Terminator Zero

Episodes viewed: 8 of 8

Streaming on: Netflix

It has — shockingly — been five years since James Cameron's career-defining Terminator franchise went hasta la vista, baby, following a string of uneven live-action sequels, reboots and an underrated spin-off TV series. After 2019’s promising Terminator: Dark Fate unfortunately bombed at the box office_,_ it seemed that the saga had resigned itself to a molten-metal fate.

However, as Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor said: “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” Enter Terminator Zero, an eight-part anime series on Netflix that brings the franchise back from the scrapheap, marking a collaboration between Japanese animation studio Production I.G, writer Mattson Tomlin, and director Masashi Kudo (Bleach). Zero gives us a fresh perspective on the events of Judgment Day — but instead of America, the timey-wimey narrative takes place in Japan.

Considering how many Terminator stories have come before, the latest iteration manages to tell an excitingly original story through a unique cultural lens, while honouring the franchise’s key themes and iconic elements: brutal, bloody Terminator rampages; bleak apocalyptic flash-forwards; a badass female resistance fighter; the continuing debate around defying fate. The fight for mankind’s future is underpinned by even more timely and thought-provoking questions: “What makes you think that humanity is worth saving?” asks AI system Kokoro. And what is it really to be human?

Timothy Olyphant as the relentless, red-eyed T-800 threatens to steal the show.

Unlike certain recent legacy sequels and instalments, Zero refreshingly honours what came before without over-relying on fan service and cameos. There are nice nods to both The Terminator and T2 (the iconic thumbs up; police uniform disguises; the nightmarish army-of-cyborgs-crushing-human-skulls iconography), but this is a wholly different beast. The philosophical and ethical debate around artificial intelligence and our relationship with technology has never felt more pressing, and is catapulted front-and-centre in later episodes — at times, the thematic explorations prove a little intense, distracting from the excellent action and character arcs (particularly Eiko’s). But with propulsive pacing and compelling revelations peppered throughout, the series never runs out of steam, hurtling towards the finish line.

Depending on whether you’re a subs or dubs fan, there are plenty of brilliant vocal performances to enjoy. Rosario Dawson shines as the ethereal Kokoro (voiced in Japanese by Atsumi Tanezaki), while André Holland brings an unmatched drive and determination to scientist Malcolm Lee (Yuuya Uchida in the Japanese audio). However, it’s the unmistakable, menacing drawl of Timothy Olyphant as the relentless, red-eyed T-800 that threatens to steal the show.

Just like Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Visions series, the Terminator — a traditionally American franchise — gets an authentic and incredibly stylish anime makeover. There’s visual flair throughout the excellent action sequences, with gripping car chases, bloody shootouts and tense cat-and-mouse chases. And Zero fully takes advantage of the 15 rating with a whole host of gnarly kills, leaning into the primal horror of the relentless, seemingly unstoppable T-800 that harks right back to The Terminator. (There’s also a welcome return to the original red Terminator HUD with a Cyberpunk-esque interface.) For a series which has recently been collecting dust, this latest instalment injects the franchise with a renewed directive.