Traveling back in time, going forward in time, saving the world in time, multiple timelines and time travel babies are all hallmarks of the Terminator films. So for a franchise that’s all about time, it’s good to know how much of it you’ll be spending in theaters for the next Terminator movie. That movie is this fall’s Terminator: Dark Fate and the runtime for the rebootquel from Deadpool director Tim Miller has just been revealed.
Terminator: Dark Fate will clock in at 128 minutes and three seconds, or two hours and 8 minutes if you prefer. This is according to the British Board of Film Classification, the NGO responsible for classifying and rating films released in the United Kingdom. The BBFC has released its rating for Terminator: Dark Fate and the film expected to be R-rated in the States has earned a “15” rating, meaning its suitable only for those age 15 and older. Along with the rating, the film’s 128 minute has been revealed.
As Terminator movies go, 128 minutes is on the longer side of things. James Cameron’s original 1984 film The Terminator remains the shortest film in the franchise at 107 minutes and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation both clocked in at less than two hours.
The last film in the franchise, 2015’s Terminator: Genisys, was 126 minutes, so Dark Fate will just eclipse that to become the second-longest Terminator movie to date. The longest film in the series remains 1991’s iconic action classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was a lengthy 137 minutes.
Other than Dark Fate, the two longest Terminator movies represent opposite ends of the spectrum for this franchise as far as quality is concerned, so it’s difficult to say we can glean a lot from the new movie’s long runtime. A longer runtime does not make a great Terminator, but the greatest Terminator movie is also the longest.
What I think we can guess based on this runtime is that there is a lot going on in Terminator: Dark Fate. This would make sense considering that thanks to the time travel conceit of the franchise, Dark Fate will be retconning the timeline and eliminating everything post T2.
Catching up with Sarah Connor, figuring out where John Connor is and explaining everything that’s happened since the second film will take some time and that’s on top of the main plot of this movie. So a long runtime could allow for all that. Plus producer and franchise creator James Cameron has said that Dark Fate could be the start of a trilogy, so over the film’s 128 minutes I think we can expect some world-building and seed-planting.
Terminator: Dark Fate opens in theaters on November 1. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all this fall’s biggest movies.
