New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

He Said...

With each of the previous three Terminator movies, there was always a brief scene teasing what the world would be like with sentient machines locked in battle with remnants of humanity which they had attempted to destroy through an apocalyptic "Judgment Day". The scenes always evoked a desolate, ravaged wasteland where Terminators - robot killing machines - ruthlessly hunted down the remaining humans. The machines had cool ground attack ships and the robots themselves seemed to enjoy crushing the fragile, bleached skulls of dead humans each time. It was these scenes that secretly excited the audience (especially certain demographics like teenage boys, myself included). I think those of us who loved those individual glimpses into the grim dystopia hoped they'd dedicate an entire movie to expanding those single moments into fully developed movies. This, then, was the potential of the fourth entry in the franchise Terminator Salvation. The audience finally gets a chance to delve into the world only briefly suggested, where the self-aware system of Skynet unleashes nuclear devastation in an attempt to eradicate what it perceives as the threat of human existence.

Terminator Salvation begins in 2003 where convicted death row inmate Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) donates his remains to Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) of Cyberdyne Systems and her research. Judgment Day occurs. The movie then moves forward to 2018 and the introduction of the Human Resistance Leader, John Connor (played by Christian Bale), who is seen launching an attack on a Skynet research facility where they are holding captured humans in an effort to create cyborgs, robots with organic parts. Unfortunately the machines counter-attack and kill all, save for John Connor and Marcus Wright, who mysteriously re-appears.

Returning to the Resistance Headquarters located in a submarine (a very neat science-fiction concept), John Connor is made aware of the existence of a radio frequency that disables all Skynet machines. This turns out to be supremely fortuitous as the Resistance is aware of a Skynet plot to assassinate the human leadership. Oddly, to most of the commanders, atop the list of targets is a seemingly random young man, Kyle Reese (played by Anton Yelchin who also had the good fortune of playing Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abrams' wildly entertaining remake of Star Trek). The Resistance does not understand, as they do not know that Reese will be the father of their eventual leader. Only John understands the significance.

Marcus eventually makes his way to the destroyed remnants of Los Angeles and is saved from a T-600 by Kyle. They soon decide to band together and make their way to the Resistance. Unfortunately, they are attacked by Terminators that are engaged by Resistance fighters flying the appropriately placed A-10. (Also, in a bit of realism the creators of the movie very much got the choice of Resistance fighters, the A-10, correct. The A-10 was designed as a Tank Killer whose primary mission it was to blunt a massive Soviet Union armored thrust through Germany most likely at the start of any WW-III. It was designed as essentially an armored flying bathtub with a massive tank busting gun in the front. Every ten years or so, the US Military attempts to retire the plane and replace it with yet another delicate, expensive high tech jet. However, due to its incredible sturdy condition, relatively low cost and lethal effectiveness it continues to remain in service. It is altogether accurate that this plane would survive a nuclear holocaust and be used by humans to combat killer robots...but I've geeked out enough). During the attack, Kyle and Star are captured by the machines while Marcus rescues one of the A-10 pilots, Blair Williams (played by Moon Bloodgood of TV's excellent Journeyman fame). What follows is a spoiler but not really if you've seen the commercials or been even vaguely aware of the movie.

Continued:       1       2       3