Two days ago, Screen Rant reported on one of the newest TV Spots for Terminator Salvation. That commercial showed off the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face appeared in the movie in a short scene as the T-800 killing machine.
Why is that significant?
Well, my thoughts were that the folks behind the movie were getting desperate to have people come see the movie in theaters now that it has been out for several weeks in North America and had not lived up even close to where they expected it to be in terms of box office numbers. What does that mean for its potential sequel?
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The film had received mostly negative reviews from critics everywhere, the worst out of the franchise. Its opening weekend was weak, coming second to the Night at the Museum sequel and not even coming close to other May openers such as Star Trek, Wolverine and Pixar’s Up. Since then, it dropped off significantly and it continues to do so with big movies opening weekly during the busy summer season. This is especially bad since they went for the PG-13 rating on the film to open it up to the younger movie-going audiences.
With poor reception and poor numbers, the $200 million production budget no longer seems like a good investment. Worse, the franchise is no longer as strong as once thought. Is it the brand name that’s not selling as much? Or could it be that Terminator needs the Governator as the lead?
McG’s Terminator Salvation was supposed to be one of the biggest movies of the year and more than that, it was supposed to be the start of a whole new trilogy of films. Leading up to the release of this fourth installment, there was plenty of talk of ideas for the sequel to Salvation, including having Robert Patrick back for a role in it and everything looked great.
Now, not so much. Will there even be a sequel to Salvation? If there is, will the same creative team be there to make it? Will they pay Christian Bale a ton of money to do it and will McG again direct?
Continue to Page 2 for more on this and and where the sequel will take place…
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162 Comments
Bale destroyed it? Give me a break. The movie wasn’t the greatest, but it was entertaining and Bale was no where near the worst part of it.
And the Human “Hunter Killer” toys for 5+
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Man that’s sick,I’m so glad this film didn’t do well.
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We (as a nation) really need to step back and think about what mainstream hollywood is doing to kids when they market the machines of the apocalypse to 6 year olds.
If we don’t address this our legacy will be one of shame. It almost is anyway,,,
I never know if your serious or not 790. I hope that’s a joke.
Time travel worked in the first movie because it was a last desperate act by Skynet. Now it has just gotten stupid.
I agree with others, I want to see the future war with the fully auto laser cannons and the modified rebel cars. Not us against Terminators.
Seems a real lack of creativity or a will to move the overall story arc forward. And why in London? What the hell are we in the UK going to do about Terminators?!
As Salvation only starting it’s run here on 4 June, I went to see it today. I did not think it was a bad film as I see a film for what it is, not for what it’s predecessors cause reviewers to want it to be. No it wasn’t like the first two, they were completely different stories with time travel. Now we have caught up to the ‘future’ and yes it is more of a war movie. But that’s this films way of bringing us the Terminator and I did like it for that. The major thing I didn’t like was the editing, very choppy and Bale did nothing for me, but he wasn’t bad. I hope there are further sequels to expand towards the future war in T1. See, it’s like the Harry Potter movies, the newer ones are not like the first one or two, they were more magical and full of discovery, yet the newer ones are darker, and they are visions of different directors. I like each of them for what each one is, and don’t relate them to each other. Same with Terminator, and here we go, I liked both AVP movies. No, they were nothing on the original Alien or Predator, but for what they were, I was entertained and liked them for what they were without the need for comparison.
Incorporating time travel into a movie is always a risk but if it is done correctly and can ultimately save the franchise. The major problem with Salvation was taht people could NOT relate to it. Bringing the franchise back to present day will allow us to be able to relate to the movie and unstrand/appreciate it better.
Bringing back Robert Patrick would be a FANTASTIC idea. That will really link up the movies well and bring in the audience.
Bale needs to be outed as JOhn Connor, he is Batman people have already typecasted him as Batman and having him as Connor is just ridiculous.
I talked a bit about how this is a terrible idea.
No more Time Traveling! No more Naked Doods!
Posted A Video at Youtube (is that embeddable here?)
okay, a couple of things.
- Good article but it seems to blame Bale for T4 but I strongly believe that it wasn’t him that ruined T4 but Warners rehiring the T3 writers, Brancato & Ferris. If anything, Bale’s intervention actually improved the script since he was most likely responsible for bringing in Nolan and Haggis. Remember, Brancato and Ferris delivered the very lackluster T3 script. The only good thing they ever wrote was The Game and I suspect David Fincher brought in an uncredited Andy Walker to rewrite Brancato/Ferris’ mediocre effort. I’m telling you, Ferris & Brancato are hacks. Read Devin’s article on Chud about their original draft of T4. You’ll see how badly they insist on working in plottwists at the expense of the story and Terminator mythology. That and their obvious plotholes, their weak villain and wrong choice of hero shows us these guys have no business carrying on the Terminator franchise.
- second, the time travel stories worked well in the first two films but it was already tired in T3. The franchise finally moved on from time travel to future wars and now T5 might revert back to time travel? Seriously? The only time travel that should ever go on in the future war films is where Connor and his team gain access to Skynet’s time displacement equipment and send Reese back and even then, we shouldn’t actually see any time travel.
- third, why does Judgment Day keep getting pushed back? It was originally 1997, then it got pushed back to 2004 to accomodate a present day T3 story and now it’s being moved to 2011 for T5? How far can the Terminator mythology be bent before it breaks? Why can’t we have any decently written future war stories? Why does Judgment Day have to keep getting pushed back to coincide with each subsequent film’s release date?
I didn’t think that Bale ruined Terminator Salvation,,, Oh no it wasn’t even Mcg, it was the script that shoved the rebar through my heart.
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And (IMO) the only time travel we need to see at this point is Connor sending back Reese and the two Terminators.
Anything else is damage control.
I agree we only need to see Reese go back.
However, I think that it’s fairly easy to explain judgment day getting moved and it even makes sense. They keep sending people or terminators back to change the future. So it’s nice to see that they are changing it even in a small way. So the work they do seems to delay the day.
it’s actually one of the later films’ weaknesses that Judgment Day keeps getting pushed back. Since the films now acknowledge an alternate timeline, it doesn’t matter if Reese lives or dies. He doesn’t need to get sent back to 1984 since Reese from the original future already went back and conceived Connor. If Reese dies prematurely, nothing will happen. Connor won’t disappear or anything like. By going the alternate timeline route, the stakes have been drastically lowered.
Notice how the first two films adopted the “what happened, happened” theory of time travel, not only adopting it but reinforcing it.
It does matter if you don’t seen Reese back then Conor in another time line will not exist and humanity will lose. Connor I imagine cares about it and I doubt he fully grasps time travel since none of us even do. Who knows what would happen if he didn’t send Reese back. Technically no one could ever know. Maybe he would just disappear. Maybe time would rewrite it’s self right on top of the current time line.
but the original Reese from the 1997-2029 future war made it back and accomplished his mission.
Since we’re dealing with alternate timelines, if the Reese from the alternate future war (2004 – unknown) never makes it back, it doesn’t matter, as long as original Reese from the original future war (1997-2029) makes it back, which he does.
Since the series skewed into alternate timelines, the outcome of T1 is no longer at stake.
You can kill the current Reese and that won’t change the outcome of T1 since that was original Reese that made it back from the original future war, not the new future war.
Since
You can’t say that for sure. We really don’t know how it would work. Your theory may be righht, but maybe it would make a difference or maybe your theory is right, but maybe Connor cares about the other time line.
I see your point Mike, but this franchise should have never time traveled to this destination (IMO).
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The sequel that everyone wanted after T3 was a futuristic post Judgment Day war with fields of HK tanks, armed cyborg’s, Hunter Killer aircraft and endless nighttime laser battles not to mention German Sheppards barking at T-800 scum…
Changing the timeline with Reese as a hostage is a backstory move that locks us into a lame Mcg trilogy. As much as I love Terminator it only needs one sequel to kick ass and explain how Connor infiltrates Skynet and sends our heroes back through time…
After that you can screw with the outcome all you want !!!
We know for sure that Judgment Day got pushed back 7 years, from August of ‘97 to July of ‘04.
Just imagine what else got changed. Reese now has an extra 7 years of non-armageddon life, hell, in the OG timeline he could’ve been born after Judgment Day but now he could’ve been born before it.
Considering so much of the timeline has been changed, how can we know for sure that the exact same ejaculation that Reese impregnates Sarah with in the OG timeline is the same one he’ll impregnate her with in the new one? The exact same sperm from the exact same ejaculation?
Of course the story won’t acknowledge it and it’ll still act as if Reese needs to get to 1984 and it’ll happen but given some thought, it’s pointless. Since we’re dealing with alternate timelines, it really doesn’t matter whether Reese B makes it back to 1984 to impregnate Sarah or not because Reese A already did.
By going into the alternate timelines thing which T3 and 4 have done, it just lowers the stakes of the whole Reese storyline since we know Connor won’t disappear whether Reese makes it or not.
I disagree, but clearly your gonna keep saying the same thing and then I’ll reply with the same thing and I really get tired of conversations that just go in circles.
Terminator should just continue on in the future…..I hope they get a whole new creative team and get some goodness going already!!!! I want more fields of T-whatevers and HK flying around messing things up, all the while lasers fire everywhere!!!
I want to see how the future war plays out…I want to see how it happens…they didn’t change the past when they made Star Wars I thru III!! It’s not like anakin skywalker changes his mind and stays good!!!! Don’t mess with a good idea McG, you want future robots in london then make up your own franchise, don’t ruin this one.
why London and elsewhere? I dont really comment on T5’s plot and script till i hear more details. Id like to see this new trilogy continue with future wars that we seen flashbacks from previous films. I liked to look forward to SKYNET and Connor using the Time Displacement Equipment. Aswell seeing those laser guns, or whatever you wanna call them be developed to be used by the terminators and resistance. and once again see the big Machines from the flashbacks from the first terminator. And maybe any purposed ideas they had from the first two films but were never filmed due to budget and pacing reasons. Etc. Anyways, i for one would rather see this franchise deliver two more sequels, instead of falling victim to a reboot. Especially when The Terminator is classic, and while some reboots done good, doesnt mean all classics need to be remade.
Dan, what part do you disagree with?
1. That we are in an alternate timeline now?
2. Or that Connor wouldn’t dissappear if Reese died?
3. Or that What happens happens (in the first two films) and that the timeline is changing in the last two films?
I disagree that we know exactly what would happen in any given situation. This is an impossible situation to actually grasp how it works considering it’s a completely made up universe where all this stuff actually exists. All you can possibly come up with is theory’s and we don’t know if they are accurate or not. Also even if some how you know everything about time travel and alternate time lines because so how you managed to be an expert. There is still the fact that John Connor WOULD care about what happens to the other time line and more than likely unlike your self isn’t an expert on time travel and alternate time lines. So he might think he is trying to preserve his own. Maybe he watched Back to the Future a few to many times and saw Micheal J Fox vanish and thinks it would happen to him if Kyle dies.
Big Mike,
I agree. Terminator should continue with a decent trilogy of future war films, starting with the next one.
1. First, throw T3 and T4 out of the canon.
2. Get rid of McG and the writers Ferris & Brancato
3. The future war films, although set in the future war, should be treated like prequels to the first two films, not sequels.
4. Outline I’d like to see for the films
A – 2015 – First film should be about Reese surviving as a POW in Skynet’s concentration camps. We should see him get branded with that barcode tattoo he shows Sarah in the first film. Everything he describes about the future in that film, we should see. The T-600s with their rubber skin. Not the T-800s though, they don’t arrive until 2029 like he said in T-1. His story should be a prison escape movie, planning the great escape with other humans. The B-story should be about a platoon of human resistance fighters planning to storm skynet and save as many human POWs as possible. The platoon isn’t lead by Connor, but he is a soldier in it. But it’s an essence a future “guys on a mission” movie. As the rescue attempt story and the great escape story converge, Connor unknowingly runs into Reese, in danger, saves him from a T-600 or something and delivers the line “come with me if you want to live,” a line he learned from his mom who learned it from Reese. Later during the rescue attempt, Connor finds out Reese’s name and realizes that the future is shaping to be the one promised by his childhood.
B. Not sure what the second movie should be but
C 2029 – The third movie should see Connor now leading the platoon, or even a brigade, maybe the entire human resistance and Reese is now his right hand man, always keeping him close. They learn that Skynet is experimenting with time displacement technology so Connor concocts a secret plan to break into skynet one last time. That’s the film, a mission to break into skynet and access it’s time displacement equipment. They ultimately do but Connor keeps his motive secret from all his men, even Reese. Once they break in, at the end of the film, the end of the 3rd act, they all fight a T-800 guarding the equipment. Lotsa men die, a few survive, but they just can’t defeat the T-800 endo-skeleton no matter how hard they try. It’s about to kill Reese but Connor manages to somehow stop it, and quickly reprogram it, calling back to his hacking skills from T2. They learn that skynet just sent a T-800 to 1984. No one knows why but Connor does. He says they need to send someone to 1984. Everyone thinks that’s why he’s reprogramming the T-800 but it’s not a fast and easy process. He’s still reprogramming as the group gets attacked by more machines. They start to set charges around the equipment but they are running out of time before the 2nd wave of machines. Connor asks/Reese volunteers to go back to 1984 and save Sarah. He does. Connor finally reprograms the T-800, gets him fleshed out and sends him to 1995. Then they blow skynet sky high.
Not sure what the 2nd film should be about.
Of course a lot of time travel elements are up in the air but it feels like the writers aren’t grasping them either. There are many things we don’t know but we are sure of this…
This is in an alternate timeline since Judgment Day is now in 2004 and Reese in T1 came from a future war that started in 1997. We know it’s an alternate timeline.
We know that the first two films relied on the continuous loop (non-alternate) timeline.
The first two Terminator films had a different philosophy of time travel than these last two. The series had to change a few things since Cameron really painted subsequent filmmakers into a corner and unfortunately, they just weren’t creative enough to get out without stepping on his wet paint.
Of course we don’t know what will happen in every situation. Who’s actually saying that we know exactly what will happen?
We don’t know what they’re going to do but we do know a few things. They spun the Terminator series down an alternate timeline. We do know for sure that we are in an alternate timeline. The facts are in the films.
We do know that in the original timeline, the T-800s were new in 2029. Reese tells Sarah.
We do know in this timeline, the T-800s are new 11 years early, in 2018.
So somehow by blowing up Cyberdyne, While Sarah delayed Judgment Day by 7 years, she sped them up to create T-800s in only 14 years (from 2004 – 2018) instead of the original 32 (from 1997 – 2029)
I’m actually using facts from the four films. Do you dispute any of them?
As long as Bale is back as Connor and Summer Glau is in the next one it will be great.
Breaking Inside info,,, what happened to Terminator Salvation… (Believe this or not)
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The Studio wanted Bale and they allowed him to have control over what character he played and also input in the script.
The overall trilogy was completly written out, Mcg wanted Bale to play Marcus because later in the trilogy Connor does get killed but very few had actually met him. So having Marcus assume the life of Connor would have been easy to do as he was not the famous leader yet.
Bale didn’t want to play Marcus, instead he wanted to play Connor. He also brought in Nolan to rewrite the script changing major plot elements to include more Connor in Salvation. As the first draft Connor was only in the film for about 4 min. The film dealt mostly with Marcus and Reese.
Believe it or not, this will come out soon.
You heard it first on Screen Rant.
@790
That article came out a month ago or so. Still a good read though for those that didn’t know.
Really what article and what site/magazine ???
VOR, (mind if I call you that?) I had read about Nolan rewriting the script but I assumed it was because of the leaked ending not because Bale wanted to change the film to suit his ego. Apparently Mcg almost had a breakdown during this. was that covered in the article ???
Not being a Smart a just curious.
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