Rev-9

Rev-9
Terminator character
File:Rev-9 TDF.jpg Rev-9 in its endoskeleton form
First appearance	Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Portrayed by	Gabriel Luna
In-universe information
Species	Android
Gender	Male
Occupation	Assassin Infiltrator
Affiliation	Legion
Manufacturer	Legion
Model	Rev-9

The Rev-9 is a fictional android assassin, serving as the primary antagonist in Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth installment in the Terminator series. The Rev-9 is portrayed by Gabriel Luna.

History

The Rev-9 is a Terminator model developed by Legion, an artificial intelligence designed for cyberwarfare in a future where Skynet's rise was prevented. Legion dispatched a Rev-9 back in time to 2020 from 2042 with the mission of terminating Dani Ramos, a teenager who would go on to lead humanity against Legion's forces in the future. Upon its arrival in Mexico City, the Rev-9 went to Dani's home address, only to find that she had her brother Diego had already left for their job at a factory. It killed their father and assumed his appearance as a disguise to infiltrate the factory. There, it was nearly able to shoot Dani, but was prevented when it was ambushed by Grace, a cybernetically-enhanced human soldier sent from 2042 to protect her. The Rev-9 pursued them in a truck as they escaped, during the chase revealing its capability to split into two individual units. It managed to kill Diego and corner Dani and Grace, only to be surprised by the sudden arrival of Sarah Connor, who temporarily disabled it with explosives and fled with Dani and Grace.

Having lost its targets, the Rev-9 tapped into local surveillance cameras to reaquire them. It discovered the trio heading for the United States border with Mexico, and deducing that they intended to cross it, disguised itself as a United States Border Patrol officer to infiltrate the force and arrange for them to be detained. Once they were arrested, it slaughtered numerous Border Patrol agents but was unable to reach Dani before the group escaped in a helicopter. By the time it was able to locate them again in Texas, they had allied with Carl, a T-800 Terminator left behind after Skynet's demise; having managed to terminate John Connor in 1998, Carl lost his purpose and decided to assimilate into human society, ultimately developing a conscience and deciding to redeem himself by helping to defend Dani.

The Rev-9 caught up with its targets at a military base where they were seeking to acquire EMP grenades to use as a weapon against it. In the ensuing battle, the EMP grenades were destroyed while Dani and her allies escaped in a military aircraft. It gave chase in an aircraft of its own and managed to board theirs, leading to both Carl and the Rev-9 crashing into a river near a hydroelectric power plant while Dani, Sarah and Grace parachuted to safety. Although temporarily slowed down in the river's current, it quickly caught up with them inside the plant, where they had decided to take a stand against it. As they fought the Rev-9, Carl and Grace managed to restrain it and force it into a turbine, with the subsequent explosion mortally wounding Grace and temporarily disabling Carl and Sarah, but only destroying the Rev-9's liquid metal exterior. Its endoskeleton continued pursuing Dani, who tried to use Grace's power source as an EMP against it only to be held down and nearly killed until Carl reactivated and held it back. Once Dani stabbed the power source into the Rev-9's endoskeleton, Carl dragged it into a nearby pit, where the device's discharge melted both Terminators, destroying them.

Background

Rev-9 is an advanced machine sent from the future by Legion (an AI that succeeded Skynet after the timeline alteration following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day) from the year 2042 to terminate a woman named Dani Ramos, among others. Rev-9 has a traditional solid endoskeleton covered with a liquid-metal exoskeleton, somewhat similarly to the T-X from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Unlike the T-X, the Rev-9 possesses the ability to fully split these two components into two separate, fully autonomous units. The separation does not significantly weaken either unit, making the Rev-9 one of the most formidable Terminator models yet seen. Its poly-alloy and endoskeleton can separate and fuse back together at a rapid pace, enabling it to split or merge during combat without ceasing its movements. Director Tim Miller commented on this upgrade, telling CinemaCon attendees, "Our cool new feature... is he can split. So he’s twice as deadly."

The Rev-9's name may be inspired by the Biblical verse of Revelation 9, "the Destroyer."

Abilities

The Rev-9's primary feature is the ability to split its mimetic polyalloy exterior and endoskeleton into two separate units. In addition to this, it possesses similar basic capabilities to the Terminators created by Skynet before its destruction. Like the T-1000 it is capable of shapeshifting to assume the appearance of its victims and morph its arms to form stabbing weapons and other shapes, such as hooks for scaling vertical surfaces, while also regenerating from virtually any damage inflicted upon it. It does, however, still require physical contact with a subject before being able to take on the subject's form. The Rev-9 exhibits more control over its composition than the T-1000, allowing it to use its polyalloy in more inventive and adaptive fashions. For example, it can transform its hands into claws to grab surfaces more easily, attack by adhering to objects that strike it, and manifest stabbing weapons from anywhere on its body instead of just its arms. Similar to the T-1000 featured in Terminator Genisys, it can use its polyalloy to form handheld weapons such as spears as well. Its endoskeleton, meanwhile, shows far more durability than that of the T-800, surviving explosions and other damage that would have badly damaged if not outright destroyed a T-800 endoskeleton. The endoskeleton is also shown to adjust its physical form to bend in an inhuman manner.

While the Rev-9 is still dangerous whether its two halves are integrated or not, it is slightly more vulnerable when separate; when integrated it can take machine gun fire to the face without significant impairment, but when separate, its endoskeleton can be thrown long distances by a T-800 while the cybernetically-enhanced soldier Grace can cut its polyalloy body apart with a chain, disabling it until it regenerates. Grace describes the Rev-9 as the "most lethal Terminator ever created" in her timeline and states "you don't fight it, you run from it."

As an infiltrator, the Rev-9 outclasses Skynet's Terminators due to its unassuming default appearance and ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to a human being, including displaying emotions (See Turing test). For example, it humorously brags to Border Patrol officers that its entire body as a weapon when asked to step through a metal detector, hinting at its true nature in a way that avoids raising suspicion among the officers. It frequently smiles while chasing Dani Ramos and warns her that she "should run" when she decides to take a stand against it, before trying to make Dani and her allies surrender by taunting them that "Legion is the only future." These characteristics suggest that the Rev-9 has an arrogant, sadistic personality that takes pleasure in driving its targets into despair before killing them, and that it even enjoys hunting its targets so much that it would deliberately prolong its mission so it could continue to terrorize them until it grows bored.

See also

• Nanotechnology in fiction
• Programmable matter
• Self-assembly of nanoparticles

External links

• Terminator: Dark Fate - Official Teaser Trailer (2019) - Paramount Pictures on YouTube