The Brutal Facts: 2019’s “Terminator” Must Be Rated R!

In the fall of 1984, I recall vividly watching the original Terminator film and being frightened by the horror, entertained by the bloody practical effects of the cyborg putting a scalpel to his forearm and eye socket, seeing a touch of artistic nudity, and hearing Schwarzenegger choose the greatest possible response to a man asking if he has a dead cat in there. When I was age 13, seeing The Terminator for the first time, I realized R rated films weren’t just about gore, they had much more impact with a high level of serious intensity. Terminator films were built on horror, dread and despair but unfortunately the last couple of films in the franchise broke away from the higher standards, resulting in box office disappointment, less brutal intensity and great fan disappointment. 

 

Many of us are hardcore Terminator followers will always be there for the opening of the newest film but where we stand right now, our small percentage of lifelong committed fans may not be enough to make a significant impact to the box office when 2019’s “The Terminator” comes out.  Ever since T3, the last couple of Terminator films have been PG-13, which didn’t sit well with the original fans. Due to the watered-down films, demand for new Terminator films was at an all-time low after Terminator Genisys.

 

What does the studio have planned to make general audiences and the hardcore original fans happy again? Well, we are off to a very good start because they brought on a great director, Tim Miller of Deadpool fame and they brought on James Cameron as a consultant and Producer. We heard some really good news that in addition to bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger back, they announced that Linda Hamilton will be reprising her role as Sarah Connor! With this script, approved by James Cameron, they’re making this a direct sequel to Terminator 2 (T3 through T5 never happened)! Things are shaping up nicely, however, many original fans won’t fully welcome back 2019’s Terminator with an open-armed embrace until we see that it really is the true rated R.  Audiences are going to be very angry if they hear this film is Pg-13 when it’s supposed to be the follow up film to the original two R rated films. 

 

Bringing back Linda Hamilton was the best news so far that really made original fans want to hear more and possibly give a new movie one more chance. The announcement of Linda was a great first step in heading the right direction but no one wants to see a PG-13 Sarah Connor say “You’re Terminated, Mother Freaker?” Don’t mess with Sarah’s character. After what Sarah went through earlier, she is only going to be MORE intense, hardened, brutal and vulgar.  

 

Considering Arnold is always made aware of what his fans want, he too probably wants the film with an R rating. Schwarzenegger did mention before that he was pissed that Universal Pictures made the sequel to Conan the Barbarian, The Destroyer, PG-13.  The insulting rating and toned-down material completely pissed off audiences and angered Arnold even more.  The Expendables 3 also suffered at the box office and was boycotted by many fans who refused to see the third film go from hard R to a wimpy PG-13 rating.  

 

With Arnold, Hamilton, Tim Miller and James Cameron all involved in the next Terminator, we’re half way there for general audience to give a damn. If Paramount Pictures and Skydance really want to turn heads and make a massive cheer heard around the world on social media, they’ll announce the R rating and show us that this film will be as dark and ballsy as the original two films.  We need Schwarzenegger back with some serious violence, bloody knuckles, massive weapons while firing away some heavy rounds of “fuck you, asshole” responses! We’ll be damned if we have to hear our iconic killing machine deliver another “Talk to the hand” or “Bite me” retorts. Bring back the HARD R rating of the original Terminator and audiences will be back! 

 

I hope I made myself perfectly clear on how all the original fans and general audiences feel about PG-13 Terminator films.  But If the studios are still on the fence of the rating, let me leave them now with some meaningful comments fans left on Reddit after the last PG-13 Terminator film from 2015.