The Terminator franchise has had some ups and downs over the last 40 years. There is no doubt that The Terminator changed the game way back in 1984 and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name as he successfully went from bodybuilder to action star almost overnight. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is considered one of the best sequels of all time (some/most like me say it’s better than the original). However, in the subsequent four sequels (and Fox’s criminally underrated Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), some fans saw it as diminishing returns as they couldn’t quite capture the magic of the first two films, most likely because James Cameron wasn’t writing and directing those films.
Even so, the concept of an artificial intelligence taking over the world and having killer robots try and destroy anyone who gets in their way is still a concept that works for audiences, especially nowadays with AI on the rise, so it’s no brainer that we’re getting more Terminatory goodness. This time, Netflix is giving us Terminator Zero, an anime set in the world of The Terminator franchise that proves to be just as thought-provoking as bloody violent!
Set in Japan in the 1990s (so Terminator Zero is very close in the timeline to Terminator 2: Judgement Day), the show follows Malcolm Lee (André Holland), who is racing against the clock to develop an AI system that will be able to compete with Skynet and hopefully prevent Judgement Day from happening, or at least give humanity a fighting chance. As the clock is winding down, a Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) has been sent from the year 2022 back in time to stop him from doing so. As always, the resistance was able to send a human protector: Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno of House of the Dragon fame recently) from the future to safeguard Malcolm and his children. The opening scene (which Netflix released online to build up hype) showcases how badass both the Terminator and Eiko are in the future as we not only get to see the Terminator murder human resistance fighters, but also, we get to see Eiko take on the Terminator on her own. Despite her being so effective, she will still have her work cut out for her, especially in Japan in the 1990s where it’s not so easy to find a gun: a smart choice for showrunner Mattson Tomlin because in 1990s America the protector would have had access to unlimited guns.
At first, Malcolm is oblivious to the Terminator and its murder spree. He’s a scientist driven with the task of saving the world. He’s shut himself off from the rest of the world, including his children who he barely sees and leaves in the care of their nanny. He seems to know about what happens with Judgement Day, so much so that he doesn’t even allow his children to have a pet robotic cat (1990s Japan has numerous Robots on every corner). Because of his tunnel vision, he’s estranged from his children who see their nanny more as a parent than he is. He’s just about ready to bring “Kokoro” (Rosario Dawson) online, but he’s hesitant, because Kokoro is an AI system just like Skynet is. What if Kokoro goes online and comes to the same conclusion that Skynet did in the original film? For most of Terminator Zero’s eight episodes, Malcolm spends his time having ethical discussions with Kokoro about Judgement Day and pondering if it’s ethical to use Kokoro against Skynet. The new AI system even asks Malcolm WHY does Skynet wants to destroy all humans. This is a question that hasn’t been explored over the last 40 years of Terminator films. Skynet and its Terminators are just “evil,” but may that have a point?
While Malcolm is holed in his office talking to Kokoro about ethics, philosophy and his hidden/secret past Eiko has to protect his children from the Terminator. That’s where Terminator Zero gets to remix the classics. An unstoppable killing machine is chasing down its target, and all they have is a human protector who has been raised since birth to fight these machines. As stated earlier, Terminator Zero is set in Japan, and access to firearms isn’t easy to come by. Eiko must get creative when trying to go one-on-one with the Terminator. Good for her there are trucks for ramming and plenty of household chemicals that can be made into weapons (a classic nod to the original film). Eiko also doesn’t trust Kokoro or the household robots that seem to be on every corner in Japan, but she will accomplish her mission at any cost. The Terminator also has a weapons deficiency problem and gets creative by turning its circuit into a Darryl Dixon-style crossbow to try and kill folks with. And yes, there’s an awesome police station massacre that showcases how badass this Terminator is!
One thing about the Terminator franchise that has always made fans scratch their heads ever since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines which lazily said, “Judgement Day was inevitable” and Terminator: Dark Fate which had John Conner die in the opening minutes of the film, only to have a new savior of humanity emerge, is that the franchise’s rules of time travel haven’t always been consistent. The first two films used Back to the Future time travel rules, but Terminator Zero finally tries to answer that for the audience. When Eiko is being sent into the past, she talks with their resistance leader The Prophet (Ann Dowd) about time travel where they reveal how The Terminator multiverse happens. Similar to Avengers: Endgame’s time travel rules, you can’t change your past, it’s part of your experience. So instead, when you time travel: you don’t go into “YOUR” past, you go into “A” past, just not your own.
Terminator Zero is an interesting series for what it tries to do. It captures so much of what the original Terminator films did right. Utilizing the anime style, the violence is bloody: you get to see someone get their guts ripped out and then have to take a minigun to the face. But its strength is in the quiet moments when it tries to go against the lore of the franchise. Malcolm Lee talks ethics and philosophy with an AI he wants to partner with are the best character beats throughout the series. It almost was a reminder of the questions that get conjured up from watching The Matrix and watching the show through 2024 eyes makes you even more fearful of AI and the interconnected world that we currently live in. There’s no fate but what we make, Terminator Zero is a return to form for the franchise!
Terminator Zero is currently available ironically on August 29th (Judgement Day) on Netflix.
