10 Movie Franchises Ruined By One Dumb Decision

5. Betraying The "No Fate But What We Make" Message - Terminator

The entire message of James Cameron's masterful Terminator 2 is that the future is not set and there is "no fate but what we make," cemented by the film ending with Skynet's defeat and the triumph of humanity over the machines.

But of course, the franchise didn't end there, and even the otherwise relatively decent Terminator 3 betrayed the focal theme of T2 with its (admittedly ballsy) ending, which reveals that judgment day was inevitable regardless of their efforts.

The three sequels that followed pretty much stuck to the same tenor, with the recent quasi-remake Terminator: Dark Fate basically suggesting that humanity is doomed to do this dance forever, with another Skynet-like organisation rising up to battle another John Connor-like figure...at least until the box office grosses get bad enough (which, with this movie, they may have).

Even with James Cameron being intimately involved with the creation of Dark Fate, the film still actively contradicts the very meaning of T2, leaving an unavoidably sour taste in fans' mouths.

While there's a strong argument to be made that the series should've ended after T2, did the sequels have to betray the series' most prevalent theme quite so egregiously (and so repeatedly)?