10 Ways to Make an Awesome Terminator Sequel
7. The Connor Family
The first two films were all about family. Sarah Connor in the first is told that her unborn and at this point not even conceived son will save humanity in the future. At this point in the franchise she hasn't yet found out her place in the world, and she is so young she couldn't even imagine having to be a mother, let alone a very good one, let alone perhaps the most important mother in the history of the human race.
This film explores this theme for the character until at the end, before she has even given birth to John Connor, she is that protective and loving mother. The second film explores the bond between mother and son, and even between robot and "son". Although the good Terminator in this movie isn't Johns father, he effectively takes this role. Family is a very important theme in the original two movies and much less so in the later movies.
The sequel (Terminator 5) should make family a very important theme once again. My suggestion would be to have a "Terminator" sent back in time to an unexplored area of time because of the knowledge of the previous Terminator's failed missions. I'd personally suggest sending the Terminator back to the 60's and have him/her attempt to kill Sarah Connor's parents. You could even possibly send the Terminator back further, in an attempt to kill one set of her grandparents, but the 60's would suit the Terminator franchise well, and offer a wonderful juxtaposition to the machine heavy future. Having said this, sending him back further to the 40's (Connor's Grandparents) could be interesting due to World War 2... although I think it's best to keep these genres separate.
For me, the 80's is such an important element of the first Terminator movie that such an iconic and visual decade such as the 60's would work just as well. Plus, wouldn't it be awesome to show Sarah Connor's mother and father as hippies, having to fight off this completely juxtaposed robot from the future killing them both... although either ones death would result in Sarah Connor not being born and therefore no John Connor. On the other side of things in the future, I would also show a more adult John Connor, raising kids of his own in this apocalyptic world for the future films to potentially deal with after 5.