The following contains spoilers. You’ve been warned.
From the very first scene, it becomes clear that Terminator: Salvation was always meant to be something other than a traditional Terminator film. In it, we meet present-day death row inmate Marcus Wright as he comes to terms with his fate and with the assurance of a scientist named Serena Korgen, signs away his body for scientific research just before being put to death by lethal injection. It wasn’t until I saw the Cyberdyne Systems logo appear that I was sure I was in the right theater. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the introduction to our hero. Or so I thought.
Afterwards, in what I think would have made a far more dazzling opening sequence, we flash forward to 2018 and find John Connor and his team launching an assault on an underground Skynet base where they discover numerous human test subjects along with plans for the T-800. With the mission accomplished, Connor is ordered to return topside and get everyone clear before the machines send backup. In one continuous shot, he jumps in a helicopter, takes off, gets shot down and crash lands, sees that he just narrowly escaped a massive counterattack by the machines, fends off a still-functioning T-600 and finally calls for a transport to get him out of there. This, on the other hand, is the introduction to our real hero, mostly as a way to retrofit the entire film that follows it into the existing Terminator franchise.
In fact, about half an hour in, it also becomes clear that Terminator: Salvation is actually trying to be two distinctly different films at once. Unfortunately, pulling off a trick like that isn’t easy and the film never fully succeeds in doing so.
In one thread, we have Marcus Wright trying to understand the circumstances he’s found himself in. By his last check, he wasn’t a resident of a nuclear-holocaust-ravaged Los Angeles in the year 2018 and more than anything, he just wants to know how he got there. He wanders about until he happens across a young child named Star and, of all people, one Kyle Reese. Through various events, Marcus ultimately rescues and befriends A-10 pilot Blair Williams and falls into the hands of the resistance, where he learns the hard way that he is in fact part human and part machine. In a brilliant flash of subtext, Marcus escapes the resistance camp and is subsequently hunted down by humans, just as so many humans were seen being hunted by the machines moments earlier. Eventually, Marcus makes his way to Skynet headquarters in San Francisco where he learns about his true purpose and makes a fateful decision to redeem himself, both from his criminal past and from his potentially destructive future.
In the second thread, we have John Connor struggling to maintain influence amongst the leadership of the human resistance. He’s not quite the “great military leader” his mother told him he would be, but he has a faithful following of resistance fighters that believe in him and his knowledge of what is yet to come. When the resistance uncovers a Skynet transmission listing himself and Kyle Reese as its top priority targets, it sends him back to the drawing board trying to figure out not only how to find Reese but what to do when he finds him. After learning that Reese has already been captured by the machines and taken to Skynet headquarters in San Francisco with scores of other human prisoners–the same headquarters that the resistance has targeted for an impending attack–he sets off on his own in a race against the clock to save his own father and secure the future as he’s always known it.
Sounds like those stories could make for two adequately entertaining movies, right? Well, I left out the part where both of these two plotlines weave in and out and stomp all over each other all throughout Terminator: Salvation. Not to mention that the “key to it all” is protecting Kyle Reese, making him the true focal point around which everything revolves.
The action sequences are relentless and just as inventive as anything found in the previous films, including the much-talked-about moto-terminator chase, the T-600 battle and Marcus’ forest-leveling escape, but the way the film tries to present all of this as one single coherent story is largely the thing that ends up holding it back at every turn. You would think having so much go on simultaneously would be engaging, but it becomes something of a mess and as history has shown, simplicity has always been the most attractive element of the Terminator series. And to add to the frustration, as much potential as the Marcus story might have, the film’s final closing moments negate it entirely. Why introduce such a far-reaching and intriguing concept as Marcus Wright only to kill him off?
Back in 2007 when the first details about Terminator: Salvation were revealed, the producers had a bold and rather unconventional idea that this fourth film in the Terminator franchise would be a bridge into a new trilogy. In the proposed trilogy, we would see the introduction of a new character that would fight alongside John Connor (who would apparently meet his demise sooner than later) and ultimately become the new hero for the Terminator franchise. Early drafts reportedly focused heavily on this new character and even after Bale signed on for the role of John Connor and requested that the role be beefed up, the film still packs quite a left turn for what fans might have been expecting from another Terminator installment.
While some fans might still be struggling with the idea of not having Arnold in the film (OK, maybe a little), or the addition of some very Transformer-like robots, or even having McG directing, I ultimately think Terminator: Salvation is still a solid effort. I loved the action, I loved the look of it and I even thought the cast all did a fine job in their roles. The only problem (and it’s a rather big one) is that aside from the nods to the past films in the series, it just doesn’t feel like a Terminator film as we know it. Having Terminator: Salvation serve as the transition from the present-day cat and mouse allegory of the first three films with those iconic characters into a post-apocalyptic examination of humanity with all-new characters was probably the biggest gamble one could imagine for one of the greatest sci-fi franchises in cinematic history. It’s a bold move all right, but without the follow-through of the next two films to serve as context, it feels more like a huge misstep. As a long-time Terminator fan, I’m willing to stick with the franchise and see where it’ll take me, but I suppose only time will tell if it’ll all come together in the end.
