The third Terminator movie may be subtitled Rise Of The Machines but this uneven franchise outing actually cut a great scene that subtly foreshadowed the machine’s revolt against humanity. Released in 2003, Terminator: Rise Of The Machines had big shoes to fill when the blockbuster attempted to follow up James Cameron’s tense, terrifying sci-fi horror original and its surprisingly warm-hearted, action-oriented sequel.
Directed by Surrogates’ Jonathan Mostow, the third Terminator was largely written off upon release as one of the lesser entries into the franchise. Surprisingly broad and comedic, Terminator 3 brought back Arnie’s titular character but lacked the original’s grim threat or the sequel’s heart and ambition, and felt like a lukewarm retread of the latter entry.
One thing Terminator: Rise of the Machines did admittedly boast was a shockingly dark ending that most fans and viewers weren’t anticipating, despite the nuclear apocalypse being Terminator franchise canon. Sure enough, even though the preceding movie was a goofier, more light-hearted action-adventure, the ending culminated in the death of nearly all life on Earth—but an early draft did foreshadow the eponymous machine revolt during the first appearance of Kristanna Loken’s villainous T-X. When the T-X kills a woman for her clothes shortly after her arrival, in the original script the machine accosts the innocent civilian while she's trying to get a malfunctioning ATM to work.
This scene takes place early in Terminator 3’s story, long before Skynet's global network of machines has started to rebel against mankind. However, the ATM pretending to malfunction at the same moment the T-X spots her prey implies the machines (ranging from ATMs to full-blown robot assassins) are already working together to take down humanity, with the ATM distracting this civilian so the T-X can kill her. And with everything from Terminators to ATMs being operated by Skynet, the scene implies a Transformers/Maximum Overdrive-style revolt of the machines otherwise unseen in the Terminator movies.
In its darker original script, the scene plays like a horror movie moment but this creepy piece of foreshadowing was later dropped. It’s a nod that proves the machines are already plotting against humanity which is an element that was largely lost in the finished film. The moment was instead replaced by a silly gag in which the T-X avoids a speeding ticket by inflating her breasts to distract a police officer, an out-of-place comedy beat which proves that - like McG’s heavily-recut Terminator: Salvation - Terminator: Rise Of The Machines had the potential to be a solid sci-fi horror movie if it weren’t for the studio’s insistence on trimming downbeat moments to ensure a family-friendly rating.