Despite Skynet’s repeated attempts to alter the future and save the Terminator franchise, no sequel has met the quality and excitement of Terminator 2. At least not if you’re only watching the movies.
But for audiences willing to look deeper, there are incredible sequels in the books, comics, and graphic novels. In an alternate timeline, one of these might have served as the basis for the Terminator sequel we deserve.
Similar to Obi-Wan's reference to "the clone wars," Kyle's reference to "the dark years" spoke to all of the hardship Sarah and John went through in the 1990s. First they prepared for and then suffered Judgement Day, until finally it was up to John to rebuild humanity and defeat Skynet.
The series pairs off with a dual narrative, one half set in 2030, the other in 1999. The parallels are fun and subtle, then suddenly explosive when at the start of the final issue, John in the past and John in the future are both trapped by a Terminator. Since this story ignores T2, there are no reprogrammed Terminators to turn to (though in the future, Skynet is now reprogramming humans).
Written by Zack Whedon--brother to lesser-known writer Joss--the story at first offers a fine-but-predictable sequence of events leading up to Kyle Reese going back in time. But it's only at the end that the reader realizes the purpose of the 2029 narrative was to introduce us to Kyle's best friend Ben, who will prove instrumental in the 1984 timeline.
This now-defunct ride gave the audience everything they wanted. The version of Arnold from T2 is back, and while you might wonder how that's possible, this sequel hand waves that question away faster than a doctor getting asked whether it's safe to drink disinfectants. Edward Furlong, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick reprise their roles, as well.
Produced by James Cameron while he was still in the heat of Terminator 2, this is an epic adventure that takes teenage John from the wake of that movie and into the nuclear wasteland of the future. The ride has since been shut down, but for a time, this was the only sequel anyone needed. The cut scenes and footage of the ride are still available on YouTube.
Imagine that Sarah and John only managed to delay Judgement Day. In the years since their adventures, the world has become a capitalist wasteland best illustrated by OCP and their central product: RoboCop. In this dystopian future, RoboCop serves as the human-machine hybrid that enables Skynet to exist.
After barely surviving as a disembodied consciousness hidden deep within Skynet, RoboCop takes over an abandoned factory and builds an army of RoboCops to defeat Skynet now and forever. It's a stunning set of visuals leading into a predictable but satisfying ending. As a bonus, this comic got a fun video game port on the Super Nintendo.
Read this right now to finally see RoboCop literally head butt a Terminator. With time travel paradoxes that rival Rian Johnson's Looper, the story picks up with RoboCop time traveling into the midst of Terminator 2's climactic finale. He has seen how this plays out--describing detail-for-detail the ending of T2 that audiences remember--and must now reveal to Sarah the awful truth. She did not stop Judgement Day. She only delayed it.
Endgame is perhaps the most satisfying and optimistic of the sequels. The story brings new life to familiar elements and an unexpected ending that, like all great twists, feels surprising yet inevitable. The story picks up after several prior comic storylines that introduced new characters, but don't worry, there's a preamble at the start to catch you up faster than a Star Wars crawl.
While Sarah is in a hospital, moments away from giving birth, old and new allies gather to protect or destroy her. The scale of the story seems understated until the shocking ending. Sarah now gives birth to Jane, not John, who leads humanity to such swift victory over Skynet that it never develops time travel, thus closing the loop in permanent victory for humanity.
For the person who watches Terminator and roots for Skynet, the Terminator: Collectible Card Game allows anyone to crush the Resistance. Of course, heroes can always choose to join John Connor's forces. Different locations offer different advantages, as does choosing to play before or after Judgement Day.
Want to fire a 20-watt Plasma Phase Rifle? Okay, but that puts a player in the future, where Skynet outfits Terminators with more than the synthetic flesh on their back. Prepare to face off against a T-800 with subdermal armor, or a mobile assault unit that looks more like a tank than a Terminator.
Picking up moments after Terminator 2 ends, John and Sarah wonder how to live if they have truly won. A moment of reclaimed humanity brings them back to check on Dyson's widow, a decision that sets events in motion critical to John defeating Skynet decades in the future.
With stunning visuals straight out of James Cameron's movies, Nuclear Twilight tells a seemingly predictable story of the events leading up until Kyle returns to the past to protect Sarah Connor. It appears to simply be filling in holes until the final issue, when nostalgia becomes the devastating point.
Read this as soon as possible. In canon with Joss Whedon's alternate ending for Alien: Resurrection, Ripley and the android Call (played by Winona Ryder) have returned to the wastelands of Earth. Except in this story, it turns out humanity barely survived Judgement Day. After defeating Skynet, society rebuilt into what the audience discovers in Alien, presumably with Predator happening during Terminator.
Ripley and Call discover a message from John Connor warning that though Skynet seems defeated, it left sleeper cells to rebuild when the time is right. Unfortunately, that time is now, leading to a final battle between Aliens, Predators, and Terminators. Whoever wins, we lose.
