credit: The World’s End
Trying to compare movies sometimes is a bit difficult since a lot of movies might appear to share a few similarities but when a person really looks, they might find that such a thing is only skin deep and doesn’t go any further. Then again, some movies manage to share more than one similarity even if it’s kind of a goofy comparison that draws them together.
With that in mind, trying to draw a comparison between The World’s End and The Terminator might appear to be kind of difficult, but it’s entirely possible if one allows their mind to travel down a few bizarre pathways that might feel a bit odd at first but can at the very least explain why these two movies might share a connection.
One way this can happen is with the realization that the Terminator franchise has been ripped up and redone more than once, and as a result, it’s fair to state that there might have been other things happening across the world at the same time that Skynet was intent on destroying the rest of it.
credit: The Terminator
Both movies share a desire to replace or otherwise affect the human race.
While Skynet appears to see humans as a threat, the Network apparently thinks that replacing humans is necessary when they don’t conform to what it believes is the cosmic standard. The goals of each inhuman presence are diabolical in nature since both are intent on taking over and replacing humanity with something else or are intent on using them in some other manner than humans are accustomed to, or ready to accept.
Thinking that there’s a connection there begs the idea that while the nature of this story is comedic when it comes to England, it went terribly, terribly wrong in other parts of the world. Stretching the imagination just a bit makes it possible to think that this could be a feasible way to connect these two stories. After all, following the initial blow-up, it’s very easy to think that many countries would be incapable of contacting each other unless they went extremely low-tech.
Unless one goes by the Terminator books, both stories could be happening simultaneously.
There are several Terminator books that have continued the story, and it’s fair to state that if they are canon that this connection wouldn’t work. But if one doesn’t go by the books, then it’s very easy to think of how these two stories could link up and create an overlying narrative that might be hard to take at first, but wouldn’t be impossible to write in a manner that would make sense.
A moderate to great writer would be able to make something out of this, and it could actually be something that might do both stories proud. It would take a bit of work to make it mesh the way it would need to, but there’s far more to work with than many people realize. The fact that the Network operates on a galactic scale makes it easy to create a connection that might be easily accepted by a lot of people if they were willing to consider it.
credit: The World’s End
Both stories are about the end of the world as humanity knows it.
While England might get off kind of easy by comparison (the Network was a little more forgiving), the fact is that worldwide, the AI that was responsible for the end of the world made it clear that nothing was ever going to be the same. One of the big differences is that The World’s End left the survivors simply struggling to survive, while The Terminator left humanity struggling to survive as Skynet continued to set its forces against the last vestiges of humanity.
It’s almost like the Network might have provided a buffer against Skynet during the end of the world, which would be tough to explain away at first but could come together in a way that might create a larger, stronger, more immersive story. It’s fair to think this type of story might take a while to tell, but it would be worth it. Some folks might not think so, but hey, not every story is for everyone.
Perhaps Skynet was a product of the Network.
When thinking about it, the Network did state that it had been responsible for the technological advances that humanity had taken for granted. It stands to reason that it might have created Skynet or at least planted the seed that was needed to build the AI that would one day create the world-ending scenario that the Network had been ready to attempt if things didn’t so smoothly. It does stand to reason that Skynet could have been the Network’s plan B, but certain wires were crossed, and, well, BOOM.