The Future is Man’s…or Machine’s

In the year 2018, soon after Judgment Day, Skynet’s machines rule, but, as prophesized, John Connor will save all of mankind.

Man and movie audiences have known this since 1984’s The Terminator, when an unborn Connor needed to be protected from a Terminator, a bad robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, sent back in time from the future by Skynet, a computer-controlled defense system that has become sentient and has launched a nuclear war that’s annihilated most of the human race except for the survivors who make up the resistance.

In the 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the machine threat reared its shiny metal head again when, having failed to prevent Connor’s birth, Skynet sends back a T-1000 (Robert Patric), a more sophisticated Terminator, after a teenaged resistance leader. Future Connor sent back a reprogrammed T-800, the one Schwarzenegger played in the first movie and again in T2, to protect young Connor (Edward Furlong) and his mother, Sarah (Linda Hamilton).

To protect the future, the three decide they must destroy Cyberdine Systems, the inventor of Skynet, which they do.

But the threat persisted, and in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Skynet does just that, sending yet another Terminator, a T-X (Kristanna Loken), to 86 as many of Connor’s (Nick Stahl) future allies as possible, including Connor himself and his wife (Claire Danes). Natch, Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is sent back once again to prevent this from happening.

That constant threat, I think, is what made the franchise work as well as it did. Its absence in Terminator Salvation – a perfectly fine movie directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels) and continuation to the resistance’s saga – strips the story of an essential fear that gave it urgency and relevance, you know.

In this fourth entry, the worse already has happened.

Yes, hope now has replaced fear, but it’s not nearly as thrilling to see Connor (now played by Christian Bale) shoot up Skynet’s impressive metallic army – there’s unmanned super-fast and super-able motorcycles; a tall gun-as-a-head iron giant that whisks survivors and stores them concentration camp-style in its cold bowels; and Terminators roaming dilapidated cities with shoot-to-kill orders – as it was seeing him try to stay alive.

But that’s what this movie’s about: salvation (it’s right there in the title, after all). This is the beginning of a new future, but that future can only exist if Connor protects Kyle Reese (Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin), the teenager who will grow up to be his father (and to protect him in the first movie).

To do this, Connor will have to work with Marcus Wright, a mysterious drifter played by rising-star-of-tomorrow, and Australia’s latest import, Sam Worthington (who will star in Terminator father James Cameron’s Avatar later this year).

Terminator Salvation did us all a disservice when it revealed more than it needed about Worthington’s character in its trailers.

I won’t link to the reveal so as not to spoil the surprise, but know that the twist of the story is in line with the theme of the movie: salvation.

McG had his work cut out for him when he took on this project, which he thought was unnecessary. But he has delivered an intense summer ride that is noisier and less substantial than its predecessors, especially the original and T2.

But Terminator Salvation is a good start for a future that I’ll be happy to watch Bale & Co. explore, overcome, and ultimately, win.

My Rating ***

Photo: Warner Bros.