Some of the critics, whose objections to the new Terminator movie I have read, took issue with the killing off on John Connor early in the film. These critics, commoners one and all—Friends, if I’ve typed it once I’ve typed it a thousand times; you should never consult a commoner critic where it comes to an honest appraisal of a genre movie. The commoners aren’t qualified. Only a geek should ever critique a geek movie.—complain that said killing off of said character robs the previous Terminator movies of their “point.” They are wrong. For one thing, those movies still exist. They are not altered by the plotline of the new one. Regardless, the killing of the John Connor character does not rob the franchise as a whole of its underpinnings. Why? Because it was *never* about John Connor. John Connor is a Maguffin. The movies aren’t about the Terminators, either. Or Skynet. Or Legion. They have always been about Sarah. It is largely because Sarah Connor was absent that the past three Terminator flicks—TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES, TERMINATOR SALVATION, and TERMINATOR: GENISYS—didn’t work. It is Sarah, not John, who is the heart and soul of the franchise.
As we see in the new movie, who is left, with John out of the picture, to train the new leader of humanity in the struggle against the new supercomputerized supervillain? Once again, it all comes down to Sarah.