If you've seen the trailers, you know that Marcus is a Terminator who thinks he's human. Not until about halfway through the film does he realize that he's not. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on Marcus' struggle to come to terms with this realization, but then again, maybe that was a good thing. Battle Star Galactica examined this issue, what makes us human, in much more detail and with much more emotion. But then that was a TV series, so it had more time to explore that philosophical question in depth. T4 doesn't have that kind of time, and so it doesn't waste too much of it on this issue. Still, I think some depth and dramatic weight could have been added to the movie had they at least tried to examine Marcus' struggle in a bit more detail.

Truth is, we all have to struggle with our identity, and that struggle has become more pronounced in recent years. We are constantly told that we humans are basically good. We're told that there's nothing inherently wrong with us, but a quick glance at the world at large seems to prove that statement wrong. If we are basically good, then why is everything so bad? If humanity is decent at its core, then how can it commit such atrocities and so much evil? We see this conundrum and we are uncomfortable with the notion that we are "basically good" people. As T4 unfolds, it becomes plainly evident that Marcus is not what he thinks he is, but the truth as to who he may really be isn't something that Marcus or the audience (had we not already been told) want to face.

The same is often true of us; we don't really want to know the truth about who we really are. Well, I'm going to tell you. Truth is, humanity is not good, humanity is sinful (I know: bummer). We're born into it. Sin isn't something that we do, it's who we are. It's why we are capable of the evil we do, and why despite our desire to believe that all people are "basically good" there is so little evidence of that.

The good news, however, is that we don't have to stay that way. In the film, Marcus rejects what he is for what he wants to be. We are given a better option, we can actually become something different, we can have a new identity apart from our sinfulness. Jesus Christ died on a cross and rose from the dead to remove our sin identity for us when we choose to be identified with him. Our sinful nature is destroyed, and new nature is given to us. The horror of what we are can be traded for the glory of what God created us to be.

In this instance, the Terminator films are absolutely correct; there is no fate except what we make. You can choose your fate: one of the sin nature which leads to destruction, a nature we are all born with, or a new nature which leads to life, an identity we can born again in through Jesus Christ. The future isn't written, we can still choose. However, if we don't choose, then our fate is sealed by the simple fact that we are what are: fallen beings in need of a savior, lost and sinful people in need of salvation.

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