Shot by Shot with the ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Trailer

Producer James Cameron returns and he's bringing Linda Hamilton with him.

Screen Shot At Am

The war takes to the skies as Rev 9 hijacks a jet and collides it into one carrying Grace and Dani. The concept is very Carnahan A-Team, and I’m all about it, but dang it is one damn dark set-piece. Gotta remember to adjust my TV to its “The Long Night” settings.

Grace tries to make her way to Ramos as the plane rips apart around her. The bonus of having Davis portray a cyborg rather than a cold, calculating Terminator is that it frees her to experience human emotions. She’s a confident soldier, but a situation like this is heightened by an actor’s ability to put you there through frantic humanity.

Grace gets out of the situation by dangling from a parachuting Humvee. The assumption being that Ramos is tucked somewhere inside.

Back on Earth, the three women escape alongside stowaway immigrants. This image could almost be ripped directly from Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre which tracked the saga of a Honduran girl attempting to make her way to the United States. Ramos asks Grace how they can prevail against such force, and she responds, “We win by keeping you alive.” Sarah gives her a look. As already stated, they’ve played that game before. The machines still arose. Sarah might not be the hopeful person she once was, but that doesn’t keep her out of the war. She fights because she knows nothing else.

The trailer ends with Grace bringing the hammer down on a united Rev 9. Crack to the body. Crack to the leg. Crack to the face. The Terminator goes down while factory workers cower. Paramount is selling the power of Mackenzie Davis, and I am buying. Give her all the weapons; she can go toe-to-toe with this monster or whatever other creature they throw her way in the next one.

Of course, brute force is not going to be the end of the Rev 9.

Gabriel Luna recollects himself and maintains the Robert Patrick glare. The first Terminator was destroyed when smooshed inside a compactor. The second Terminator met his end beneath a pool of molten metal. The third Terminator, and the closest cousin to the Rev 9, exploded into oblivion after the T-800 crammed a hydrogen fuel cell in its mouth. Yeah, that last one was not a particularly unique death. Hopefully, Tim Miller and his five writers have concocted a memorable end for Luna.


Terminator: Dark Fate arrives in our timeline on November 1st.

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Brad Gullickson: Brad Gullickson is a Weekly Columnist for Film School Rejects and Senior Curator for One Perfect Shot. When not rambling about movies here, he's rambling about comics as the co-host of Comic Book Couples Counseling. Hunt him down on Twitter: @MouthDork. (He/Him)