Space Force Is Cool, But Is the Pentagon Ready for Threats from AI and Zombies?

Now that the Space Force is gearing up, we can all sleep easier knowing that our government will be doing the things necessary to protect our planet from alien invasion.

But the recent home video release of "Terminator: Dark Fate" (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital) and "Zombieland 2: Double Tap" (same) remind us that we've got other future crises to avert. Just what is the Pentagon going to do about the coming artificial intelligence menace or the threat from biological mutants caused by some impending pandemic?

The story of "Terminator: Dark Fate" picks up after "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and pretends that all the other movies don't exist. Anything you remember from "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," "Terminator Salvation," "Terminator Genisys" or the television series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is wiped clean.

James Cameron came back to produce and help work out the story, so this one has "official" stamped all over it. And it asks a good question: What happens after you take out Skynet? Is the world going to be all sunshine and roses?

What happens instead is Legion, a different AI that takes over the planet and sends even more dangerous robots back from the future to kill a young Mexican woman named Dani Ramos (Natalie Reyes). The future resistance sends Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a human whose body is augmented with robot tech, to protect her. They run into Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) while they're on the run, and she just might be the most kickass 63-year-old in movie history.

They meet up with an old T-800 who now calls himself "Carl" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and has spent the last couple of decades making up for the fact that he carried out his Skynet mission after the fall of Skynet. It's a plot point that has freaked out a lot of fans and may have significantly contributed to the movie's poor performance at the box office.

It's weird. This is definitely the best "Terminator" movie since "T2" and the one that's most true to the original idea. Did the fact that all the most kickass action in the film is carried out by women hurt the movie with fanboys? All signs point to yes, which is dumb. If you like the first two movies, this one is worth seeing as well.

Don't let anyone from the Pentagon dismiss the AI threat just because we don't have any evidence of time travel. Even if that's impossible, artificial intelligence is coming, and we have to have a comprehensive plan to deal with technology that tries to take over.

With the rise of coronavirus in China this week, we're reminded that biological mutations are out there and there's not really a plan for dealing with the brain-eating disease that is hiding somewhere in the Amazon.

"Zombieland" was a surprise hit back in 2009 and, 10 years later, the filmmakers finally came up with a sequel idea and bring us "Zombieland 2: Double Tap." Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have been living in the White House, but things have started to get boring for Little Rock, who wants to meet people her own age.

She takes off, meets a goofy guy called Berkeley (Avan Jogia) and sets off visit Army veteran Elvis Presley's home at Graceland. The rest of the crew goes looking for her, but not before Columbus and Wichita have a falling out and Columbus takes up with Madison (Zoey Deutch), who's been hiding from zombies in a freezer at the mall. Deutch is the funniest performer in a funny movie, and she's a reason to watch all by herself.

What's important to note for our purposes is that (of course) the zombies have continued to mutate and now they're harder than ever to kill. The carnage from the initial mutant rampage has left the country sparsely populated by humans, proving that no one in charge had contemplated the possibility and had no plan to stop the disaster once it arrived.

On their road trip, the group meets Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), a pair of zombie hunters with a relationship that seems way too much like the one between Tallahassee and Columbus. They're not as good at following the zombie prevention rules, and a grisly fate awaits.

Tallahassee hooks up with Nevada (Rosario Dawson), a Memphis hotel owner who's preserved the valuables from Graceland, and everything comes to a climax at a weapons-free utopian camp called Babylon, run by a group of especially sensitive and irritating millennials.

Fans of the first movie will be glad to know that the filmmakers figured out a way to bring back Bill Murray for this movie, and he gets yet another amazing moment in a career full of them.

Creativity, decisiveness and strict procedure are the skills needed to hold off the mutant menace. These are lessons our leaders should heed.

Ask anyone who's looking for your vote in 2020 an important question: Just what will our military do to protect us when the robots and the mutants come?

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