Terminator: 'I'm back!'
The cast of film "Terminator: Dark Fate," from left, Natalia Reyes, Mackenzie Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Gabriel Luna, and director Tim Miller pose during a media conference for the film, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Lee Gyu-lee
Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger kept his promise. He, along with Linda Hamilton and other lead actors of the newest Terminator film "Terminator: Dark Fate," landed in Korea, Monday, as part of their Asia press junket to promote the film.
“Last time when I was here (in 2015), I said 'I'll be back' and Terminator always keeps his promise,” Schwarzenegger said as he met reporters during a media conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
He expressed how happy he was to promote the newest film of the series that gave his career a huge leap forward. “It was one of the miracles as an actor to get involved with a franchise that is so popular,” he said.
Schwarzenegger showed confidence in playing his iconic role for 35 years, saying he's “old but not obsolete.” Yonhap
About 35 years after the first “Terminator” film stormed the global box office, Schwarzenegger, now 72, still managed to deliver an iconic performance as the Terminator. He noted that the secret to such powerful acting at his age is constant training and practicing different stunts regularly.
“I really don't feel my age,” he noted, adding “I'm old but not obsolete.”
The sixth “Terminator” film picks up the original plot of saving someone from a futuristic robot and continues from where “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” left off. Directed by Tim Miller, the film centers on Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) being chased by an advanced liquid metal terminator Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) which has traveled back in time on a mission to kill her. Being the last hope for humanity, Dani has to escape the killer machine to save the human race in the future from an artificial intelligence.
A super-soldier from the future named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and the iconic heroine Sarah Connor (Hamilton) step in to protect Dani and fight off Rev-9, with the help of the T-800 (Schwarzenegger).
The action-packed blockbuster rekindled the originality of the franchise by bringing back James Cameron as the producer and actress Hamilton as Sarah Connor who both left after “Terminator 2.”
Hamilton shared how it felt to return to the series after 28 years and reunite with Schwarzenegger for the film. “It was a fantastic moment to see each other. On the set, when we were there in our costumes, I think it felt like a very natural and organic place and we just fell right back into it,” she said.
“I've been training for a year (before shooting began). So I felt very ready, but seeing Arnold on set was like finishing the picture and made me feel 100 percent there. We just continued in that vain for the rest of the film.” She added that she'd never been happier working on a film.
Schwarzenegger noted that how impressed he was, to see Hamilton training and performing stunts like she did for the previous films.
A poster for the film./ Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company Korea
“I was on the set and watched the first scene of her action ― the way she moved and she handled guns. I said to myself that 'Linda Hamilton's back' and she's a badass as she always was,” he said.
“So now she not only has set standards of what women, in general, can do on the screen, but also a 60-year-old woman can do.”
Actress Davis plays a hybrid cyborg human with the advance physical abilities to fight. She said she was mind-blown after watching the first two series and felt like discovering missing pieces for the origin of strong female characters. “(Watching the beginning of the series) felt like discovering the part of the legacy of impressive, authoritative combated characters on screen.”
“And Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor is an important puzzle piece. If you don't know it's there, you're missing out on the origin of all the impressive characters that came afterward,” she said.
The latest addition to the franchise goes in-depth on developing the female-led saga with additional strong female protagonists taking the lead in deciding their own fate. The director said that he saw the action sequences done by female leads as more interesting as they have't been done much in previous films.
“There are so many films where men pick up guns and beat everyone in defense or vengeance. I do like it as it's what I grew up watching,” he said. “But it's so much more interesting to me to have women step into that role….I think they bring a whole other dimension to the action.”
Following the press conference, the director and cast will meet with fans through V-Live, a live-streaming platform, and hold a red carpet and fan meeting event, at 7 p.m. at IFC Mall on Yeouido, Seoul, the same day. The much anticipated movie will hit theaters Oct. 30.