Terminator: Dark Fate continues the franchise tradition of introducing a new Terminator model with each movie, except this one has a weird, unexpected twist: tentacles. The Terminator: Dark Fate panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 brought with it a few big reveals, including that Edward Furlong is returning as John Connor, and a new SDCC featurette was also released. It's in there that the tentacled Terminator is first glimpsed.
This has become standard practice for the Terminator franchise ever since 1991's T2: Judgment Day, which introduced audiences to the T-1000, a more advanced version of the original Terminator that had the ability to shapeshift and form sharp, metallic weapons. Subsequent versions have tended to riff on that, but Terminator: Dark Fate is making some big new additions.
It had already been revealed that Gabriel Luna's villainous Terminator, Rev-9, possessed the ability to split into two different forms: one a liquid metal like the T-1000, and the other an endoskeleton. You'd be forgiven for thinking that was the only new model, but as seen at around the 1:16 mark in the new Terminator: Dark Fate featurette, it's not the case. Here we see Mackenzie Davis' Grace doing battle with a Terminator when the tentacles are then revealed. It's only a brief shot, but enough to give us a good look at the new machinery.
There are at least a couple of machines that appear to possess the tentacles, which are again rooted in the T-1000's ability to form metallic weapons. The difference here is in how they're able to move, with the tentacles coming out of the new Terminators less rigid and more, well, squid-like, which makes them seem like a much stranger addition in terms of appearance, but perhaps even more useful as a weapon.
It's unclear exactly where and when Terminator: Dark Fate's new Terminator models appear in the film, but the footage shown at Comic-Con included shots from a post-apocalyptic future. Since Grace herself has been sent back in time, then it's likely this a glimpse into the future that awaits the characters of Terminator: Dak Fate. It's a wasteland, and Grace is wearing a soldier outfit that she doesn't have in the Terminator: Dark Fate trailer, which further confirms this is from a look into the future, although it still remains to be seen when that occurs in the movie itself.
Since Grace is able to be sent back from the future, though, there's a chance the new models can as well, so it'll be interesting to see if they have a sizeable role in Terminator: Dark Fate, or if they're just there as a small yet flashy new machine.
