Terminator: Genisys to include T-800 deathmatch battle

Still some six months away from release, Terminator: Genisys has been dubbed a ‘reset’ that intends to completely reinvent the series by splintering the original timeline.

As the teaser trailer shows, a part of that split involves an aged version of the T-800 (called “the Guardian”) coming face-to-face with the original T-800 that Skynet sends back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor.

According to a scoop from fan site The Terminator Fans the two cybernetic organisms will come to fisticuffs at the Griffith Observatory for what they’ve termed a ‘3D Arnold deathmatch.’ Is your endoskeleton positively humming at that buzzy phrase? Here’s what the rest of their source had to say:

“The battle will be better than the T-800 and T-1000 from T2. The ground will break on the wrestling fight. It will be somewhat akin to an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

"In this particular sequence the young digitally enhanced T-800 is doing a forward lunge double fist punch and/or crushing the aged T-800’s face with both its knuckles pile-driving into the real Arnold Schwarzenegger’s metal skull, like something out of a wrestling match.

"The aged T-800 has its left arm locked under the T-800’s right shoulder as if it is going to make a deadly move on the younger T-800. The sequence or choreography could change in the finished product but what we’ve seen looks good! The moves will be devastating and the battle will probably be one of the most spectacular scenes in the movie especially in the VFX department.

"The young T-800 is unclothed as he does this attack on the aged T-800, while the 3D model of the aged T-800 is wearing the clothing in the Trailer scene when he tells ‘The Terminator’ that he has been waiting for him… This is the equivalent of Tanks colliding, the machines are heavy. Battle damage is an obvious issue when Terminators Fight.”

While the fan site might not be familiar to those without a passion for all things Terminator, Skydance Productions - the outfit behind the reboot - retweeted the news. Does this mean there’s some truth to the scoop? Bring on the deathmatch!

Terminator: Genisys arrives in the US on July 1st and the UK on July 3rd.

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.