Terminator Salvation

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.

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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.

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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.

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2008 saw the death of an honest-to-God film legend. And I know that term gets thrown around a lot when someone dies in Hollywood, but there’s no other way to describe special effects wizard Stan Winston. In fact, when you look at Winston’s body of work (which includes Terminator, Jurassic Park, Aliens, Predator, Iron Man, Edward Scissorhands, and – regrettably – the Star Wars Christmas Special), it’s awfully tempting to call him the most influential FX man of the past forty years. This is the guy who gave me nightmares as a kid, had me dreaming about dinosaurs and spaceships as a teenager, and now has earned my continued awe and respect as a film student. If that’s laying it on a little thick, well… what can I say? He literally designed the look of my childhood.

And while Winston and his crew certainly knew their way around a computer, I’ve always thought he deserved the most recognition for his non-CGI work. Winston’s puppets, models, and miniatures make up some of the coolest monsters in Hollywood history, beginning with one of his earliest projects (and still one of his best), the metal Terminator exoskeletons.

So perhaps it’s fitting that one of the last movies Winston worked on before his death was Terminator Salvation.

And, yes, I’m very excited.

See, we’ve pretty much reached the point where puppets and models and miniatures are obsolete. Any robot or spaceship or dinosaur can be animated on a computer for around the same price. And, in all fairness, in most cases the CGI will look better. Bottom line: you can always do more with a computer.

But, when done right, nothing tops a real, physical model. Because the better CGI gets, the more you’re drawn out of the movie and end up thinking, “wow, that’s really good CGI!” But a puppet can actually scare the pants off you. Or at least me, anyway. Maybe it’s not the same for everyone. And don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware that the Terminator franchise (specifically number 2) was one of the defining moments in CG effects history (and I’ll be talking about that in more detail next week), but still… at the end of the day, I’ll always take a puppet over a drawing. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I was raised on old-school Lucas and Spielberg and Cameron, so this is what I’ve come to appreciate. Maybe the kids raised on Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter will look back and think puppets are stupid.

All I know is that Terminator Salvation can only benefit from the awesome work of Stan Winston.

McG has said time and again that he’s going for a gritty, realistic, dirty, ugly feel for this movie, and going the extra mile to at least include some puppetry was absolutely the right call.

Oh, and for the record, Winston was one of the leading engineers in animatronics, meaning in other words that he actually built real freaking robots. If he had to go, I’m glad he went doing Terminator.

But what do you think? What works better for you? Would you rather see shiny computer drawings, or gritty, greasy models?

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Here’s what’s going on in the world of Terminator this week:

1. Join our Facebook group!

Click here to connect with other Terminator Salvation fans and spread the word to like-minded friends.

2. You can also follow us on Twitter

Head over to www.twitter.com/skynet_canada to see what we’re up to. You can also follow other dedicated Terminator tweeters… just in case you absolutely need constant updates every minute of the day!

3. Check out “The Arnold Project”

Quite possibly the most comprehensive summary of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career (that has no academic or critical merit whatsoever). An absolutely fascinating read… if you’re looking for something to do on your lunch break.

4. How NATO Has Prepared For Cyberwar

This one comes courtesy of io9.com. Read the truly frightening account of what NATO plans to do in the event of a Skynet-style takeover. Seriously people, move off the grid, go underground, and start learning everything you can about cybernetic organism.

ALSO: Your random Terminator fact for the week:

I pulled this tidbit off the imdb.com trivia page for Terminator 1…

“O.J. Simpson was considered for the role of the Terminator, but the producers feared he was ‘too nice’ to be taken seriously as a cold-blooded killer.”

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So it occurs to me that I’ve been using an awful lot of Terminator jargon under the assumption that everyone else is as obsessed with mid-80s science fiction as I am. In order to make further readings a little easier on the Terminator-impaired, here’s my first entry in an ongoing Terminator Encyclopedia.

Skynet
a.k.a the Bad Guy

Originally designed as a computer program to control U.S. defense systems, Skynet developed a personality and started thinking for itself. The creators promptly freaked out and tried to shut it down. Facing imminent destruction, Skynet decided to use all those fancy nuclear weapons at its disposal to wipe out most of humanity. Skynet now spends its time building Terminators for the sole purpose of eradicating the last vestiges of mankind.

“The Resistance”

a.k.a. the Good Guys

The Resistance is a ragtag group of freedom fighters made up of survivors who have managed to escape Skynet’s grasp. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned by their robotic adversaries, we know that at some point in the future John Connor will lead the Resistance to victory. Skynet also knows this, and resorts to various time travel tricks to prevent such an outcome from occurring.

T-600

An early, pre-Schwarzenegger model Terminator equipped with all manner of weapons. Unlike later models, the T-600 lacks the convincing organic exterior needed to blend in with humans. According to Kyle Rees in Terminator 1, the T-600’s fake rubber skin makes it easy to spot. But just because it lacks stealth, it doesn’t mean the T-600 isn’t damn near unstoppable.

Kyle Reese

A member of the Resistance sent back through time to protect Sarah Connor in Terminator 1. Originally played by Michael Biehn, a younger Kyle Reese (this time played by Anton Yelchin) will appear in Terminator Salvation. Much of what we know about the future and John’s destiny comes from what Kyle tells Sarah in the first movie.

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With a little over a month to go until Terminator Salvation hits theatres, I’ve decided to put together a list of essential readings. Whether you’re a diehard fan or a newcomer to the franchise, these books will get you in the mood for some robot-hunting fun. 

1. Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)

R.U.R. is often considered to be the first story about machines rebelling against their creators with apocalyptic consequences (that is if you ignore Shelley’s Frankenstein, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and just about every creation myth ever). What’s for sure is that R.U.R. marks the very first appearance of the word “robot” (your sci-fi history lesson for the day). While Čapek’s play is fairly entertaining, it’s really one of those books you read for the sole purpose of impressing people at dinner parties. Whenever you hear someone with a graduate degree discussing Terminator, this is the play they’ll inevitably compare it to. Basically, R.U.R. is the thinking man’s robot tale because it’s actually about communism… or something. It might be a little difficult to find in your average bookstore, but you can grab it off indigo.ca for under $3.

2. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

I’ll be talking about this one in greater detail when I look at the landscape of Terminator Salvation, but what you need to know for now is that McG had his cast and crew read this book to get inspired before filming started. A lot of authors have tried their hand at post-apocalyptic tales, but few have done it better that McCarthy does in The Road, and I’m pretty excited that McG is using it as a guidebook for his own wasteland adventure. What’s more, The Road is rife with father/son angst, which will be good prep for the odd relationship we’ll be seeing between John Connor and Kyle Reese. Plus, The Road has its own movie adaptation coming out later this year, so read it now and kill two birds with one stone.

3. IDW’s Terminator Salvation Movie Adaptation #0

If fancy plays and award-winning novels don’t do it for you, pick up the first issue of IDW’s Terminator Salvation comic book which hit stands yesterday. Not only do you get a sneak peek at what’s going on with John Connor in 2018, but it also answers some of the questions surrounding the mysterious Marcus Wright. If you just can’t wait for Salvation, start reading this series to tide you over.

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