The Terminator: Sector War is a 2018 limited comic miniseries in the Terminator franchise.
In the year 2029, Skynet sent a Terminator back in time to Los Angeles 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of Resistance leader John Connor. You all know that story, right? Well, this is not that story. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, rookie NYPD officer Lucy Castro also finds her life turned upside down in a single night when a mysterious machine-like man is sent to kill her.
Tropes in this series include:
- Animesque: Courtesy of Jeff Stokely, the art has been described as manga-esque by reviewers.
- Asshole Victim:
- Lucy's boyfriend is a jerkass who causes trouble to the other tenants and is implied to be unfaithful. Lucy doesn't linger on his death too much for a number of reasons, but one of them definitely is because he was a dick.
- Papa Oso and his gang are criminals that presumably end up getting killed by the Terminator.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the Terminator attacks the club, Lucy rescues someone who turns out to be an undercover officer from another precinct. Since she lost her radio, he promises to call it in, only to be killed right after for trying to attack the Terminator head-on.
- Call to Adventure: Lucy's life sucks. She's a rookie cop that nobody respects — not her boss, her coworkers, the city, her boyfriend, no one. And then the Terminator shows up to her apartment one night...
- Car Fu:
- The Terminator drives a garbage truck and rams it into a club when it sees Lucy hiding inside.
- Lucy uses a truck to run over the Terminator and knocks it into a pier. The Terminator sinks, stuck beneath the truck.
- Cassandra Truth: Lucy is unable to tell anyone about her experience with the Terminator without looking crazy and is prepared to move on from it... until she learns that Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, went through the same thing, leading to her deciding to meet up with her.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Terminator mentions to Lucy that the mothers of both her daughter and John Connor have been targeted by Skynet. At the end, Lucy learns about Sarah Connor and plans to go to her so that they can figure out what to do next.
- Commonality Connection: Part of why Lucy decides to meet with Sarah, since they both share the same fate.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire series (which is only four issues) takes place in the span of one night.
- From Bad to Worse: Lucy's life already sucks when we meet her, but then the Terminator shows up at her apartment and chases her around the whole night, killing her boyfriend and also dropping the bombshell that her currently unborn daughter will become an important member of a post-apocalyptic resistance.
- Hated Hometown: Lucy isn't fond of her current lifestyle and living in New York City is part of that. When she decides to leave at the end, she doesn't have a problem with it.
- I Gave My Word: In exchange for getting protection from Papa Oso's gang against the Terminator, Lucy will destroy NYPD's storage of physical evidence against them for their various crimes. At the end, even though they may be dead, she keeps her word.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: Lucy loses her radio to a bunch of thugs so she can't call for help, the only other cop she's able to find gets killed immediately after, and Papa Oso's gang could only hold off the Terminator for so long.
- Mama Bear: After learning that she's pregnant with a daughter who will become an important figure for the Resistance when she grows up, Lucy becomes this.Lucy: [in response to the Terminator's taunts] I want to see my daughter!
- Mythology Gag: The Terminator is Naked on Arrival and demands clothes from someone and also uses the phone book to track down its target.
- Naked on Arrival: Per usual, the Terminator when it gets sent back in time. And for once, the guy it demands his clothes from is successfully intimidated into doing so without resorting to violence.
- Oh, Crap!: Lucy, remembering that the Terminator said that her now-dead boyfriend was the father of her currently unborn daughter, realizes she missed her period and takes a pregnancy test to confirm it. She tests positive.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Lucy when she rams the Terminator into the pier.Lucy: GO. TO. HELL!
- Sadistic Choice: Get Papa Oso's help in exchange for destroying the evidence of his gang's crimes (of which included murder) or hopelessly continue going solo against the unstoppable machine-man.
- Sequel Hook: Lucy leaves NYC to meet up with Sarah after the events of the first film, which also raises the question of what happened to her and her daughter in the subsequent film(s).
- Simultaneous Arcs: The series takes place during The Terminator and ends the morning after Sarah kills her Terminator.
- There Is Another: The morning after killing her Terminator, Lucy learns from a news report that Sarah Connor went through a similar ordeal last night and decides to travel to Los Angeles to meet with her.
- Wretched Hive: Lucy is stuck in the projects of 80's-era New York City, surrounded by unsavory characters who have a distaste for cops.
- You Can't Go Home Again: After learning of Sarah's similar ordeal, Lucy leaves New York City to meet her and also with some awareness that similar things to the Terminator may go after her. Not that she minds.
