Remember that head scratching Terminator Genisys trailer yesterday? We certainly do. While we also have known about alternate timelines, the return of Arnold’s T-800, and Kyle Reese meeting a newly bad ass 1982 Sarah Connor. What we haven’t known about is that, according to the trailer anyway, John Connor, leader of the resistance against Skynet, is not only a Terminator but our hero’s main adversary.
The reveal has been met with confusion and generally divisive reactions. How can John Connor be the bad guy? How will this effect an already busy looking movie? Luckily, Jason Clarke, John Connor himself, has shed some light on the subject in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
What does he think of the big twist?
“It turns it up to 11,” says Clarke. According to him it adds more complexity to the role and the film as a whole. In the other films, you typically have a bad guy chasing the good guys, but in Genisys the line is more blurred. If John, the supposed messiah of the Terminator story, is a machine… what does that say about the war against Skynet? Were the humans being manipulated all along?
So, John Connor really is a machine? That couldn’t have always been the case.
Well, it seems he’s not quite fully machine. Clarke still tells us John can experience pain and is still learning the basics of his new Terminator form, which tells us the transformation must be fairly recent.
What kind of Terminator is he?
Good question. Unfortunately, Clarke didn’t reveal that. He only gave the hint, “Technology has become more and more ingrained inside of us and John becomes the ultimate realization of that.”
It’s tough to say what the ultimate realization of technology would be in the Terminator universe, but judging from the footage it seems like John is made from nanites: microscopic robots working together. Think of it as a more dusty version of the liquid metal T-1000 and you’ll start to have a better idea.
Is he working for or against Skynet?
Clarke refers to John as “the last throw of the dice by Skynet,” which means it’s safe to assume he’s working for the machines. That means Sarah, Kyle, and the T-800 will be up against both him and that T-1000 we saw in the trailer… which is assuming the movie doesn’t have any other surprises waiting for us.
Help me. My head still hurts.
You’re not alone, friend. Luckily, we have a break down to help you make more sense of yesterday’s trailer.
When will I have all the answers?
When the film opens on July 1st. Unless, of course, we get another trailer that reveals even more. You’ll just have to stay tuned.
