Each story in the Terminator saga is tethered to one event: Judgment Day. In James Cameron’s early films, it was a nuclear Armageddon that could never be stopped, only delayed. As time passed, the franchise became less about preventing the apocalypse than embracing it. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines launched the series headlong into Judgment Day, setting the stage for a characteristically bleak sequel. Was there really anywhere else for Terminator to go?
