This year the T-600 will make a welcome return in new DLC content for Terminator: Resistance ENHANCED and we can’t wait.
First Encounter With The T-600
The T-600 Terminator unit was actually one of the things that fans liked about McG’s Terminator Salvation. I would’ve loved to have seen more of them – in a true R Rated Terminator movie; wiping out waves of The Resistance with sheer brute force.
When we first encounter a T-600 in Terminator Salvation, we see what looks to be the silhouette of a lone man in the distance; it was a smart moment when the audience are seeing the future world with Marcus Wright (he’s as new to the future of 2018 as we are), and he is obviously relieved to see someone else in the desolate ruins of Los Angeles. After yelling out to the stranger and alerting them to his presence, Marcus is soon under attack by a weathered and hulking, mechanical, metal beast which stands at a towering 7 feet, 4 inches tall and carries a mini-gun for extra devastation, and an ammo back-pack to make sure the bullets rain for a sustained duration.
The T-600 unit’s prime objective is clearly to mow down any remaining survivors of Judgment Day, and judging by the state of Los Angeles in the 4th movie, SkyNet is winning.
The depiction of the T-600 in Terminator Salvation is far from your blend-into-the-crowd infiltration unit, that we had been introduced to in the first three Terminator movies, and it was definitely more akin to the frontline future war Endoskeletons we saw in Judgment Day and Rise of the Machines.
T-600 Terminator Concept and Design
John Rosengrant (founder of Legacy Effects and an integral member of the Stan Winston Studio team) compared the T-600 to the 800 series, by saying:
“The T-600 was kind of the neanderthal version”
John Rosengrant
T-600 Back In Terminator: Resistance ENHANCED
Terminator Salvation’s T-600 was part of recent leaks for Terminator: Resistance; which is to have a paid DLC when the game receives an “ENHANCED” treatment for Playstation 5 (expect this new content also on Steam and GOG too, but thus far sadly not last gen, or Xbox Series X). Thanks once again to data miner necrocrafts who uncovered files, and helped TheTerminatorFans.com to access those files so that we could do some digging ourselves.
The T-600 design in the files, which are to be part of “DLC2”, is the same design from the 2009 Terminator movie. Fans have shown excitement for the potential inclusion of the Salvation T-600 design in the game, and, well, people have been very pleased overall with Reef Entertainment and Teyon Games’ contribution to the Terminator franchise.
I totally approve of this design being part of the game too, as it was also technically the last Terminator movie to be contributed to the series by Stan Winston Studio. Terminator legend Stan Winston sadly passed away in 2008, and we know Terminator meant so much to him. Terminator Salvation was dedicated to his memory.
The T-600 also feels like the last notable practical effects work in the Terminator franchise, Genisys and Dark fate did have some practical FX elements but when I say notable, I say what I mean; the T-600 feels like the last real time that I saw some actual Terminator silver screen magic from the franchise. It feels as if Legacy Effects was denied the chance to go all out with Terminator FX, in favor of CGI, in regards to the fifth and sixth movies.
T-600 Design Gripes
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again… I’ve always had a slight issue with the 600 series, due to the fact that Kyle Reese said they had “rubber skin” and well… the T-600’s from Salvation have rubber ‘masks‘, but Kyle didn’t go into the specifics, so it is probably best to just take Rambo‘s advice and “Let it go” – plus we have to remember that Terminator Salvation’s future was altered by the events of the first two movies, meaning that the war that Sarah Connor had prepared her son John Connor for, had changed… not to the extent of John being blasted in the chest multiple times by a soon to be drapery salesman T-800 like in Dark Fate but still, an altered timeline. Also, maybe some T-600’s had masks, and maybe some had full coverage, maybe Teyon could show us that… ?
The T-600 we saw in TSCC clearly feels more fitting to what Kyle Reese described in The Terminator (1984) but if this is an alternate / altered timeline, then I can accept the giant hulking T-600 as a cool design.
Terminator: Resistance leaks also have the “skin job” variant, which is the T-600 in disguise. I find the clothes / mask wearing version is much more creepy than the clean version. The clean version, with its PG-13 smile and small head always reminded me a little of the Goomba from the Super Mario Bros. Movie.
I like Goombas and the 600 series, but would James Cameron have depicted them this way? Something tells me… no.
Ready To Smash Those T-600’s to Junk
I don’t think Teyon and Reef should mess with the design too much, but it might be nice to see them tone down the upturn of the smile a little, to make it look more fitting to the darker tones of the franchise.
This is not the first time the T-600 has featured in games but I can’t wait to battle them, and this Terminator unit’s sheer size is going to make it a formidable foe in the new DLC content for Terminator: Resistance ENHANCED.
I expect to be ducking from that Mini-Gun a whole lot!
Are you looking forward to seeing T-600’s in Terminator: Resistance ENHANCED and the new paid DLC?
TERMINATOR: RESISTANCE – ENHANCED will be coming to PlayStation 5 on March 26th, 2021
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