This episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? is covering Terminator Genisys. Written by Mike Holtz, Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Edited by Victoria Verduzco, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

It’s very apropos that a franchise about timelines and time travel would continuously go back and try to erase their mistakes to begin anew. This is exactly what the Terminator franchise has done repeatedly in an attempt to find a worthy successor to what many consider the greatest action film of all time, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Today’s film is more of a hodge podge of different ideas coming together to remake, reimagine, and give honor to, while getting rid of….you know what? It’s a mess. Here is WTF Happened to Terminator Genisys. 

For starters, who in the hell spells Genesis with a Y? Are you actively trying to confuse people out of seeing your movie? Are you trying to make this a HARD thing to Google? Producer David Ellison later admitted as much when he said the film’s spelling “Didn’t work” and was a “kind of playing on words a la Google.” Oh…..well when you put it like that. I was hoping for a better reason. Anyway.

When a movie starring Christian Bale as John Connor isn’t a success, it has to leave the franchise Ricky Bobby-ing, wondering what the Hell to do with itself Clip here of “I don’t know what to do with my hands. In the case of the current at the time franchise owner, the Halcyon Company, the bankruptcy court pulled up, reached out their hand, and said “come with me if you want to live” and Haylcon obliged. The company sold its rights to one of its biggest creditors, a company called Pacificor, on the agreement it would erase its debt AND offer it 5 million dollars for every Terminator film produced going forward.

Then, out of nowhere, like Sting from the Rafters, in 2010, Chief Executive Officer of Hannover House, Eric Parkinson, announced they were making a PG-13 3D animated Terminator film called Terminator 3000. Great name! I’m not going to lie. But you can’t just wake up one day and decide you own the rights to the Terminator franchise. In reality, though, he thought he had a shot at it because he was also the Chief Executive Officer of Hemdale in 1984, who handled the distribution of the original Terminator and had negotiated himself a nice little contract for those rights. He would explain: “The animation rights were excluded when Hemdale sold Terminator to Carolco and when I left Hemdale, part of my settlement was that I got those rights. However, the way the rest of the contractual rights are written, it would be dangerous for us to do this without Pacificor’s approval. They have certain intellectual rights. The best way to put it is, they can’t make an animated film without me, and we might not be able to make it without them.”

Pacificor promptly sent out a crisp cease and desist letter to Parkinson and despite a rejected 20–30 million dollar offer to make the film, Hannover House didn’t fight, releasing a statement saying “Contrary to internet reports, Hannover House does not own or control any of the motion picture rights to the Terminator franchise, and the company does not have the ability to proceed with a proposed animated feature film without the expressed approval or license from the rights holders.”

Fast forward to 2011, Universal Studios was circling the franchise, considering taking it the Fast and Furious route with director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan. Thankfully, from a personal standpoint, that never came to fruition (though Lin remained involved for a while, eventually leaving to direct Fast 6), and eventually Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures stepped in to acquire the franchise (although by the time the film released Annapurna’s name would no longer be attached) and did so for a bit of a discount due to fears that new copyright laws would legally revert the franchise to James Cameron in 2019. Megan’s brother, David of Skydance Pictures, agreed to help produce the film, and you can’t say Skydance without saying Paramount, who also jumped in on this sweet deal as the distributor. A June 26, 2015, release date was set, and we were off into the sunset…or the fiery death of the entire human race. It’s whatever. But someone’s going to have to write and direct this sh*t.

After being persuaded by James Cameron himself, who David and Megan had consulted with about a direction for the franchise, Drive Angry and My Bloody Valentine’s Patrick Lussier alongside Shudder Island writer and Avatar Executive Producer Laeta Kalogridis agreed to write the film after being recommended by Cameron. Kalogridis would later say some of the inspiration from the film actually came from Back to the Future II after McFly visited an alternate timeline affected by that big asshole Biff Tannen. This, alongside cherry-picking what they considered to be the best elements of the first two Terminator films, would be their North Star.

Producers Ellison and Dana Goldberg would work hand in hand with the writers on the story (and time will show the studios would be heavily involved in most aspects of the film). It won’t surprise you that one of the film’s most impressive ideas came from Cameron himself, who recommended they make Arnold a central character by creating a Terminator whose living tissue is vulnerable to aging. After much consideration, the writers decided to pretty much ignore both the Terminator 3 and Salvation storylines and instead wrote a story that brought in the multiverse. Yes, I saw you gag on your coffee just now. I know we’re all very tired. But this was a few years ago, to be fair, and an interesting idea in the scope of the Terminator franchise. For a moment. So long as it doesn’t get convoluted and confusing as shit, that’s exactly what happened. 

The film would feature a whopping seven different time periods. One executive tried to explain it in the marketing process as “not a traditional remake, nor is it a continuation. Or a sequel. Nor is it a reboot. In a sense, it’s a re-imagining”. And I want to throw myself out of a window. The story would involve Skynet finding a timeline in which to utilize the human’s best weapon, John Connor to their benefit, which made for a pretty cool bad guy…but a very uncomfortable thing to do with such a staple good guy character. Arnold’s Terminator would become more of a father figure type to Sarah Connor, having protected her growing up and really trying to play on the emotion we felt at the end of Terminator 2….a theme the film would be consistently guilty of. On one hand, the script, a kind of reimagined remake of select parts of each of the first two films, was fun…in a nostalgic way. On the other hand, it sometimes merely comes off as a reminder of how great those films were, rather than making a case for themselves. Not to mention the weird way it attempts to replace them as canon. As David Ellison himself would say, “For us, this is Terminator 1…not Terminator 5.” That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.

After a selection process that considered esteemed directors Rian Johnson, Ang Lee, and Denis Villeneuve (my GOD could you imagine!?!), a choice was made. And that choice was Game of Thrones frequent collaborator Alan Taylor fresh off…..Thor: The Dark World. Mmkay. Despite his girlfriend trying to get him to reconsider after reading the script, Taylor moved forward with the project for one main reason…..one that almost none of us can disagree with…..he wanted to work with Arnold f*cking Schwarzenegger on a Terminator film. This and his deep love for the first two films led him to believe he could fix the issues he had with the script. What’s that screaming you say? That’s the writers getting thrown under a moving bus! Move along now, they are used to it. 

Speaking of Arnold, the Austrian Oak and father figure to most males my age, agreed to do the film in 2013 after being impressed with the script. He would once again give everything he had to make it as believable as possible. Arnold worked out three hours a day for six months to gain the same measurements and size he had for Terminator 2 back in 1991. He was 67 years old at the time of filming Genysis. 

Still yet, for an impressive visual feat that featured ‘today Arnold’ taking on the version of himself from the original film, dangling member and all, the production had to find a body double for his 1984 self. Actor and bodybuilder Brett Azar (who recently played the legendary Iron Sheik in the Young Rock TV series) would win the role after winning an open casting call for actors with the same body measurements as Arnold. Not only that, he would have to send in a video of himself recreating the 1984 scene and lip-syncing the classic line. Azar was even asked back to do the same thing for Dark Fate, having his face removed in post-production on both films and replaced, obviously with Arnolds. 

John Connor is a character that Jim Carrey in Liar Liar would adequately put has been “ridden more than Seattle Slew” in terms of actors stepping inside the role. Christian Bale understandably wanted no part of the character going forward after the famed Terminator Salvation set issues, and at one point, Tom Hardy had been Alan Taylor’s choice to play the character in Terminator Genisys across from Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund as Kyle Reese. Both Hedlund and Nicholas Hoult were considered for the role of Reese, but neither accepted an invitation to even screen test for the role. Ouch. 

The role of Connor would eventually go to the talented Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star Jason Clarke after he impressed Producer David Ellison with his role in Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. The role once inhabited by the acting legend Michael Biehn would eventually go to A Good Day to Die Hard star Jai Courtney. And in no way was that a sarcastic sentence. Courtney would actually have to slim down a bit to appear less imposing in the film. This makes sense, considering one of the most interesting aspects of the 1984 film was the every-man feel of Reese versus this unstoppable machine. Having a superhero-looking dude kind of ruins the effect. JK Simmons was hired to play disgraced Detective Obrien, and he would have a little bit of fun with the role, too; Often adlibbing his lines for some extra comedic levity to the film. Matt Smith of Doctor Who fame was cast as the physical form of Skynet alongside Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson and Lee Byung-hun as an alternate universe version of the T-1000. 

The role of Sarah Connor was a bit more drama-filled as Paramount was looking for Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson to be in the role, with Alan Taylor wanting Emilia Clarke to portray the legendary action character. Tatiana Maslany was also at one point up for it, as was Emily Blunt and Margot Robbie, allegedly. Eventually, Taylor was able to secure the actress he’d wanted in the charismatic Emilia Clarke after enjoying his experiences working with her as Daenerys on Game of Thrones. Both Clarke, Clark, and Courtney would go through training for weapons and stunts and Jason Clarke would use Edward Furlong’s performance in Terminator 2 Judgement Day as inspiration.

Terminator Genisys and all seven of its timelines were shot mostly in New Orleans over 90 days, and some scenes were even shot in a NASA facility, as it was the only place tall enough in the city to fit the set. They also used some exterior shots of the Oracle Corporation Headquarters as a stand in for Cyberdyne. Some of the scenes would be filmed at the actual locations of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco but a 500-foot replica of the Golden Gate had to be built from scratch in New Orleans for a scene in which a school bus flips and dangles in the air with our heroes fighting John Connor inside; a scene amazingly created without the use of visual effects. 

One of the most interesting and nostalgically pleasing parts of the film, before things get all wonky in the timelines, involves the recreation of some major scenes in Cameron’s 1984 classic. The aforementioned moment of Arnold taking on Arnold was recreated on the New Orleans set, sadly missing the great Bill Paxton but ultimately feeling like an awesomely entertaining invasion of the 1984 set and a cool moment for fans of the original. Also recreated was Kyle Reese’s arrival to this timeline, which created a surprising challenge amongst many others: those sweet-ass Nikes he steals from the store after raw dogging a homeless guy’s pants in the street. That will never not bother me. And I’m not even sure he showered before mating with Sarah in the original….we’re getting off-topic. Costume Designer Susan Matheson knew how important those Nikes were and eventually, with the help of Paramount, convinced the company to recreate twenty-five pairs of Vandal sneakers for the movie. Cue the Bud Light Real American Hero music.

Tasked with the insanely rough job of recreating the look and feel of Cameron’s original classics, the studio hired John Rosengrant and Stan Winston Studio successors Legacy Effects to handle the robotic and makeup effects. Esteemed Visual Effects Supervisor of The Matrix fame, Janek Sirrs handled around 1.200 visual effects shots via multiple companies, including, of course, Industrial Light & Magic, with Double Negative being the lead horse, accomplishing over 900 shots. Their handling of the T-3000 would require up to twenty hours of work for a single frame. But it did look damn cool. Say what you want about the story and missteps of Terminator Genisys including spelling it with a “Y” but the film did accomplish quite a few impressive visual feats that make it watchable on its own.

The digital recreation of the original Terminator alone, handled by Moving Picture Company, took twelve months, with the final print being submitted thirty minutes before the film was handed over to the studio. Arnold was scanned while reading his lines, and the studio studied Arnold’s movements in both The Terminator and Pumping Iron alongside a plaster cast of him, which I would pay good money for, and in no way is that weird. Shut up. The marketing for Genisys was a bit clunky and the trailer spoiled the heel turn of John Connor which pretty much everyone was upset with. Understandably. Thank god studios learned their lesson about spoiling films in the marketing since then. Shot of Jim from the Office staring at the camera sarcastically Despite all this, it goes without saying that Arnold did his damnedest to promote the film as he always does with multiple marketing appearances worldwide. 

James Cameron also took to the campaign trail for the film during the marketing blitz, saying, “I feel like the franchise has been reinvigorated, like this is a renaissance”, calling it the official third film in the franchise and saying, “If you like the Terminator films, you’re going to love this movie”. All while assuring that he had no involvement in making the film. Later, he would semi-reject this notion, hinting he only supported these films for his buddy, Arnold. Finally, when Terminator Genisys premiered, it was met with….not so open arms. Holding a “Rotten” score in both the critics and audiences scores on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes; the lower of which sporting a 26%….Genisys was panned for its poor retreading of previous films and muddled timelines. Words like “unwatchable”, “headache-inducing”, and “hackery” were used often. In all fairness, audiences did give the film a B+ score on the usually much nicer CinemaScore rating. So, there’s that

The film made $440 million at the box office, with only $90 million being domestic. On one end, it was the most the franchise had raked in since Terminator 2: Judgement Day. However, it was reported the film had to make at least $450 million to break even. Sequels scheduled to release in 2017 and ambitiously in 2018 tentatively titled Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, as well as a TV series, were subsequently canceled. Actress Emilia Clarke would add salt to the wounds by later telling Vanity Fair she was “relieved” she didn’t have to return for any planned sequels, even divulging that the folks on the famously troubled production of 2015’s Fantastic Four donned jackets that read “At Least We’re Not On Terminator” while on their own sets. 

Jason Clarke sounded at least a little more upset about the situation, painting a picture of what future sequels could have been, saying, “What I remember was that second one was going to be about John’s journey after he was taken by Skynet…like going down to what he became; half machine, half man. That’s where the second one was going to start, and that’s about all I knew. It’s such a bummer we didn’t get to do that.” In the end, the rights went back to James Cameron as previously foretold and he and David Ellison went on to disregard Ellison and Co’s creation with a new, NEW third film in the franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate. Also meant to provide a brand new trilogy of Terminator films; Also, reaching the same “dark fate”. They were canceled due to poor box office. More on that later from JoBlo! But for now, that is just Terminator Genisys WTF!

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