The Terminator #5 is the fifth comic book issue in The Terminator comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment. It was published on March 5, 2025.
Premise[]
Official description of The Terminator #5 from Dynamite Entertainment:[1]
It's 1961, and high above the launch pads of Florida and central Asia, the US and the USSR are racing to claim the ultimate high ground of space. Project Mercury, America's accelerated program of manned missions, is poised to put its first crews into orbit - but something even deadlier than Cold War rivalries may be hitching a ride!
Ground controllers DECLAN SHALVEY and DAVID O'SULLIVAN orchestrate a flawless countdown of sci-fi suspense with The Terminator #5 - securely sealed in pressurized covers by SHALVEY, EDWIN GALMON, CAT STAGGS, and DAVID COUSENS!
Plot summary for "Gemini Rising"[]
Cape Canaveral, 1965. Two men dressed in NASA overalls walk into a hangar near the beach. One of them grabs a knife and begins flaying the skin off the other, who does not even flinch. After finishing, he picks up a drill.
March 3rd, 1965. At Cape Canaveral, NASA staff discuss their current emergency: shortly after entering orbit, communication was lost with astronauts Moss and Nelson aboard Gemini X4. The launch was uneventful except for an unexplained weight discrepancy, and there is no sign of an explosion. As they debate the possibility of Soviet interference, two more astronauts, Phillips and Russell, are assigned a mission. Officially, they will be conducting a routine maintenance operation aboard Gemini X5, but their true objective is to complete Gemini X4's mission and deploy a satellite into orbit.
Upon reaching orbit, Phillips and Russell locate Gemini X4 near the satellite but receive no response from Moss or Nelson. While Russell begins working on satellite deployment, Phillips moves toward the stranded spacecraft. Looking through the porthole, he sees Nelson’s spacesuit with a shattered helmet.
As Russell continues working, he unexpectedly sees the impossible sight of a metallic endoskeleton, strips of human skin still clinging to its frame, holding a drill and building a structure on the satellite. Before he can react, he is hit by what appears to be discarded human skin and panics. Hearing the commotion, Phillips moves to assist and finds Russell dead, his helmet visor shattered.
Still unsure of what he’s facing, Soviet experiment or alien entity, Phillips makes a desperate move. Grabbing the discarded skin, he uses it as a distraction, pushing the endoskeleton away from the satellite and into the depths of space. Thinking the situation is under control, Phillips begins dismantling the structure the Terminator was assembling. As he detaches it, a cold metal hand suddenly grabs him: an endoskeleton attacks, its skull and arms attached to its torso by long, winding cables. Realizing this is no hallucination, Phillips quickly severs the wire connecting the skull to the body. But his victory is fleeting, as the Terminator’s floating arm slashes his spacesuit open. Knowing his time is running out, Phillips makes a desperate jump toward Gemini X5. He almost reaches it but falls short and drifts away.
As the second Terminator’s skull burns up during atmospheric reentry, the narrator compares humanity’s drive to explore space with Skynet’s relentless pursuit of control, wondering which will ultimately prevail.
Characters and machines in "Gemini Rising"[]
- Phillips
- Russell
- Moss
- Nelson
Plot summary for "Buried Alive"[]
Characters and machines in "Buried Alive"[]
Covers gallery[]
