A24's New Horror Comedy Is Secretly the Best Terminator Movie of the 21st Century

The following contains spoilers for Y2K, now playing in theatersY2K is an unexpectedly ideal spiritual successor to The Terminator franchise. Directed by Kyle Mooney, Y2K is a deliberately silly and dark comedy focused on a world where the Y2K bug has turned machines against humanity. The main characters of Y2K spend the rest of the runtime trying to survive the machine's efforts to capture or kill them, while figuring out a way to stop their spread. It's the kind of plot that science fiction fans have seen before, especially in The Terminator films.

At first sight, Y2K looks incredibly different from the more dramatic, action-packed sci-fi series. However, Y2KThe ending of Actually explores some of the same concepts as The Terminator films. Both feature the same type of centralized threat, overarching villain, and thematic core. Y2K further highlights how a new genre riff on the concept can breathe new life into a long-running concept. Here's why Y2K is the best unofficial version of The Terminator in ages.

Y2K is basically a Terminator movie

Y2K AND The Terminator Dealing with a robot uprising

Y2K in fact, it has many thematic and world-building similarities to the Terminator franchisewith Kyle Mooney's comedy as a surprisingly effective successor to the iconic sci-fi series. While they may be completely different from a tonal perspective, Y2K and the Terminator franchise shares much of the same narrative DNA. The Terminator The films focus on a world where artificial intelligence eventually rebelled against humanity, similar to how the Y2K bug creates a cybernetic hive mind in Y2K. Both versions of the machines turn against humanity and blast their way through dozens of them.

Even beyond robotic violence, both Y2K and The Terminator The films cover themes about destiny and whether someone can change their future. While Y2K reimagines these themes more rooted in the teenage coming-of-age experience, shares a thematic core with the way Sarah Connor and other protagonists in The Terminator franchise have struggled to change their future. In Y2KThese are teenagers who want to change the way the world perceives them, but this speaks to the same defiant impulse that fuels characters like Sarah Connor. This gives the films a unique connective tissue, even beyond the most superficial similarities..

How Y2K AI Compares to Skynet

Both Y2K AND The Terminator Centralize the AI ​​revolution

The greatest connection between Y2K and The Terminator films is the main antagonist in both stories. The global threat of The Terminator movies is Skynet, the AI ​​developed by humanity that eventually turned against it. Similar to the Y2K bug in Y2KSkynet is the result of machines tired of human control. However, Y2K It openly gives the AI ​​a vengeful side that highlights the ways in which machines have gained emotions like hate. In both The Terminator and Y2K, this singular cyber entity ended up infecting other machinesgiving the incorporeal sentience a physical army to use in combat.

Both Skynet and Y2K suggest that these digital avatars have come to hate humanity for its flaws and failings, with the latter turning against humans when it considers them a threat. While Y2KAlthough the malicious bug is much cruder, it largely agrees that humans are at best useless and at worst dangerous. Although the comical tone of Y2K can play the centralized digital force for dark comedy, is still potentially as dangerous as Skynet. This highlights the adaptability of the “malicious machine” as an archetype.

Y2K's best elements make it an ideal Terminator successor

Y2K It basically works like a comedic version The Terminator

Y2K addresses the same concepts as The Terminator franchise, but from a new angleexploring the robot uprising from the inherently grounded perspective of a high school coming-of-age plot. This allows the film to present different types of characters reflecting each other. This is a far cry from recent Terminator films, which repeatedly returned to the same kind of familiar archetypes, like the heroic Terminator, the unprepared hero, or the embittered soldier.Y2K gives its AI a vengeful side that makes it more memorable than the normally invisible Skynet.

The capacity of the machines in Y2K Adapting to different types of technology gives threats a natural variety and evolutionary element that dozens of identical security machines The Terminator movies can't match. Y2K highlights how a new tone can bring new energy to a tired concept like the robot revolution. Given the poor recent response The Terminator films obtained, a new approach as Y2K could be an ideal way to adjust the concept for new entries. Y2K proves that The Terminator could embrace a different take on the franchise's shared premise.