Dani Ramos Terminator: Who She Is and Who Plays Her

Dani Ramos is a young factory worker in Mexico City and the character the plot of Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), directed by Tim Miller, is built around. She is credited as Daniella "Dani" Ramos, and the part is played by Natalia Reyes, who is billed fourth in the film behind Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mackenzie Davis. Some searches spell her first name Danielle, but the credited spelling is Daniella.

At the start of the film, Dani is an ordinary person with no idea she matters. A new Terminator called the Rev-9 is sent to kill her, and a soldier from the future named Grace arrives to stop it. Her family includes her brother Diego and her father, who are credited as Diego Ramos (Diego Boneta) and Dani Ramos's Father (Enrique Arce).

Dani Ramos matters because, in the future Grace comes from, she leads the human resistance against Legion, the defense AI that started a nuclear war in Grace's timeline. Her role in the saga sits where John Connor's once did: the protected figure whose survival decides a war. For the wider cast around her, see the Terminator characters index.

Dani Ramos goes from a hunted stranger to the person who ends the Rev-9. Her story begins at a Mexico City factory, where she works without any idea that someone wants her dead. The Rev-9 can separate into a liquid metal body and a hard endoskeleton, and it is already closing in. Grace, an augmented soldier from 2042, reaches her first and explains the stakes: in Grace's timeline a defense AI called Legion started a nuclear war, and Dani is the one destined to lead the human resistance against it.

Diego dies during the pursuit. Sarah Connor then turns up and gets the survivors out. She has been getting tip-off messages that announce Terminator arrivals, and the same messages steer the group toward the U.S. and Mexico border. Waiting there is the T-800 that killed John Connor in 1998. He now lives as a man named Carl, has developed a conscience, and agrees to fight the Rev-9 alongside them.

Their plan to get hold of an EMP weapon fails when the Rev-9 wrecks it. On a cargo plane the machine takes Carl prisoner and leaves the others no choice but to jump. They land by a hydroelectric dam, and the last fight happens there. Carl and Grace haul the Rev-9 toward a turbine, and Grace takes a mortal wound. With her last strength she tells Dani to turn her power core into a weapon. Dani does it while Carl pins the Rev-9 in place, and the blast destroys both machines. Dani and Sarah are left to get ready for the war ahead.

Dani's closest bond in the film is with Grace, the soldier played by Mackenzie Davis. Grace is sent back from 2042 for one purpose, which is to keep Dani alive, and the film treats that duty as personal rather than tactical. By the end Grace gives Dani the means to win the last fight.

Her second key relationship is with Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton. Sarah has spent decades hunting Terminators sent to the past, and she arrives at the moment Diego dies. She becomes the older figure who stays with Dani afterward, and the two leave the film together.

The opposition is the Rev-9, credited as Gabriel / REV-9 and played by Gabriel Luna. It is the machine sent specifically for her. Carl, credited as T-800 / Carl and played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, begins as the Terminator that took John Connor from Sarah and ends as an ally who holds the Rev-9 in place at the dam. For the model itself, see the T-800 Terminator page.

Her family sits at the start of the story. Diego Ramos, played by Diego Boneta, is her brother and is killed by the Rev-9. Her father appears in the credits as Dani Ramos's Father, played by Enrique Arce.

Dani Ramos survives Terminator: Dark Fate; Grace dies of her injuries, and Carl is destroyed along with the Rev-9 when Dani uses Grace's power core against it.

Dani and Sarah leave together to prepare for the coming war. The film therefore leaves Dani alive and committed to the war she was told she would lead.

Dark Fate is her only appearance in the six released Terminator films, and no return has been confirmed; see the new Terminator movie page.

Dani Ramos's best moments are the Mexico City chase, the jump from the cargo plane, and the power core finale at the dam, which is the most important. The strongest scenes are the ones where the film lets an ordinary person make a choice, rather than the ones where she is simply rescued.

The Mexico City chase opens her story. The Rev-9 is hunting a worker with no training, and the film establishes quickly that Dani has no idea why. This is the most useful stretch of her arc, because the later reveal that she is a future leader only works if we first see her as someone with no special status.

The jump from the cargo plane comes next. Carl is captured, the Rev-9 forces the group out, and they parachute toward the dam. It is a small beat, but it shows Dani acting alongside two hardened fighters rather than behind them.

The power core at the dam is the one that matters most. Grace, dying, tells Dani to use it as a weapon, and Dani does while Carl holds the Rev-9 in place. The moment belongs as much to Grace and Carl as to Dani, and the film is stronger for it. Compare it with the Terminator 2: Judgment Day ending, where the T-800 sacrifices himself in the steel mill; in Dark Fate the sacrifice is shared among Grace, Carl and Dani.