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Terminator is an American media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. It is considered to be of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.[4][5] The franchise primarily focuses on a post-apocalyptic war between a synthetic intelligence known as Skynet, and a surviving resistance of humans led by John Connor. Skynet fights with an arsenal of cyborgs known as Terminators, designed to mimic humans and infiltrate the resistance. A prominent model throughout the films is the T-800, commonly known as the Terminator and portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Time travel is a common aspect of the franchise, with humans and Terminators often sent back to alter the past and change the outcome of the future.
The franchise began with the 1984 film The Terminator, written and directed by Cameron, with Hurd as producer. They would return for the 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (or T2). Both films were critical and commercial successes. Subsequent installments, most of them produced without Cameron's involvement, saw mixed reviews and poorer box-office returns. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (or T3) was released in 2003 to positive reviews, followed by Terminator Salvation in 2009 to more negative reviews. Salvation was intended as the first in a new trilogy, which was later scrapped after the film rights were sold.
Cameron was consulted for the 2015 film Terminator Genisys, a reboot branching off from the timeline of the original film. It was negatively received and performed poorly at the box-office. Cameron had a larger role as a producer of the 2019 film Terminator: Dark Fate, a sequel to T2 that ignores the three preceding films. Genisys and Dark Fate, respectively, were also produced as the first installment in a planned trilogy, but both were cancelled due to poor box-office performances, despite positive reviews.
Outside of the films, Cameron co-directed T2-3D: Battle Across Time, a 1996 theme park attraction. It was produced as the original sequel to T2 and reunited its main cast. A television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, was developed without Cameron's involvement and aired from 2008 to 2009. It was also produced as a T2 sequel, taking place in an alternate timeline that ignores the third film and subsequent events. Terminator Zero, an anime series, premiered in August 2024. The franchise has also inspired several lines of comic books since 1988, and numerous video games since 1991. By 2010, the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue.[6]
- ^ "Terminator RPG".
- ^ "T-800 Endoskeleton".
- ^ "Terminator: Resistance".
- ^ Elias, Herlander. Cyberpunk 2.0: fiction and contemporary. No. 2nd Edition. Covilhã: LabCom Books, 2009, 2009.
- ^ Nandi, Arindam. "You Were Made as Well as We Could Make You": Posthuman Identity Formations in James Cameron’s Terminator Dilogy, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and the Wachowski Brothers’ the Matrix Trilogy." Quarterly Review of Film and Video (2023): 1-20.
- ^ "Pacificor Names Latham & Watkins to Field Terminator Inquiries". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. February 17, 2010. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
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