The runtime for Terminator: Dark Fate has been confirmed, and it's actually one of the longer movies in the series. Directed by Tim Miller and produced by James Cameron, Dark Fate represents something of a do-over for the Terminator franchise, as the film ignores the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys, and instead stands as a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (the last Terminator movie directed by Cameron himself).
Like the original 1984 Terminator, Dark Fate concerns an average young woman who finds herself being stalked by a cybernetic organism sent back in time to kill her. In this case, the woman is a Mexico City waitress named Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), and the Terminator (Gabriel Luna) is a new model called a Rev-9 that has the terrifying ability to separate itself into two fully autonomous units. And as in the original Terminator, there's also a soldier from the future who has been sent back to protect Ramos, in this case a human/cyborg hybrid named Grace (Mackenzie Davis). Joining the new characters in Dark Fate are franchise stalwarts Arnold Schwarzenegger as Carl, an old Terminator who has integrated into human society, as well as Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, who is back to make one more stand against the machines and prevent Judgment Day.
Dark Fate does indeed represent something of a return to the original Terminator formula after recent sequels arguably lost their way, but the movie's runtime indicates that it's not quite as tight as Cameron's franchise-launching film. As reported by BBFC, Dark Fate runs exactly 128 minutes and 3 seconds - making it the second-longest movie in the Terminator series.
For comparison, the first Terminator movie, which still stands as one of the best action films of the 1980s, came in at an efficient 107 minutes. Cameron then deliberately expanded things for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, creating a truly epic action film, and that fact is reflected in the movie's 137-minute runtime, the longest for any Terminator film. 2003's Terminator 3 actually scaled things back, coming in at 109 minutes. Terminator Salvation was slightly longer at 115 minutes, while Terminator Genisys came in at a somewhat bloated 126 minutes.
With the second-longest runtime in Terminator franchise history, Dark Fate is certainly not a stripped down affair, but it's also not as epic as Judgment Day. Of course, with Cameron back involved in the film, it's no surprise that the movie at least comes in at two hours, as Cameron is not exactly known for brevity. At least going by the movie's trailers, a lot of that 128-minute Terminator: Dark Fate runtime is taken up with huge action set pieces and fight scenes, which certainly seems appropriate given the franchise's history and Cameron's reputation for pushing the boundaries of action.
Source: BBFC
