Linda Hamilton is back as Sarah Connor, as tough and distrustful of time-traveling sentient machines as ever, in the first trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth installment in hugely influential franchise.

(Mild spoilers for original Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day below.)

The entire franchise is premised on the notion that sentient killing machines from the future can be sent back in time to take out key human figures destined to lead the resistance against the self-aware AI network known as Skynet, thereby preventing a nuclear holocaust that wipes out the human race. In the original Terminator film, the target was a young and innocent Sarah Connor, future mother to resistance leader John Connor. Then came Terminator 2: Judgement Day, or as I like to call it, The Best Damn Sequel of All Time. A second Terminator is sent to take out a teenaged John—with the twist that Schwarzenegger's original Terminator has been reprogrammed as his protector against a newer model known as the T-1000.

Both films were hugely successful and spawned several more sequels: Rise of the Machines in 2003, 2009's Terminator: Salvation, and 2015's Terminator: Genisys, an attempt to reboot the franchise with a new trilogy. It featured the same original characters, played by new actors (Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke was cast as Sarah Connor). But the film wasn't quite the box office success the study had hoped for, and plans for sequels were tabled as Paramount readjusted its strategy. This latest installment is the result of that readjustment.

YouTube/Paramount Pictures

YouTube/Paramount Pictures











YouTube/Paramount Pictures







Terminator: Dark Fate is being touted as a direct sequel to those first two films, pretty much ignoring all the other Terminator movies as existing in alternate timelines. It's a smart move: an attempt to return to the glory days of the franchise, complete with the return of Schwarzenegger and Hamilton, plus James Cameron on board as producer. Per the official synopsis, "27 years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a new, modified liquid metal Terminator (Gabriel Luna) is sent from the future by Skynet in order to terminate Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a hybrid cyborg human (Mackenzie Davis), and her friends. Sarah Connor comes to their aid, as well as the original Terminator, for a fight for the future."

So what do we learn from this first trailer? We know that Dani has been on the run with her friends for a couple of years. Grace, the human/cyborg hybrid, is the soldier assassin sent from the future to protect her from the scary, new-hotness T-3000 played by Luna. He makes the formidable T-1000 from Judgement Day look old and busted. This Terminator can actually split in two, the better to take out its target(s). (It's a nifty special effect, reminiscent of ferrofluids.) As the killing machine closes in, Sarah Connor appears, shotgun in hand, to enable their (temporary) escape.

Sarah still has an intense distrust of machines, even one like Grace. "Never seen one like you before. Almost human," she tells her. Grace responds, "I am human." For all her prejudice, Sarah still knows where to get the best possible assistance, leading them to a remote house in the woods, where we get a brief glimpse of Schwarzenegger's aging Terminator. We can expect the usual escalating stakes and massive property damage as the group struggles to keep Dani alive—once again, it's the only way they can truly "win."

Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters November 1, 2019.

Listing image by YouTube/Paramount Pictures