M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
Directed by Gerard Johnstone
After the underlying tech for M3GAN is stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, M3GAN's creator Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal.
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35 films that influenced M3GAN 2.0
What critics say influenced M3GAN 2.0
Drawing inspiration from films like Mission: Impossible, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the Austin Powers trilogy, it is clear that director Gerard Johnstone took a loose approach to the script.
Plotwise it’s basically a remake of “Terminator 2,” the movie that saw a revamped T-800 protect young John Connor from the new and improved T-1000 (Robert Patrick).
M3GAN 2.0 fully drains Terminator 2: Judgment Day to such a clumsy degree…
What forces her to quit being the ghost in the machine is the ol’ Terminator 2 of an even more deadly version of herself called AMELIA (Sakhno).
So, I knew there was a chance she would get the Terminator 2: Judgment Day redemption arc.
It’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day by way of a Hot Topic fashion line and TikTok choreography…
M3GAN 2.0 is basically a mashup of The Terminator (I dunno, pick one) with Mission Impossible (any one will do) with some dancing, some killing, and a song or two.
Gemma has pivoted her focus toward AI safety, now working with the government—and a new boyfriend, Christian (Aristotle Athari)—to ensure AI tech can’t go full Terminator again.
…somewhere between Small Wonder and The Terminator…
While the lively 2022 hit M3GAN sampled some DNA from The Terminator…
If, with its relentless killbot, M3gan was a little like James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984)…
…becoming a sci-fi action-comedy, like the Temu version of Terminator…
…nitpicking that feels like saying Aliens or Terminator 2: Judgement Day don’t feel like proper sequels to their predecessors…
Like ALIENS, it takes on new targets…
This sequel feels light-years away from what horror films like Child’s Play or Dolls achieved—stories where the danger felt personal, small-scale, and genuinely creepy.
Unlike Child’s Play’s Chucky, who had no loyalties and therefore could continue to travel and maim and murder in numerous sequels and spin-offs…
And like her spiritual forebear Chucky, she’s got the range.
The titular android is now the hero of the story, and like Chucky, has begun morphing into a comedian.
…even though the similar idea of Chucky from the CHILD’S PLAY franchise proved it could be done with six films and even a spin-off TV series…
Think less “Child’s Play,” more “Terminator 2.”
…whereas AMELIA is a grown woman with visual references to “Metropolis” (1927) and “Ex Machina” (2014).
A well-placed Metropolis (dir. Fritz Lang, 1927) homage in her character design serves as a subtle reminder that the themes the film is exploring are nothing new.
…her look modeled on "Metropolis's" Maria in her natural state…
…like one action beat that’s essentially a dream match between Maria from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Battle Angel Alita’s titular cyborg.
…fun nods to Metropolis, THX-1138, and the Terminator films…
Can Johnstone slip in a “Metropolis” reference for Amelia without getting caught?
…a neuro-implanted tech bro who feels like he’s walked straight out of a parody of Black Mirror by way of Austin Powers…
…it emerged under the direction of Gerard Johnstone as a simple Black Mirror-esque tale about a scientist…
…this sequel is Terminator 2 by way of Black Mirror…
…finding a foothold by rising above its Black Mirror vibe…
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It is obvious that while the narrative’s whole concept is a cross between an international spy thriller and a Terminator-esque Judgment Day, it also feels like a cheeky reprise to the “Austin Powers” killer sex bots while clinging to its rating.
Somehow, what he pulls together is like an Austin Powers film that takes itself a little too earnestly…
Drawing inspiration from films like Mission: Impossible, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the Austin Powers trilogy, it is clear that director Gerard Johnstone took a loose approach to the script.
…a neuro-implanted tech bro who feels like he’s walked straight out of a parody of Black Mirror by way of Austin Powers…
The visual difference between both humanoids fittingly mirrors the real-world evolution of AI — from Tron-like simulations to cyberworlds indistinguishable from reality.
…there’s another goofy dance sequence, this time at an “Embrace AI” conference that looks like it’s taking place on the set of Tron…
While some of the set pieces and sequences take on THE MATRIX…
…our obsession with digital connectivity has trapped us in a manipulatable web of reality that’s not unlike The Matrix…
…it maintains the first film’s flashes of satirical wit (digging the Knight Rider theme!)
Even then, it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Tom Cruise trapped in a sentient smart speaker telling the IMF to “hold onto their vaginas” before taking off in a futuristic sports car after a murderbot at 235 miles per hour while the Knight Rider theme plays.
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…the film includes among its many influences Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade (2018), with its similar exoskeletons and neural implants.
It could almost be called a blatant hodgepodge of amalgamated elements from Phantom of the Opera, Terminator 2 (1991), 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), Upgrade (2018), and at one point, M3GAN 2.0 veers into being a cyberpunk spy actioner akin to the latest Mission Impossible movies, especially considering those were also about stopping rogue A.I.
Last weekend, 28 Years Later added Scottish hip-hop and heartfelt family drama to its zombie heritage.
With its big swing toward action, M3GAN 2.0 might be as divisive among audiences as 28 Years Later is proving to be.