Terminating Samson: the Sarah Connor Chronicles and the Rise of New Biblical Meaning

Abstract

The Terminator films (1984–2009) incorporate a number of theological and biblical themes, which are further developed in the franchise’s recent expansion into a television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009). This article explores how the series appropriates biblical material and motifs, terminating them from their original contexts and adjusting them to create new meanings. After a brief survey of the biblical subtext of the franchise, the article focuses on one episode of the series, Samson and Delilah, which echoes the story of Samson, to analyse its explicit and implicit retellings of the biblical narrative and to explore the wider implications of this appropriation in the context of apocalyptic science fiction.