Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator Salvation is an upcoming American science fiction war film set for release on May 22, 2009. Directed by McG, it is the fourth Terminator film and stars Christian Bale as John Connor and Sam Worthington as the Terminator Marcus Wright. It also introduces a young version of the first film’s hero, Kyle Reese, played by Anton Yelchin. The film, set in 2018, focuses on the war between humanity and Skynet. It abandons the formula of previous entries in the series, which involved the Terminator and various other characters traveling through time to protect or kill John Connor. Filming began on May 5, 2008.

Premise

On May 23, 2008, Warner Bros. released the following plot summary for the film. The synopsis was modified on June 11, 2008:

“Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale), the man fated to be the leader of the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators, and the future he was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they find out a terrible secret that may lead to the possible annihilation of mankind.”

Connor does not start off as leader of the human resistance but will work his way through the ranks in the film. He is also mistrusted by other soldiers due to his extensive knowledge of Skynet. McG said that it will be about the development of the Model 101 Terminator as well: scenes involve humans being captured and studied by Skynet in order to perfect their cybernetic organisms and Connor explaining “If we let these things go online, the war is over.” He explained the film will “begin again very much in the spirit of what Nolan did with Batman,” in that it will not require audiences to have seen the previous films, but it acts as “a bit of a sequel and a prequel because it tells the story of how we got there”.

Production

Development

Two years after C2 Pictures purchased the rights to the franchise, two Terminator films’ premise were mapped out and were supposed to be developed simultaneously. The idea for two more films originated from the Internet and interactive companies, which both films were planned to deal with. Tedi Sarafian was hired to write Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), which he eventually received story credits for, while David C. Wilson was to write Terminator 4. Before any revisions were done, T3 initially took place in 2001 and revolved around the first attacks between Skynet and humans. T4 would follow immediately afterwards and centered primarily on the war seen in the first two movies.

Following the release of Terminator 3 in 2003, producers Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar contracted Nick Stahl and Claire Danes to return as John Connor and Kate Brewster in another film. Director Jonathan Mostow supervised the script by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris, and was set to begin production in 2005 after completing another film. It was known by then Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role would be limited having assumed office as Governor of California. The producers sought to have Warner Bros. finance the picture as they did for Terminator 3. In 2005, Stahl said Connor and Brewster would be recast as the story jumped forward in time. By 2006, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, distributor of the original film The Terminator, was set to distribute the fourth film as part of the new CEO Harry Sloan’s scheme to make the studio a viable Hollywood player again.

On May 9, 2007, it was announced that production rights to the Terminator series had passed from the feuding Vajna and Kassar to the Halcyon Company. The producers hoped to start a new trilogy based on the franchise. By July 19, the project was in legal limbo due to a lawsuit between MGM and Halcyon subsidiary T Asset. MGM had an exclusive window of 30 days to negotiate for distribution of the Terminator films. When negotiating for Terminator 4, Halcyon rejected their initial proposal, and MGM suspended negotiations. After the 30 days were over, MGM claimed that the period during which negotiations were suspended did not count and their exclusive period was still open. Halcyon asked a court for an injunction allowing them to approach other distributors. WB was able to obtain North American distribution rights, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will distribute the film overseas. This makes Salvation the first film in the series to have the same distributors as the previous film.

McG signed on to direct as the first two films were among his favorites, and he had even cast Robert Patrick (who played the T-1000) in his films. Though he was initially unsure about “flogging a dead horse,” he felt the post-apocalyptic setting allowed the film to be different enough so to not be an inferior sequel. The idea that events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3 altered the future also allowed them to be flexible with their presentation of the futuristic world. McG met with the series’ co-creator James Cameron, and, although he neither blessed nor cursed the project, Cameron told the new director he had faced a similar challenge when following Ridley Scott’s Alien with Aliens. McG described the film’s theme as “where you draw the line between machines and humans”. He maintained two elements of the previous films; that Connor is an outsider to the authorities, and someone of future importance is being protected, and in this film it is Kyle Reese.

Paul Haggis rewrote the script, and Shawn Ryan made another revision three weeks before filming. Jonathan Nolan also wrote on set, which led to McG characterizing his work on the script as the most important; he chose to contribute to the film after Bale signed on and created Connor’s arc of becoming a leader. Anthony E. Zuiker contributed to the script as well. So extensive were the rewrites that Alan Dean Foster decided to rewrite the entire novelization after submitting it to his publisher, because the compiled shooting script was very different from the one he was given beforehand.

In the early script drafts, Connor was a secondary character. Producer James Middleton explained “Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but it was his story. Much in that way, this (new main) character will be influenced by John Connor.” In these early drafts, John is killed at the end. The human resistance decide John’s image must be kept alive for the sake of morale, so Marcus has his flesh removed and replaced with John’s. Marcus becomes leader of the resistance. McG was intrigued by the idea but nevertheless had it dropped. McG and Nolan did continue the Christ element of Connor’s character though, in which he has some followers who believe what he knows about Skynet, and others who do not. Throughout writing, the cast and crew would watch scenes from the three films to pick moments to reference or tribute, including “I’ll be back,” which is uttered by Connor in this film. McG found himself having to decide which ideas for references would be included and which would not. He and Nolan also planned out the story of the human resistance over two films, feeling Connor should initially “(deserve) all the credit, but gets none”.

Filming

Shooting of the film started on May 5, 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The filmmakers had originally intended to begin filming on April 15 in Budapest, but a new twenty-five percent tax rebate and absence of an interest rate cap and floor made the filmmakers seek the cheaper New Mexico, because of their $200 million budget. To avoid delays caused by a possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike in July, all exterior scenes were completed by then, so production could restart easily. The shoot ended on August 22, 2008. The film is shot on color film stock with triple the amount of silver, lending to the sense of detachment from the modern world McG was looking for. The filmmakers consulted with many scientists about the effects of an abandoned world and nuclear winter. McG cited Mad Max 2, the original Star Wars trilogy and Children of Men, as well as the novel The Road, as his visual influences. He instructed his cast to read the latter as well as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Stan Winston, who was the visual effects supervisor on the first three films, continued his role on Terminator Salvation. The film was one of the last Winston worked on, as he died on June 15, 2008 from multiple myeloma. McG will dedicate the film to him. Winston also filmed a cameo as someone wrestling a Hydrobot. John Rosengrant and Charlie Gibson replaced Winston, and McG commented that they are “trying to achieve something that’s never been done before” and will “push the envelope”. The majority of the machines were designed by Martin Laing, a crew member on Cameron’s Titanic and Ghosts of the Abyss. McG described many of the machines as having a H. R. Giger influence. The film features the rubber-skinned T-600, which Winston’s company put a lot of effort into looking like an eight-foot tall machine wrapped in prosthetics. McG interpreted Kyle Reese’s description in the original of them as being easy to spot by making them tall and bulky. Motion capture was used to show damage to the Terminator Marcus’ face.

An opening scene has Connor fighting a Terminator on a crashed helicopter. It is shot as a homage to the climax of the original film, where his mother Sarah, having broken her leg, is chased by a crippled Terminator. McG did this to reflect the skills Connor learned from her.

Music

Danny Elfman began composing the score in January 2009. Beforehand, McG had the idea to hire Gustavo Santaolalla, who he got to speak with, to work on the human themes, while having either Thom Yorke or Johnny Greenwood for Skynet’s themes. He also wanted to discuss scoring the film with Hans Zimmer, but he was unable to arrange a meeting. However, he managed to meet with The Terminator and Terminator 2 composer Brad Fiedel. McG was not interested in repeating the sounds Fiedel achieved in his films but still wanted Elfman to use those themes and ambient sounds, and give them a “Wagnerian quality”. Common has expressed interest in writing a song for the soundtrack.

Release

The film will be released in North America on May 22, 2009 in conventional theaters as well as in IMAX, and it could be rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America, unlike the previous R-rated films. The producers cited the desire to broaden the series to a new audience and the modern leniency of violence in PG-13 films (such as Live Free or Die Hard), but they stated they would not force the rating. McG explained, “We want to make the best film possible. We just don’t care about the rating. We don’t aim for the rating and we’ve been given the freedom by the head of the studio to just make the best picture possible. That’s very, very freeing. We’re just going to make the movie.”

In addition to the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, there will also be a prequel novel entitled From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn and two spin-offs. The first spin-off will be published in September 2008. IDW Publishing will release a four-issue prequel comic, as well as an adaptation. Due in January 2009, it follows Connor rallying together the resistance in 2017, as well as examining normal people overcoming their intolerances to defeat Skynet. Playmates Toys, Sideshow Collectibles, and DC Unlimited will produce merchandise. A roller coaster will open at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

A video game of the same name will coincide with the release of the film. The game will be a third-person shooter.

Other Information

• Also Known As : T4: Salvation (USA), Terminator 4 (USA), Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (USA), Terminator: Die Erlösung (Germany)
• Genre : Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
• Release date : (North America) May 22, 2009, (Australia) June 4, 2009, (United Kingdom) June 5, 2009
• Running time : 130 mins.
• Country : United States, Germay. UK
• Filming Locations : Albuquerque Studios – 5650 University Boulevard SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
• Company : The Halcyon Company
• Language : English
• Budget : $200 million
• Preceded by : Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Followed by : Terminator 5

Cast and Credits

• Directed by : McG
• Produced by : Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek, Jeffrey Silver, Moritz Borman
• Written by : (Screenplay) Jonathan Nolan, Anthony E. Zuiker, Shawn Ryan, Paul Haggis, (Story) John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, David C. Wilson, (Characters) James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
• Starring : Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Helena Bonham Carter
• Music by : Danny Elfman
• Cinematography : Shane Hurlbut
• Editing by : Conrad Buff
• Distributed by : (North America) Warner Bros., (International) Sony Pictures Entertainment

Trivia

• Director McG asked his actors to read the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, because he wanted them to absorb the bleakness of the world in the novel.

Related Articles

• Terminator moves on without busy Schwarzenegger
• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

Links

• Official Warner Bros. website
• Official Sony Pictures website
• Movie’s trailers
• Release dates
• Terminator Salvation at the Internet Movie Database
• Terminator Salvation at Allmovie
• Terminator Salvation at Wikipedia.org

Tags: Moon Bloodgood, sony pictures, Warner Bros