Audiences may not be flocking to Terminator: Dark Fate, but they’re missing out on a great sci-fi sequel that smartly updates the Terminator mythos to the present day, while honoring the original James Cameron classics. Some of the homages are obvious, but some might only be visible to eagle-eyed super fans.

For example, did you notice that the new killer robot, the Rev-9, brings back Robert Patrick’s trademark run from Terminator 2? Last week Bloody-Disgusting talked to actor Gabriel Luna about why it was important, as a new part-liquid metal, part old school Terminator villain, to take Patrick’s performance, combine it with Schwarzenegger’s, and make it all his own.

“I wanted to honor [Robert Patrick’s] performance. There were obvious similarities in the characters, so there should be obvious threads that interweave in all of our performances. It should run through all of us,” Gabriel Luna said.

“It starts with Arnold, this T-800, this big tank of a man, this incredible physical presence. I wanted to grow my body to be strong and imposing, to be able to stand there with him and to be a formidable opponent,” Luna continued. “And then I would be running in this film, and I would, as a fan, try to size up what I look like in a dead sprint and what Robert looks like.”

“So I was very focused on that. It should be a sprinter’s run. It should be very efficient and very tight. The hands open, the way sprinters run. The head tilted in pursuit. All of that was there with Robert, so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, man. Just incorporate that and weave it into what you’re doing,” Luna added.

“And then on top of that, I had my own particular skill set, to not quote Liam Neeson. ‘I have a very particular set of skills,’” Luna said, mimicking the scene from Taken.”

“And you know, I just wanted to be in attack mode, just be a fucking runaway train. That’s what he is when I run that gauntlet in the detention facility, when I’m running after the chopper, when I’m underwater attacking the Humvee. Everything is forward, everything is sharp,” Luna added.

“But also… it should be sharp and efficient like the T-1000, just beefier and heavier like the T-800, and then just wrap all that together and then layer myself on top of it. Layer my natural human behaviors in all the encounters, human encounters, because I think that’s an important element of him. His ability to ingratiate himself with the Texas Rangers, to charm that woman with the laundry, to smile at her father when he sees him for the first time and try to put him, try to get the information he needs. That was the cherry on top of the whole thing,” Luna said, harkening back to an earlier part of our interview, in which he called the Rev-9 “the Ted Bundy of Terminators.”

If you haven’t seen Gabriel Luna’s performance in Terminator: Dark Fate, you might want to consider it now, before the underperforming but well-reviewed film leaves theaters, and your chance to see it on the big screen is gone… possibly forever.