The more you think about this movie in the bitter aftertaste of viewing, the more you realise almost none of it makes any sense.
Now look, if you don’t think at all, Terminator: Genisys has a kind of retro pleasure – seeing the lead-up to the Bad Arnie Terminator and Kyle Reese being sent back to 1984, as a sort of preamble to the original movie in the franchise, for example, was pretty good.
But gee, this is a bad film. You can almost see the Studio’s and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s demands on the writers slowly disintegrating both their sanity and their capacity to construct a sensible line of dialogue.
A list of some of the more egregious errors, below (spoiler-heavy and dependent on you having seen the film) (or not planning to see it and just want to enjoy a rant):
- How did Robot John Connor go back in time?
Robot John Connor explains that he went back in 2014 in order to do the coding for Genisys, which would come online in 2017.
So…how the fuck did he get there? He’s made of metal; metal can’t travel in time unless it is surrounded by living tissue. This point is reinforced later when they kill Robot John Connor by sticking him in a time machine and frying him.
There is no plausible way for Robot John Connor to travel in time: the premise for the movie makes no sense.
- Why didn’t more than one soldier go back with Reese?
a) We see Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor get naked and hop into the time machine together: so at least two people can travel at a time. Why didn’t John Connor send Kyle Reese and another soldier together? Why didn’t he send every damn soldier in the room with him (around twenty) back in time to protect her?
b) Presumably Robot John Connor sent the T-1000 back in time to kill Kyle Reese after he had been transmogrified into a robot by Doctor Who / Skynet Man. But Skynet has been completely destroyed by this point, which implies Robot John Connor or Skynet Man fixed a T-1000 (the liquid metal terminator) and sent it back (which itself doesn’t make any sense, as the control core of Skynet is blown). But given this, why didn’t they fix ten T-1000s to send back to kill Kyle Reese?
c) How can the T-1000 go back when it is entirely made of metal? (See point one, above).
- Why didn’t the T-800 (Old Arnie Terminator) sabotage the construction of Cyberdyne?
Old Terminator infiltrates a work crew for the Cyberdyne buildings (which houses the future Skynet) and ensures that a bomb bunker underneath the complex has Sarah Connor’s biometrics entered, so she can later use the bunker if need be (some Chess Grand Master several-moves-ahead thinking there).
But given this, it seems far easier for Old Arnie Terminator to plant bombs in the structure of the complex to be set off at a later date, like when Skynet was half-completed. I mean, Old Arnie Terminator surely has a hundred ways to blow the place to smithereens given he’s infiltrated the work crew – and all he does is reprogram a hand scanner?
- Why didn’t they go back a month early?
Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese travel forward into time from 1984 to 2017 in order to stop Genisys from coming on line. They arrive a day before it comes online, leaving them in a thrilling race-against-the-clock.
Guys – you’ve got a fucking time machine. Arrive a month early and give yourselves time to prepare.
- Why did assassinating John Connor after he’d won the war change the date of Judgement Day?
After John Connor is assassinated / transformed into Robot John Connor, Judgement Day is pushed back to 2017. But, but – why? This makes no sense as the original Judgement Day (in 1997) is still Judgement Day – it hasn’t been delayed or paused. The timeline stays the same. The resistance still wins the war.
If metal Robot John Connor really wanted to go back and mess with things, he could have gone back to 1984 and killed Kyle Reese (yes, this means he would have killed his own father, and therefore wouldn’t exist – but Robot John Connor makes the rather outrageous claim in Genisys that anything he does in the past doesn’t affect him, as he is an ‘exile in time’) (whatever the fuck that means).
- Who sent the T-800 back to the 70s?
The only possible candidate is John Connor. No-one else could have sent a (reprogrammed) Terminator back to 
Sarah Connor’s youth to protect her, as no other good guy knew of the time-machine except John Connor.
Yet, when Robot John Connor meets Old Terminator, he says: “who sent you back?” Robot John Connor retains all his memories – as seen when he convinced Sarah Connor he isn’t a Terminator by recalling things she said to him as a child – yet he doesn’t remember sending Old Arnie back to 1975. So where did Old Arnie come from?
- Why does Robot John Connor have to be bad?
Connor keeps his memories when he becomes a robot and therefore he is unchanged. That is, he is still the child that learned rebellion at the feet of Sarah Connor. He is still the man that fought the Machines his whole life; still the man whose whole existence is predicated on ending the reign of the Machines. So why did he flip so easily?
He’s a Machine now: okay, that would be rather stressful. But he’s not being controlled by Skynet (Skynet has been destroyed – only Doctor Who / Skynet Man remain), there is nothing suggest he no longer has free will. It makes far more sense for Robot John Connor to say ‘cheers for the extra powers, dickhead’ and proceed on his merry way as the victorious rebel leader.
- How can T-1000 liquid cure destroyed terminators?
So liquid metal from a T-1000 dripped into the destroyed shell of a T-800 can fix it. Apparently.
This baffling new rule only makes sense later in the film as a plot device to keep Old Arnie Terminator alive. This rule means that after he is destroyed by the time machine, he can be revived by the pool of liquid metal conveniently placed nearby.
This ludicrous, feel-good ending where everyone survives and everyone is winning is distinctly out-of-sync with the rest of the Franchise. Kyle Reese dies in The Terminator, the Good T-800 dies in Terminator 2, and Judgement Day still happens in Terminator 3 (and Arnie dies again).
In Genisys, Arnie dies – but lives again! Kyle Reese lives! Sarah Connor doesn’t get cancer, but does get her man! Skynet is pre-exploded! Kyle Reese will be a good father! Sarah Connor can dare to love! Puppies for everyone!
- Why didn’t the magnetic shotgun bullets work?
At one point Sarah Connor makes a big deal of finding a stock of weapons that include magnetic shotgun shells and magnetic missiles. Robot John Connor is vulnerable to fist-magnets, you see, as MacGyvered by Old Terminator.
The effect of the magnetic weapons? Zero. Precisely the same as normal weapons.
I mean, they shoot John Connor out of the freaking sky with a magnetic missile, and he promptly hops up from the crash site and continues on his way as if nothing has happened.
- Why does Kyle Reese have to tell younger Kyle Reese about Genisys?
The film ends with Old Kyle Reese telling Young Kyle Reese to remember that: “Genisys is Skynet.” Why? The timeline has changed: Genisys / Cyberdyne / Skynet have been destroyed. Old Kyle Reese is effectively asking Young Kyle Reese remember something that has already happened (Genisys becoming Skynet), and that won’t happen in the future (Genisys causing Judgement Day).
- How can a T-800 build a time-machine?
I mean, fucking really? Just any old T-800 can make a time machine? The things are that easy to make? Fuck off.
- Who makes this shit?
Seriously, hundreds of millions of dollars and a beloved franchise, and they can’t get any of the fundamentals right: they give Old Arnie Terminator feelings, but no new catch phrases; they make the hero of the entire franchise (John Connor) a bad guy; it’s a movie about a post-apocalyptic dystopia ruled by the Machines, but there’s no darkness or grittiness. The action scenes are by-the numbers and forgettable, and if nothing else a Terminator film needs to have memorable action set-pieces.
It didn’t have to be this way. Simply have Arnie riding a giant mechanical Tyrannosaurus (shut up: if he can build a time machine a robot dinosaur is a piece of cake) into Cyberdyne headquarters and say: “This is an extinction-level event,” as he fires flame grenades from hand-held launchers (or, “I’m a blast from future’s past,” or “I love the smell of burning endo-skeleton in the morning,” or, *pats T-Rex* “say hello to my little friend”).
Even if the movie bombed, at least it’d have one memorable scene. Easy.
Instead we got puppies for all.
Score (out of five): 1.5 stars
Bechdel Test: Fail
Interesting points. I’d like to make a rebuttal.
*Spoilers ahoy*
* How did Robot John Connor go back in time?
He’s either able to replicate the living tissue field, or didn’t get torn up enough for it to matter when he was sent back the first time. Remember, the first time around he was most likely in his normal appearance. Even if he was affected by the magnetic fields, it wouldn’t have been quick enough to tear him up before the machine sent him back.
But near the end of the film, he’s lost his sheath (Whether you believe this matters or not is up to if you believe the sheath generates a living tissue field), he’s being held long enough in the magnetic field by Pops that it’s able to sustain enough damage, and finally the machine is incomplete; It’s taking him nowhere and it’s only going to keep going until he’s shredded to bits.
* Why didn’t more than one soldier go back with Reese?
a) Chalk it up to John deciding to send only Kyle back like he did last time. Maybe he didn’t want to interfere with the loop or maybe it has something to do with potentially retconning John from being born what with all the chefs in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter anyway as they all died when Kyle was sent back.
b) That’s like saying the terminators sent back into the past cannot and will not function without being hooked up to Skynet, which obviously is not the case. My bet is that the T-1000 sent back wasn’t active at the time and was done after the fact.
c) The creative supervisor of T2, Van Ling has actually talked about this way back then. He suggests that the T-1000 was either wrapped in a “living tissue cocoon” that he sloughed off afterwards, or is able to replicate the living tissue field.
* Why didn’t the T-800 (Old Arnie Terminator) sabotage the construction of Cyberdyne?
It’s a good point I must admit, but that is assuming that the explosive will still be functional by then. Even explosives have a shelf life by which point they are inert or unreliable.
The building is already finished by the time the Kyle and Sarah come back and probably has been for a while, so it can be assumed that if he had put explosives in during construction, they’d be most likely long expired by then. Still there is a chance he could have destroyed the building, it just would have been a small chance.
* Why didn’t they go back a month early?
This is a good point too. The only thing I can perhaps think of is because this is a movie and not a TV show. They need to keep it so the film doesn’t get any longer than it needs to be.
* Why did assassinating John Connor after he’d won the war change the date of Judgement Day?
The two biggest changes this time around is the T-1000 and Pops being sent. This turns Sarah into a trained badass with future knowledge of when Kyle and the original T-800 are sent back. Originally, the leftover arm and chip got sent to Cyberdyne Systems after the first film, which then ends up being reverse-engineered to almost cause Judgement Day. The work is destroyed but the military picks up whatever leftovers there were of it and T3 happens, where Judgement Day happens in 2003.
None of this ever gets started in Genisys because Pops and Sarah take care of the T-800, properly dispose of it and Cyberdyne Systems doesn’t get an arm and a chip. The only reason Skynet happens by 2017 is because John gets sent back to 2014 to ensure Skynet is built and starts Judgement Day.
* Who sent the T-800 back to the 70s?
Sequel hook.
* Why does Robot John Connor have to be bad?
John has his memories and personality, but he’s been altered by Alex specifically to be a slave for him. That was the whole point of why he was converted; turn the very saviour of mankind against them. If Alex can convert a human into a Terminator then there’s no doubt he can reprogram them to do whatever he needs them to do.
* How can T-1000 liquid cure destroyed terminators?
We see this much earlier in the film that a T-1000 drops some mimetic poly-alloy onto the destroyed T-800 and it is brought back to life. This is impossible to do as it needs power (electrical current) to run, so the only thing to have that would be the poly-alloy. You could make the case that the T-1000 controlled it, but like Robert Patrick’s T-1000, if a piece of itself is too far away it cannot do anything and retains it’s shape.
However, because of that the poly-alloy needs a CPU to give it commands. In other words the CPU and poly-alloy run a symbiotic relationship.
As for the last paragraph there: There is no fate but what we make. Sarah could still get cancer anyway, but it’d be more of an asspull now for her to still get it since she’s a temporal fish out of water, away from her original timeline. (She could have been born with it but still) Skynet was blown up, but it’s not dead. We see it backed up on an underground machine.
* Why didn’t the magnetic shotgun bullets work?
It IS dishing damage to John; it’s not dishing enough damage to put him down permanently. He got stuck on an MRI machine for some time and even that wasn’t enough. All it could really do was make him have to reconstitute himself each time he was hit. It’s in the same vein as shooting the T-1000; it slows him down, but that’s about it.
* Why does Kyle Reese have to tell younger Kyle Reese about Genisys?
It’s finishing the loop. Who knows if the timeline will continue as normal or if some paradox will happen as a result? He can’t really take that risk. It also gives closure as to who gave him the message in the first place.
* How can a T-800 build a time-machine?
This isn’t any old terminator; this is Pops. We don’t know who sent him back or what modifications they made to him or his memory. For all we know, he may as well be unique in what knowledge he has.
* Who makes this shit?
It’s up to your opinion if it’s shit or not, but James Cameron says this “shit” is a worthy sequel to the first two films. Make of that what you will.