Terminator 5 showed new signs of life last week, with reports emerging that a pair of screenwriters have been recruited by Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty producer Megan Ellison. The Annapurna Pictures mogul is rapidly evolving into the next Harvey Weinstein, as the SR Underground Crew half-joked in the Last Stand podcast. Hence, it’s no surprise she’s managed to keep the sci-fi cash cow afloat (even without a director nor star formerly attached, that is).
However, the T-800 himself Arnold Schwarzenegger promises he’ll be appearing in the fifth Terminator installment, even amidst recent speculation about whether or not that remains the plan (not to mention, if that’s indeed a good idea).
Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine 3D) are currently putting together a Terminator 5 script for Ellison, nearly two years after the budding Hollywood power player purchased the Terminator franchise rights. Some of our readers have speculated that the plan is for T5 to return the series to its roots, by resurrecting the format of James Cameron’s original movie – which combines slasher tropes with sci-fi pop action – and moving away from the mythos building that culminated in Terminator Salvation (similar to how Riddick is taking the Vin Diesel franchise back to its Pitch Black origin, after Chronicles of Riddick). That would explain the hiring of a writing duo like Kalogridis and Lussier, who have complimentary backgrounds in the sci-fi and horror genre.
Schwarzenegger – attending a London junket for The Last Stand - confirmed that he’s set to appear in Terminator 5 (via Bleeding Cool). Obviously, the screen icon is no longer convincing as the ageless T-800; though, if the story introduces Arnold as, say, a crusty fighter in the war against Skynet – one who the machines view as a fitting model for their new line of robots – his presence might avoid becoming a burden (or feeling shoehorned in). Not to mention, it could allow overriding (or just ignoring) of events in Salvation, which is something Justin Lin hinted at doing back when he was directing.
Either way, T5 offers a chance to create a serious (and less satirical) backstory for the T-800′s human inspiration than this infamous cut scene from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines:
All things considered, the easiest way to bring Arnold back into the mix (without introducing more narrative gaps) could be to just break from the continuity of both Rise of the Machines and Salvation and revisit the simplified format of the first and second installments. Making the actor human, this time around, would suffice on a practical level and as a meta-nod to his age (something The Last Stand manages to do quite well).
More on Terminator 5 as the story develops.
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Source: Bleeding Cool
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T1 was a good movie. T2 is legendary and is probably one of the top five best sequels of all-time. T3 was okay, but not as terrible as some people say. T4 is forgettable but I still enjoyed the idea of visiting the post Judgement Day future. What will they do with T5? Stay in the future or jump back to events before Judgement Day? Honestly think that they should of left the franchise alone after T2.
I guess I am the only person who enjoyed terminator salvation.
No, I enjoyed it very much.
I enjoyed it also. It gets way too much flak from critics.
Me 2. Terminator sequel is the best sequel ever seen.
I liked Salvation, Meeso, as did both my sons, my daughter-in-law, my daughter, my son-in-law, and my daughter’s four oldest kids. Only Emma, the two year old, had no opinion. LOL!
I don’t love it, but I do enjoy Salvation a lot
Me2
I liked it
No, I enjoyed it also and thought it ended Conner’s story full circle, unless T5 intends to include Kyle Reese being sent back to 1984 as a plot point.
i loved terminator 2 and 3 i still have them on vhs but to come back for terminator 5 its got to be a joke
Wow!!! I’m very happy-thank you very much for Arnold back T5! Please T5 will definitely make very high excellent movie than all parts, and finally! T5 will definitely very hard rated “R”, PG-13″. Terminator Salvation is very very hated and to McG !!! T5 must be story very challenge screen, and very thrills, style machines. We are very excited more!!!
I suspect we will see Arnie as another prototype similar to Sam Worthington’s character, but he’s continued to age since he was chosen as the basis for the T-800′s since he is still human (basically).
The T-800 was covered in living tissue. Just say the living tissue degrades/ages after a year of use.
Just glad Arnie is back.
how boutthe t-800 go’s back 2 the wild west and trys 2 kill johns great granddad that wud b awesome!!!!
The real question will be whether or not he’ll be a bad Terminator like in one and four, or a good Terminator, like in two and three. I’m hoping for bad, Arnie plays the villain well.
Both T3 and T4 were atrocious and a black stain on the franchise. They MUST reboot to events taking place after T2 and make THIS T3.
I think having Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor is essential… and they could have Arnold play a more grizzled v.3 guise for the venerable T-800 if they push Judgment Day further into the future. Make him bad.
One idea floating around in my head has been the “redemption” of Skynet itself (since the core of Terminator is: a morality play with an anti-war message). Why does Skynet have to be confined to an electric box? Why not have it evolve itself into an advanced, “almost human” female cyborg (T-900) melding with the brain-scan of a captured Resistance member (to better fool the humans)? Death itself walking amongst the living. It (now she) will see to John Connor’s demise >personallyextremely< dangerous T-800 hot on her trail sent to kill the escaped Skynet (with a small group of vicious human special forces assassins included) at ANY COST… Turn the tables on the franchise: those who seek vengeance and not justice are themselves no better than a merciless Terminator.
They do not have to make T800 old or Arnie Human they can just use CGI to make him look younger – similar to Willis in surrogate or Pitt in Benjamin Button – it will be expensive but Avatar was too …. Never the less T2 is the only great one and they prob cant best it, in my mind T2 is where it ended but id still watch the other ones just to see terminators … there is so much potential for a great T5 if they just looked at why T2 was soo good – many ideas come to mind…
I think they should make him a human. He is a resistance fighter and puts up such a fight against the terminators as a resistance fighter they based the T-800′s tissue and features off of Arnold’s resistance fighter character.
Isn`t that kinda like us surgically altering our CIA operatives to all look like George Washington ???? Your “stealth” soldier looks like the opposition`s legendary hero ????
Both T3 and T4 were atrocious and a black stain on the franchise. They MUST reboot to events taking place after T2 and make THIS T3.
I think having Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor is essential… and they could have Arnold play a more grizzled v.3 guise for the venerable T-800 if they push Judgment Day further into the future. Make him bad.
One idea floating around in my head has been the “redemption” of Skynet itself (since the core of Terminator is: a morality play with an anti-war message). Why does Skynet have to be confined to an electric box? Why not have it evolve itself into an advanced, “almost human” female cyborg (T-900) melding with the brain-scan of a captured Resistance member (to better fool the humans)? Death itself walking amongst the living. It (now she) will see to John Connor’s demise personally and in the process experiences the horrors and sorrows of war firsthand through new eyes and new human-like emotions during her journey. That in turn causes Skynet to do a serious re-evaluation (it realizes that SHE, like Victor Frankenstein’s horrible creation of yore, is the true monster of the story, denied basic love and human compassion) and uses the time vortex to travel back through time on a mission of retroactive-suicide as a kind of act of attrition for her sins… to close the time loop. She meets up with John and Sarah Connor in the past with a B.S. cover story that John of the Future reprogrammed her T-900 model with a super-virus for a daring mission to stop a new and deadly Skynet and J.D. once and for all… with a reprogrammed and extremely dangerous T-800 hot on her trail sent to kill the escaped Skynet (with a small group of vicious human special forces assassins included) at ANY COST… Turn the tables on the franchise: those who seek vengeance and not justice are themselves no better than a merciless Terminator.
I was hoping that they would continue on after Salvation. I would have loved to have seen the interaction between Connor and Reese with Connor knowing he sends him back to the past and ultimately his death. It seems in the first Terminator that Reese had no idea he was the father of John. . . or does he know? I think it would be extremely tangible to see that kind of interaction. John being a sort of father figure to his own father. Having to struggle with the fact that he send his own father to his death things like that. . .
And a lot of people are talking about Arnold being a resistance fighter. That was another thing I liked, but not having Arnie do it. Instead bring back Robert Patrick. Robert Patrick can be that resistance fighter, meets John and creates a standoff situation about whether or not to trust him. I would love to have seen something like that. And then, have Robert be some sort of doctor/scientist who is working with liquids and such. . . I don’t know, I don’t get paid to write these things so whatever.
As for as Arnold goes, I don’t think he should be back in it. He has aged considerably and he can’t pull off the Terminator look at this present time, so honestly what would he do? He should just let it go and focus on the other movies he has that he can be in convincingly, like Conan.
There are many ways to bring back Robert Patrick, Arnold, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, etc., especially if they make it like the God-awful T3 and T4 never happened.
Going back to what I suggested above (just a rough idea), if they push Judgment Day farther into the future, that would be a reason why Robert and Arnold look much older. Change the T-800 into a more grizzled veteran look, maybe with salt-n-pepper hair and stubble… a harsher, been around the war a few times look. This model is the “commander” of the machine forces, the right-hand-”man” of Skynet’s. Skynet is John Connor’s digital equivalent, working for its own survival and carrying out its original programming (not actually working out of malice or evil intent). Skynet, in its disguise, looks much like the girl-next-door… someone seemingly incapable of burning the world to a cinder.
Have the main action take place in 2015 10 2017, make John Connor 30 to 32 (he was 10 in 1995). Linda is in her 50′s, just as Sarah Connor would be. You can then show the lead up to the final battle with Skynet’s forces in the Future in longer flashbacks, but something has happened to John and Sarah (maybe died in a skirmish, which happens in war) and that’s why Kyle Reese has taken over command (but keeping the “idea” of John Connor alive to rally the troops) rather than been sent to the past. Years of war have made him harder/more cruel than John ever was (after all, John’s supposed to be the Messiah-like character, not Kyle). Skynet has been obsessed with John forever out of fear, and so when it makes a last ditch effort to survive by personally killing John (sometimes you gotta do it yourself) at the last battle, it is amazed to find that John is already dead (its efforts were in vain). It, however, meets a man who is equally obsessed with killing Skynet over the death of John and Sarah… much like mad Captain Ahab was at destroying Moby Dick (“with my last breath, I stab at thee”). Up to this point, Skynet, stuck in the guise of this young, female Resistance member (and having these transplanted, human emotions starting to affect her behavior and judgment) has finally, actually experienced the Fog of War firsthand and is having second thoughts about her roll in this nightmare. Skynet’s final epiphany comes when her forces (led by Arnold’s model) strike at the very heart of the Resistance and almost wipes it out with mass slaughter (soldiers along with innocent men, women, & children). Skynet wins this war, but the victory tastes like ash, and she runs from the smoking ruins. Arnold’s T-800 is damaged in the skirmish and captured, Kyle Reese and a handful of his closest sycophants survive and plot their revenge, following Skynet back to her lair. She goes through the time machine vowing to change John, Sarah, and her own fate… and they follow after with vengeance and hatred in their hearts (and a reprogrammed T-800 as their bloodhound of Hell). Skynet has become the hero through a huge act of contrition, Kyle and the last vestiges of the Resistance… the bad guys (though they think they’re in the right). And Sarah and John get to meet their greatest enemy face to face in the present, without even knowing it. Friends are now foes, and foes become friends. Roll reversal of the highest magnitude. Just one idea.
I can’t wait for a new Terminator. I loved the first two as my ultimate favorite movies ever. I really liked the third installment; I think I was the only one to love the idea that John Connor would have a wife. Kate grew to be one of my favorite characters.
I was disappointed by the 4th movie, Salvation. I was expecting so much more since we’d waited so long for it. (Especially by Christian Bale, who I had imagined would be an amazing John Connor. His role was overshadowed by Marcus.)
My dream is that the 5th one would be like this story on fanfiction.net: Judgment Calls by Stephensmat. link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4006891/1/Judgment-Calls. I loved this so much since it wrapped everything up in a nice little bow. It was perfect.
I never understood why skynet didn’t make a t800 the exactly the same looking as John Connor, no brainer
I think ignoring T3 and Salvation would be a mistake…
To Brian:
I think ignoring T3 and T4 would actually HELP the story conclude in a good way. A REAL third act without writing Sarah Connor out of the story in a stupid way because Linda Hamilton didn’t want to be in it due to the fact the script (in T3) didn’t allow her character to move forward in any meaningful way.
That’s one reason for my idea of putting an audience relateable human face on Skynet and sending her back through time… Sarah and John can confront, in a meaningful way, the enemy that has been trying to kill them all these years. Skynet agents killed their friends and loved ones and wrecked their lives and, in Sarah’s case, her very sanity. Skynet also gets another chance (besides in the Future) at experiencing what her actions have done to real people. It’s basically a set up for her atonement for pasts sins and redemption (the theme of James Cameron’s T1/T2 arc in one concluding story act). Because Skynet’s bio-mechanical body and mind is a twenty-something female… there is built-in tension between her and John. In this story idea, in the present John believes her to be reprogrammed by Future John like the T-800 he befriended as a boy. Though her intentions are ultimately good ones, that is a bald faced lie she tells he and Sarah. But, what happens if the lie is exposed? Can John Connor turn the other cheek and actually forgive his mortal enemy (the world’s most powerful supercomputing mind now in the body of a cybernetic girl) and even trust her when she promises she has changed and wants to stop herself from ever existing (retro-active suicide)… can Sarah? Will they continue to protect her from harm long enough to complete their new mission? This is the greatest of tests to see if John Connor truly is as great a person as the Kyle Reese from T1 always thought he was: a man, a Messiah-like figure even, that anyone would gladly lay down his or her life for. Can love actually stop a war?
@ Brian
Agreed.
“Terminator” has been overexposed. If you go back to the first film, you will realize its a science-fiction horror film. I do not see how they can return the horror into the franchise.
Why is no-one seems curious of how the machines develope the laser weapons & Time-displacement equimpent lab that would send Kyle Reese & the first T-800 back to 1984 in the first place? Aswell other stuff. To ignore T3 & T4 for another cat & mouse film seems pointless to me imo. I prefer to keep things continuing from T4.
@WallyWest… Why in God’s name would you want to continue the story line of two failed non-Cameron sequels? There are multiple reasons why they were given two star ratings…
Also, it looks like one of the two writers tapped for the next T-movie is also working with James Cameron on the script to another non-Avatar project. Is it possible this is a sneaky way for Cameron to have some sort of influence on the script for this film? Schwarzenegger has already had a sit-down with Cameron to get his feedback (which didn’t occur for the last two). Though, I have to question the choice of screenwriters anyway… haven’t liked anything they’ve done yet (even the script doctoring on Avatar didn’t make it any better IMHO).
@ Dan
Imo,aswell other people i know in personally said to me thought T3 & T4 weren’t great but weren’t terrible as people make them out to be. Simply i prefer the filmakers continue the franchise from T4 & make it better & trie to learn from MCG’s mistakes. Take notes from flashbacks & dreams from Reese in the first film & opening from T2. As i said i read others share my thoughts would like to see the SKYNET & the machines develope the laser weapons, the Time-Displacement Lab equimpment, Ground HK’s with resistance being more forced to move around at night,etc.
Why would you want another cat & mouse time-traveling sequel goin & sent to protect/kill the Connors when you know it won’t match up to the first two films? T3 already proven that. And imo Arnold wouldn’t convince me as the T-800 a 4th time as i could tell he aged alittle in between T2 & T3.
@WallyWest
They can either make him an aged v.3 in a time-line that has J.D. pushed farther into the future since the destruction of Cyberdyne’s headquarters and the theft of the arm and chip had disrupted their mercenary plans for global technological domination (see the screenplay Cameron worked on for the T2:3D – Battle Across Time). Cyberdyne would be down, but not out… and by working in the shadows for a couple decades would allow them to create a vastly superior and advanced Skynet project and Terminator technology than past time-lines.
If you ignored the last shaky attempts at Terminator films, because this story deals with time travel and changing the future you could even bring back Robert Patrick and Linda Hamilton.
You could also make Arnie and Robert the humans Skynet models the T-800 and T-1000 after (and not in a silly way like the deleted scene in T3).
No matter what, they have to get creative and make a superior script or the Terminator franchise will die off with a whimper like Alien and Predator.
I say bring in Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a thirty-ish John Connor (he’s the correct age to match a fifty-ish Linda Hamilton as Sarah, and looks enough like what John at age 10 would grow to look like). He’s a good actor with range, and probably would be much better suited than Christian Bale (who is very temperamental to work with, especially when given a bad director and script).
@ Dan
I dunno at this point about the franchise till i hear i more of what they plan to do anyways for better or worse. I it’s common sense alot of people didn’t like T3 & T4 simply because James Cameron had nothin to do with the two films. T3 was a halfway repeat attempt of T2 said by others while people didn’t like the way Skynet became self-aware with how judgment day happend,etc. T4 was critized as not being the same without Arnold & didn’t have enough depth in it.
Im not sure about Robert Patrick but last i read was Linda Hamilton didn’t seem thrilled about returning to the franchise as she felt it was better off with only the first two films. Even Arnold needed convincing to do T3 without Cameron as director.
I had no problem with Christan Bale as John Connor except he used Batman voice in one scene or two. Aslong he doesnt use that voice again i wouldn’t mind him again but JGL might be a good choice.
i thought all 4 kicked butt loved every idea and cant wait for the sequel they just need to make it people make more bad out of movies then what the reality is they said the dark knight rises was going to be just automatically be bad because of the joker not being in it and that was the biggest false lie ive ever heard cause it didnt dissapoint me
Pls make the movies
One thing I guess they could do is have Arnold play the human that the T-800 was based on, Dieter Von Rossbach.
I don’t know if this is is part of official canon, it probably isn’t since its from some obscure novel, T2: Infiltrator. Since its from the T2 era, I’m sure it will be hard to include in the novel because you have the Connors in that era there. Either way, they should just cook something up so it falls in line with the movies.
It would be interesting how the T800 comes to be in the first place. Something I think hardcore fans would definitely be interested in.
My idea for the fifth Terminator is that the year is actually 2029, the year that the whole series led up to. John Connor is leading what’s left of the human resistance, and the war has turned into a holocaust. Skynet has just created a new type of Terminator, the T-2000 (or whatever name you want it to be), which is the strongest cyborg ever created. John Connor decides to reprogram a T-800 and then they lead the resistance into attack on Skynet’s real system core, which is a massive robot made of liquid metal, the T-1000000 (shown in T2 3D). The story will feature Connor, Kyle Reese, the Terminator and some new characters destroying Skynet once and for all. The story ends when John Connor makes the decision not to send Kyle Reese back in time to conceive John in the first place, thus completely breaking the whole time travel cycle and going back to the “there is no fate but what we make” theory. This plot will bring back Arnold, introduce at least 2 or 3 new Terminator robots/cyborgs, will reveal Skynet’s system core, and give the entire series a good final ending. It should focus on the paradox of John not ever being conceived, and whether or not it would affect his life. It would be kind of a mash-up of all four previous Terminator films, and would wrap up the series firmly and ensure no further films would be made.
MY TERMINATOR 5 IDEA-How about having john connor betray the resistance and help the machines causing millions of human deaths so the resistance send a modified t-800 (arnold schwarzenegger)back in time to kill john connor as a teenage boy to prevent the disaster.
the inocent john connor (christian bale)sends himself back in time to protect his younger self from the terminator.
*the terminator is old because the resistance have been working on him for 20 years so his skin has aged but it can grow back if damaged he is also programed not to kill humans just john connor
*john connor was framed by a t-1000 that took his image]
*The young john connor would be played by the same actor that played him in tscc
*there would be a cameo from robert patrick as a skynet worker also a cameo from linder hamilton at the end when she is seen looking over young john connor
The Terminator 5
Matt Dillon as T-1000
Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator
Clint Eastwood as John Connor
Gemma Arterton as Sarah Connor
I’d like to see the S.M. Stirling terminator books developed directly into movies. They picked up right where T2 left off and are waaaaaaaayy better than 3 and 4.
3 was almost to the Terminator series what Superman 3 was to the original Superman movies…I mean…when the Terminator puts on those STUPID glasses….really? “Talk to the hand” …. REALLY???
Salvation could have been good, but it just didn’t feel right.
Honestly, I’m sick of reboots, but…It wouldn’t bother me to see them take it back and pick it back up after T2.
Oh…also….was thinking…maybe develop toward the idea that we find out the only way to stop judgement day after all was for John Connor to have died in the first place…thus no Terminator sent back to kill him…no Terminator parts to be found and used as the basis for development of Skynet…no Skynet, no Judgement Day.
Thus, in their efforts to protect John & prevent Skynet and Judgement Day, they’ve been perpetuating the scenario all along.
I would like to see a continuation of Salvation, and perhaps an end to the war once and for all. I think 5 movies is good enough, but I would like to see a definitive end to this series, instead of leaving it open-ended, in case someone, somewhere decides to possibly finish it off eventually. I would like to see John Conner finally lead humans to victory. I mean, they covered John’s entire pre-apocalypse life, including his conception, so unless they decide to send a terminator to kill his ancestor in the middle ages or something, they’ve done all they can with that period. Therefore, it’s logical to assume that it will be post-apocalypse, and there’s only so far they can go there. This is why, I’d like to see T5 as the last Terminator movie. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the franchise (yes, even salvation) but i just don’t want to see it turn into another one of those great series that gets milked until people are just simply sick of it.
Get stallone as a terminator working with arnold or up against arnold maybe as a t800 as well.
lets get old arnold to fight young arnold and have them fight in places like the zoo in a tiger cage and have it bloody and gorey. that would be different.that would be bad ass killing wild animals in the zoo when fighting each other.
Ummm, so you think it would be cool to watch a bunch of innocent animals slaughtered?
Yikes.