‘Terminator Genisys’ a fresh start, even with Arnold

Emilia Clarke wasn’t even born when “The Terminator” came out in 1984. Nor, for that matter, was Jai Courtney. Jason Clarke was a 15-year-old high-schooler in Australia, the ideal age to have his mind blown by director James Cameron’s story of a murderous cyborg from the future.

As for Arnold Schwarzenegger, well, he was the Terminator — and he warned us that he’d be back.

The four lead actors in Paramount Pictures’ summer release “Terminator Genisys” came to the project from vastly different backgrounds. But each signed on knowing they were assuming the mantle of one of the most venerable science-fiction franchises in film history, a series that, like the Terminator himself, has taken a licking and kept on ticking over three decades and four films, racking up $1.4 billion in worldwide grosses.

“Genisys” marks a fresh start for the franchise after 2009’s poorly received “Terminator Salvation,” taking the key story elements from the series’ best-loved installments — the original film and 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” also directed by Cameron — and remixing them in unexpected ways. Leading humankind’s war against the self-aware computer network Skynet, John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends his lieutenant Kyle Reese (Courtney) back in time to save the life of his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke) — who, in a twist on the original mythology, has been raised from childhood by a T-800 cyborg (Schwarzenegger) programmed to protect her.

Billing the release as a “reset” of the series, the team behind “Terminator Genisys” is attempting to pull off a delicate balancing act, luring in new audiences who may never have seen a “Terminator” film without alienating the hard-core fans who were there from the beginning. With a $170 million production budget and a potential new trilogy in the offing, the stakes are high.

From the outset, securing Schwarzenegger’s involvement was seen as critical. Schwarzenegger, 67, who had sat out “Terminator Salvation” (he was governor of California), was drawn in by the script.

“I felt they came up with some new ways of moving on with the project that I was genuinely excited about,” Schwarzenegger said. “Here was the possibility of making this one really work, not just living off the name and hoping for the best. I felt honored that they came to me and said, ‘We don’t want to do this movie without you.’ “