of reasons why she should do it and a lot of reasons why she shouldn't". Cameron's main reason why Hamilton should return was that people liked her in the role. There was never a version of the film that excluded Hamilton and Miller said there was no backup plan in the event that she declined the role.

After approximately six weeks, Hamilton chose to sign on to the film, which did not yet have a completed script for her to read; that was still being refined. Initially, Hamilton was unsure if she wanted to reprise the role. She had been semi-retired from acting, and said, "I didn't want it to look like a shameless money grab. I am living this quiet, lovely life that doesn't involve being a celebrity, and you really have to think, do I really want to trade that in again for another 15 minutes?" Because so much time had passed since her last appearance as Sarah Connor, Hamilton had assumed that she would never reprise the role and she was surprised by the offer to do so. Of her decision to return Hamilton said, "I was very pleased that all of the years had passed, because I could fill the years up with so much backstory and inner life that could power the character."

Hamilton spent more than a year working with a fitness trainer to get into physical shape for the role. Hamilton said she put 10 times more effort into her physique than she did for Terminator 2. This included a regimen of supplements and bioidentical hormones, as well as training with Green Berets. She also took weapons training. Commenting on Hamilton's role, Cameron said he liked the idea of an action film starring a 62-year-old actress. Hamilton chose to dye her hair gray for the film, as she wanted viewers to see her character as an old woman. Hamilton disliked the physical training, and she had suggested that her character be portrayed as a fat person so she would not have to train for the film, although the idea was rejected.

Filming

Production was intended to start initially in March 2018, but was delayed due to casting. It was then expected to start during May and end during November with filming taking place in Hungary, the United Kingdom, Spain and Mexico. In April 2018, the film's release date was delayed until November 2019. Filming began in Spain on June 4, 2018, under the working title Terminator 6: Phoenix. Filming subsequently moved to Hungary and the United States, before concluding in November 2018.

The film, like Cameron's initial Terminator films, is rated R, whereas the previous two films were rated PG-13. Miller said the film is rated R because "the fans kind of demanded it, in a way", saying that "the DNA of Terminator" is an R-rated movie and that "to not do it R feels disingenuous to the source material". Initially, certain scenes were filmed in two ways—with and without R-rated violence and language. This gave the filmmakers an alternative in the event that the film's intended R rating should be reconsidered. The filmmakers eventually abandoned this method after deciding definitively on an R-rated film.

During filming, Cameron made further changes to the script to perfect the characters. In some cases, his script changes were submitted to Miller only a day prior to filming the scene. Hamilton rejected certain actions and lines of dialogue that she felt were uncharacteristic for Sarah Connor. Schwarzenegger also added and changed some of his own lines during filming. Cameron did not visit the set, as he was busy filming his Avatar sequels. He also did not want to interfere with Miller's directorial work.

The first day of filming took place in Isleta del Moro, Almería, Spain. It involved the pivotal opening scene featuring the characters of the T-800, Sarah Connor and John Connor. The three characters were portrayed in the scene by body doubles and digital de-aging was later applied to give them a youthful appearance. The doubles wore special hoods that tracked their head movements, allowing their facial features to be replaced later by new motion capture facial footage recorded by Schwarzenegger, Hamilton and Furlong.

During filming of the opening scene, Hamilton expressed dissatisfaction with the body double's portrayal, feeling that it did not accurately reflect the character. Hamilton advised the body double on how to portray the character for a more fierce response to the T-800 character. Hamilton was disappointed that she had no onscreen part in the scene and later said, "It wasn't me and it really hurt. I cried my eyes out when I got home." The film used more stuntwomen for Sarah Connor than Terminator 2. Hamilton said she "really got a little crazy trying to micromanage" them to ensure that they moved the way her character should. For this reason, Hamilton performed some of her own stunts.

Post-production

Cameron, who also works as a film editor, was heavily involved in the editing of Terminator: Dark Fate. He saw a rough cut of the film in early 2019 and provided Miller with notes on how to improve it feeling it needed to be perfected. He said the film "transformed quite a bit" from the rough cut. The initial cut of the film, known as an assembly cut, was two hours and 50 minutes. Miller's director's cut was closer to the film's final runtime. Three or four minutes were removed from the director's cut, including a few scenes. Some scenes were also trimmed, including the underwater fight and those on board the C-5 airplane. In his director's cut, Miller said he removed "a lot of stuff" that Cameron thought was important. Miller also said that he and Cameron had many disagreements about lines of dialogue which Miller thought were "poetic and beautiful", while Cameron thought they were unimportant. Because of the lack of full control throughout the project, Miller said he would likely not work with Cameron again, although the two maintained a good relationship. The final cut of the film runs for 128 minutes.

At one point late in production, Miller considered placing the opening scene later in the film, when Sarah is in the motel room explaining John's death to Grace and Dani. However, Miller said this structure "really changed a whole lot of stuff in a negative way" and he ultimately decided to keep it as an opening scene, in order to start the film off by shocking the audience. The opening scene was originally longer as it featured dialogue between Sarah and John. This was cut from the final film as Cameron and Miller believed that the visual effects did not hold up well when the characters spoke. Another deleted scene went into more detail on how Carl knew about other Terminators arriving from the future. The scene, written by Cameron, explained that Carl created a cell phone app to track the arrivals, which disrupt cell phone signals. The scene was removed because it was considered too humorous compared to the rest of the sequence, which has a serious tone as it involves Sarah meeting her son's killer. A shot was deleted from Carl's final fight with the Rev-9 that depicted it ripping flesh off of Carl's arm. Miller said, "We had to walk the line between gross and horrific" and he described the arm skin as "hanging like a big piece of jerky", saying, "That's where we drew the line."

The film contains 2,600 visual effects shots and was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. The visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Scanline VFX, supervised by Alex Wang, David Seager, Arek Komorowski. Eric Barba was the production supervisor with help from Blur Studio, Digital Domain, Method Studios, Unit Image, Rebellion VFX, Mammal Studios, Universal Production Partners (UPP), Weta Digital, Les Androïds Associés, The Third Floor, Inc. and Cantina Creative. ILM was initially going to be the sole company working on visual effects, but others were brought on due to the amount of work that had to be done on the film. The Third Floor handled some of the previsualization. Method Studios created visual effects for scenes involving the C-5 airplane and a helicopter crash. The company also created an establishing shot of a military base and several shots set during the border crossing. Blur Studio handled scenes that depict Grace's future as a soldier.

Music and soundtrack

Tom Holkenborg composed the film's score, reuniting with director Tim Miller after their collaboration in Deadpool. Holkenborg recreated Brad Fiedel's original "Terminator" theme while also introducing Latino elements to reflect the ethnicity of Dani Ramos. He used approximately 15 instruments while composing the score and also used the sound of an anvil and the banging of a washing machine, describing his score as being "way more aggressive" than Fiedel's. The soundtrack was released digitally on November 1, 2019, by Paramount Music.

Release

Marketing

A first-look promotional image showing Hamilton, Davis and Reyes was released in August 2018. It was the subject of comments which criticized the absence of the Terminator and John Connor and received backlash for its focus on the female cast members. A teaser trailer for the film was released on May 23, 2019, that features a cover version of Björk's "Hunter" performed by John Mark McMillan. The film's theatrical and international trailers were released on August 29, 2019. The trailers' release date marked the anniversary of the original Judgment Day date given in the second film. Initially, the marketing campaign highlighted the return of Cameron and Hamilton. In the final months, the campaign focused more on the film's action and special effects. Promotional partners included Adobe Inc. and Ruffles. In September 2019, Adobe and Paramount Pictures launched a contest for people to create their own remix version of the trailer using Adobe software and assets from the film.

In early October 2019, brief footage of the film was shown during IMAX screenings of Joker. Miller and the cast went on a global press tour to promote the film and Hamilton attended a premiere event in Seoul on October 21, 2019.

In the film, Schwarzenegger's character has a van which advertises "Carl's Draperies 888-512-1984" on the side of it. The number was an actual phone number which, when dialed, plays a recording of Schwarzenegger as Carl. The number references May 12, 1984, the date that Kyle Reese time-travels to in the first film.

Theatrical

Terminator: Dark Fate was theatrically released in Europe on October 23, 2019 and was also theatrically released on November 1, 2019, by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Canada and 20th Century Fox internationally. On October 19, 2019, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema hosted surprise screenings of the film in 15 theaters, disguised as screenings of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The premiere event for Terminator: Dark Fate in the United States was to be held on October 28, 2019, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, but it was canceled because of the nearby wildfires.

Home media

Terminator: Dark Fate was released digitally on January 14, 2020, before its home video releases on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on January 28. Several deleted scenes were included with the home video release, including one in which Sarah learns that Carl has informed Alicia of his past and his true nature as a killing machine. In another scene, Sarah hijacks a man's vehicle on the highway after Grace and Dani steal hers. Another scene depicts the characters being attacked by guards as they journey towards the border. One deleted scene depicts Grace volunteering herself to an older Dani to send her to the past.

Reception

Box office

Terminator: Dark Fate grossed $62.3 million in the United States and Canada and $198.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $261.1 million. With a production budget between $185–196 million and an additional $80–100 million spent on marketing and distribution, early estimates stated the film needed to earn over $450 million worldwide to break even. The film ended up losing Paramount, Skydance and other studios $122.6 million. It was labeled a box-office bomb after its dismal opening weekend, and it finished as the second biggest bomb of 2019. As a result of the losses, sources close to Skydance said shortly after the release that there were no plans to continue the franchise.

In the United States and Canada, Dark Fate was released at the same time as Harriet, Arctic Dogs and Motherless Brooklyn and was initially projected to gross $40–47 million from 4,086 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.35 million from Thursday night previews, on a par with the $2.3 million that Genisys made from its Tuesday night previews in 2015, but after making just $10.6 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $27 million. It went on to debut to $29 million. Although it finished first at the box office, it was the lowest opening in the series since the original film (when accounting for inflation), which was blamed on the lukewarm critical reception, as well as the audience's disinterest in another Terminator film. The film made $10.8 million in its second weekend, dropping 63% and finishing fifth and then $4.3 million in its third weekend, falling to 11th.

In Germany, the film started out with 132,500 viewers, placing it third on that week's charts. In the weekend following its international debut, the film grossed $12.8 million from countries in Europe and Asia, considered a low start. The film was projected to gross $125 million globally during the first weekend of November 2019. Instead, it only made $101.9 million (18% below projections), including $72.9 million overseas. As it did in the U.S., the film under-performed in China, where it opened to just $28.2 million, far below the $40–50 million estimates.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 351 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Terminator: Dark Fate represents a significant upgrade over its immediate predecessors, even if it lacks the thrilling firepower of the franchise's best installments." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the same score as its three immediate predecessors, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 78%, with 51% saying they would definitely recommend it.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that critics overall seemed "cautiously excited about Dark Fate, although there's a certain awkwardness about seeing repeated recommendations that it is 'easily the third-best' movie in the series". William Bibbiani of TheWrap wrote that, "Whether Terminator: Dark Fate is the last chapter in this story or the first in an all-new franchise is, for now, irrelevant. The film works either way, bringing the tale of the first two films to a satisfying conclusion while reintroducing the classic storyline, in exciting new ways, to an excited new audience. It's a breathtaking blockbuster, and a welcome return to form." Variety's Owen Gleiberman called the film "the first vital Terminator sequel since Terminator 2" and wrote that "Terminator: Dark Fate is a movie designed to impress you with its scale and visual effects, but it's also a film that returns, in good and gratifying ways, to the smartly packaged low-down genre-thriller classicism that gave the original Terminator its kick."

Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave the film a negative review, describing it as "cobbled together by dunces in a last-ditch effort to wring revenue from a moribund concept. The plot makes no sense—time travel as multiverse Dada. Worse still, it renders meaningless the struggles that gave the first two films of the franchise an epic dimension." Jefferey M. Anderson of Common Sense Media gave the movie two out of five stars: "This sixth Terminator movie erases the events of the previous three (dud) sequels but winds up feeling half-erased itself. It's like a dull, pale, irrelevant carbon copy of a once glorious hit." Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave Dark Fate two out of four stars, arguing that it suffered from "empty fanservice" and that Hamilton "deserves better" as does her supporting female cast. David Ehrlich of IndieWire praised Hamilton's performance and the movie's digital recreations of her, Furlong's and Schwarzenegger's younger likenesses, but concluded that "this painfully generic action movie proves that the Terminator franchise is obsolete". Tasha Robinson of The Verge stated that some combat sequences "are staged clearly and cleanly", while others "are packed with CGI blurs and muddy action and are hard to follow in even the most basic 'who's where, and are they dead?' kind of way. And when Dark Fate does deign to explain what's going on, it delivers its exposition in a self-important, hushed, clumsy way, as if audiences should be astonished by the most basic plot revelations."

Accolades

Terminator: Dark Fate received a nomination for Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project at the 18th Visual Effects Society Awards. At the 2020 Dragon Awards, the film received a nomination for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie. It was nominated in two categories at the 2021 Golden Trailer Awards: "Talk" (Create Advertising Group) for Best Action and "Non Stop" (Aspect Ratio) for Best Home Ent Action. Terminator: Dark Fate received three Saturn Award nominations for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Supporting Actress (for Hamilton) and Best Special Effects in 2021.

Other media

Video games

The 2019 video game Gears 5 allows the player to play as either Sarah Connor with Hamilton voicing her character, Grace or a T-800 Terminator model. The game was released on September 6, 2019. The T-800 model was later a downloadable playable character in Mortal Kombat 11, using Schwarzenegger's likeness, but without the actor voicing the character; he was voiced by Chris Cox instead of Schwarzenegger. The downloadable content was released on October 8, 2019.

A mobile game, titled Terminator: Dark Fate – The Game, was released in October 2019.

The PC game, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, developed by Slitherine Software in collaboration with Skydance, was released on February 21, 2024. It is a real-time tactics game that takes place ten years after the Judgment Day, during the war between humans and Legion. The player assumes the role of Lieutenant Alex Church, a commander of the Founders, a group consisting of ex-U.S. military personnel. A multiplayer mode features two other playable factions: Movement (a human resistance organization) and Legion. The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to Metacritic, with a score of 72 out of 100. Alex Avard of Empire found the quality of Terminator games to be inconsistent, but wrote that Dark Fate – Defiance, with its "tightly designed" gameplay, "may have just helped to raise that historically low bar a little bit higher." Jon Bolding of IGN criticized the game's difficulty.

Toys

National Entertainment Collectibles Association released action figures based on the film and Chronicle Collectibles released an 18-inch T-800 statue.

Post-release

Canceled sequels

Plans for a new Terminator film trilogy were announced in July 2017. While working on the story for Terminator: Dark Fate that year, Cameron and the writers envisioned the film as the first in the new trilogy. They also worked out the basic storylines for each planned film. In October 2019, Cameron said that sequels to Terminator: Dark Fate would further explore the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence, while stating that a resolution between the two feuding sides would be the ultimate outcome. That month, Schwarzenegger said that Cameron would write the Terminator: Dark Fate sequels and that Cameron would begin work on the next film in early 2020, for release in 2022.

Although the events of Terminator: Dark Fate erase Schwarzenegger's T-800 character from existence, Cameron did not rule out the possibility of Schwarzenegger reprising the character, saying, "Look, if we make a ton of money with this film [Dark Fate] and the cards say that they like Arnold, I think Arnold can come back. I'm a writer. I can think of scenarios. We don't have a plan for that right now, let me put it that way." Hamilton said in October 2019 that she would probably reprise her role for a sequel, although she joked that she would fake her own death to avoid appearing in it, saying that making Terminator: Dark Fate "really was hard" because of the physical training she had to undergo. In April 2024, Hamilton confirmed that she was done with the role.

Following the film's performance at the box office, sources close to Skydance told The Hollywood Reporter that there are no plans for further films. In June 2020, star Mackenzie Davis expressed: "I really loved the movie and I'm so proud of what we did, but there wasn't a demand for it [at the box office] and to think that there'd be a demand for a seventh film is quite insane. You should just pay attention to what audiences want". Later in December, Davis went on to reveal that the seventh film would not have been a sequel to Dark Fate, but a spin-off focusing on an alternate timeline version of Grace set in the future war similar to Terminator Salvation and would not have featured Schwarzenegger.

Reboot

It was later reported in May 2023 that Cameron was developing a script for a Terminator reboot.