Terminator Salvation

1. The Real Cyberdyne Systems.

This is not a viral site, nor is this a joke. This is the website for an actual Japanese corporation called Cyberdyne that is currently developing “cyborg-type” technology. I spent a good thirty minutes staring at this site before I was ready to believe it wasn’t an elaborate hoax. Judgment Day is coming!

2. Some more glory shots of the T-600

Check out the National Post’s coverage of the T-600’s stay in Toronto. Their report on the event is less than enthusiastic. Apparently the serious journalist really badly wanted to see a Terminator that could actually kill people. See what he has to say here.

3. Interviews with the stars

Check out ign.com’s coverage of Terminator Salvation, complete with interviews from a “roadshow” event a few months back. See it here.

4. Check out the video game

Head over to the official site for the Terminator Salvation video game. Even if you’re not a big fan of movie tie-in games, you should give this one a chance. It’s a hard premise to get wrong: kill robots. Learn more here.

jakeb get psyched, links

A couple of days ago I get an e-mail asking if I want to come hang out with the T-600 as it spends the day in Toronto.

Obviously, I say yes.

So at 6:30 in the morning two guys dressed in full army camo pull up in a u-haul and park in front of Bloor Station, the busiest subway stop in the city. As the paramilitary-looking troops start unloading unmarked crates from the sketchy-looking van, the studio guy visiting from L.A. remarks that anywhere else in the world, a sight like this would cause mass panic and shut down the subway system. You gotta love Canada.

We then spend the next half hour lugging the behemoth robot down into the station and we get set up just as rush hour kicks in. As we assemble the T-600 and get everything turned on, the sculptor who actually built this thing informs me that this is the model seen in the trailer (the one that John Connor shoots in the head after crushing it with a helicopter) and I get unreasonably excited.

In some stroke of insane marketing luck, the trains get delayed and the subway is packed with people who have nothing better to do than stare in awe at the seven foot cybernetic organism with glowing red eyes. Some stray observations about crowds and robots:

• It’s amazing how many people carry cameras around with them. It’s like everyone needs to be prepared just in case they pass something worth photographing on their way to work. We truly are a city of artists.
• The more barricades you put up, the more people try to touch stuff.
• If you let me past the barricades, I will touch stuff.

Rush hour comes and goes, so we pack up this bad boy and head down to the Edge 102.1 studio on Yonge Street. We set up in the window and then spend the next few hours spreading the Terminator love to passersby and swapping Schwarzenegger impressions. Some observations on downtown Toronto at 2 PM on a Friday:

• Apparently most of my fellow nerds in the city are busy obsessing over some movie called Star Trek. And Hugh Jackman has another flick out?
• If you invite a bunch of guys in their 20s to work at an event like this, they will use the Terminator to pick up women.
• William Shatner’s cover of Common People is incredible.

Eventually the day comes to a close, and the Terminator gets boxed up and shipped out to the next group of people lucky enough to bask in its apocalyptic glow, and I smile in satisfaction, feeling very much like a young John Connor as I watch my robot buddy disappear. Escapism is awesome.

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So far I’ve had nothing but love for the people working on Terminator Salvation (and mild tolerance for Anton Yelchin…) but one name has been bugging me since the first day I learned about this movie: our fearless director McG.

The man with the silliest name in Hollywood is probably the last guy I would have ever chosen to direct this film. His style is goofy and wacky (remember, he did Charlie’s Angels 1 and 2) and Terminator Salvation is anything but. Plus, he has terrible taste in music, which should be irrelevant to his directing chops, but still bugs me nonetheless.

That being said, any man who would go to the lengths McG did to ensure the continuation of the Terminator franchise deserves a second chance. So, with that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of five reasons why McG might just change my mind and pull off the best possible Terminator sequel…

1. He wrote and directed Fastlane

I’m guessing very few of you remember this show, as it only ran for half a season on Fox several years ago. It was basically a young, hip attempt at a cop show that involved shiny cars and big gunfights. I’m sure if I went back and watched it now I’d think it was terrible, but for some reason I loved this show in high school. Which was the exact same time I fell in love with Terminator. Something about this show appealed to the same part of me that dug T2, so clearly McG has something going for him. That being said, it’s entirely possible I only watched this show because it starred Kelly Kapowski.

2. He took a chance on Josh Schwartz

Besides being a director extraordinaire, McG is also a television producer. When he wasn’t working overtime to bring us Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, he found time to take a shot on an up and coming writer named Josh Schwartz, and the first series they made together was a little show called The O.C. Now be honest, chances are you’ve seen at least one episode, and your probably liked it more than you’d care to admit. But more importantly than The O.C., McG then went on to produce Schwartz’s next show, Chuck, which is one of the most original and most fun shows on television today. Yes, it’s full of McG’s trademark silliness, but damn if it isn’t awesome anyway. Like The O.C., Chuck is loaded with references to fandom and sci-fi history, so it’s clear to me that McG has a healthy respect for cult franchises.

3. He has excellent taste in remakes

The man is currently in the middle of remaking Revenge of the Nerds, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the British sitcom Spaced. I would argue that all three of those productions are awesome enough on their own, and don’t really need to be remade, but at least I now know that McG likes a lot of the same stuff I like, which gives him another point in his favour.

4. He was inches away from making an awesome Superman movie

Credit for this one technically goes to J.J. Abrams as he was the brains behind the project… but McG was the man who hired Abrams, so he deserves some recognition. If you know the history of Superman Returns, you know that the film went through several different phases before ending up in the hands of Bryan Singer (if you don’t know the history of Superman Returns, head over to YouTube and search “Kevin Smith” and “Superman” to hear one of the greatest stories ever told). Well at one point McG and J.J. were going to make a film called Superman: Flyby, which by all accounts would have been a whole lot better than what we got from Singer. McG loves Superman, and I love Superman, so I guess that means I now love McG.

5. The man knows his Terminator

As hard as I’ve been on the him, I have to admit that every single thing McG has said in interviews on the subject of Terminator Salvation really does demonstrate that he knows his stuff. Honest to God, I’ve been looking for reasons to pounce on this guy, but he’s giving me nothing. He understands the blurred line between man and machine, he gets John’s struggle to fulfill his destiny, and from the trailers it’s obvious that he really, really knows his exploding robots.

So all in all, I’m hopeful. McG is a long way away from being James Cameron, but maybe this will be the movie to turn his career around (after all, Cameron did direct Piranha Part Two: The Spawning before he got around to making Terminator…) But who would you want to see behind the helm? Let us know in the comments who you think should have directed Terminator Salvation.

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Here are the rest of the definitions you’ll need to know as I delve further into the minutiae of Terminator awesomeness…

 T-800

The Cadillac of Terminators. This is the model portrayed by Schwarzenegger in the first three movies. They’re as close to indestructible as you can get, highly intelligent, and capable of blending in amongst regular humans. This model comes wrapped in living human tissue, allowing them to perform all sorts of incredibly gross tricks. These guys have been both the bane and the savior of the Connor family.

Cyberdyne Systems

The geniuses behind Skynet. Originally Cyberdyne was a private computer engineering firm that made a gigantic leap forward in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence when their researchers stumbled upon bits and pieces of a future Terminator that Sarah Connor was clumsy enough to leave lying around at the end of T1. After the corporation and all of its data were destroyed by the Connor family at the end of T2, Cyberdyne became a division of the U.S. army, where the top brass was smart enough to put their latest creation – Skynet – in charge of the world’s nuclear stockpile.

HKs (Hunter-Killers)

These creatively named devices are gigantic robot airships and tanks that patrol the future of 2018 and hunt (and kill) humans. According to Kyle Reese in Terminator 1, the HKs make life above ground pretty difficult for the Resistance. If you look closely at the trailers, you’ll see an incredibly cool action sequence involving an HK, a bridge, and one heck of an explosion.

Time Displacement Field

The technology that allows Skynet and the Resistance to send things back through time. There are a few conditions to understand about this technology… One, only organic material can be sent through the portal, but inorganic material can be sent if it’s covered by organic material. So, a metal Terminator can be sent back as long as it’s covered in real human tissue, but it can’t be sent back with clothes or weapons (often resulting in comedic gratuitous nudity). Two, as far as I know, the time displacement field is a one way trip. When you go back, there’s no way to return. That being said, the TV series has found some interesting ways around this problem by suggesting that both Skynet and the Resistance have hidden displacement fields throughout the decades, thereby allowing their agents to access one and return home.

jakeb get psyched, history

Last week I looked at little Johnny Connor’s first appearance in Terminator 2, and why I thought he was the perfect hero for the aimless 90s teenager. He gave all scrawny young nerds reason to hope, and showed us the hero hiding beneath a generation of cynics. And in a perfect move, T2 ended with John Connor riding off into the night, ready to face an uncertain future.

And then John Connor pops up twelve years later in Terminator 3, this time played by Nick Stahl (otherwise known as the yellow guy in Sin City). And things quickly went south…

It’s pretty clear that Nick Stahl was not the first choice to play John. By most accounts, the filmmakers wanted wisecracking Ed Furlong to come back, but a wee problem with drugs and alcohol made him ineligible. Unfortunately for Stahl, stepping in as a replacement for such a beloved franchise was bound to generate unfavorable comparisons, and in my humble opinion he got a raw deal.

See, there are two things to consider when looking at Stahl’s Connor in T3. First off, there’s Stahl’s acting, and then there’s the script that was written for him.

Now if you just look at Stahl’s performance, he does a pretty solid job. Not only does he actually look like an older version of Furlong, but he also tries his best to channel that devil-may-care trickster attitude. Is it perfect? No. But all things considered, Stahl was a pretty decent choice to play a mid-twenties Connor. He looks like he’s grown up a bit, but he’s not so far removed from his predecessor that it’s hard to buy him as Connor (which, coincidentally, is my one and only problem with Christian Bale, but I’ll elaborate on that later).

Unfortunately for Stahl, however, he got stuck with a script that didn’t do the character justice. As I argued last week, what makes John Connor so compelling T2 is that he doesn’t let little things like destiny and the apocalypse get him down. The kid has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he ends up being a major disappointment, but at no point does he get whiney or angsty or moody. He stays supremely confident and just keeps on doing his own thing.

Stahl in T3, however, is the exact freaking opposite. The film opens with the whiniest, angstiest, moodiest monologue in the history of the franchise, and overnight this unflappable character has lost all of his gravitas. There’s a scene where he sits by himself drinking a beer as he looks out at a ravine. And there’s a scene where he crashes his little moped in a weak “look how suicidal I am” moment. And then, worst of all, there’s a scene where he whines to his ex-girlfriend about how hard it was to live up to his mom’s expectations. All of sudden John Connor is gone and he’s been replaced with the kid from Dawson’s Creek. The guys who wrote T3 got the character completely wrong, and it was downright painful to watch. As someone who had strongly identified with Connor in T2, it made me really uncomfortable to watch that same character suddenly lose all of his appealing attributes.

That being said, T3 does contain what is probably my favourite John Connor moment in the entire series.

Somewhere around the third act, John Connor snaps out of his funk and steps up as the hero we were promised way back in number 1. When the heat is on, his true colours show and he makes the call to stop running and start blowing stuff up (and that right there is the central Terminator ethos). But unfortunately John gets some bad intel, and instead of ending up in the Skynet command center, he finds himself in a fallout shelter equipped with all the fixings needed to start an underground resistance.

And this is where the magic happens.

As the nukes start flying, calls come pouring into John’s fallout shelter from generals around the world seeking instructions. And then John steps up to the mic and does what he has to: he starts saving the world. It’s a surprisingly powerful scene (surprising because the hour and a half that precedes it completely sucks) and manages to save the movie (almost). The mixture of fear and acceptance on Stahl’s face is spot on, and it makes me frustrated that he didn’t get the chance to work with a better script.

What’s more, the final scene sums up the John Connor philosophy of “let it be.” Connor gives us proof that there’s no point in sitting around panicking about your future, you just have to wait and see what happens. In that last scene the film finally delivers on the promise made to the aimless 90s teenagers who followed the young John Connor of T2. Does it make up for the inexplicably wrong handling of the character in the rest of the movie? Not entirely, but it’s a solid note to end on.

So where do we go from here? Check back in the coming weeks for part 3 where I’ll look at the John Connor who is playing in the big leagues in Terminator Salvation.

jakeb characters, history

There’s nothing particularly original about the “technology will doom us all!” narrative. In fact, as I suggested earlier, that old tale has been kicking around since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Or, if you want to push it, I guess you could say it’s been around since Prometheus decided to be so generous with his fire. Countless writers have taken it upon themselves to warn us that we’re digging our own grave, what with our cell phones and MySpace and iPods, but that hasn’t seemed to stop us from plugging ahead anyway.

Terminator 1 follows strongly in this cautionary tradition. The message is clear and forceful: computers are bad. Get outside and play with your human friends and try to remember what life was like before toaster ovens.

But what I’ve always loved about the Terminator franchise is that this message gets a whole lot murkier as the series progresses.

See, by the time Terminator 2 rolls around, the robots might be the bad guys, but they’re also the good guys. Sure, the T-1000 wants to kill John Connor, but the T-800 is here to protect him. Machines are killing humans, humans are killing machines, and machines are killing machines. It’s all over the map, and any preachy lesson about the perils of a technology-driven society goes out the window. Sort of…

You could also argue that the message of Terminator gets deeper as the robot allegiances grow more complicated. Instead of a blanket message about technology being bad, Terminator argues that technology is just a tool, and it’s how you use it that’s important. It puts the focus back on us. At the end of the day, it’s the guy who builds and launches the nuclear bomb that’s responsible, not the malfunctioning computer he put in charge. As someone who makes his living on a computer, I like this message. It allows for all the positive aspects of technological developments, and the good liberal artist in me can’t help but smirk at the potshot taken at the military industrial complex (which of course conflicts with the smirk I get when Schwarzenegger blows stuff up with a rocket launcher, but that’s a psychological contradiction to explore at a later date).  

But more importantly than any political or philosophical message, it just makes for better storytelling. The “robots are bad because they’re bad” thing gets tired fast, but conflicted, ambiguous characters are at the heart of good drama. Terminator 2 isn’t the best entry in the series just because it has the biggest explosions and the best fights (don’t get me wrong, that’s a big part of it), but it’s the best because the characters have depth and they have the chance to grow and change.

So what does this have to do with Terminator Salvation?

Well I really, really hope that they continue this tradition. Now that the war is finally in full swing, it might be tempting to revert back to a simple good/bad distinction between humans and machines. But of course this time we have Marcus Wright, who if anything looks more conflicted than any of the terminators that came before him. Also, considering the screenwriters behind this movie, I’d be shocked if we didn’t get some of the most complex characters of the summer (in an action movie about robots…)

Just one more reason why I’m jumping out of my skin in anticipation.

jakeb a little philosophy

Kyle Reese is often the forgotten hero of Terminator.

Appearing only in the first movie (and briefly in the director’s cut of the second), Reese was the first resistance soldier sent back through time to protect Sarah Connor from Skynet’s evil machinations. But it turns out Reese was destined to do more than just crush Terminators; during his stay in 1984, Reese also found time to knock up Ms. Connor, leading to the birth of his future boss John, and creating a time paradox that’ll hurt your head if you think about it for too long (but more on that later…)

And then (spoiler alert!) Reese was killed in the line of duty, and he wasn’t heard from again.

But in an interesting twist (or perhaps in a completely expected twist), a much younger Kyle Reese will be popping up in Terminator Salvation played by Anton Yelchin. And while the reappearance of future/past Reese is nothing short of awesome, the casting of Yelchin has me a little concerned…

Originally Reese was played by Michael Biehn, a sci-fi mainstay whom you might know from Aliens, The Abyss, and more recently the Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse. Unfortunately for Biehn, who was for all intents and purposes the star of Terminator 1, his performance was completely overshadowed by the breakout appearance of Schwarzenegger. And that’s too bad, because Biehn did a solid job and really made the character his own.

In fact, Biehn did such a good job at playing Reese that I have a pretty hard time accepting Yelchin as a substitute. See, Biehn’s Reese was a cold, tough, do-what-it-takes kinda guy, and Yelchin is… not.

Something about Yelchin just screams silly to me. For whatever reason, I have a really hard time taking him seriously (though I have to admit, he really knocked it out of the park in Alpha Dog). It’s just one of those things where he’s always going to be Charlie Bartlett to me. He’s kinda goofy and innocent in a movie that’s nothing but gritty and ugly.

And yes, I do understand that Yelchin is playing a teenage Reese, and is not yet supposed to be the hardened adult we meet in Terminator 1. And I guess in that light Yelchin is a pretty good fit. But still, I’m not entirely convinced he’s the best choice to play Reese.

Because the thing is, Yelchin’s Reese isn’t just a cameo appearance to please longtime fans. On the contrary, Reese plays a big part in Terminator Salvation. John Connor finally gets the chance to meet the dad he never knew (under extremely odd and uncomfortable circumstances), and realizes that he now has to protect his future father to makes sure that he lives long enough to travel back in time and meet his mom. Yelchin is at the absolute core of the movie, and I’m not sure he can handle the weight. It’s like Shia LaBeouf in Indiana Jones all over again.

Should I give Yelchin the benefit of the doubt? Absolutely. His performance in Alpha Dog has earned him that much, and apparently J.J. Abrams thought he was good enough to cast him in the upcoming Star Trek movie (and in my book, J.J. can do no wrong), so I’m sure I won’t be disappointed…

But if I had my choice, I think I’d go in a different direction. Now this may seem like an odd choice, but I’d cast Paul Dano (the silent kid in Little Miss Sunshine, the young priest in There Will Be Blood). I know he doesn’t really look like a freedom-fighting soldier, but shave his head, lose the glasses, and maybe bulk him up a little and he’d fit right in. A very strong actor, and he even has a kinda Michael Biehn-ish face.

But that’s just me. Who would you choose?

jakeb characters

Here’s what’s up in the world of Terminator this week…

1. Join the Resistance!

Check out the incredibly elaborate Twitter game that’s going on as part of the Terminator Salvation promotional campaign. You have to intercept and decode Skynet messages in order to move up in the ranks of John Connor’s army. Insanely fun! Check it out here.

2. And fight some robots!

Another online game courtesy of the Sony website. This one’s a first-person shooter (and a very detailed one by internet standards) that gives you the chance to wipe out Terminators. Play it here.

3. But keep an eye out for Skynet

Quite possibly the coolest viral site I have ever seen. Read all about Skynet’s plans to make the world a better place right here.

4. Oh, and also… watch out for penguins…

Turns out the future of robot killing machines in penguin shaped. Read more here.

jakeb get psyched

Anyone else wicked excited about the Nine Inch Nails song in the latest Terminator trailer?

Just me? Maybe it’s a 90s thing…

Well even if you didn’t go through a long-haired moody rock phase in high school, you should still check out the “The Day the World Went Away,” the NIN track that blares as John Connor takes out that Terminator with a helicopter. Something about it really captures the essence of robot domination…

…which got me thinking: What would the perfect Terminator Salvation soundtrack be? So here it is, my list of five songs I would like to see in T4.

5. Something by Common

Apparently Common, who appears in Salvation as one of the resistance soldiers, has been urging the producers to put one of his songs in the movie. Usually I’m not a fan of such shameless cross-promotional techniques, but frankly I really want to see a music video with Terminator footage in it. Plus, Common balances out the twangy rock on the rest of my list

4. Something with a kinda Johnny Cash vibe to it

I’m blatantly ripping this one off of the opening scene of the Dawn of the Dead remake. The man in black’s whiskey-soaked voice really got to the heart of the whole “it’s the apocalypse” thing. I think McG should pull a little polite plagiarism and do the same.

3. If we’re going with 90s revival, how about some Smashing Pumpkins

Super-moody and super-whiney, but still all dark and serious, I think the Pumpkins would fit right in. You could go with some of their new stuff (which would certainly please Billy Corgan), but I’d rather see something old school, preferably off Mellon Collie.

2. … and probably some Radiohead too.

I actually kind of hate Radiohead, which always earns me the scorn of my music-nerd friends, but if we’re going for a bleak 90s sci-fi vibe, you can’t do much better. And come on, they have an album called OK Computer…

1.The original theme!

The original synthesizer music from the first movie is one of the all-time great movie themes. Perhaps a little dated by today’s standards, but a classic nonetheless. Maybe jazz it up with a bass line, or some electric guitars. Either way, this one is a must for me!

What do you wanna hear in Terminator Salvation? Let us know in the comments below!

jakeb music

Last week’s post got me thinking, and I realized there are plenty more books you can read in preparation for Terminator Salvation. If there’s anything I’m missing, please let me know in the comments!

Ron Fortier and Alex Ross’s Terminator: The Burning Earth

By some insane oversight, I only learned of this book’s existence last week, which truly breaks my heart because Terminator: The Burning Earth is the first published comic book by Alex Ross, who is easily my favourite comic artist of all time. For those in the know, he’s the guy behind Marvels and Kingdom Come, two of the most stunning graphic novels ever put together.  Burning Earth provides an interesting counterpoint to Terminator Salvation, as it tells a very similar, but altogether different story of an older John Connor going up against Skynet. The art alone is worth the buy, but it’s a pretty cool story too. Your local comic shop should have a copy, otherwise you can track it down on amazon.com.

Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife

A love story wrapped up in a time travel premise. It’s full of paradoxes and loops and predestination, but it’s also got enough heartbreak to make even the most hardened Terminator fan shed a tear. A good primer for those lacking a background in time travel fiction, which is absolutely essential for viewing Salvation. Or take the easy road and rent Back to the Future.

Battlestar Galactica – Season 1 (The Remake)

These guys rewrote the book on artificial intelligence in science fiction. The moral dangers, the nebulous identity, the conflict with humanity, it’s all done here in very new and very fascinating ways. You couldn’t make a Terminator movie in this day and age without being influenced by this series. If you haven’t already checked it out, start picking up the DVDs and thank me later.

Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle

A defining novel in the alternate history genre, The Man in the High Castle is one of the better books to look at what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war. Dick, the sci-fi genius behind Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (a.k.a Blade Runner, another great book/movie to pick up before seeing Salvation), examines how the future can be manipulated and the multiple roads we can go down. Alternate history plays a big part in Salvation, so get a taste of it here to know what to expect.

jakeb get psyched