10 More Insulting Ways Characters Were Killed Off Between Movies
6. Sarah Connor Succumbs To Leukemia - Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Perhaps the biggest bummer about the third Terminator movie was the absence of Sarah Connor, due to Linda Hamilton understandably feeling that Connor's arc was completed at the end of Terminator 2, not loving the sequel's script, and being concerned about James Cameron's lack of involvement.
And so, mid-way through Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Sarah's son John (Nick Stahl) reveals that Sarah died of leukemia sometime prior, albeit while living long enough to see 1997's Judgment Day pass without incident.
Though explaining Sarah's absence without killing her off would admittedly have been extremely difficult - short of making her M.I.A. - for one of the greatest heroines in the history of sci-fi and action cinema to be so unceremoniously offed was a huge disappointment.
In the very least, this was eventually undone by 2019's sixth film, Terminator: Dark Fate, which brought Connor back into the fold as a decades-hardened Terminator hunter.
Hamilton absolutely crushed it as the aged yet still incredibly badass Sarah, even if the rest of the movie's creative choices - you know the ones - weren't quite so popular.