Simon and Jim finish their journey through the Terminator franchise with Tim Miller's TERMINATOR: DARK FATE. They get into whether the film is actually good or if they've just been down in the Terminator mines too long, the film's positioning in dialogue with TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, Linda Hamilton as a rare example of a female 'geriaction' star and the film's depiction of female aging, the film's refreshingly contemporary representation of Mexico and the politics of the US-Mexico border, Arnold Schwarzenegger's great performance when he's actually given an interesting arc for his character, and how the controversy around the film's opening scene links to THE LAST JEDI.

Content warnings: nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; murder and violent death including the shooting of children; body horror and removal of skin; xenophobia and border control violence; mental illness and substance abuse.

Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/W5YPVM4F/collection

Simon and Jim enter the modern era of Terminator films with TERMINATOR GENISYS directed by Alan Taylor, a film with a promising start that goes on to absolutely fall off a cliff. They discuss the producers' ambition for a new Terminator Cinematic Universe off the back of this film and the perils of planning for a trilogy without making a successful film first, the interesting way that this film recontextualises and subverts the original film and creates a blank slate for a new direction, the uninteresting way that the film just goes in the same direction as the previous entries in the franchise, digital de-aging and the "mummification" of cinema, the transformation of Skynet into a consumer tech product and how that impacts the politics of the narrative, and why 'Genisys' is spelled that way.

Content warnings: nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; murder and violent death; patriarchy and forced procreation; body horror and removal of skin.

Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/EIRIF9WS/collection

Simon and Jim discuss TERMINATOR SALVATION directed by McG. They discuss the film's disappointing turn from the franchise's anti-war themes towards working directly with the US military and parroting establishment narratives, the dour over-saturated (by design!) late-2000s colour palette of the film, what specific voice Christian Bale is doing as John Connor, how the film represents (or doesn't) the nuclear and the horror of nuclear weaponry, the odd allusions to other films like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and MAD MAX, the interesting work that could be done tracing the production rights to this franchise and how that impacts the texts themselves, and Jim tells us about his legendary Worst Day of Cinema.

Content warnings: incarceration and capital punishment; misogyny and patriarchy; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; militarisation and civilian casualties; murder and violent death; body horror and removal of skin; steroid abuse; heart surgery.

Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/J4XVRVSM/collection