When “The Terminator” debuted in 1984, it wasn’t expected to succeed. A sci-fi B-movie helmed by the guy who took over directing duties on the abysmal “Piranha II: The Spawning” didn’t exactly scream cultural phenomenon. But that’s exactly what “The Terminator” became. The movie saw Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future to save Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance. Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s unrelenting killer cyborg was also sent back from the future to try to take out Sarah, resulting in a sort of sci-fi slasher that was truly novel for its time.
For Mattson Tomlin, while “Terminator Zero” wasn’t going to recreate the original film, that didn’t mean the writer had to disregard the principles at play in “The Terminator.” For one, Tomlin has spoken about bringing back the horror element, which was so crucial to giving the first film and its sequel this haunting sense of doom. But beyond that, Tomlin seems to have an appreciation for the story mechanics at play in Cameron’s original film. Speaking about Kyle Reese, he told Entertainment Weekly, “You don’t know what’s going on with that guy. You do not know that he is the hero.” It seems Tomlin was keen to recreate that same sense with “Zero.” He continued: “These are all original characters. We don’t know who anybody is. All of those answers are going to absolutely be revealed — and they’ll be revealed pretty quickly.”
So, in a series that does its best to tell an original story and not revisit too much of what has come before, how does Tomlin plan to integrate that same sense of mystery that surrounded Kyle Reese?
