Terminator Salvation

Stars of Terminator Salvation

It’s been six long years since we’ve last heard from John Connor and his plight to save humanity from Skynet—an artificial intelligence who launched a nuclear war against humanity. Now, as Connor takes his rightful place as leader of the Resistance, he’ll need all the help he can get. Here’s an inside look into the film’s characters.

Christian Bale as John Connor
John is the son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. He is the fated leader of the Resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. “He’s so much older and he has gone through Judgment Day,” Bale says of his character. “Living through an event like that alters everybody, so in many ways he’s a completely different person. Skynet is dominant but still in a state of evolution,” Connor fights on the front lines of the Resistance, but is not yet its leader. New developments by Skynet have rocked his vision of the future, as told to him throughout his life by his mother. She believed the future was not set, and his own doubts are growing that he may not live to initiate the events that
will result in his own conception—namely, sending Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother. “Humans are definitely on the out,” says Bale. “Their backs are against the wall and their circumstances are desperate. This is the last, final effort for the survival of mankind.”

Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright
Marcus Wright’s appearance is a mystery. His last memory was of being put to death for committing a crime; he has no knowledge of how he came into this world or what his purpose is here. “Marcus had been on death row,” Worthington explains. “He was put to death. But then he wakes up in this post-apocalyptic world and has to go on a surreal adventure to figure out why he isn’t dead. The irony, of course, is that it’s only here, where living itself is a challenge, that he experiences true human kindness and compassion.” When he is discovered as being half machine, his purpose is questioned.

Common as Barnes
Barnes is a soldier in the Resistance and is John Connor’s right hand man. He is assigned to watch over Wright, of whom everyone has become suspicious. “Barnes is this spiritual warrior in many ways, fighting to the end by Connor’s side for the future of humanity, and he sees Marcus as a threat,” says Common. “But, by the same token, he’s been through a lot of things that force him to come to a spiritual understanding—about their struggle, about John Connor’s destiny—and much of it is tied into Marcus.”

Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese
Kyle Reese, who will eventually travel backwards through time to save Sarah Connor (as seen in The Terminator (1984)), is at this point still a teenager, struggling to survive. “He’s a gritty survivor,” says McG. Adds Yelchin: “Kyle has survived day to day, eating whatever he can find. He’s out there surrounded by T-600s and other human scavengers who aren’t all friendly.” Kyle also wants to join the Resistance. But he is not alone in his journey—he’s accompanied by Star (Jadagrace Berry), a nine-year-old girl rendered mute by the trauma of war and displacement. Star has the uncanny ability to sense the presence of a Terminator before it appears, but, more importantly, her presence gives Kyle a greater sense of purpose.

Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams
Blair Williams is a fighter in the Resistance. “She is a wonderful fighter pilot and a survivalist,” says McG. “She really knows how to maneuver, destroy machines and, most importantly, stay alive.”

Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor
Kate Connor is John’s wife and partner in the Resistance. In the intervening years since Judgment Day, Kate has become a physician, training the best she can in these circumstances. “She finds books and she’s talked to as many survivors as possible, learning different techniques to enable her to save lives,” says Howard. Kate is the first to discover that Wright has been transformed into an unknown model of Terminator: a hybrid with a human heart, brain, and exterior, but the interior workings of a robot.

Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Serena Kogen
Carter’s character is connected to Marcus Wright. She is a mysterious scientist with the then-fledgling Skynet unit of Cyberdyne Systems. “Helena plays a very proficient scientist who is working on the cutting edge of technology,” says McG. “She’s further motivated by the fact that she has terminal cancer. She truly believes her research could give people like her a second chance, but her research falls into the hands of Skynet, and the consequences of that are quite revolutionary for the machines. But she is indeed the one who enlists Marcus to donate his body for what she will only tell him is ‘research,’ and hers is the last human face he sees before dying.”

Terminator Salvation also stars:
Jane Alexander as Virginia
Jadagrace Berry as Star
Roland Kickinger as the T-800
Brian Steele as the T-600
Michael Ironside as General Ashdown
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor (voice)

Toni-Marie Ippolito characters

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?

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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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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!

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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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Now we get to the good stuff.

Seeing as I have way too much to say about John Connor for just one post, I’m gonna break things up and start by looking at his first appearance in Terminator 2…

Connor (as originally played by Edward Furlong) is probably my favourite child character to appear in an adult-oriented movie. The thing is, I usually hate it when kids take the spotlight. I even have a problem with Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (which, according to my friends, officially makes me the devil). But for some reason, I was always okay with Furlong’s Connor, even though he displays all the hallmarks of annoying child stars: the grating voice, the look-how-cool-I-am attitude, and the rapid-fire pop culture sayings. On paper, Furlong is basically Macaulay Culkin with more swearwords.

But the fact of the matter is, Furlong’s Connor is the most identifiable character in the franchise, and might very well be the reason why Terminator 2 still stands as the best entry in the series.

If, in the summer of 1991, you happened to be a pubescent boy (and let’s be honest, that is the Terminator fanbase), then chances are you saw Terminator 2 in a very special light, because young John Connor might just be the perfect hero for generations of aimless youngsters.

It’s hard not to feel for the kid. For starters, his mom’s always pushing him to succeed, and it’s awfully hard to live up to such high expectations (what with her pressuring him to be the messiah and all), his dad’s gone, he has trouble making friends, he’s always crossing the authorities, and it’s really hard to meet girls when you’re being chased around by robots. But instead of getting all angsty and whiney like his contemporaries on Degrassi High, John Connor says screw it. In very colourful and creative ways. And instead of retreating into video games and Dungeons and Dragons, he makes his own fun, he makes his own father figure, and he takes no guff. But at the same time, he makes nice with his mom, he does what he can to save the day, and he’s not afraid to cry.

Watching this movie for the first time as a fellow aimless young hipster was like a religious experience. Because at the ends of the day, John Connor gives all scrawny, nerdy dudes reason to hope. And the movie, for all its superbad action tendencies, ends with the surprisingly uplifting message that if you just be yourself and let your emotions out, things will be okay and you’ll grow up to be a hero after all.

And, really, how cool is that?

Not since Luke Skywalker in Star Wars has one amazingly annoying young man given legions of bored, dissatisfied film nerds reason to dream.

See, the magic of John Connor in T2 is that, all in all, he’s a major disappointment. In the first film this guy has been hyped as the one and only savior of humanity, over-flowing with brains and war-heroics and superpowers. And then in T2 we get Edward Furlong, who is pretty much the exact opposite. He’s scrawny, selfish, bored, and often does incredibly stupid things just for the heck of it.

But the thing is, he knows he’s a disappointment. He knows he’s not the man he’s supposed to be, but he refuses to let other people’s expectations change him. He has kind of a “que sera sera” outlook to the whole thing. And for the masses of young men and women whose parents wanted them to become accountants and doctors and lawyers, but who instead wanted to daydream about sci-fi and watch cartoons, John Connor is all kinds of heroic. His message is simple: Live your life, try not to piss off your parents too much, and if it truly is meant to be, then just let it be.

And most importantly, there’s no situation that can’t be solved with coarse language.

Keep your eyes peeled for part 2 where we’ll look at Nick Stahl’s time behind the John Connor reigns and see what we have to look forward to in Salvation.

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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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The hero of Terminator has always been (and in my mind always will be) Sarah Connor.

At its core, the Terminator franchise is all about Sarah Connor’s journey from frightened waitress to defender of humanity. Played flawlessly by Linda Hamilton in Terminator 1 and 2 (and quite admirably by Lena Heady in the TV series), Sarah Connor is the definitive transgressive female action hero. More so than Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, more so than Angleina Jolie in Tomb Raider, even more so than Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Hamilton’s Sarah Connor broke all the rules about what women could and couldn’t do in action movies.

See, in Terminator 1, there’s nothing all that remarkable about Hamilton’s character. She wakes up, finds out that she’s destined to give birth to the messiah (forgive the intentional use of Biblical imagery), and is told that she needs to survive long enough to ensure his existence. And then from that point on, Kyle Reese and the Terminator wage war over her magic uterus. In flim-studenty terms, Connor plays the slasher-slick role often referred to as “the last girl.” She gets chased around by monsters, is threatened at every turn, watches every one of her friends get gunned down, and then manages to outsmart the bad guy at the very last second. There’s nothing revolutionary here. It’s also hard to ignore the fact that the premise behind Terminator 1 is that the one thing Sarah Connor is good for is making babies. You don’t need a doctorate in gender studies to see the problems there…

But come Terminator 2, Sarah Connor turns the game around and starts playing by her own rules. She says screw it to all this talk of destiny and imminent destruction and decides to make her own future. And even though she’s already given birth to John (which, according to Kyle Reese in Terminator 1, is all she’s supposed to do), she takes the battle to Skynet herself and starts blowing stuff up left, right and centre, learns how to use all sorts of machine guns, and beats the heck out of anyone who stands in her way. She even gets to utter a pretty cool one-liner at the end of the first movie. This is the character that wrestles with existential issues of free will and destiny. This is the character who holds vendettas and exacts revenge. This is the character who is, plain and simple, really freaking cool.

But here’s the kicker: despite being a super-badass warrior in T2, Sarah Connor still gets to be a mom. And that’s not something you see every day.

In most action flicks, women can either be fighters or mothers, but you can’t have it both ways. In other words, if a girl wants to be an action hero, she has to act like a dude. She has to drink whiskey and curse like a sailor and play with guns (and I’ll spare you the Freudian associations that several film theorists have made), but as soon as you’re a mommy, you’re out of the game. Take Kill Bill, for example: the entire point of the movie is that the Bride has to hang up her swords as soon as she has a daughter. Or take any cop show you’ve ever seen. The guy cops can have any number of kids, but the gal cops are always unmarried with no children.

But Terminator doesn’t play by this rule. In T2, Sarah Connor leads the war against the machines (in fact, she’s the driving force behind the assault) and at the same time raises young John. To sum it up, take these two separate lines of dialogue, both spoken by Sarah Connor in T2:

“Men like you thought it up. You think you’re so creative. You don’t know what it’s like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you”

[After breaking Silberman’s arm]
“There’s 215 bones in the human body. That’s one.”

How often does any character, male or female, get to preach about human life and loving their kids, but also get to say something so unbelievably cool in the middle of a fight? It just doesn’t happen. I’m hard-pressed to think of even one other female film character that’s such a diehard superhero, but is also prominently figured as a parent.

And so, imagine my disappointment when in Terminator 3 it was casually announced that Sarah Connor had died of cancer and that was that. Here was one of the coolest, most ground-breaking characters of the past thirty years, and she didn’t even get the dignity of dying on screen. Not cool, man. Not cool.

But all is not lost!!

Hamilton will be returning as Sarah Connor in Terminator Salvation in a voice-over role as the grown-up John Connor listens to the tapes she’s left him. Johnny-boy will continue to learn from Sarah’s teachings as he struggles to defeat the Connor family nemesis Skynet.

Usually I cringe when filmmakers shoehorn dead characters into a sequel, but I’m more than willing to make an exception here. Lind Hamilton is the heart and soul of Terminator, and Salvation just wouldn’t feel like a worthy successor without her.

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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.

jakeb get psyched, history