Like many genre fans, I loved Terminator when I first saw it in 1984 and really enjoyed Terminator 2 on opening weekend.
I always felt that the Terminator films were a team effort between Arnold and James Cameron, and that without either of them, you couldn’t do it.
Well, they of course went on without Cameron, and without Arnold for the most part in part 4, and at this point it feels ridiculous to keep the franchise going because it just doesn’t have the magic without Cameron at the helm. It’s really too bad they couldn’t bring Cameron back for a third one, because he could have written and directed one more Terminator flick, and capped things off nicely as a trilogy.
Still, there’s been plans to keep The Terminator going for more movies for some time now, and Schwarzenegger was recently asked if he’d come back for another one. As Giant Freakin Robot reports, Ah-nold was vague, and replied, “I think producer Megan Ellison owns the rights to Terminator 16, or whatever it is. Yes, five. They have been trying to put a script together but I’ve not seen it, so I’ve no idea. There’s nothing on the drawing board at this point. Nothing on the plan.”
Ellison and her brother David Ellison, who is her producing partner, bought the Terminator rights from Cameron from a cool $20 million. The Ellison’s production company, Annapurna Pictures, has to get a Terminator film made by 2018, or the rights revert back to Cameron. (Annapurna has also made the films Lawless, The Master, and Zero Dark Thirty).
Still, there’s something to be said about beating a dead horse, and just because you can get the money together to make another Terminator movie doesn’t mean you should. Both Schwarzenegger and Stallone look foolish still trying to be big action stars at their age, and Arnold’s public image took a big hit with his love child scandal, making it much harder for audiences to like him.
Smart people in Hollywood know when to bow out gracefully before things get embarrassing, and like the show business saying goes, “You gotta know when to get off the stage.”
At this point, the Terminator should sidestep into the wings before he collapses in a heap.
