Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesis one of the worst entries in the franchise, yet it introduced a concept that would changeTerminatorforever. Twelve years afterTerminator 2: Judgment Daytook the concept of the first movie to the next level by turning a sci-fi slasher into an action epic,Terminator 3had the difficult mission of reigning the franchise now without James Cameron. Unfortunately, not only didRise of the Machinesfail to live up to its predecessor, but it also started a trend ofbadTerminatorsequelsof which the franchise never recovered.
Terminator 3is strangely one of the fewTerminatorfilmsthat actually present itself as a direct sequel to its predecessor, even though the 2003 movie wrote off Sarah Connor and recast John as an adult. Still, the film builds up from the events ofT2and sees John Connor living a regular life in a timeline where Judgment Day was prevented – or at least they thought so.Terminator 3reuses many of the same story beats fromT2,including Schwarzenegger playing a reprogramed Terminator and Skynet sending a more advanced model, but it also introduces a big new concept.
Terminator 3’s Ending Revealed Judgment Day Could Not Be Stopped
John, Sarah, And The T-800 Only Postponed Judgment Day In T2
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesends with John and Kate learning that Skynet was not trying to wipe out the virus, it was the virus itself. The future leaders of the Resistance were not standing on Skynet’s core as they thought but rather on a nuclear shelter. It is revealed that Skynet never had a mainframe that could be hacked or destroyed, with the AI being instead spread across countless devices around the world. In other words,Judgment Day could not be stopped, and all that John and Sarah did inT2was postpone it.
2003~2004
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
2017
2020s
Terminator: Dark Fate
Considering thatTerminator 2was all about protecting John Connor and stopping Skynet, the fact thatRise of the Machinesended with the reveal that it was impossible to prevent the nuclear holocaust from happening was surprising.Terminator 3has arguably the bleakest ending of allTerminatormovies. While John and Kate survive, it becomes clear thatthe war between humans and Skynet is bound to happen no matter what.Not only did this change thefirst twoTerminatormoviesin hindsight, but it also set the stage for future sequels to play with the inevitability of Judgment Day.
Terminator 3’s Judgment Day Twist Made The Movie Better In Hindsight
Terminator 3 Ended On A Bleak Note That Changed The Series Forever
While a bad ending can ruin a movie, a strong ending can sometimes make the film better in retrospect.Terminator 3is nowhere near as good as the firstTerminatormoviesand lacks the creativity and intensity of the James Cameron movies. The threequel, which was the firstTerminatorproject Cameron was not involved with, limited itself to rehash the story beats fromTerminator 2, this time with John Connor’s future wife being Skynet’s target. Even the comic moments featuring Schwarzenegger felt like lesser versions of the T-800’s hilarious interactions with John inT2.
Skynet – or at least a version of it – has gone online and turned against humans in every iteration of the story since 2003.
Terminator 3also didn’t have any particularly impressive visuals, which puts into perspective how impressiveT2, which came out more than a decade prior, was in that regard. With all those problems, it would’ve been difficult to point out one major redeemable quality aboutTerminator 3had it not been for its ending.Wrapping up the film with the horrifying reveal that humanity is doomed to destroy itself and enter a war against Skynet was a cleverdecisionthat madeTerminator 3feel more impactful than it should have been when considering what the rest of the film delivered.
Terminator Has Sticked To Terminator 3’s Judgment Day Twist (Despite Ignoring The Movie)
Judgment Day Has Been Inevitable In Every Terminator Project Since Terminator 3
None of theTerminatormovies and TV shows released afterRise of the Machinesconsider it to be canon, yet they all somewhat stuck to the film’s Judgment Day twist. In terms of canon,Terminator 3never had an actual sequel.Terminator: Salvationwas a somewhat standalone film that tried to work within what the previous movies had established but took place in the future John Connor experienced, whereasTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chroniclesspecifically disregarded the events ofRise of the Machinesto tell its own version of what happened afterT2.
When Terminator Zero Takes Place In The Terminator Timeline
Netflix’s Terminator Zero is set at a crucial point in the franchise’s complicated timeline — and makes great use of Terminator’s time travel trope.
The same thing applies to recentTerminatorfilms, withTerminator: Dark Fateparticularly ignoring everything that came afterT2. However, all of those movies adhered toTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines' idea that Judgment Day cannot be stopped, only postponed. Skynet – or at least a version of it – has gone online and turned against humans in every iteration of the story since 2003.TerminatorZero, Netflix’sTerminatoranime, even acknowledged this by establishing thathumans and Skynet had been on an endless loopcaused by their access to time travel.
Cast
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines sees John Connor living off the grid ten years after averting Judgment Day. The film introduces the T-X, a new robotic assassin, which forces Connor to join forces once again with his former adversary, the Terminator, to combat the looming Skynet threat.
