Much like its predecessors, slasher-influenced sci-fi horror The Terminator in 1984, the franchise has since gone on to cycle through genres as diverse as blockbuster action, war drama, and (sometimes unintentional) comedy in its subsequent outings. Where Cameron’s first sequel made the titular cyborg the hero, the next sequel saw a newcomer to the director’s chair, Jonathan Mostow, inject more levity into proceedings to decidedly mixed results.
Critics were harsh on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines when the movie arrived in multiplexes in 2003, citing the uninspired action sequences and out-of-place cringe comedy as low points in the belated sequel. However, the intervening decades have been a little kinder to Terminator 3, and the failure of numerous directors to establish a consistent tone throughout the rest of the franchise’s sequels have led some viewers to reassess the third film’s perceived failings.
For one thing, Terminator 3 features the most daringly downbeat ending of the entire series, living up to its title by closing on the nuclear annihilation of most human life on earth. However, this unsparing glimpse of the apocalypse comes after a lot of scenes featuring the Terminator in disco glasses or his deadly nemesis inflating her chest to distract a police officer, so accusations of an inconsistent tone are well-founded. The first draft of this much-revised Terminator three-qeul, however, could have made sense of these divergent tones and offered a more cohesive, impressive outing for Schwarzenegger’s iconic character.
The Death of Sarah Connor
While Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines may feature plenty of death in its aforementioned closing scene, the movie was lighter on gore than the original or Terminator 2. However, this wasn’t always intended to be the case. Original Terminator star Linda Hamilton was supposed to return for the third film but opted out after reading about her character's death halfway through the story. Little is known about the particulars of Sarah’s proposed Terminator 3 fate, but there’s no doubt this shock would have shaken up a movie that features (until its last few seconds) a relatively low body count, at least compared to the first two. Killing off the central character of the series would have left audiences thrown for the remainder of the runtime if this moment made it to the big screen.
Chyna (And Famke Janssen)’s T-X
Kristanna Loken may have been a solid choice for the role of the T-X, the female Terminator who acts as Goldeneye's Xenia Onatopp herself Famke Janssen, another name famous for playing tough villainesses.
An Unseen Terminator Form
Not only could Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ T-X turn to liquid like Judgement Day's T-1000, the T-X was also originally able to turn into gaseous form too. The implications of this would have allowed the villain to appear almost anywhere and escape almost any fight, a tough-to-defeat development for any villain. However, the visual effects required to achieve this, unfortunately, proved too much for 2003-era CGI to handle so the concept was dropped.
Arnold Schwarzenegger As William Candy
“William Candy” was intended to be a human character who lent his likeness to the original T-800 prototype, and the army man originally had a bigger role in Terminator 3. In one draft of the Terminator sequel, a character mistakes the actual T-850 for Candy. Since the Candy scene was later dropped from the movie, so too was the gag about the T-850 resembling the character.
The Missing Nanobot Subplot
Described by the screenwriters of Rise of the Machines as “pretty insane and trippy,” an early draft ended with the seemingly good-natured T-X betraying John Connor and infecting his brain with nanobots to force the hero into betraying the resistance years later. Like Terminator: Salvation’s dark original ending, this twist could have revived the bleak tone of the first film in the series, but the producers wanted something less likely to leave audiences confused by the movie’s action.
A Darker Opening Scene
The first time Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines viewers see John Connor in the film, he’s atop a bridge, but the first draft put a dark spin on this sequence. Originally, John was intended to be on the verge of suicide, an interesting twist that raises questions of predestination versus free will that the franchise has often touched on. Would the entire series be rendered null and void if Connor self-terminated, saving Skynet the trouble? It’s a franchise query that fans will never know the answer to since producers opted against this darker opening.
A Lighter Ending
James Cameron's replacement Jonathan Mostow was unsure about the until-now comparatively light-hearted three-quel ending with a nuclear apocalypse consuming all human civilization, leading him to shoot (but not use) a deus-ex machina finale wherein another T-850 saves the day at the last moment. Unlike many of the changes made to the sequel, this one worked in the film’s favor. While many elements of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines have been criticized over the years, the shocking ending remains one of the most often-cited elements that harken back to the original's effective horror tone. A silly finale where another heroic Terminator arrives to save the day from impending doom would reek of backing off a much more effective denouement.
