The first big panel on Thursday morning, July 18 in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 was the new Terminator movie, titled Terminator: Dark Fate. Upon entering Hall H, we received a Terminator: Dark Fate poster. James Cameron was the first person we saw on the panel; however, he has been so busy with the Avatar sequels, he was not able to make it down to SDCC, but instead teleconferenced in from the set of Avatar.
James Cameron seemed pretty excited about the newest Terminator film, and discussed how Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton had to be in the movie. James Cameron discussed emailing with Linda Hamilton to try to get her on board with the film, to which she agreed (as we have already seen in trailers).
A couple of red flags came up for me during James Cameron’s explaining of the making of Terminator: Dark Fate, and his involvement. He discussed outlining the film with Tim Miller, the story points, but leaving the directing to Tim Miller, and saying that he is a pretty, “hands off” producer. That sounds like a very lovely idea, especially for Tim Miller, but given the track record for recent Terminator movies, it did feel a bit like a way of saying, “if this movie is terrible, it is not my fault.” But I should remain optimistic though, and judge the film by its merits, and not try to read too much into a couple of lines stated by James Cameron.
After the James Cameron video intro, Grae Drake, who was moderating the panel, came out and introduced the panel, starting with Tim Miller, who is best known for directing Deadpool. He discussed more about how this movie came to be, and acknowledged the fact that doing another Terminator movie was dangerous given the past few movies, but expressed how much he tried to give Terminator fans what they deserve in a sequel.
After a bit of banter about Tim Miller’s nickname for James Cameron, the rest of the cast came out, which included Linda Hamilton, Natalia Reyes, Diego Boneta, Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna, and of course Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Linda Hamilton discussed her returning to the role, and seemed to indicate that after the 30-something years that have passed it would be interesting to see where her character has been. Arnold discussed how he felt he had to do the role because it is the movie that launched is career, and he felt like it was something he should do, given what the franchise has done for him.
We also saw additional footage for the movie, which extended some scenes we saw in the first trailer. We learn a bit more about Mackenzie’s character in that she is seemingly an enhanced human. Based on dialogue in the trailer, we learn that Linda Hamilton’s character Sarah Connor has been hunting Terminators since destroying Cyberdyne. Gabriel Luna is the newest iteration of the Terminator, which seems to be a blend of a T-800 and T-1000, able to separate a liquid-like body from a more skeletal one. We see Linda Hamilton blow up both in the trailer, but I am sure the Terminator (played by Gabriel Luna) “will be back” (pun intended).
A couple other interesting scenes we see in the trailer are meeting Carl, the character that Arnold plays, which seems to be a T-800, but maybe not exactly the same one from T-2, as Sarah Connor seems every excited to kill it.
The panel had a lot of banter between Tim Miller, who is quite colorful with how is conveys his thoughts, and the cast members. Tim Miller joked about Linda Hamilton sleeping with James Cameron, to which Linda retorted, “only once,” and Tim and Arnold exchanged a few playful barbs with each other as well. Additionally, Gabriel Luna had made a bet with Arnold about how many times Tim would drop the f-bomb during the panel. It was way more than four, so Gabriel lost the bet, and paid Arnold the $20 then and there on stage.
Tim Miller also expressed that he wanted a chant for the trailer to be played again at the end of the panel as was done when he was at SDCC for Deadpool. He got his wish, but for awhile it didn’t seem as though the trailer would be shown again. Tim Miller hung around the stage though, until it was finally done. Once the trailer ended for the second time, the room went dark, but when the room lit back up, there was a small surprise in store — Conan O’Brien, who introduced Hall H to the “biggest celebrity” we may ever meet — Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise came to the stage then with a mic and discussed Top Gun: Maverick. He talked about how long it has been, and that parts of it had been filmed in San Diego, at the restaurant across the street. But he explained how all of the flying in the trailer we saw was actual flying, not CGI or otherwise in terms of the planes. He noted that the filming worked closely with the US Navy as well, which makes sense given the abundance of fighter jets and aircraft carriers in the film.
In the trailer, we see that Maverick (played by Tom Cruise if that wasn’t already obvious) is just a Captain in the movie, and we see a character played by Ed Harris asking Maverick why that is. We also see a lot of scenes of fighter jets flying as well, which looks pretty thrilling. Tom Cruise described the movie as a “dedication to aviation.” You can view the Top Gun: Maverick trailer below.
I have to say, while the Terminator panel was a bit awkward in terms of the banter and “playful”(?) barbs being shot between the cast, the entire panel did seem passionate about the project. Also, the footage for the movie did seem very interesting, and I hope that this movie will expand the world of Terminator in a good way, better than the past few movies have tried to do.
I am ashamed to admit that I have never seen Top Gun, however, but I am a fan of Tom Cruise, and the Mission Impossible franchise and much of his recent work, so I hope that, based on that, his enthusiasm for his work, and how entertaining the footage we saw in Hall H was, that Maverick is as exciting as it looks!
Next on our Thursday agenda was to check out offsites, the first of which was the Pennyworth offsite. Click here to continue to our recap and photos of our experience at the Pennyworth offsite!
You can view more of our photos from the Terminator: Dark Fate and Top Gun: Maverick panel below.
