Spoilers for Terminator: Dark Fate follow below.

Audiences who checked out Terminator: Night Fate this weekend were in for a bit of a shock mere minutes into the film, as it opens with a prologue that dispatches with one of the franchise's key heroes. Indeed, the opening moments of the new movie—which is a direct sequel to Terminator ii —find Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and John Connor (Edward Furlong) relaxing on a beach directly afterwards the events of T2, having saved the world from judgment twenty-four hours. The actors reprise the roles via digital engineering science, but the scene doesn't last long as Arnold Schwarzenegger'due south T-800 sneaks upward on John and shoots him twice in the chest with a shotgun, killing him. Thus begins the aptly named Terminator: Night Fate.

John Connor's death is a primal piece of the Nighttime Fate puzzle, as it sets the stage for Hamilton's reprisal as Sarah Connor now living a life of solitude on the run, hunting Terminators for a living, full of acrimony and resentment and regret.

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Image via TriStar Pictures

Director Tim Miller explained his conclusion to kill John Connor in the opening moments of the movie in an interview with THR, noting that when they were deciding who the new savior of the moving picture should be—filling the John Connor office—they pretty speedily knew they wanted someone dissimilar:

"Y'all'd think it [killing John off] was probably a controversial decision, but it really wasn't. There was a lot of talk at the really early on stages of should this new savior exist someone who was connected to the Connors? Should it be John'southward daughter or something like that? Which I was ever against, because I'1000 just not a fan of the Chosen One sort of movie as much every bit I am of a hero sort of ascent to come across adversity, who could be an everyman or an everywoman. I identify with those people much more than than I do with Neo inThe Matrix or Rex Arthur or something like that. So I was all for this being some new person that wasn't continued to the Connors and had been chosen past the manus of fate."

Indeed, comparisons to Star Wars: The Strength Awakens seem rather apt at this signal, as that film also introduced a new hero disconnected to the Skywalker legacy. Or so we recollect...

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Miller continued past revealing that John Connor's death was meant to fuel Sarah Connor's arc for the film:

"We all knew a couple of things. One: Sarah Connor is not a happy character. She is best when she is driven and tragic and yous need some rocket fuel for that. Y'all can't have John exist a 36-year-old accountant somewhere. And actually, when you remember nigh it, he could be sort of a pathetic figure as a man who had missed his moment in history and was relegated to this banal, ordinary existence, when in fact had Sarah not chosen to destroy Cyberdyne, he would be the leader of humanity. Nobody wants to meet that. Secondly, [John's death], that's rocket fuel for Sarah. And lastly, y'all need to clear the stage for these new characters. They are not going to be able to accept their moment, or come up into their moment, with John hanging around. In that location's only no proficient manner to exercise that."

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Image via Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions

And with that, Miller and producer James Cameron and the film'south team of screenwriters set nigh crafting a scene in which John Connor gets shot to death in the opening scene of the picture:

"Everybody was in pretty strong agreement, and the way to start information technology, was really, y'all desire to accept this dramatic touch on. Yous want to slap the audience in the confront and say, 'Wake up. This is going to be different.' I experience like that achieved that. I hate the violence of it. I detest the idea of a kid existence shot, but the dramatic fuel that it gives the story is kind of undeniable."

It certainly makes an impression, I'll say that much. Although Collider's Matt Goldberg argues that the opening scene damages the legacy of T2 past never following upwardly on the trauma that Sarah encounters by watching her merely son die.

Regardless, information technology was a bold move in a film that finally serves equally a worthwhile sequel to the first two movies. Unfortunately, its box office bust likely ways the franchise is toast for the fourth dimension-being, despite Cameron and the writers crafting out a story for future sequels. RIP John Connor. Until he'southward resurrected for yet another reboot in 5-vii years...

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