The Evolution of The Terminator (Animated)
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Multiple companies have retained control of the Terminator franchise, and as a result, that timeline has been fractured. With each fracturing, a new batch of termintors hits the silver screen. Let's summarize the evolution of the Terminator and make sense of this sloppy franchise... animated!
warning: spoilers ahead!Skynet first sends a T-Eight-Hundred to 1984 in The Terminator. He sports beige pants, black boots, a patterned tee, and a bulky grey jacket. While he's nearly impenetrable, he can be burned – and as such, his hair is shortened and his eyebrows are singed off. He then wears a leather jacket, grey shirt, and covers up an eye wound with wide glasses. His mission is to hunt down Sarah Connor – the mother of future Resistance Leader, John Connor – buuut he's hit by a truck and engulfed in an explosion, revealing his wobbly T-Eight-Hundred Endo-Skeleton, that gets blown apart and crushed in a hydraulic press.
A new T-Eight-Hundred appears in T2 (1991). This one wears leather pants, smaller boots, and both a dark and light gray shirt. His hair is shorter and his glasses are smaller. He's been reprogrammed to protect John Connor from the T-One-Thousand, a liquid metal Terminator with the ability to form sharp weapons with his limbs and morph into other forms. He's impervious to typical weaponry but can be frozen and shattered, although he can quickly piece himself back together. Ultimately, he's defeated when blasted into molten steel, with the T-Eight-Hundred following close behind to eradicate this timeline of all Terminator technology, preventing Skynet's inception.
T-2: Battle Across Time (1995) introduces the early model T-Seventy with a machine gun arm, as well as the spider-like liquid metal T-One-Million. But that’s just a theme park attraction, soooo we'll move on.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) showcases the scooter-like T-One’s, includes a brief appearance of the T-Nine-Hundred, aaand the T-Eight-Hundred is back! Whoops, I mean the T-Eight-Fifty. He wears a more streamlined Jacket, looks about 10 years older, and briefly dons star-shaped glasses. He's stronger, can withstand heavier firepower, and has a hydrogen power supply, which is prone to explosions.
This machine is in charge of protecting John Connor and his future wife from the female T-X, who's endoskeleton is encased in liquid metal, and mostly wears a skin-tight red suit. She has an arsenal of arm weapons, can spin her head 360 degrees, identify DNA from a sample of blood, morph into other people, and enlarge her breasts at will. But in the end, she is no match for the T-Eight-Fifty's power supply suicide, which allows John Connor and his wife to escape to safety as Judgement Day begins.
The TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) features:
the smaller T-Triple-eight models, which can disguise themselves as normal sized people, and make use of a hidden leg compartment to hold their gun.
A liquid metal T-One-Thousand-and-One, that can use her extra liquid-metal to form pet eels and she morph into a fast-moving metallic slug.
And the T-Nine-Hundred – sent to protect John Connor – while dainty in size, can easily defeat much larger Terminators.
But this show is, well, a whole can of worms, sooo let's keep it going.
Following Skynet's Rise after Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation (2009) showcases the upgraded T-Ones, the hulking T-600s, which wear unconvincing rubber masks and tattered clothing, the smaller T-700 endoskletons, moto-Terminators, and Marcus – a human-Terminator hybrid who's just as strong as the T-Eight-Hundred, but unknowingly carries a chip that allows Skynet to control him. In a turn of events, Marcus rejects the chip, and opts to help John Connor in battle, going so far as to donate his heart in order to save John's life.
In Terminator Genesis (2015), the previous two sequels are entirely ignored, and this time, the T-Eight-Hundred appears older, sports a hooded jacket, and has slicked-back hair. In this timeline he was sent to raise a young Sarah Connor. Together they take down the original film's T-Eight-Hundred and a remodeled T-One-Thousand. Then, after a 33 year time-jump, he appears even older and wears a green jacket with blue jeans, followed by a darker ensemble.
This film’s future also features the Terminator embodiment of Skynet: The T-Five-Thousand, which infects John Connor with nano robots, turning him into the T-Three-Thousand Hybrid. The T-Three-Thousand travels back in time to ensure Skynet's survival, but the T-Eight-Hundred forces him into a prototype time machine, which tears him apart, while the T-Eight-Hundred falls out and lands in liquid metal, giving him a liquidy upgrade.
Taking place after T-2, Dark Fate (2019) premiers yet another T-Eight-Hundred, and this one finally manages to kill John Connor. 22 years later, he’s older, sports a plaid shirt, blue jeans and a slick brown jacket. He's also grown a masculine beard and – despite what every piece of merchandise shows – he doesn't wear his iconic glasses. He renames himself Carl, adopts a family and is running a… drapery business?
Dark Fate also introduces Grace, a human with cybernetic alterations, who requires replenishment via various drugs to stay in top shape.
In this timelines-future, the animalistic Rev-7 model is seen, they have tentacle-like spikes on their backs, and can split apart, forming an additional quadrupedal liquid-metal model.
But the main antagonist, the Rev-9 is able to appear human while retaining the ability to split his Endo-Skeleton from himself.
Grace, the T-Eight-Hundred, and a grizzled Sarah Connor protect Dani – this timeline’s future resistance leader – from the Rev-9, which gets tossed into a giant blender, is overloaded with Grace's power supply, and held down by Carl, disintegrating them both.
And now we just wait until Arnie needs another paycheck for the next reboot to get Green-lit.
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