The Terminator franchise is possibly one of the most iconic Sci-fi and adventure series that has ever come into existence. Terminator: Genisys, released in 2015 and created by Alan Taylor, is just another part of the multiple storylines that exist inside the Terminator world.
With Arnold Schwarzenegger as its face, the franchise has been active ever since the original hit movie came out way back in 1984. What makes Terminator movies so interesting is their wide collection of futuristic and strategically produced robot models seen in each of the films.
Terminator Genisys has a plot that’s very similar to the original movie, but it has its own special deviations. The story shows Kyle time-traveling back to the year 1984 to stop Sarah Connor from being murdered by Skynet’s Terminator.
This alternate reality then shows Sarah and Kyle teaming up with an older T-800 called Pops and bringing about the downfall of Skynet, which was known as Genisys in this different timeline.
Terminator Genisys’ crew consists of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the heroic Pops, Jason Clarke in the role of John Connor, Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor, and Jai Courtney stars as Kyle Reese.
Terminator: Genisys is one of the most successful movies from the franchise, but despite that, it didn’t receive the expected amount of positive reviews. It’s a pretty good addition to the Terminator collection, nonetheless.
Terminator Genisys: What Happens In The Film?
It’s the year 2029, and John Connor, the leader of the resistance against Skynet, has ordered to use a powerful weapon to fight the aggressive AI system. They successfully defeat the system, but later John and the others find out that Skynet sent a terminator back to the year 1984 to murder Sarah before John could be born.
To stop this from happening, Kyle volunteers to be the one to go back and save Sarah. Both the new Model 101 Terminator and Kyle arrived in 1984.
The new Terminator is about to kill some random men for their clothes, but an older T-800 arrives just in time to finish him off. Meanwhile, Kyle lands in an alleyway and is immediately pursued by a T-1000 and has to be saved by Sarah and the T-800 called Pops.
Kyle Reese finds out that Pops was sent back to Sarah’s childhood by a secret person to protect her when her parents were killed by a terminator. Sarah was no longer the damsel in distress and was trained by pops through the years. Sarah and Pops were busy making a time machine of their own that they planned to use to go back to the year 1997, the year Skynet was born.
Since the timeline was now different, Kyle instead took himself and Sarah to the year 2017, which is the year he saw his childhood visions talk about. When they go forward to 2017, they see that Skynet is now Genisys, and only a few days are left until it’s revealed to the public.
Everyone thinks Genisys is going to be a network that would make their lives easier. Sarah and Kyle are visited by John Connor, but before they can talk more, a much older Pops shows up and shoots him.
This John turns out to be the one we see in 2029. T-5000, the embodiment of Skynet, had changed John into a T-3000 by altering his cells and rearranging the molecules to form millions of nanobots that act like a machine together. John was sent back in time to ensure Skynet stayed alive. Pops and John engage in an intense battle while Sarah and Kyle plant bombs throughout Genisys/Skynet’s system.
Terminator Genisys: Ending Explained
After planting the bombs, Sarah and Kyle lock themselves up in an underground bunker while Pops and John are caught up in the explosion. However, Pops manages to survive after he is thrown into a huge container of mimetic poly-alloy. This helps Pops recover his strength, and he helps Kyle and Sarah escape from the facility.
Genisys is “successfully” shut down, and Kyle goes back to his childhood, letting his childhood self know about Genisys and how it was going to be the beginning of Skynet. Giving this warning would ensure that the same timeline repeats itself, and Kyle will arrive again in 1984 to repeat what happened.
The trio moves to the countryside to live a quiet life. However, during the credits, we see that even though most of Skynet was destroyed, the main core managed to survive since it was hidden in a subterranean chamber. Just as the scene ends, we see the same T-5000 that earlier turned John into a T-3000 showing up near the core.
This scene was probably put in as a way to keep this brand-new alternate version of the Terminator storyline going. Since the core was safe, Skynet could surely build itself up again from scratch and make a strong enough army of robots once sufficient time had passed by.
As cool as the new Terminator plot would have been for coming projects, it’s likely that we won’t get to see it be worked on in the future. This is due to the underwhelming response that critics and audiences had towards Terminator Genisys. All of the upcoming projects involving Genisys, which included a few more movies and even a show, were canceled.
What we did get out of this is a video game titled “Terminator Genisys: Future War.” Since the franchise came out with Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, all hopes of Terminator Genisys having a sequel have been let down. Genisys may not have lived up to the producer’s expectations, but it surely brought a fresh & interesting storyline with Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney.
At present, Terminator: Genisys is available to watch on Netflix and Prime Video.
Also Read: The Terminator Filming Locations: Where Was It Filmed?
