Terminator: Dark Fate is the 6th entry in the wibbly-wobbley timey-wimey cinematic universe originally brought to life by James Cameron in 1984. The franchise has taken a lot of detours over the past 35 years — some more successful than others — but the supporting infrastructure of the story has never really changed: sometime in “the future,” “the machines” turn on us and wage an all-out war that leaves billions dead and the planet a devastated wasteland. But there’s a brave human resistance lead by an incredibly inspirational white dude! So in a truly bonkers effort to eradicate those pesky humans once and for all, the machine intelligence — called Skynet — sends killer cyborgs into the past to kill that human leader before he can grow into his destiny. The resistance is like “chill, bro” and sends their OWN dude back in time to prevent Skynet from succeeding. 

In this latest film, a lot of the accumulated mythos that was developed over the past 3 or 4 movies has been jettisoned entirely and we’ve gone back to the beginning, and all our old friends are along for the ride. But this time around, the protector sent back to save humanity is a woman, and Arnold Schwarenegger’s Terminator has relaxed into a comfortable semi-retirement when he’s not running his drapery business. Oh, and Sarah Connor is back and she is still kicking ass! 

But perhaps the most important thing about this film is that the hero that we’re invested in? The one that must be protected at all costs? It’s not a white woman who will birth the future leader of the human resistance. It’s not the white dude himself. It’s a young Mexican woman. 

Time Stamps:

• 02:41 - Main Segment: Terminator: Dark Fate
• 40:30 - What’s Your FREQ Outs: Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodóvar, The Righteous Gemstones, Paris Games Week

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