James Cameron's The Terminator is considered one of the best sci-fi movies, as is its sequel Judgement Day. These films started a bonafide franchise, with the most recent installment being Dark Fate (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). That movie brought back Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, although the iconic actress recently got real about the "underwritten" blockbuster, as well as a hot take about her signature character.
When ranking the Terminator movies, Dark Fate unfortunately isn't at the top. While it was originally supposed to begin a new trilogy of movies, those plans failed to come to fruition. While speaking with ComicBook in a recent interview, she explained her own disappointment with the 2019 title. In her words:
There were some really significant, maybe… emotional moments in the last one that I wish we had lingered over a little bit more. It was kind of underwritten, and I think Tim didn’t feel that some of it was structured properly… I just wish it had slowed down a tiny bit and presented our fans with just a few more moments of humanity.
Honestly, that's some solid advice. While Dark World brought back OG actors and featured some thrilling action, all of that is useless without putting enough heart in the story. And per Hamilton, we could have used more of Sarah's humanity throughout its 128-minute runtime.
While Hamilton has her thoughts about the sequel, CinemaBlend's Terminator: Dark World review praised it for being a legitimately good movie. What's more, Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed Salvation is the worst of the Terminator movies.
Sarah Connor's transformation in T2 is a truly iconic part of film history, which is why so many fans love Linda Hamilton's character. But she's got her own perspective on that, explaining why she's far from aspirational. In her words:
Well, I’ve always been surprised at the numbers that want to be like Sarah Connor. I’m sure that the physicality that I portrayed in the second one had a lot to do with that — just the physique as well as the physicality — but she’s a very, very unhappy woman, right? I mean, she’s struggling with so much unknown, and it’s just like, ‘No, you don’t want to be like Sarah Connor. She’s a woman in hell.’ So that has always fascinated me, the way that people want to emulate her. But she’s just a woman living in hell.
Hamilton clearly understands this character well, so her perspective on Sarah Connor is fascinating. And overall it sounds like she thinks the heroine is basically "living in hell." Considering the terrifying experiences she's had, as well as John's death in Dark World's opening scene, it's hard to argue with her logic.
It should be interesting to see if/when the Terminator franchise ever returns to theaters. For her part, it seems like Linda Hamilton might have finished her tenure as Sarah Connor. As of now, there's no plans on the 2025 move release list or beyond. But as previously mentioned, Dark World and other titles are streaming on Paramount+.
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