He’s back, indeed... and how!

SEOUL — I’ll be back!

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has kept the promise he made more than 25 years ago when he starred in Terminator: Judgment Day, the second in the smash-hit franchise produced by James Cameron (Titanic, considered as the all-time Hollywood box-office hit).

And what a comeback it is!

Also produced by Cameron (who also wrote the story), Terminator: Dark Fate is calculated to not just equal but surpass the records of its two predecessors once it opens nationwide locally on Wednesday, Oct. 30.

“You will hold your breath from start to finish,” reminded one journalist during the movie’s junket in Seoul early this week after he has seen it in his own country. “It’s non-stop action, something you’ve never seen before.”

He was right. We hardly winked during the preview (a “must” before the interviews) and I leave it up to you if you react the same way. 

Throwback 1984: Arnold Schwarzenegger being made up to be a Terminator.

Photo from his autobiography Total Recall

To recap (as narrated in the Production Notes): More than two decades have passed since Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton reprising the iconic character…but more on her in another story) prevented Judgment Day, changed the future and re-wrote the fate of the human race. Dani Ramos (played by Colombian actress Natalia Reyes) is living a simple life in Mexico with her brother (Diego Boneta) and father when a highly advanced and deadly new Terminator ­— a Rev-9, played by Gabriel Luna (see accompanying story on “jump” page) — travels back through time to hunt and kill her. Dani’s survival depends on her joining forces with two warriors, Grace (Mackenzie Davis), an enhanced super-soldier from the future, and a battle-hardened Sarah. As the Rev-9 ruthlessly destroys everything and everyone in its path on the hunt for Dani, the three are led to a T-800 (Schwarzenegger, yes!!!) from Sarah’s past that may be their last hope.

Cameron produced (with Gale Ann Hurd) the modestly budgeted ($6.4 million), 1984 original sci-fi action film (simply titled The Terminator) about a cyborg from an apocalyptic future that travels to the present to ensure the extermination of the human race. The 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, cost $94 million to produce and made history by raking in more than $518 million worldwide and winning Oscars for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Makeup and Visual Effects, becoming the highest-grossing film of that year. 

“Dark Fate is a direct sequel to Terminator 2,” Cameron was quoted as saying. “It recaptures the riveting tone of the original Terminator and its follow-up. It has the same intensity, the same take-no-prisoners feeling and sense of abject terror. The first film was supposed to scare the crap out of you about a possible dark future and the survival of a girl that we come to care about. Like the others, Dark Fate deals with the threat of human collision with artificial super-intelligence which is a whole lot less science-fiction today than it was in 1984 or 1991.”

During the roundtable interview at the Four Seasons Hotel, Schwarzenegger said that credit should go to Cameron for coming up with an idea.

 

“He came to me and said, ‘I have an idea for another Terminator movie; would you be interested?’ I said, ‘That must be a great idea, of course!’ Yes, Cameron added, ‘It’s a great idea not only story-wise, we are bringing back Linda Hamilton.’ That was to me really fantastic, kind of a great reunion. I was excited because we have done Terminator movies without Jim and now he’s back. It’s a great joy to be working with the same old team.”

Once again playing T-800 Terminator, 72-year-old Schwarzenegger credits the franchise with launching his career as an actor after he won five Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles, migrating from Austria to the US where he earned a college degree from the University of Wisconsin and became a US citizen — and eventually was elected California’s 38th governor.

“I have done Conan the Barbarian but that was about showing the body and the muscles,” recalled Schwarzenegger who is also known for being a world champion bodybuilder. “I wanted to get out of that and The Terminator was really the first movie that was all about the face, the eyes and the acting. It was a small movie but brilliantly written, designed and directed. It was a major breakthrough for filmmaking and for me.”

He credits his bodybuilding background that made him easily identify with his cyborg alter-ego.

“There is a machine-like behavior you get from bodybuilding. It’s all about reps, keeping your emotion out and focusing on your goal. But in Dark Fate, we let T-800 become more human. He is aware that he’s a machine but after being around human beings for so long he has become more human. That’s what makes it very interesting and, from an acting point of view, much more challenging. I had to rely on director Tim Miller to tell me when to dial it up and down. He did a great job.”

He added, “T-800 is such a ferocious kind of a machine that crashes everything and everyone, and so the challenge is how do we go and make it believable.”

Then, referring to the rise of Rev-9, the new Terminator, he added, “and here’s another machine that can actually pose a threat and, you know, create a new kind of suspense. It requires a lot of mobility and movability and that’s when we talk about visual effects. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of visual effects.”

In a scene in Dark Fate, Terminator Schwarzenegger tells Sarah Connor, “I’m not coming back!”

Really now, isn’t he…coming back?

“You see,” Schwarzenegger explained, “once a movie is done, the story is finished. It’s only because of the way the story is written that sometimes a character does come back. But then, only the fans will and can make the decision if there should be another one. I’m very happy that we made this one…I’m very happy that Linda, Jim and I were reunited. If the fans like this one, maybe Jim will say, ‘Let’s make another one!’ That all depends on how the public receives the movie. We have been holding test screenings in the US and the response has been fantastic.”

Okay then, hasta la vista. Go ahead, Baby, make our day!!!

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)