Netflix comedy drama Cobra Kai recently launched its fifth season on the streaming platform, and the final episode, titled “Head of the Snake” has referenced The Terminator.
Minor spoilers ahead…
Karate Kid Part III‘s villain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) has taken center stage this season, in his attempt to take the Cobra Kai dojo into a new era. As usual, for Cobra Kai to succeed it needs to eradicate the opposition of Daniel LaRusso‘s Miyagi-Do, and Johnny Lawrence‘s Eagle Fang Karate.
In the frantic, action packed, final episode of the season the original Karate Kid himself Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) gets deserted by his group of cohorts after a night out, and Raymond Porter, better known to viewers of the show as ‘Stingray‘ gets his redemption arc – coming to Daniel’s aid.
When on the verge of entering a street fight in an attempt to get home, a muscle car turns up causing Daniel-san to dive out the way. As the vehicle’s window winds down Daniel is greeted with the famous Terminator quote.
“Mr. LaRusso, come with me if you want to live.”
Raymond “Stingray” Porter
The line “Come with me if you want to live.” was originally delivered by Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in the 1984 movie but was subsequently repeated (to varying degrees) throughout the Terminator movies by Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Nick Stahl‘s John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Anton Yelchin‘s Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation, Emilia Clarke‘s Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, and Mackenzie Davis‘ Grace in Terminator: Dark Fate.
Yes, the Terminator movies can’t help homaging themselves too.
As we know, Netflix will be the home of the Skydance Terminator anime series; so one could view this as not only a pop culture reference for Terminator, but also as a nod to terminator fans anticipating more details on the upcoming animation project.
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