First two Terminator Genisys clips take us back to 1984

Terminator: Genisys, the fifth instalment of the time-traveling sci-fi series, arrives in theaters in a little over a month and Paramount has dropped the first pair of clips honing in on what makes this particular sequel unique. Described as a ‘reset’ of the thirty year-old franchise, Genisys follows Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) as his travels back in time to rescue Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), the mother of future resistance leader John.

As the first clip highlights, things don’t turn out quite as he expects when he arrives in 1984. Not only is there a liquid metal Terminator - the T-1000 - stalking him through the sporting goods department, but Sarah’s no longer the timid woman first spied in James Cameron’s original movie. Check out both of the clips below:

If somehow you’d managed to miss all of the previous trailers, posters and teasers then both clips reveal the biggest twist: this is a brand new 1984. In this alternate timeline, Sarah is the one who rescues Reese, there’s an older T-800 who raised her from an orphan, and the entire canon has been spun on its head.

The second clip in particular shows the crumpled endoskeleton of a defeated T-800 tossed in the back of Sarah’s truck, and Reese’s response proves we’re not the only ones utterly flabbergasted by the timeline shift...

Directed by Alan Taylor, Terminator: Genisys opens on July 1 in the US and July 2 in the UK.

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Gem Seddon

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.