There’s no moment in “Terminator: Dark Fate” that works as excellently as a scene in the first act where Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor appears in a moment of crisis. At this point in the film we’ve only seen her in a brief prologue in the nineties, abandoning her for 2019 Mexico where an unwitting young woman is trying to outrun a terminator with the help of a soldier from the future. By this point the audience is wondering where the story will go when Sarah enters the scene, guns ablazing, making good on a promised appearance the film has been building up from the moment it began. I could feel the entire audience I was with relax in a single breath as she strode across the scene with such heightened surety, confirming for us even then that wherever this story went things were going to be okay. Sarah Connor couldn’t let us down. Or better put – Linda Hamilton wouldn’t let us down. It’s as good a proof as anything that – for all the things working in its favour – “Dark Fate” only manages to work as efficiently as it does, bumps and all, because of the sheer moxie of Hamilton commanding your attention.
Since the first two films, the “Terminator” franchise has been less than successful at justifying its existence, with three films since that haven’t managed to reach the heights of their predecessors. In that vein, saying “Dark Fate” is the best film since that first pair feels like damning with faint praise. It’s not a high bar to scale. But it’s important to consider “Dark Fate” in relation to those first two films rather than against the three successive ill-fated sequels. The film, for example, is especially casual about continuity, disregarding the logic of timelines with a stark defiance that’s mildly amusing but more importantly feeds into the central crisis of this film. “Dark Fate” works fine with no knowledge of the more recent terminator films. In this world, the dreaded Skynet never happened but that particular plot-point is negligent in the face of the awareness that no matter the timeline – somewhere in the future mankind will create technology that will be to its own detriment. So, in this timeline Sarah Connor saved the world and two decades later an advanced Terminator from the future turns up in Mexico to hunt a young woman (Dani) who seems to be the Sarah Connor of our contemporary, with a cybernetically enhanced soldier (Grace) sent from the future to assist her.
Plot details are extraneous beyond that. For the most part, “Dark Fate” subsists as both a successor and self-conscious reboot of the first two entries, with Hamilton’s Sarah – now a hardened terminator hunter – considering the plight of Dani, a palimpsest of her former self – from a different light. And from there, the film makes good on its dual halves. On one hand it’s a half heist-film as Grace and Sarah must smuggle Dani to safety, and on the other hand it’s half a chase film as they must do this while outrunning the increasingly vengeful Rev-9, who must destroy Dani. And in between, we’re treated to a series of increasingly desperate and kinetic action sequences.
Desperation is the unceasing mood running through the film, and the best asset of the film, which understands atmospheric tension in a pulverising way. Director Tim Miller, whose work on the first “Deadpool” isn’t the best practice for this kind of film, is an unlikely successor for James Cameron’s action ballets of the first two films. Still, he understands the idea of the world he’s working in and is confident in his deployment of the typical action beats. By the time Schwarzenegger shows up in the middle, the film is confident enough in what it is – Grace and Sarah on either side of Dani as a maternal duo with Schwarzenegger’s T-800 willing to stand back and let these women get the job done.
The late-film revelation of how Dani intersects and diverges from Sarah’s own story feels like a necessary development of a world that’s changed since that first “Terminator” and the only thing keeping it from landing with the emotional resonance it wants, is that the film takes a while to allow Natalie Reyes (doing the best she can) to give voice to her character. Even as “Dark Fate” positions Dani as the new Sarah, this franchise can’t be rid of Sarah Conner and Hamilton takes up all the energy on screen. It’s fascinating to watch even as she’s playing Sarah’s hardened edge within a specific parameter, her pained desperation ekes out into the fabric of the film in a way that’s marvellous to watch. The script at times feels too literal, forcing the characters to say lines that unsubtly draw parallels between Dani and Sarah – parallels that don’t need to be uttered when Hamilton’s thoughtful face is enough to give us all the context we need.
Right to the end, “Dark Fate” persists as a confident, pleasurable genre exercise rebooting and revitalising a series with enough panache to make it sing. And no matter how you look at it, it comes back to Linda Hamilton. There’s a lot to like here, Mackenzie Davis in particular plays moral ambivalence to intriguing ways as Grace, our enhanced-super solider from the future. But this is Hamilton’s show – the film is at its best when she’s on-screen, as she manages to make the movements from action to tragedy to off-kilter (the film’s comedy impulses don’t always work). It’s the highlight of the films, and a marquee performance of the year.
“Terminator: Dark Fate” is currently playing at local theatres.
