You know that old question that exists that asks: if you could delete a movie from your memory banks and rewatch it again for the first time, which one would it be? Well, definitely sitting in my top three of answers is undoubtedly The Terminator. The why of it is simple – when it was released, the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger was playing a killer robot was such common knowledge that it was even on some of the damn posters and I’m fairly certain that the image of his metallic skeleton lurching down a corridor was featured prominently in the trailers.
My point is, imaging watching The Terminator and gradually experiencing the sci-fi reveals without any prior knowledge whatsoever – that would be fucking amazing, right? Well, with Terminator Zero’s mystery filled third episode, I’m getting a slight feeling that I’m finally getting something close to that experience.
After their battle on the bridge, both future warrior Eiko and a temporarily routed Terminator take some time to lick their wounds and reformat their plans, but while Eiko gets her cuts and scrapes tended to by a shell shocked Misaki, the Terminator obviously believes in being prepared. After cannibalising its own arm to create a makeshift, pop-out crossbow (gun shops are scarce in Japan, don’t you know), the marauding machine goes to Malcolm Lee’s lab in order to finish stalking its target. However, after finding that the building seems to be strangely Terminator proof, the robot moves onto its plan B, which means hunting down Malcolm’s kids instead.
Thankfully, Eiko has already come to that conclusion and with Misaki’s help, predicts where Kenta, Hiro and Reika have probably gone, however, thanks to that damn toy robot cat that Reika is carrying around, the Terminator manages to track them and makes its move.
While all this is going on, Malcolm is locked up safely in his lab still engaged in a spirited debate with Kokoro, the AI he’s created, about whether humanity is actually worth saving from the rapidly approaching Judgement Day that will see mankind subjugated by machines that want to kill them. While his kids are fighting for their very life, he seems to be losing the argument, but even Kokoro seems to be confused as to how Malcolm knows so much about a future that hasn’t even happened yet.
Meanwhile, Eiko joins the fray and tries to counter the Terminator’s makeshift weapon with some of her own, but while her chemical bombs are acidic enough to hamper the robot’s mobility slightly, the humans have to split up in order to get away.
But in the aftermath of the battle, a question remains – how exactly is Eiko able to fight a Terminator in such close quarters and not be twisted into pieces like a turkey leg?
While the previous episode stuck to the usual Terminator shenanigans in order to give fans what they expect, it did it at the expense bringing something new to the usual cat and mouse stylings of the franchise, however, with episode three, we finally now see the full promise of what an animated Terminator property can really do. For a start, one of the most impressive things that Terminator Zero has achieved thus far is to recreate the dark, claustrophobic, almost horror movie stylings of Cameron’s original film, something that all the sequels left in their rear view mirror once the budgets started ballooning. This is doubled down upon thanks to us finally getting to spend some alone time with the villain of the piece who proves to be ever inch the equal of previous models thanks to the fact that the show’s makers are doing everything in their power to make him legitimately terrifying. Fixed with the type of constant, thousand yard stare that made Schwarzenegger’s model so unnerving, this Terminator also boasts the voice of Timothy Olyphant who opts to give his assassin the same type of faux-concern in his voice as Robert Patrick’s T-1000 which is creepily at odds with his utterly blank expression. This Terminator seems to be something of an innovate motherfucker too, compensating for a lack of available firearms by customizing its own arm to shoot lethal bolts at his victims. It’s exactly this kind of swerve on an established character that made me so excited for Terminator Zero in the first place and it gives one of cinema’s most intimidating antagonists a whole new sense of cunning that goes simply beyond creating a new model with fancier toys.
However, while the T-800 is proving that old dogs (robot ones at least) can be taught new tricks, there’s the mounting mystery that concerns one of our heroes – and I’m not talking about Malcolm’s bizarre knowledge of the future.
In previous episodes, the fact that Eiko manages to stave off attacks by murderous cyborgs that are twice her size and twenty times as string could have been simply written off as the typical sort of exaggeration that comes as standard with Anime, however, this episode scatters clues that the human resistance fighter made not be all she seems. The first clue comes from Misaki who reacts strangely when she’s tending to Eiko’s unseen shoulder wound which indicates that there’s somerimhing there other than flesh and bone. Later, when the fight with the Terminator switches to close quarters combat, you’d think that that’ll be all she wrote, but not only does she match the death machine for strength, she takes numerous pildriving blows to her back that would purée the internal organs of any normal person. While I could be simply looking for things that aren’t there, that fact that Eiko coughs up blood could still suggest that she’s be augmented much like Mackenzie Davis’ Grace from Terminator: Dark Fate, but either way, something strange is going on…
In fact, the only thing that stops the episode from being a perfect slice of Terminator goodness is that Malcolm’s continuing confab with his doubtful AI slows things down and I suspect their chat for the future of mankind will continue for many more episodes to come. However, even his (currently) unexplained knowledge of the future reaps benefits from unexpected sources – for example, the fact that the driven Malcolm has probably been banging on about Judgement Day and killer robots for the entirety of their childhoods, means Reika fully accepts what Eiko tells her is happening in record time which in my book is some bloody great storytelling if you ask me.
With all the characters in play, it’s now down to Terminator Zero to capitalize with keeping things fresh and mixing things up while still keeping things resolutely Terminator-ish. A modern Terminator entry that has genuine suprises? You best believe I’ll be back.
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