Terminator Salvation is a 2009 action film about a mysterious new weapon in the war against the machines, half-human and half-machine, that arrives to help in the resistance against Skynet.
The Terminator series hasn’t had all the much success in doing the franchise proper since its groundbreaking first sequel in 1991, seven years after the original. Every film since has had trouble juggling the time travel properly while looking to expand the universe in explaining how the characters developed and why. It’s a daunting task, and clearly one that no one seems able to get right, even if most are generically entertaining on their own.
So it was in 2009 when director McG took to helming the lastest, the movie taking a bit of a departure from the others in tone and theme, looking to tell a more gritty, grounded story with less scale and more impact. It’s set in the year 2018, fourteen years after all the chaos that happened in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Basically, it focuses on the need for humans to come together and fight Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that has decided humans need not apply. For life.
It stars Christian Bale as the John Conner, a name very familiar to those who know the Terminator story, he the son of Sarah Conner and leader of the resistance. Here, he makes a startling discovery – human prisoners are at Skynet and there plans to use their DNA and tissue as part of the new line of robot Terminators, called T-800s (the very machine made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first movie). Meanwhile, from that factory emerges a man named Marcus (Sam Worthington), a human-machine hybrid who doesn’t know he’s half man. But which side is he fighting for?
No matter the outcome and the obvious missteps the film takes, delivering a well-made but emotionless experience that sort of mechanically offers up a perfuctory Terminator film, there are good things to be found. Worthington is great as are some of the visual effects and battles. But what I like most is this early scene that serves as an introduction for Connor, showcasing the best of what McG has on tap for innovation and twisting the expectations of who we think Connor really is.
After a brief setup that sets the stage for Marcus’ fate, we learn of an attack on a Skynet base. There are jets zipping about and myriad explosions leaving plums of dark smoke trailing into the air. A large array of satellite dishes lie in ruins and a column of Resistance combat helicopters make their may into the mayhem to drop off streams of eager fighters.
One of these choppers lands right on the fallen chassis of a destroyed Terminator, its flesh burned off and metal face scarred in black. The helicopter landing skid settles right on the machine’s head in close up as a man’s boot steps off and the firing end of a machine gun swings into view before laying a few rounds into the robot’s skull. Up then goes the camera and we see Connor in a hero shot and the sound of an unseen grunt shouting over the headsets: “Connor is on the ground.”
In a flash, he’s in the fight and makes his way to deep cavern left exposed in the combat, leaping into the air on a bungee cord before coming to a stop well below the surface. He then snakes his way with a team through some water soaked tunnels to eventually find they aren’t alone in the abyss.
Okay, so let’s rewind a bit and marvel at the little string of action that got us here. McG begins the sequence with a POV shot of a missile tracking its target along the desert floor, barely skipping over the numerous pits and peaks before slamming into a satellite dish, the fireball triggering the fight.
On the ground are Terminators and mounted cannons all sending up a bright white volley of defense as jets swing into to lay down more hell. The camera pitches left to a formation of landing helicopters that have their men jump and immediately run right, swing us back to the first direction and the incoming chopper of John Conner. It’s a terrific bit of movement that follows three distinct series of action while telling a wordless narrative. We know everything that’s happening even if we don’t know why. Then when Connor puts boots on the ground, the subtle call of his name on the intercom system is a brilliant way to say who is without making it like the movie’s holding your hand.
This is great because we’ve not really seen Connor like this before. In Terminator 2, he was just a kid – rebellious of course (played by Edward Furlong), and then in Terminator 3, he was a bit older (now played by Nick Stahl), rejecting his role in the fate of mankind, his presence not all that weighty. But here, in Salvation, things shift dramatically. The stringy Connor has grown up buff, weathered and damaged by all he knows and what has happened. Bale immediately sets a new standard for the character, and while he sort of plays it too cold the rest of the way, this start is a real kick in the pants for getting the series a facelift. Why not make him an action hero? It’s a good move and I do like the approach, putting Connor right in the mess of it, willing to die for the cause. That someone feels the need to call out that he’s on the ground speaks volumes already to his importance, but more to his own sacrifice. It rallies the troops per se, and queues the audience that this is not the same John Connor we all once knew. Good stuff.
Terminator Salvation is a flawed film, but it’s also one of the better sequels simply because it avoids the messy trappings of time travel and sticks to the urgency of these few characters and the implications of their place in the history of the franchise. It lacks the gut punch the story needs and a bond that the first two films so successfully created between them all, but it’s a sold action flick with plenty of well-earned surprises. And John Connor’s introduction makes for a great movie moment.