Grace (Terminator: Dark Fate)
The Character I’ve Been Waiting For
As far back as I can remember I envisioned and wanted to see a character like Grace onscreen and, after years of hoping, my wish has finally come true.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that everything about Grace hits every weakness that I personally have when it comes to a character. From her appearance, to her personality, to the role she inhabits, and everything else in between. All of it has me so weak for her. I haven’t been able to calm down with my obsession over her so instead I’ve decided to just let out all of my emotions about Grace on here because I need some sort of outlet to express my love for her. If you love Grace just as much as me, then enjoy.
I didn’t know that it was possible for me to become any gayer than I already am but after seeing Grace I’ve definitely leveled up. I swear the creators managed to infiltrate my mind and find the list of every weakness that I have when it comes to the appearance of a character and Grace was the result.
First off, her haircut is perfect. I’ve always appreciated the short hair look on women and she rocks that bowl haircut beautifully, which is not something I thought I’d ever write in regards to that hairstyle but here we are. It really worked well for her character and it also made her feel a bit more dirtier and kind of scrappy at times, which I enjoyed. I heard in an interview that Linda said that Mackenzie was the one who wanted to give herself a bowl haircut, and if that’s true, my little queer heart can’t thank her enough for giving the gays what we wanted.
I also need to deeply thank the wardrobe department because every outfit that they put her in was amazing and made me an utter mess in my seat. For some people they may look at her outfits and think that there isn’t anything about them that really screams “sexy”. Tim Miller [the director] was even referenced in saying that he didn’t want her costumes and overall look to appear sexy. Well…when you look at it from a straight male gaze then perhaps it’s not. However, you show this to a group of gays and we’re flooding the entire auditorium.
I’ve personally always had a weakness for simplistic outfits. In fact, one of the sexiest things that someone could wear is a simple white t-shirt which, guess what? Grace does in the film. She also hits another big weakness of mine which are tank tops. But not only does she wear one but two, and she wears them for the majority of the film which gave us a lot of time to admire her arm and back muscles (which, again, thank you wardrobe department). There’s also some other outfits that she wore that I loved like the security outfit. It was simple but a favorite of mine. I also really loved her war attire as I’m a sucker for a good soldier outfit and I thought the design for it looked great on her.
One of the main reasons why I loved her outfits so much is because the majority of them were actually outfits that she got from men (and rocked better- just saying). There’s something really attractive to me in having women in “men’s” clothing and I like that they did that for Grace. It really helped to accentuate the beauty of her natural androgyny which is something I’m also very attracted to. So, two big thumbs up all around from this little queer.
Finally, one of my most favorite details about Grace’s entire appearance were the white scars that were displayed all over her body. I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this specific detail. I’m someone who really loves scars as I find them beautiful and for some of us it’s a way to show off the experiences that we’ve had in our life. With Grace it was such a great way to physically express a lot about her character. Not only does it remind us that she’s not entirely human and has been enhanced. But by Grace baring those scars it also gives us some insight into the kind of person that she is. To where she would volunteer to undergo such an extreme, intense, intrusive, and dangerous surgery like that in order to stay committed to her mission of protecting Dani…also scars are hot and they give her a somewhat rugged look and I’m all for that.
Before I saw the film I thought I had a pretty good idea as to how Grace was going to be like from the trailers and for the most part I was correct in my predictions. However, the one detail about her personality that was a very pleasant surprise was that she had more bite to her than I anticipated.
Originally, I had thought that Grace’s personality was going to be more “soldieresque” in that her energy would’ve been similar to that of a cop in how she acted towards others and kept a more lawful code of conduct. However, her personality was more grittier than that to the point where sometimes it felt like she fell more on the neutral side of things in how she acted at times. An example of that is how she dealt with other humans.
Whenever she got into a fight with someone she always was quite aggressive in how she handled those situations, particularly in how she would just slam their heads against a wall, or a gurney, or just flat out punch them across the face to knock them out. Every time she did that you could really feel the weight behind her hits to where you’re not sure if some of them would even be able to get back up without a serious concussion. Especially, when she would slam their heads against a wall because the wall always ended up cracked afterwards which just further drove the point home how much force she was using.
However, I really loved that detail about her because in some ways it made her feel kind of menacing at times. Even from her first scene after she knocks out all the police officers and then walks over to the guy to take his clothes. The way that she looks at him and then says “Don’t thank me yet” had such an ominous feel to it. The same goes for the scene when she escapes the medical room and beats down the officers and then menacingly walks over to the two cops who were staring at her x-rays. The way in which she stalked over to them was almost like watching a Terminator about to attack its prey. Sometimes it felt like her machine side would come out which was fun to watch.
But even with all that aggression Grace also had an extremely soft and loving side to her which made me fall for her even more. I’ve always been a sucker for a protector who also has a warm heart and what I loved about Grace was how that usually only ever was directed towards Dani. When it came to everyone else Grace had quite a stand offish, distrusting, irritable, and even somewhat hostile attitude towards them. But with Dani she always seemed to become softer.
One of my favorite examples of that is when they’re in the car with Sarah and Sarah tries to get answers from Grace about the Rev-9 in which she stubbornly doesn’t respond and then afterwards gives a snarky answer. But then when Dani asks her the same question right after you can see her demeanor completely change and her voice become more welcoming. You gotta love the shipping trope of a character being so done with everyone but when it comes to their love interest they always become big softies.
Her Role As A Protector / Being A Hybrid
I’ve said this so many times but I’ll keep reiterating the fact that characters who inhabit the protector role is one of my biggest weaknesses and, when we talk about Grace, she truly is the perfect embodiment of that role. Everything–and I mean everything–about her is related to being a protector in some way and that fucks me up to the highest degree.
First off, I love that Grace is a soldier in the future because I tend to like characters who inhabit that role anyway since it’s just another form of being a protector. It also may or may not have something to do with me loving soldier outfits on people (hint: that’s definitely a contributing factor). But what I love about Grace is how her main reason for doing all of this is because of Dani. That’s what I think really makes my heart melt is that her biggest loyalty is to her.
Everything she does in this film is for Dani. Even when we get the flashback of her time in the war. The main sequence that we watch is of Grace continuing to play the role of being Dani’s protector as she’s the one trying to get her to safety. The moment that really affirms just how deep her devotion goes is after she gets stabbed by a Rev-9. Instead of getting up and trying to save and/or defend herself her eyes are still focused on Dani. And rather than head away from the battle she instead sits right next to Dani and continues to fire at the Rev-9 which is just seconds away from getting to her. What’s heartbreaking is that you can see that she’s scared as she’s probably already anticipating that she’s either not going to make it out alive, or she’s going to have to suffer some excruciating pain from being attacked. But Grace is so self-sacrificing that even with that knowledge she still remained at Dani’s side. Grace is a protector through and through and I love that the film establishes how that’s always been who she is.
But then we discover that she later on becomes an augmented human/cyborg hybrid and that protector level just skyrockets through the roof as now her body is actually made to be a protector. As if Grace’s protective nature didn’t already fuck me up now they gotta go ahead and make her the literal embodiment of a protector? Ugh!! Again, I swear the creators infiltrated my deepest desires because there’s nothing more they could’ve done in fulfilling my wish for having a character inhabit that role than what they did with her. Grace is truly the ultimate protector.
Lastly, I really want to gush about how much I love that Grace is a hybrid. I really enjoy when characters have some sort of enhancement to them and/or are not entirely human. Grace being augmented to where she’s still human but also part machine was such a cool decision to make…and also a super hot one (as who wouldn’t be attracted to that, come on). It made for some really great fight scenes since she could actually go head-to-head with a Terminator instead of just always running away or using guns to slow it down. She also was able to do a lot of cool stunts and maneuvers that a normal human wouldn’t have been able to. Shall I remind you of that chain scene? Damn…
I also really loved the “crashing” element that they had for her. It was something that I wasn’t expecting and I thought it was a really great addition to her character. It added some risk while also making it feel more realistic since there’s no way someone would’ve been able to go through such an intense and invasive surgery and not have to deal with some sort of complications. Also, the way in which Mackenzie acted out those scenes were incredible and so believable. It really made you care about Grace and become that much more invested in her after seeing her having to struggle like that.
Anyway, I wanted to create this post because I just love Grace so much. After this film she immediately became one of my top favorite characters of all time. As I said in the beginning I’ve been waiting so long for a character like Grace and to finally have her be brought to life onscreen has been such a dream. Not to mention that Mackenzie did a phenomenal job in portraying her. Without her incredible talent (and fantastic jawline) I don’t think I would’ve been as in love with Grace as I am now. She really brought the heart and soul to this role.
I don’t know what the future has in store for this character or this franchise. But my hope is that I’ll get to see Mackenzie inhabit this role again because I’ve waited so long for someone like Grace and I so desperately want to see more of her. A character like her deserves to be explored further and hopefully we’ll get the chance to see her bless our screens once again…
