By now, I think we’re all used to apparent reboots and remakes establishing some sort of connection to the films that have come before them. The most successful at this is the new Star Trek franchise, which uses Star Trek’s ability to move around in alternate universes to excellent effect. The Terminator franchise also has a similar ability, messing about with timelines and continuums from the very first film, where John Connor’s best friend also turns out to be his father. The upcoming kind-of-reboot Terminator: Genesis will take that one step further, by connecting the reboot to the original in a somewhat unique manner.
According to Drew McWeeney over at HitFix (via The Playlist), who got a chance to read the script, Terminator: Genesis will take place in the same world as The Terminator, and even share scenes with that film:
There is a scene in the script where, literally, we see the scene from the first TERMINATOR film where Arnold steps out, the punks threaten him, he rips [Brian Thompson]’s heart out and takes his clothes and wanders off. And as soon as that scene ends, another Arnold Schwarzenegger who is older and bearded and a very different version of the Terminator walks in from the side and plays another scene right at the scene of that first incident.
Now, that’s an interesting approach. We have already got a connection between the original Terminator franchise and Terminator: Genesis with the appearance of Miles Dyson’s son Danny Dyson (the elder Dyson was the brain behind Skynet, if you remember), and Arnold Schwarzenegger has also teased the reappearance of his T-800 character. But to actually mix the original scenes with the new plot is a unique idea, and one which we all hope the film can justify.
I’m always skeptical about reboots of classic franchises. The original Terminator films were very much of their times, and subsequent attempts to carry on the franchise have proven less than stellar. But this idea intrigues me. If the script is good and the direction adequate, Terminator: Genesis could be a worthy resurrection of the franchise.
Terminator: Genesis will hit theatres on July 1, 2015, so we have a long time to wait before we can see how successfully they do the timeline manipulation. At the moment though, I’m at least a little more interested.
