Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original antagonist in the Terminator films has run out of creative ideas; however, could the T-800 be eliminated from the series instead?
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original T-800 may be tempting for the Terminator franchise to kill off, but that isn’t how the character functions in reality, which is part of what makes the antagonist so potent. The titular T-800 became an instantly recognizable sci-fi horror villain when it first appeared in 1984’s The Terminator. The Terminator from the first film was a legendary antagonist who would do anything to kill his targets. He was an unstoppable, unkillable robot assassin.
However, the more potent T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day added a new antagonist to the series and made Schwarzenegger’s killer a hero as a result. This was initially fantastic news for the franchise. Audiences were eager to see where this franchise went next after Terminator 2: Judgement Day became one of a select few sequels that received even higher praise from critics than its franchise predecessor.
Unfortunately, the rash of reboots that followed showed how difficult it was to keep the Terminator series fresh. It can be tempting to think that killing off the original Terminator could be a clean break for a new Terminator movie after no less than four reboots and five sequels that have all failed to impress critics. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 isn’t a stand-alone franchise antagonist, so killing him would also be a difficult task. Schwarzenegger’s antagonist is made all the more terrifying by the fact that the T-800 is just one of the countless Terminators that Skynet has created. We think Rev 9 Terminator is the strongest opponent of T-800. What’s your take on this?
Why the T-800 in the Terminator can’t be destroyed.
Although the T-800 model could be retired in the Terminator series, the original T-800 can’t really be killed off in the same way that most leading characters in franchises can because the robot is an interchangeable automaton. The T-800 can be quickly replaced, and there are always more nearly identical models to take its place, so the original Terminator antagonist cannot be “killed off” in the conventional sense. For the Terminator movies, which have attempted numerous fresh starts over the years, this is a challenging problem. The most recent two Terminator sequels made an effort to get around this problem by starting over with the entire franchise’s history, but neither was well received by critics or viewers.
While this was going on, the underappreciated Terminator: Salvation at least made an effort to tell a different kind of tale within the Terminator universe by switching out the formula for a modern chase thriller for a post-apocalyptic war story. The story wasn’t particularly engaging, but Terminator: Salvation deserves praise for trying something new and relying less on the T-800 than any other film in the series. Although Schwarzenegger’s T-800 did eventually appear in a scene in Terminator: Salvation, this only serves as further evidence that the series finds it difficult to move on from its most recognizable star. The Terminator movies will never be able to overcome their inability to do away with Schwarzenegger’s recognizable antagonist thanks to the countless T-800 replicas that are prepared to take the place of the monster from the first film.
Source: Pagista
