10 Movie Universes That Make NO SENSE
6. Terminator
Though the first two Terminator movies offered up some tantalising, philosophical questions about fate and causality - particularly the "chicken or egg?" paradox of John Connor's existence - the four sequels that followed lurched into increasingly incomprehensible territory.
Despite T2 fully elucidating the idea that Judgment Day could be averted, this clashed with the necessity for conflict that drives any movie franchise.
And so, T3 brashly contradicted this by confirming that the nuclear apocalypse was apparently inevitable (albeit with a ballsy downer ending for the ages).
Things got truly jumbled with the fifth film, Terminator Genisys, which effectively rebooted the entire franchise by reimagining the events of the earlier movies.
Furthermore, because the film never got a direct sequel, the identity of the person who sent the benevolent Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to save young Sarah Connor was never explained.
And because the series hadn't abused its own continuity enough at this point, the most recent sixth film, Terminator: Dark Fate, once again rejigged the continuity, serving as a direct sequel to T2 which quickly infuriated fans by killing off John Connor (Edward Furlong). Oof.
Dark Fate's box office failure may well have finally convinced producers that the IP is just too much of a gibberish stew for even hardcore fans to care about anymore. Once you've lost them, you haven't got a hope in hell of keeping the casuals interested.
If Terminator will ever live again, it needs to start completely fresh and, painful though it might be, say farewell to Arnie.