Terminator Zero knows you can’t really go back to the past. Even with the help of time travel, it’s technically impossible to return to a point of time that previously existed. Unlike other contributions to the Terminator the franchise, Zero doesn’t waste any time justifying loops or paradoxes. When Skynet sends a cyborg assassin back in time, it actually creates a branched timeline, aka a new past. That means that the future truly is not set; that fate doesn’t really exist. That small change untethers the series from any narrative that’s come before it: Not only are its characters free to make new choices, but so is the franchise.
That doesn’t mean that Zero is completely abandoning the tropes that define the Terminator saga. On the contrary: the series feels like an amalgamation of every storyline, archetype, and theme the franchise has ever explored — and it doesn’t discriminate between James Cameron’s original ideas or the lesser-appreciated sequels like Terminator: Genisys. Diehard fans will find a lot to like here, but Zero also strikes a difficult balance between past and future. That it manages to spit out something that actually feels new is nothing short of a miracle. But Netflix, with the help of legendary anime studio Production I.G and creator Mattson Tomlin, might just have pulled off the impossible.
Zero begins as every story in this world does: a Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) is sent from the future to stop mankind’s last hope. A member of the human-led Resistance follows the machine into the past, and is usually tasked with rescuing the same person that Skynet is targeting. Here, though, Eiko’s (Sonoya Mizuno) mission actually aligns with the machine’s. That’s because Skynet’s target, Malcolm Lee (Andre Holland), is making an artificial intelligence of his own, one that could rival Skynet’s power and potentially save the world from a nuclear apocalypse. His program, Kokoro (Rosario Dawson), has been designed to think for herself, but she still needs to decide whether humanity is actually worth saving. And time is running out: with only a few hours before Judgment Day, there’s still a chance of history repeating itself.
Things get more complex from there, as Zero introduces new threads, wrinkles, and riffs on the franchise’s best known tropes. Instead of one plucky kid poised as the savior of the world, Malcolm’s precocious children are just trying to survive the night. They do eventually find a protector in the reluctant Eiko, but they gain another in a kindly guardian that’s actually a machine in disguise: a new character that splits the difference between Terminator Salvation and Alita: Battle Angel. The Terminator itself, meanwhile, is used sparingly... but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With so many other moving parts at play, it’s nice to see the antagonist settle into a smaller role. It doesn’t make his presence any less effective, nor any of his KOs less gruesome.
Zero makes an excellent case for serialized storytelling within the Terminator saga. Like so many Netflix shows, it’s easy to binge, with eight episodes each clocking in under thirty minutes. Though the story starts off on a slow, esoteric note — and can occasionally feel weighed down by its quieter moments — its twisty narrative keeps the momentum going with one surprise after the next.
The series unspools its story with careful precision, and each choice is anchored by heart-wrenching character work and innovative action. Familiar storylines take on a whole new life here: the series manages to reinvent many of the plot devices that were starting to weigh the franchise down. That’s partially thanks to this new medium, which comes with its own storytelling quirks built in. Zero is the Terminator saga’s first anime — its first animated anything — and hopefully it won’t be the last. But the creative team also know what parts of the saga to emulate, and which to leave in the past. Equal parts earnest and ambitious, it’s just the reboot the franchise needed, and the story that new and old fans deserve.
