"Come with me if you want to live!" With that statement, the new trailer for Terminator: Genisys flipped the script on everything we thought we knew about the traditional Terminator timeline. Watch the full clip below:
The plot of Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genisys sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back into the past – mirroring the plot of the original The Terminator. Only, the Los Angeles he finds isn’t the retro 1980s version, where Sarah Connor is helpless and scared. She’s a badass warrior because – wait for it – the original Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) eliminated the old version of himself, altering the timeline.
Still with me, Marty McFly? Then read on:
The beginning of the clip suggests that we will spend time in the apocalyptic future, where we get a good glimpse of the battle-scarred John Connor (Jason Clarke), and we get to witness the transport of Kyle Reese to our present day.
But after that, everything that we thought we knew changes. As mentioned, Sarah Connor 3.0 (Emilia Clarke) is a warrior already, and she has an aging Terminator – who still quotes, "I’ll be back" -- working by her side.
We are a full minute into the trailer before we figure out just how wrong the modern time really is. A police officer arriving at the scene of Kyle’s arrival is actually a Terminator.
Sarah knows that Reese is a soldier, and isn’t phased by the idea that more people will be coming back from the future. But all of this timeline twisting builds to the moment where old Arnold tells previous Arnold "I’ve been waiting for you." Then, well, you saw what happened.
"Everything’s changed," Sarah tells Kyle in this new take on the Terminator myth, and she could mean the movie-blockbuster landscape, as well as the timeline of this franchise, in general. Nowadays, audiences willing accept reboots and remakes so long as they can bring new elements to life on the table. This trailer suggests that everything has been "reset" with the motions of Reese being sent back to a new era, but will crowds like the left turn of the narrative? Will the series be able to sustain the planned trilogy that’s supposed to begin with Terminator: Genisys?
We will have more answers when Terminator: Genisys opens on July 1, 2015. But for now, what did you think of our first look at the latest Terminator sequel?
