Terminator: Dark Fate review – Arnie’s back, as backup

The year is 2022 and in Mexico City, a terminator just dropped out of the sky. A sleek Rev-9 model (Gabriel Luna) has been sent from the future to kill factory worker Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Lucky for Dani, she is soon flanked by two avenging angels; Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), still around and hunting terminators, and an augmented human soldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis, of Black Mirror’s San Junipero episode) who has time-travelled to serve as her protector. Arnie’s T-800 is also back (he said he would be), providing extra muscle and cheap laughs about interior design.

Though it’s the sixth film in the Terminator franchise, this instalment follows on directly from 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a way of discarding the series’ less celebrated outings. As a genre exercise, it mostly works; set pieces are tense, explosive and pleasingly gory, littered with flying scraps of metal and meat. Davis in particular is an authoritative presence. As a sequel, it’s baldly opportunistic, grab-bagging contemporary political issues (reproductive justice; undocumented migrants) in a transparent attempt to justify its cultural relevance. Though the narrative is led by three formidable female characters, I noted that the film is directed, written and produced by eight men.