# How would you make a good Terminator movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2020, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686 "2020-07-29T05:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/41 "2020-07-30T22:57:00Z")
Or for that matter, since infiltration in modern times (as opposed to the post-apocalyptic world) is different, why not a dog? or a pig? or a spider-pig? Insect sized drones with poison injectors? ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/42 "2020-07-31T00:15:50Z")
I’d have the time portal machine malfunction on one of the runs, dropping a Terminator into an alternate dimension… one where earth is populated by highly advanced human/machine hybrids. Highly advanced … and incredibly offended, pissed off. They strip the terminator of all relevant data and build a team of hybrids to be sent to both ends of the portal: earth 1 present and earth 1 future. The team is programmed with just one goal: destroy all of Skynet and anything skynet-based. we’d have effectively two films where alternate technology is battling alternate technology and in all new sorts of vicious ways. The movie could even change somewhat part way through… because as present earth 1 changes it will effect what is found on future earth 1. Think of all the odd LA Skynet future permutations: female terminators with detachable attack Chihuahuas launched from purses… In and Out burgers that eat off faces… Steamroller bots designed to smash 5 lanes of cars flat on Freeways at high speeds… and every time someone else dies in earth 1 present, earth 1 future gets just a little more weird… ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/43 "2020-07-31T14:30:11Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Awhile back we had a thread that pointed out that the terminators physical prowess was such that they didn’t need to build it into Arnie. Why not Betty White, or David Hyde Pierce, Christina Ricci’s Wednesday Addams? You could get really creepy. Or Summer Glau? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/44 "2020-07-31T20:48:18Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > John Connor was already dead but, because of the changing of the time line, a different (much younger) woman is now the mother of a different child who is destined to stop Skynet. Dark Fate spoiler: Not the mother, the savior. Dani Ramos isn’t a Sarah Connor analog, she’s John Connor. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/45 "2020-07-31T21:07:07Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > Or Summer Glau? Or, you know, Robert Patrick. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/46 "2020-08-02T21:50:43Z")
While a spider pig would certainly be creepy, I’m not sure how that would be an infiltration device, humans would know it was a bad news from a looong way off. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/47 "2020-08-04T00:36:42Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > Or Summer Glau? 🙂 What’s wrong with Summer Glau!? She’s cool and not creepy. About the worst you could say about her is that she’s happily married to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/48 "2020-08-04T01:13:30Z")
I think @gonzoron was being facetious. Summer, slender thing that she is, seems an unlikely choice for a Terminator model, yet she indeed was, as Cameron in _The Sarah Conner Chronicles_. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/49 "2020-08-04T14:21:41Z")
Correct, and in fact, she was incredible in the role. Nothing wrong with her at all. Just saying that the idea of a Terminator that’s not built like Arnie but is just as strong and intimidating has been done already. (@AlsoNamedBort pointed out that it was done as early as T2 with Robert Patrick. I guess we should tip the hat to Kristanna Loken (T3) too. Though Glau didn’t have the benefit of the liquid metal shtick they both had, and still pulled it off.) Not saying it shouldn’t be done again (by all means, it should!), just saying the barrier’s already broken there. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/50 "2020-08-04T15:39:13Z")
Humans are weak and squishy. Once, in a research lab, I was shown an industrial robot arm used to diagnose electronics. I was invited to push on it with all my strength, and it did not budge a millimeter. Then my host hit the controls, and it moved like I wasn’t even there. Especially using future materials and miniaturization, it shouldn’t matter if a human-looking terminator looks intimidating or appears small and slender; it should have no problem terminating humans with its bare hands if need be. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/51 "2020-08-04T19:17:55Z")
Sure, but in your case, the industrial robot arm was bolted to the floor, or something else suitably heavy. Put that robot arm by itself on wheels or legs and you’d be to push/throw it around a lot easier. It doesn’t matter how strong a “light” terminator is - unless it can get a good brace on the floor/walls its still subject to getting knocked around quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![LegendsofClear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@LegendsofClear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendsofClear)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/52 "2020-08-22T06:06:07Z")
Wow just watched Terminator: Woke Fate, it was so, so bad. Lesbian trio undertones, Arnold barely in the movie, John Conner eliminated, watch the sad illegal immigrants, and the Terminator settled down and had a family!!! My God who did they think would watch this? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/53 "2020-08-23T00:28:15Z")
> [@LegendsofClear](#): > > My God who did they think would watch this? Me. I didn’t think it was _that_ bad. Not as bad as Salvation, or even T3, which I was not a fan off By “that” bad, I mean it didn’t make my eyes roll back in my head for the entire movie. Niot that it didn’t have flaws. ---
**Author:** ![LegendsofClear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@LegendsofClear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendsofClear)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/54 "2020-08-23T04:45:24Z")
``` Dude the Terminator raised a well adjusted young man, did he fuck the mother during the marriage? See? No Terminator fan should be asking those questions. ``` ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/55 "2020-08-24T09:18:51Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > > [@outlierrn](#): > > > > Awhile back we had a thread that pointed out that the terminators physical prowess was such that they didn’t need to build it into Arnie. Why not Betty White, or David Hyde Pierce, Christina Ricci’s Wednesday Addams? You could get really creepy. > > Or Summer Glau? 🙂 I went to “Screamers”, where even the teddy bears are robot assassins bent on destroying humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/56 "2020-08-24T19:51:51Z")
> [@DorkVader](#): > > I went to “Screamers”, where even the teddy bears are robot assassins bent on destroying humanity. Don’t forget Zuni fetish dolls. THAT was some scary shit! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/57 "2020-08-25T16:54:15Z")
> [@LegendsofClear](#): > > Wow just watched Terminator: Woke Fate, it was so, so bad. Lesbian trio undertones, Arnold barely in the movie, John Conner eliminated, watch the sad illegal immigrants, and the Terminator settled down and had a family!!! My God who did they think would watch this? "It doesn’t feel PITY or REMORSE or FEAR and it absolutely…WILL…NOT…STOP! EVER! Until you are DEAD! And THEN it will feel pity AND remorse! And it will probably settle down and RAISE…A…FAMILY!! MAYBE TRY AND FIND SOME REDEMPTION!! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/58 "2020-08-25T17:56:44Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I haven’t watched them all. Is there one set in the future, with a grizzled old battle-worn John Connor and we see Skynet send Arnie back for T1, and the good guys send him back again for T2 when the melty guy goes back? And we can see how changing the past affects the future. Maybe the continuity changes from episode to episode. A future sci-fi war movie that deals with the paradoxes of time travel and fighting battles in multiple timelines. I’d watch it. The closest thing I can think of is Terminator: Genysis, which was terrible. The first half of the movie is basically a retread of the original Terminator with Emilia Clarke in the role of Sarah and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reece. Which is not necessarily bad in theory, but in execution it didn’t work IMHO. > [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > > [@gonzoron](#): > > > > Or Summer Glau? 🙂 > > What’s wrong with Summer Glau!? She’s cool and not creepy. Or Garret Dillahunt, the protagonist terminator from Sarah Conner Chronicles. I’ve only seen Summer play characters who are a bit creepy and “off” - Cameron from the TSSC show and River Tam from Firefly. I think Terminators should be a bit creepy and off, regardless of what or who they look like. Like they should be in the uncanny valley of not quite acting like a “normal” human in some indescribable way. Like you are talking to a sociopath or high-functioning autistic. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686/59 "2020-08-27T13:28:46Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Like they should be in the uncanny valley of not quite acting like a “normal” human in some indescribable way. Like you are talking to a sociopath or high-functioning autistic. I guess that would come off way more cool than just an obsessive psychopathic gun nutter… because the Terminator obviously can’t let things go due to flaws in its programming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-make-a-good-terminator-movie/916686.md?page=2)