You’ll know the franchise has really jumped the shark when someone gets the go-ahead to make AvT, or better yet, AvPvT – and with a special AvPvT-3D for IMAX theaters.
Are you kidding? Crossovers are cool. I never go see Freddy Kruger movies or Jason movies but I totally saw Freddy vs. Jason. I also went to see Jason X. It was more of a genre crossover, but that was good enough for me. An AvPvT with a cameo by Ahnolt would be too cool.
Ah yes, a crossover! All we need to do is convolute the plots together in some manner that makes at least a small amount of sense. Freddy vs. Jason managed to merge the two stories surprisingly well when you consider that entries in that genre rarely get more than ten seconds devoted to coming up with a plot. Hell, the comic matchups that Dark Horse came up with were so woefully bad that even a six-year old kid could come up with something better.
So how do you merge Terminator with Aliens and Predator? Easy.
After so many iterations of the machines hunting John over and over again through time, he removes himself from the grid even further by relocating himself into the deep south, past Mexico where his mother used to hang out with ex-berets, and all the way to the jungles of South America to hide and prepare for the coming of the future. This changes the future timeline enough that the future Resistance becomes headquartered in South America, so the machines of the future once again target him in the past by sending a Terminator to hunt John in the Guatemalan jungle. Little does the Terminator know that John has a protector unknown even to him: a Predator out on the hunt. The Predator observes the strange machine as it hunts John in the jungle, remarking at the similarity with which it hunts its own prey, and so deems Terminator a unique and worthy adversary. The machine’s polished metal skull would make a great capstone in the Predator’s trophy case, after all. John quickly becomes a secondary objective to Terminator after it is ambushed by Predator and a battle ensues. This of course gives Terminator the unique opportunity to (in an amusingly self-referential twist) tell Predator that he’s “one ugly motherfucker”, at which point fan nerds the world over will laugh. Little does Terminator (or John) realize that the reason Predator was on a hunt in the first place was because it was after Xenomorphs planted on Earth as part of the Predator culture’s “rite of passage” training. Before long, the aliens are on the loose and attacking both Terminator and Predator. All seems completely lost as the battle royale unfolds, when without any warning, Chuck Norris emerges from a muddy lagoon and proceeds to open up a can of bone-crushing whoopass on them all. John watches in stunned silence as Chuck dispatches with all of them in about seventeen seconds, then shrugs his shoulders and hops a flight back home to Cali to get a job at a burgeoning dot-com.
I thought all you WGA people were on strike?
I’m a freelancer. Couldn’t you tell? 
Or you could use the already existing cross over wikipedia summary which was quite well done.
The last I heard about this movie, ie before McG taking over the helm, was that it was going to ignore T3 and take up the story after T2/Sarah Connor Chronicles.
As an avid fan of both Supernatural and Chuck, I for one am quite happy that McG is doing T4, if only for the fact that this means that the soundtrack will be awesome.
Hmm maybe we can get the actress playing Bela in Supernatural to be in T4 oh and of course Adam Baldwin as the new Terminator.
Shades of Friday the 13th The Series. Finally… people we have to decide whether the classics deserve to be buried or decide on a price for their carrion.
I meant it as a joke, of course. Amazing that there’s a comic book on that very idea! Interesting Doper name you’ve got there, too.
It goes without saying that any filmed version will have to include a “Wilhelm” scream somewhere. Given that neither Aliens nor Predators are biologically capable of making human-like sounds*, let alone the Wilhelm, and the fact that Terminators are implacable and virtually unemotional, this means there would have to be some “red shirt” disposable human fodder tossed in the story’s first reel or two, just to establish the general level of lethality out there.
*Predators *are * known to make a sinister, harshly guttural, rather human-like laugh on rare occasion, but issuing a genuine scream, with the Wilhelm’s operatic rise and fall in pitch? Nuh-uh. Not only is it beyond the range of their vocal chords, but they’re entirely too badassed to scream like a little girly human man under any circumstances whatsoever.
Scab.
Am I the only one that thought that The Terminator was the only good movie of the series? I couldn’t stand T2 and wouldn’t bother with T3. I mean the whole point of the Terminator was that Arnold was bad ass, and all of the sudden he’s a wishy washy good guy terminator? I was pissed off the whole T2.
We should all be talking about The Terminator I.
That’s it. Nada, Nix, Cero, NON nach.
We’re talking about franchises of a movie that stands alone, each sequel cannibalizing, neutering, and sterilizing the base.
Yes, but the “nice” T2 was only that way because John Connor had caught and reprogrammed one… so it was really a zombie cyborg. Besides, wasn’t the liquid-metal borg scary enough?
Speaking for myself, it’s most disconcerting to realize that the ruthlessly efficient assassin-bot from the future has the shallow superficial appeal of an extremely cute and sexy guy. (My conflicted internal dialogue: “I really want to jump his bones, only he’s got none, yikes!.. How’s Sarah gonna kill this guy? Gosh, he’s cute!”) Talk about cognitive dissonance…
Yeah, I thought you might’ve meant it as a joke, but the series is definately worth checking out if you’re into more than one of the three franchises.
If I’m not mis-remembering, I think Bishop was meant to have been a Cyberdyne creation in Aliens… Hmmm off to unpack my Quadrilogy discs.
Maybe we’ll get the Wilhelm scream in AvP2, which looks like it’ll be a hell of a lot better than one but really it couldn’t be any worse 
(actually I didnt mind one, it wasn’t great but I’ve seen worse films).
/end slight hijack
As to T4, it looks like they’re bringing back Edward Furlong to play Connor which is an interesting choice, especially if they do end up retconning T3.
Just announced yesterday from multiple sources, the producers have reportedly signed (or are very keen on signing) Christian Bale for the film. The generally accepted belief is that he’s up for the role of John Connor. Some people think he’ll be a Terminator, though I can’t help but laugh when picturing him as a cyborg; he’s always the pretty-boy good guy. He actually does resemble the actor who played Connor in T2’s intro scene a bit.
I was surprised to hear an A-list star’s name attached to the project at all, but I think he’d be a good fit for the role. Better than hearing it might be Tom Cruise, at any rate.
If you don’t mind my asking, Wilhelm, where was it stated that “they’re bringing back Furlong”, much less retconning T3?
So if this is true Christian Bale will be Batman and John Connor?
Should we just anoint him the greatest action hero star ever right now or should we wait until T4 is actually out?
Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford would like a word with you.
Re: Christian Bale:
This line amused me, since I’ve only seen Bale in two films - Batman Begins and American Psycho.
After those two, I can certainly imagine him as a killer cyborg.
You’re right of course, King Bruce will never be dethroned.
Alright, allow me to amend it to greatest modern day action hero.
Any of the Dark Horse pieces would be good Terminator movies.
It won’t really be over until they do Terminator Babies, with baby versions of the characters.
As an aside, the Dark Horse series Aliens: Earth War should have been the third Aliens movie, and their treatment of AvP would have been a great movie.
Lets see, you have proclaimed that “It’s official… the franchise has jumped the shark” and then say “I’ll have to reserve judgment of T4 until I see the finished product, of course…”. :dubious:
Which is it? 
Let’s all reserve judgment of T4 until we see the finished product, OK?