The Terminator franchise wasted one of its most powerful villains with Dark Fate’s Rev-9, and I’m still annoyed by it. For me, The Terminator movies peaked with the second entry, Judgment Day, and every sequel since has been disappointing in its own way. Terminator 3 was like a reheated version of Judgment Day, while Genisys was an embarrᴀssing, convoluted mess. I hoped Dark Fate would turn that around; it featured the return of Arnie, Linda Hamilton, and James Cameron, and promised to be the true third movie.

Terminator: Dark Fate bombing at the box office proved audiences had had enough of undercooked sequels, and the franchise has been dormant on the big screen since. Now, there’s good stuff within Dark Fate; Hamilton and Mackenzie Davis make for strong leads, there are a couple of solid setpieces, and new villain the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) was an inspired concept. This unit is one-half a traditional Terminator endoskeleton mixed with a T-1000-style mimetic polyalloy, with both sides being able to split off and fight independently.

Terminator: Dark Fate Totally Wasted The Powerful Rev-9

Dark Fate had two unstoppable villains for the price of one

A strong case could be made that the Rev-9 is the most powerful Terminator unit in the whole saga. It’s essentially two killers for the price of one, though it feels more powerful when they’re joined together. That’s what makes me so irritated by how Terminator: Dark Fate uses the Rev-9: he never feels like the terrifying threat that he should. Compared to the T-1000 in Judgment Day or Schwarzenegger’s T-800 from the original, the Rev-9 is a decidedly underwhelming threat.

I used to think this was partly down to Luna’s performance, but having seen him do fantastic work as Tommy in The Last of Us, I realize the problem lies with the writing and direction. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) or T-X (Kristanna Loken) may have been emotionless killing machines, but their respective movies still gave them recognizable personalities. Terminator: Dark Fate fails to give the Rev-9 any kind of internal life or persona, which makes him a bland foe.

On paper, the Rev-9’s ability to split in half makes for all kinds of exciting possibilities, but this never comes through. Sure, he can slice and dice through nameless police officers while chasing the heroes, but the Rev-9’s consistent failure to kill any of the heroes comes across as incompetence more than anything. Again, the Rev-9 is one of the most powerful machines in the whole Terminator series, yet Dark Fate never showcases its full potential.

What Went Wrong With Terminator: Dark Fate

There’s more than one reason Dark Fate didn’t work

Terminator: Dark Fate was hyped up as the start of a new trilogy, but after it only grossed $250 million worldwide, it was clear that wasn’t happening. Of the post-Judgement Day sequels, I would argue Dark Fate is the best – but that’s damning with faint praise. One issue with the sequel is that director Tim Miller and producer James Cameron got into creative disagreements over the direction it should take, which resulted in the final cut feeling like a tug of war between their styles.

Miller believes audiences felt so burned by previous sequels they avoided Dark Fate, and that maybe the franchise had run its course (via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline). Speaking with ᴅᴇᴀᴅline in 2022, Cameron himself stated he liked the sequel, but felt bringing back both Schwarzenegger and Hamilton sent the wrong signals about Dark Fate to younger audiences.

I think what happened is I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it, I think it could have survived having Arnold in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60-something, he’s 70-something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie. And we didn’t see that.

Dark Fate’s mixed reception didn’t help either, especially following the controversial opening where a young John Connor is gunned down. This was an ugly note to open on, and one that undermined the ending of Terminator 2. I can see the logic behind it, but the execution (pun unintended) was too harsh.

Terminator’s Most Powerful Villains Aren’t Always The Most Interesting

Making iconic villains is a tricky business

From the T-X to the Rev-9, the Terminator sequels have struggled to create memorable new villains. The series really peaked with the T-1000 in this regard, and in the end, Rev-9 feels like a recycled version of the same basic concept. The real issue is that the follow-ups have been so focused on topping what came before that they forgot to make the new Terminator villains, well, interesting.

The T-3000 unit from Genisys was ludicrously overpowered, but Jason Clarke’s hammy performance robbed him of any menace. The T-X had a few moments of personality, but not enough to become a Hall of Fame antagonist, while I can barely recall what the main threat of Salvation even was. Perhaps the next Terminator should focus on creating a villain that’s more of a character and not just a cool gimmick.

Source: The Numbers, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, Rotten Tomatoes