It is a reboot of the franchise, taking the premise of the original film in another direction and ignoring the events depicted in sequels and the TV series.

Before the Resistance can triumph, Skynet activates a time machine and sends a T-800/Model 101 Terminator back to 1984, to kill John's mother Sarah.

While they are treated for injuries, Sarah and Kyle learn that Skynet is called "Genisys"—a soon-to-be-unveiled global operating system which is embraced by the public.

[b] While Kyle was traveling back in time, Skynet attacked John and infected him with nanomachines that converted him into a cyborg on a cellular level.

A day before Skynet's worldwide attack, Sarah, Kyle, and Pops retreat to a safe house and make final preparations to destroy Cyberdyne's Genisys mainframe.

[c] Although Terminator Salvation was intended to begin a new trilogy, the production of a fifth film was put on hold because of legal issues with franchise owner the Halcyon Company (which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2009).

[31] In February 2011, Universal Studios considered investing in a fifth Terminator film with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the title role, Fast & Furious director Justin Lin at the helm and Chris Morgan as the screenwriter.

[32] In late April 2011, a proposed Terminator package, dropping Morgan and adding producer Robert W. Cort, was presented to Universal Studios, Sony, Lionsgate and CBS Films.

[34] It was eventually picked up by Megan Ellison and her production company, Annapurna Pictures, in May 2011 after they purchased at auction the rights to make at least two more Terminator films.

[41] Rian Johnson, Denis Villeneuve and Ang Lee were approached to take over direction from Lin, but Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor was selected in September 2013.

[47] By early November, Garrett Hedlund was under consideration for the role of Kyle Reese and Taylor wanted Tom Hardy to portray John Connor.

[59] The film's producers, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, worked with writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier to devise the story.

The starting point of the script was to retain Schwarzenegger as a central character, unlike the Star Trek reboot with Leonard Nimoy as an older Spock in a minor role.

[63][64] Concepts from the second movie, such as the T-1000, are featured, but its events are disregarded; the 2029 that is depicted in Genisys is one in which the attack on the Cyberdyne building either had no effect on Skynet's development or did not happen at all, as August 29, 1997 is still the date of Judgment Day in that timeline.

[65][67][72][73] Because the original film was owned by a different company, the filmmakers did not have the rights to use its opening sequence in Terminator Genisys and instead had to recreate the scenes.

The complexity of the T-3000, which had to be shown as a living mass of nanomites with the ability to transform in successive layers, required as much as 20 hours to render a single frame.

Double Negative's artists shot many reference plates of San Francisco, including scans of the Golden Gate Bridge, to ensure that the city was recreated properly in the bus and helicopter chases.

[97][98] MPC's most elaborate effect was the digital recreation of the original Terminator, which required 12 months for 35 shots (completed 30 minutes before the final print was submitted to the studio).

[112] A second trailer (released in April 2015) was noted for spoiling the scene in which John Connor becomes a Terminator,[113][114] a decision criticized by Alan Taylor and the writers.

[121][122][123] Consisting of videos uploaded by Machinima, Lilly Singh and Toby Turner (who also plays the T-360, a similar model of the T-1000), the series also included Eliot Dewberry, Ricky Hayberg, Olga Kay, Sean Klitzner, Lloyd Ahlquist and Matthew Santoro.

On June 24, Schwarzenegger spoke to attendees of an early fan screening of the movie in New York City (announced on Reddit), which was followed by an interview and selfie session.

They expected the film to have the upper hand, replacing Jurassic World in IMAX theaters, but good earnings were needed internationally to make up any deficits.

[145] Scott Mendelson of Forbes suggested several possible explanations for its box-office performance: poor marketing, negative reviews, competition from the family-friendly Jurassic World and Inside Out, the decline of Schwarzenegger's star power and American indifference to another Terminator film.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Mired in its muddled mythology, Terminator: Genisys is a lurching retread that lacks the thematic depth, conceptual intelligence, or visual thrills that launched this once-mighty franchise.

[165] James Rocchi of TheWrap compared it negatively to The Terminator, writing that Genisys "comes back from the past to water down a whole season of summer moviegoing".

He added, "Cameron's original 80s production wrung rip-roaring rewards from a smart script and a small budget, but this bloated, smashy-crashy behemoth lacks the role-reversal wit that turned the action of 1991's T2 into something more than mere spectacle.

[169] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post enjoyed the film: "Genisys goes back to what made the franchise work in the first place: not the machine inside the man, but vice versa.

"[174][175] In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter while promoting The Many Saints of Newark, Taylor admitted as having "lost the will to make movies and to live as a director" after his experience directing Genisys and Thor: The Dark World, causing him to enter into a depression.

J. K. Simmons would have had further involvement in the new trilogy,[72] and Dayo Okeniyi would have had a significant role reprising Danny Dyson in the second film,[72][63] which would have focused on John Connor's life after becoming part machine.

[189] In June 2016, following the cancellation of film sequels and a spin-off television series, a video game titled Terminator Genisys: Future War was revealed to be in development.