10 Sequels That Totally Undermined The Previous Movie's Ending
2. Judgement Day Was Only Delayed - Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Terminator 2 is widely regarded as being at the very top of the Terminator franchise, and is among some of the best sequels ever. The movie pitted Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) against not only the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) - sent back in time by Skynet to kill her son, John, before he was able to lead a human revolt in the future - but the coming apocalypse itself as well.
Along with John (Edward Furlong) and Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800, Sarah found a way to destroy a key piece of technology required for Skynet to ultimately rise to power. By doing this she avoided the titular Judgement Day, the day when the evil artificial intelligence would have gained consciousness and incited a nuclear holocaust on the world. Because of what she did, she saved humanity.
This was as happy an ending as she could have hoped for, and you could argue that the franchise should have ended right there and then. However, 12 years later in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Skynet was still able to send Terminators back in time to kill John Connor. It turns out Sarah only delayed Judgement Day, rather than stopping it completely as Terminator 2 would have you believe.
Does it really matter what happens in the franchise if Skynet just keeps sending Terminators back regardless? Don't actions just begin to lose all sense of consequence or stakes when there is a built-in get-out clause just waiting to happen?