10 Movie Plot Twists That Punished Loyal Fans

4. John Connor Is A Terminator (Terminator Genisys)

Terminator Genisys Jason Clarke
Paramount

On most levels, Terminator Genisys does not work. From miscastings like Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, to the way that it chose to retread story beats that had already been executed in a far more skilful manner, the movie was just a waste of everyone's time, and the franchise would be better off if it were suddenly wiped from existence.

And on top of its general pointlessness, Genisys also chose to annoy the hell out of fans. One of the twists in the film (if you can even call it a twist, considering that it was spoiled in the trailers) is that John Connor has been turned into a deadly Terminator - specifically, the T-3000 - to ensure that Skynet can rise to power.

What's odd about this whole thing is that there didn't seem to be a good reason why the T-3000 had to appear as John. It's not like the movie dragged it out and saved the revelation for a third-act punch-in-the-gut twist (as we already mentioned, it was shown in the trailers) so it just came across as a cheap trick and a gimmick, something crazy to put in the marketing to get people talking.

And talk, people did - but not positively. All this twist really did was anger people who viewed John Connor as the ultimate hero, the guy who we wanted to see kick Terminator ass and ensure the survival of humanity - not become the enemy he was literally born to fight.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!