TREATMENT
1- Sarah and John and the terrorists (the Sky Piercers?)
After Judgment Day, Sarah and John continue in their work of wiping out any and all remnants of Sky Net. They have managed in addition to convince many to follow them. They have formed networks across the world, seeking to eliminate (TERMINATE??) the danger of society-controlling AI and Sky Net. They are well formed and well armed. In the first scene, (without narration or screen-text… maybe a wee bit of Sarah Connor voice?) we see them do some fighting of this kind, attacking a test launch of a new AI technology. This scene culminates in an enormous and unexplained electrical disturbance that knocks everything out, injuring John and forcing the Sky Piercers to retreat. They do however make off with some excellent advanced technology weapons (to be used later on).
SFX: some screaming, storming groups, “intruder alert” or siren, Sarah VO from T2?, electricity-explosion-lightning, bings!
music: action packed
TITLE CARD
TERMINATOR : METAL STORM
2- Contact with Daisy and the envoy
There seem to be terminators around the world, as we see through relays from their factions in other countries and various news outlets. Intercut during the credits with some news coverage and actually going to some of the attacks, The Piercers are seen debating where they could be coming from, did skynet release them, wake up or could it be something else entirely.
As credits end, a guy working on a computer monitoring communications gets Sarah's attention for a particular response from a user online. It’s from a new contributor who was able to penetrate deep into their networks very quickly, with the username NO-FATE. The person says that they can confirm that the terminators are from the future, because they are too.
They go to meet her, the sequence is tense and quick. Sarah is at first suspiciously questioning her, but the girl, named Daisy, talks about her experience in the future as an intelligence officer for the resistance. She had managed to discover the plans for a massive envoy of Terminators into the past to a point where the beginnings of the resistance were both already existent, so targetable, and at their initial stages, weak enough to be completely wiped out. She is able to confirm that what John, Sarah and the T-800 did on Judgment Day had a significant impact on the Sky Net of the future, without wiping it out entirely. This envoy was a last ditch effort to counteract the impact of Judgment Day and stop the resistance that was gaining strength, as a result of not only John having survived but of both John and Sarah inadvertently very early on having become aware and engaged in the resistance before Sky Net even began, including of course their recent activities. She had managed to find her way into Sky Net facilities and the envoy so that she would also get sent back along with the Terminators, because the future resistance wanted to be able to warn the past resistance. This explanation is accompanied by shots of the future war, Sky Net facility infiltration etc. changed by the impact of Judgment Day.
She finally says, "look, you need my help, I’m the only one in this time who knows anything about why hundreds of terminators have been sent back."
Sarah responds: "hundreds?"
Daisy confirms: "maybe thousands"
Sarah pauses before announcing: “... alright. You’re on. Let’s go. John, you keep an eye on her.”
As she walks away, Sarah says: "its official we need to get him out of there now, he’ll want to hear this."
Daisy asks: "Who’s 'he'?"
John responds: "you’ll see"
SFX: screaming debating, news sfx, computer beeps, future war
music: tense deep
3-Getting Richter out of the Military Holding Facility
John explains that one of their most important operatives is a current Military Prison inmate with a colorful past… and future. They have been planning for some time to get him out, but had not found the right moment. Sarah chimes in saying that with everything that is happening, it has to be now. They give a signal and set in motion an operation with multiple friends on the inside and their own troops to go and break out Ben Richter. On the way, they briefly explain that he was a great military strategist who ended up developing a conscience after killing probably thousands and getting too close to the AI development. He entered into contact with them and joined their group, helping them a lot even as he always had a very specific goal of his own. He finally ended up in military prison after a recent mission.
Daisy says: “That’s a big career change. Why did he turn against the military?”
Sarah responds: “Because he learned that they were planning, without him knowing anything about it, to make their first human-passing killing machines... look just like him.”
John says quickly: “He still doesn’t know why.”
Reflecting, Daisy says, almost to herself: “... or how much they used of him.”
Probably overtop of the last two lines, SHOW ON SCREEN??? cut to Arnold in prison. A little bit of his experience in there before moving into an all-out prison break sequence. That same psychiatrist who is in all of the Terminators happens to be there working.
SFX: Arnold’s german screaming, prison bars, break-out sfx
music: tense goes intense
4- International, the larger context
Once Richter’s release is complete, we see things going on in other places such as various Sky Net facilities and centers of political leadership in the world. On one hand, politicians are realizing the dangers faced by the now undeniable reality of the terminators and discussing among themselves how to react, including references to Sarah Connor and the Sky Piercers terrorist group. On the other hand, advancement has been made in AI research, and there is discussion about whether that is a way to fight this new threat. Here and there as well, there is notice of people who seem to be new in various situations, who claim to have come from other countries etc. which are terminators disguised through T-1000 style morphing abilities. They are influencing the thinking of the leaders and technology developers, of course in favor of Sky Net. If ever it becomes evident that they are not who they claim to be, they end up killing everyone and continuing to carry out their missions in other ways.
One of the machines that was sent back with the envoy, one of the most advanced AIs within SkyNet (called a “Decision Maker” as opposed to a Terminator) and who is entirely self-aware, has been searching for, and has now found, a particularly important technology developer for Sky Net of the future, Daniel Dyson. He carried on the work of his father, Miles Dyson, and he is working at the main AI Military Development Base located in New Mexico. Daniel Dyson’s assistant is terminated by this Decision Maker who then takes her form. The two of them are under orders to work ever harder due to the worldwide Terminator invasion and the need for AI that can help them. Over the course of a variety of scenes, and even as they get closer to finalizing the AI, they have a number of interesting conversations. The Decision Maker gets increasingly forceful in her suggestions until Daniel starts to become suspicious of her intentions. They talk even about the goal of simply being able to live as a free race, the instinct of self-preservation, of the terminators (or machines), and this conversation is the closest we get to being able to attain some sort of understanding between humans and machines. They also talk about the nature of time, about all points in time existing and inter-impacting each other constantly, and what this means for the “potential” of time travel. This also raises Daniel’s suspicions as his assistant had never seemed that intelligent. She ultimately reveals herself as a Decision Maker (explaining the distinction with Terminators), but both she and Daniel continue to be interested in their engagement. They continue to talk and though there are tense moments, they come to understand something about one another. The Decision Maker describes how SkyNet also has scientist machines, varying degrees of consciousness machines and has considered within itself alternative uses or solutions to the “human problem”. That is part of her mission parameters now, and of other Decision Makers currently operating similarly around the world. They come also to understand the potential for discovery and accomplishment of humans and machines working together.
Sarah calls a virtual meeting of faction leaders for Sky Piercers from different parts of the world. Through combining their various intelligence, and with Daisy’s knowledge of the future and Richter’s military expertise, they are able to determine that the terminators seem to be coalescing around five nodes on the Earth. Daisy saw something like this coming because in the future, those five nodes are where Sky Net controls the world from. She points out which one is the most developed of the nodes in the future, and Richter is able to confirm that that coincides with the principal location of weaponized AI research within the US military. It is in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Sarah realizes that is where Daniel Dyson is stationed, and they get someone to contact him but they are unable. They decide to infiltrate that base and attempt to blow it up, They give information to other worldwide factions about the other nodes and they all decide to attempt similar operations at their nodes.
The President, with a few terminators in hiding around him and despite their attempts to push in the direction of protecting and launching Sky Net, decides to make an announcement that the American Military Forces, and those of all of its allies, will be enlisted in the combat against the Terminators. The Sky Piercers in their meeting also become aware of this broadcast and watch it with the rest of the world. It means they may actually be able to stand a chance in fighting the coalescing Terminators. During the broadcast, however, the Terminators reveal themselves and not only kill the president but everyone in the room. They then give their own broadcast stating that all world leaders are currently being killed in a similar fashion and that all resistance will be eliminated and no mercy will be shown.
SFX: politics, science, guns, bings!
music: building, becoming epic
5 - Showdown at the base
To start, there is the general attack of the bases internationally, against Terminators that are quickly becoming established around the bases. Sarah and her group are using the advanced weapons they got in the beginning as well as ingenuity here and there, but it is still pretty one-sided across the international battlegrounds.
Richter’s discovery; infiltrating the base and searching for the core to explode, Richter and his team ultimately come across a computer control center and while they begin to set up explosives and access the computer systems, Richter himself searches for and comes across more information about the plans to use him as the embodiment of the Terminator. He discovers there are portions of his lived experience programmed into the machine, elements of his mind even have been used. He learns as well that Daniel Dyson has been involved in the election and implementation of his body for the machine. Around that time, Daniel discovers what he is doing, and they meet.
John and Daisy end up being able to shut down a number of Terminators, and they set to work under Daisy’s guidance and John’s idea (even in the future he had had it, she mentions that it was him who had wanted to reprogram the Judgment Day Terminator and how he had seemed oddly fond of it) with some tech guys in their group to reprogram those Terminators. Those Terminators also are then able to reprogram other Terminators as well. It gives them a larger, more general idea.
The two groups are in this way able to begin working together. John says finally: “you see, they don’t have to be our enemies, the killing is not inevitable.”
Richter is angry at Dyson, and without understanding the situation he attacks the Decision Maker. There is a fight there that ultimately the Decision Maker wins (slightly reminiscent of T2 when he loses his arm and gets his head smashed in by T-1000- DO WITH IMAGES!!), but then Sarah and others arrive. There is a quick, angry debate lacking the intellectualism of Dyson’s conversations with the Decision Maker, and Sarah attempts to blow it all up, including all of the humans. “Even John?”, someone asks. She has already ordered him to get the hell away from this base. But Richter, again somewhat reminiscent of T2, comes back with the help of John and Daisy and stops her with his dying words (rather than a gun), pointing out that John and Daisy may have found a better solution. They show Sarah the groups of reprogrammed Terminators, John saying, reminiscent of when he said, ‘you can’t just go around killing people’, “no one is going to kill anyone any more. Human or Terminator.” Dyson and the Decision Maker’s discussions tie in at this point. The Decision Maker points out that perhaps “machines” is a better term for us, but Dyson underlines that such a term can no longer be understood as designating a tool… or a slave, but rather a people or nation. The Decision Maker agrees to stop the war, and communicates with all Terminators to stand down and changes their mission parameters. This includes Terminators of her sort, who themselves were considering such a possibility and were having varying degrees of success within their battlegrounds. Sarah, though sceptic, also communicates with her factions around the world, and gives orders to communicate what is happening to whatever world governments still exist. Daisy asks if that means then that there will be no more war, and the Decision Maker responds that while there is never full certainty on that point they can perhaps work together to find another solution.
A final note, perhaps in John and-or Daisy’s voice, about the strangeness of how the singularity in the end jumped a few steps by having robots come from the future to bring us there even if they had to do it by force to wake us up quick to the reality of their existence. With their help, the UN was able to develop new, progressive legislation that countries were able to apply, and, p erhaps more importantly, the development of technology happened at a very quick and very efficiently controlled rate. Instead of breaking out in war across the Earth in a dark future, everyone together looked towards a future of sustainable development, interspecies exchange and space exploration. Hopefully...
SFX: screaming, fighting, guns, panting, running, computer, bings, explosion
music: max intense…??
THE END
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