Discuss Terminator Salvation (Heavy Spoilers)
May 21, 2009 by Vic HoltremanNeed a place to talk about Terminator Salvation, including spoilers? Come on in…
One of our most popular new features here at Screen Rant has been the movie spoiler discussion post, where people can feel free to talk about all aspects of a film without having to worry about spoiling it for others. You can check out our Terminator Salvation review but if you want to talk about the movie after having seen it I suggest you do so right here.
So discuss Terminator Salvation below to your heart’s content!
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I’ll be seeing it tonight so spoil away.
I saw the midnight screening last night and I have to say that I loved it. Front to back it was ridiculous. The climactic scene was great (with the help of a pretty damn cool cameo), but the overall ending I thought was a LITTLE weak. Definitely buying the DVD when it comes out.
I saw the movie and I loved it. It’s a totally different take on the franchise, and I think people were too blinded by the fact that ARNOLD actually isnt what terminator is about. His cameo was def the highlight of the film tho, just because of how everything from all the movies piece together. I liked how the movie seemed to be more about Marcus and his redemption and the becoming of Kyle Reese. Great movie.
did or did she not look like a young michael jackson… that little girl that kyle reese was with? and i wonder if john ever tells kyle that he is his father… or at least he finds the tapes and that’s what makes him want to go to the past eventhough he knows that the time travel was a one way only type thing. I liked how they made arnold look really young… and almost flawless. One thing that bothered me though was that when marcus and the gang stopped for fuel in that one place in the middle of what appeared like a dessert… they did not notice a big ass harvester just sneak up to it…i mean it wasn’t like it “transformed” into something else to hide in plain sight like other robotic organisms that we all know about. That thing went up to them and i’m pretty sure there isn’t a “silent mode” on a big ass robot like that. The snake-like robots in the water gave it a horror-like feel to it in that one scene… i liked that one.Terry crews… he was just there dead… might as well brought in a nobody to do that… i mean i was expecting him to atleast punch a t600 or something like that. I liked the movie in a overall type of way but alot of it bothered me as well… all i can say is thank God for tf2 and scorsese’s Sinatra flick…
The movie is excellent. Just remember it is science fiction, it could never become reality (right?).
I saw the midnight screening and was prepaired for the worst. The movie kept me on the edge of my seat with all the action. McG did a pretty good job relaunching the franchise. This movie is very diffrent than the other terminator movies because skynet is the main villian, and skynet is everywhere and nowhere. For all the people the keep complaining about the Harvester sneaking up on them at the gas station did you not notice the Harvester fit onto the HK? So the Harvester did not walk up on them it was flown and droped off on site by the HK. If you are a true terminator fan you will enjoy seeing the world the Kyle describes in the first terminator film come to life. Marcus Wright was a great new charchter wish they didn’t kill him off so fast.
Still undecided how I feel about the movie. Definitely moved quickly. Saw a midnight last night. Me and my lady were trying to rank it with the summer films so far…
Better than wolverine and angels and demons, but is it better than star trek…emotionally I really couldn’t get into it. This is the Third “prequel” this summer, and the only one that touched me was star trek. All in all, this movie was somewhat heavy on the action, but dialogue was weak, emotional attachment was week. I would have rather just had “Marcus” and Moon Bloodgood been the only ones on the screen the whole time.
Still trying to assess how I feel about the flick. Pretty good all in all…better than T-3
So what did everyone think of Arnold’s “cameo?” I thought it was VERY cool – probably about the coolest thing in the entire movie.
Vic
Even if the hk brought the harvester someone should have seen this big ass grey thing flying towards them and don’t tell me that all of those people were only paying attention to marcus and them. Maybe l.a was lost but i’m pretty sure not everybody lost they’re common sense. If i saw 3 people come to my base first thing i would do is have somebody on the lookout just in case they were followed which obviously they were. On the arnold cameo i do agree with vic it possibly was the coolest thing in the whole movie. Like i said before i liked the movie and all but there were so many things that took me out of the movie… First one being on why did they want marcus specifically.
I was loving the new style and feel of the movie. Digging it very well, then when it got to the classic terminator vs. terminator fight in the factory it felt dull and drug on. the first hour of the movie was incredible and if they had done the end fight scene a little different this would honestly be one of my favorite movies of the past few years.
Yea, the Arnold Cameo was the best thing of the movie. It looked a lot better than how they did Professor X at the end of Wolverine
in the harvester seen they are in a gas station the harvester was droped off by the HK now they did have a look out but he was not outside to the HK and harvester coming till to late. and the HK would have been a distance away because they had Marcus to tell them where they are
that explanation sounded so yoda like… but its still pretty stupid to me just for the fact that mcg said this was going to be more realistic and being that they would have a lookout looking towards the outside and not looking at 3 people. Why would everybody just be looking at these 3 people when the dude that didn’t want them to take the fuel even mentions that by them either being there or taking the fuel it would bring the terminators to them… Right there somebody could’ve said… oh crap right i should take a look see if anyone followed them… i’m sorry… defend it all you want but like i said before that’s just one of the many many things that got me completely out of the movie. Not even comparing it to the other movies… just a movie that i went to… i liked it but i don’t even feel like seeing the sequels to it…
I don’t know where to begin on this film?
Overall the film was entertaining to a degree, if you have never seen a Terminator film before you will prob dig it. But for die hards, well we get a visual taste of what could have been a great epic story but came out retarded in the end. I know “Terminator Salvation” is a science fiction movie but it seems to be stuck in comic book age level writing mode. The film also has a ton of dynamic (that’s bs!) moments. Some are explained in the fact that Cyberdyne wasn’t destroyed as it seemed to be at the end of T2. I liked that but if Skynet is that smart why would it enable its (Marcus) unit to override its systems so easily and Skynet had 0 HK defenses around its supposed mainframe. You would think the CPU of Skynet would have some flying protection,,, maybe?
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Then there’s the humans living above ground with almost unlimited supplies, protected by land mines and bob-wire? Cars with tires and batteries that haven’t really aged in 18 years. Harvesters with poor motor skills, moto-terminators that are more than happy to give you first shot. Skynet security is taken out MacGruber style. There was a scene where Connor jump starts Marcus that was just hilarious. Wrap all this up (and there’s more) with some really cheesy comic book writing and this is mcg’s Terminator Salvation……. Eat it !!!!!! Lol…
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On the creative side, (SARCASM) the opening titles were a total lift of Terminator 1, and the final act inside Skynet minus the (Arnold) cameo was almost shot for shot the final act in T2. One of the scenes of Arnold I swear was lifted from T2 or possibly T3. (But It looked fracken great and that was the highlight of the entire film.) Then it turned into a total recreation of the battle in the steel mill of T2, It looked great but it was comical. I won’t even go into the heart transplant. Like I said, “comic book writing.”
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The acting by Bale was Bale, nothing new to report. Worthing and Yetchin did great jobs. The rest were forgettable except Kate, but only because she looked like she had just left the Macys make up counter. (Come on its 2018) I did love the “Stay the course and we will die!!!!” line, if the film had a great line that was it. The “All be back’s and “come with me if you want to live” are baked guy’s, done!!! The T-800′s looked totally awesome!! Did I mention Worthington was awesome. ,,,,, yeah I’ll get the dvd, I hope it has some cool bonus features/deleted scenes but overall the film could have been so much better… I would have given it a 2 out of 5.
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So yeah there are so many things about this movie that could have been better, mainly the lack of emotion was the downfall, i saw t2 when i was a kid and loved it to death, the scene where young conner is crying because arnold has to die was so well done and had so much emotion salvation fails so very hard. Speaking of wtf moments, i would like to comment on 2 parts specifically, if cyberdyne is so advanced and have such a huge hq then how the hell does conner just walk in and all he has to do is pull off the wall panel and hack the door??? The panel doesnt even have screws!!! Just pop it off and hes in… If i was cyberdyne i would have some seriously insane defences, idk motion detection turrets in all the hallways for one… Anyways the next thing is conner is gonna die cuz his heart cant take it?? Not that he got stabbed through the chest with a pole but his heart is giving out? So then the only option is to take out the heart of their best weapon and give it to conner?? He ripped the head off a t-800 for christsakes hes the best chance they got. Take out commons effin heart he didnt do shiz the whole movie. Not to mention performing something as complicated as a heart transplant in post apocalyptic times… Just seemed stupid and unnessecary. But overall good action just not anything close to the film that stirred my heart anf feelings like t2
LOL, Tango I agree Skynet/Cyberdyne’s defenses were a joke in this film.
Not to mention Connor diving into the Ocean so he can gain access to Resistance central.
Lol funny….
Haha yeah man i worry about the sanity of those folks livin under the sea in a sub. Also this just care to mind, if cyberdyne is so intent on finding john connor, and if cyberdyne found the resistance HQ by finding the source of that transmission, then why the eff didnt they track the signal from john connor’s radio transmissions and drop a couple nukes on the area. Man i just think i would make such a better machine commander, its like, oh so some human survived the first wave of nukes? Well shiz here come some more… KABOOM!!! oh what? theres still a resistance? Well heres some more nukes. Rinse and repeat as nessecary for resistance eradification.
@ Tango,
So you think Skynet/Cyberdyne should’ve just nuked the entire world to kill all humans/resistance? I see your point but i’m sure there’s a good reason not too. I’m no nuclear scientist, but the nuclear radiation would maybe interefere with Skynet/Cyberdyne computers and communications to it’s other sites.
I thought it was a good movie, but not a great movie. I know some didn’t like Bale’s acting of John Connors. But i think he did a good job. It’s hard for the viewer to relate or even sympathize with him anymore, as he is now a battle hardened soldier with little fear. Hence why we had the Marcus character. Sam Worthington was great! I wonder if they will consider him to play Captain America?
It was cool to see/hear some references to previous T movies. The “You could be mine” G&R song from T2 LOL, “I’ll be back”, etc. The Arnold scene was really cool too!! Awesome CGI stuff with that.
I wonder if they go back in time in the sequel and have Marcus in the movie again, but as a human? then we can find out the reason he killed his brother and some police?
Star Trek still best movie out this summer so far..
I was really bummed out by this film. I was really hoping that it would be able to harken back to the first two movies and it did not. I thought the reason the first two were cool is because Skynet was a mysterious thing and both movies were a cat mouse game. This one was not. I also thought McG was really trying to Hollywood-ize the movie. The non-stop hero shots of John Connor were a bit much and he wasn’t even an interesting character. And the scene with the Harvester may have been one of the most ridiculous scenes of this summer, for a minute there I didn’t know whether I was watching a Terminator movie or another Transformers trailer, and when the motorcyclists came out of the boot I almost had to walk out of the theater. And it wasn’t just the harvester, but all sorts of Terminators were constantly sneaking up on characters throughout the movie and I couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t hear them. And it really bothered me that Bryce Dallas Howard’s obviously pregnant character realy went without mention. Finally, I thought the most ridiculous moments came when Christian Bale used his “Batman voice,” (repeatedly).
There are definitely a few holes in this story (correct me if I’m wrong), but….
Is it just me, or did Marcus seem more advanced than the “new” T-800? Marcus was clearly a more efficient infiltration unit because he didn’t stand out like a massive bodybuilder and he was able to understand humans and relate to them better. That being said, why wouldn’t they just create an army of Marcus-like terminators since they clearly have the capability to do so? Don’t get me wrong, he was a great character, but I thought his existence in this movie undermines the whole idea of the T-800 being the most advanced terminator of that time period (unless Marcus came from the future, but that’s a whole other tangent that I could go down). Maybe Skynet only built one of him because he has a human brain and heart, and therefore has the ability to care about humans instead of kill them? I don’t know. My head hurts just thinking about this one.
Also, when Marcus was in Skynet and the computer told him that they’ve been unsuccessful at killing John Conner for so many years, how would Skynet even know (in 2018) that John Connor is their primary target if John wasn’t even technically the leader of the resistance yet? That being the case, how in the name of sweet Jesus would they even know to put Kyle Reese at the top of their kill list? I need someone to explain that one to me.
And what was the deal with the lady who had cancer at the beginning? I know she worked for Cyberdine (which I was under the impression was blown up in T2) and she “also had a death sentence” with her disease. But was she good or bad? What were her intentions? I hoped that they would have elaborated just a tiny bit more on that little side story… or did I miss something in the movie?
I also agree with everyone who said the ending was weak. John Connor getting stabbed through the chest and needing a heart transplant? Come on, now. They could have just left that out of the movie completely. And I thought there would be a more interesting story behind how Connor got the scar on his face. I mean, the T-800 having molten steel poured on it and then being frozen so that his finger tip became sharp, and then it scratches John’s face? Really? Also, Common didn’t even need to be in this movie. He served no relevant purpose, along with that little Michael Jackson-looking girl.
McG was in the public eye for the past year promoting this film, but now that the movie’s out and people are noticing holes in the story and complaining about the silly ending, I wonder if he’ll make another appearance to explain why he added some of the scenes that he did. I just hope that the upcoming sequels tie everything together and don’t get too carried away like the Matrix trilogy did.
Aside from all of that though, the movie was entertaining, the action and special effects were some of the best I’ve seen, and Schwarzenegger’s CGI cameo was AWESOME. I’ll still buy this one on DVD when it comes out.
I enjoyed this one, but didn’t love it. Problem is, when it comes to this franchise, they should produce something you love. I did like it visually. It was darker, gritty. Just what I’d imagine of a barren and desolate post-apocalyptic world. Conner going over and over his mother’s tape for guidance, good moments and a great way to have Sarah live on even after her death.
I thought Worthington did a great job. But in the end I felt the film negated the great things his character could have brought in. Yes he saved Conner by giving him his heart; then again he’s the one who put him there in the first place. It seems that all that was really accomplished in this ‘Marcus gets Kyle and John to Skynet, then bails them out’ circle was that the Resistance command got bombed and we got an explanation for Conner’s facial scar. Not much else. So all Marcus really accomplished in the film was finding out why he was part machine. He didn’t even go thru much trouble accepting it. He wasn’t a reluctant hero, you could tell from the start he was going to be a good guy. No real character growth.
And as far as Skynet’s plan to get Conner and Reece to the facility to kill them, I have trouble with that. From the earlier films, I understood that Sarah Conner taught John to stay under the radar, because he was too important…and now he’s some kind of broadcasted prophet? One of the things I was looking forward to in this new trilogy was seeing HOW Conner rises in the resistance. So I feel a little cheated now because of the messiah angle. Reminded me too much of the Matrix. In this film we don’t really see how he gains trust from other resistance leaders, other than a few radio broadcasts. In the end he just has it. And that’s it.
Okay, so John is on the radar. Would have loved some reasoning, some explanation, but forget it. I can just accept some things and move on. But like the above poster, I wonder why anyone would know about Reece at this point? Only JC should know about him and I just can’t see his character being stupid enough to let that very critical piece of knowledge float around, much less Skynet caring about it.
Back to Marcus’ apparent death. They didn’t show him dying, though without a heart I don’t see him surviving to another sequel unless they create some unbelievable plot twist. His existence could have fit in so very nicely in this series. The original Reece described John to Sarah as a man who taught them how to fight back, how to combat the machines. That was part of what made Marcus so potentially special. What a fountain of knowledge Marcus could have been to that end! It would have fit in perfectly. And oh, the irony! Skynet only comes to exist because MAN created it! Then it blows up the world and brings humanity to the edge of extinction! Now man’s best hope could have resided in Marcus, created by Skynet! Missed opportunity…
Believe me, I’m not one of those movie goers who likes to pick movies apart. I do like to leave reality at the door and enjoy what I see. I did enjoy watching this and may see it again before DVD. I just think they could have made this a really great start to the new trilogy, but it came out flat.
@Big Schmitty, that is definitely a big plothole. From what I could tell Skynet must have sent back a Terminator with the designs on how to construct the Marcus unit. As Skynet told Marcus the plan to construct him as a perfect infiltration unit was to embed his mission subconsciously in his programming/brain as Skynet admitted to him that it was done in a hurry meaning that Marcus was the next attempt to kill Connor possibly thought up after the T-1000 failed.
I don’t believe he was stronger than a T-800 as he never showed any advanced strength until the end. His special feature was that he wasn’t even aware his was a cyborg and had feelings this would allow him to be a manchurian cyborg. As you could see it worked up to the end.
Actually I found that to be a very clever way to ignore the events of T3. As that’s what the film did.
The result was Cyberdyne didn’t fall into the Militaries hands it stayed private. It also seemed like Skynet was a centralized mainframe other than being born from corrupt AI software.
This would also account for why Skynet seemed to be ahead in the time line as far as the T-800′s went.
For all that logic, Skynet sure dropped the ball during the third act,,,
Yeah i guess the more we pick this apart the more holes we find. I was just thinking, speaking of skynet dropping the ball. They pretty much such at programming their robot if they just allow marcus to remove his microchip. Honestly your building a robot with a human brain and your not expecting him to rebel at all against you??? The skynet lady/ computer whatever just WATCHED him rip his microchip out.
The answer is clear .
Skynet must produce the next film to counter Terminator Salvations
RAMPANT pro human bias!
@big Schmitty
Yeah I saw a lot of these holes and have been trying to figure it out myself.
First off the I think you are on the right track, as far as Marcus goes, he is weaker than the T-800 and has a heart, and brain, so he can choose for himself, which is a flaw that is explored in T2 where a terminator can become self aware after enough contact with humans and choose to fight for or against skynet. So thats the whole Read only business from the cut scenes in T2. I would say that Marcus is not as advanced becuase he is more efficient except for that fact that he wont actually kill anyone and Skynet has to take an existing body and making him into a cyborg. The T-800 is advanced because now skynet can make its own, totally subservient to it. Plus, with a Skynet CPU, it is smarter and more efficient killing machine.
As to how Skynet would know that Connor and Reese are the main targets, well I would say connor from the idea that skynet and the TX might have been able to communicate in T3 when she was at CRS. But as for Reese, no freaking idea, Because the first terminator would only know he was interfering, there is no record of him in the police files of John Connor in T2. So I think they messed that up, Reese should be just another soldier and the only one who knows his importance is Connor, thats it. Unless Skynet can do DNA analysis somehow and pinpoint who the daddy is? But of course that requires knowing that he is from the future! Ahhh, too much to think about. Well the cyberdyne building was blown up but just the middle three floors, besides, a company that big, I am sure that is not the only building they had, and besides, in this day and age, such important data, such as the Skynet programming would have to be backed up in databases all over the world, thats why i didnt like the whole CRS thing. I am sure the lady had good intentions, just that you know, she died. Probably trying to do what they did to marcus so people can keep living. A heart wont live forever. But Judgement day then Skynet, kinda figures this is a good way to start stuff with the Terminator program.
I thought the scar thing was great, I mean he got it from his first encounter with the terminator in the future. Pretty neat, also good nod. And for those who hated the ending, believe me it is better than the one he had planned out. I will explain…
In a very recent interview, McG explains that the ending was different and changed because of a leak about it a year ago. And you can see hints of it in the movie. The look in Johns face when he is on the floor after marcus beats the t-800 is really one of a guy who is dying. In the interview, McG explains that John does die, but the people around him, Barnes, kate, Blair, Kyle, Star, they decide to remove Marcus covering and replace it with Johns, to make everyone think Connor is still alive, so that people don’t lose hope. Then after the skin transplant, Marcus/New John, gets up and wastes everyone. I would have walked out pissed if that happened. This new ending feels tacked on but it was necessary. I would have just had it where he got stabbed but he was gonna make it and Marcus died trying to save him.
And the Cameo was not CG, that is the governors real form!
@Steven I guess you skipped my comments. (Most people do, lol)
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The events in T3 didn’t happen as Cyberdyne didn’t change into Cyber Research systems. You can see the Cyberdyne logo from T2 all over the film. If the TX was sent back it wasn’t acknowledged by Skynet when it gave Marcus the keys to the city,,, however Skynet had to send a Terminator back because that’s the only way that Skynet would have been able to get the designs for the Marcus cyborg and insure that was programmed into Marcuses’ Cpu.
I’m thinking similar to TSCC, Cyberdyne was infiltrated by a Terminator and it guided the evil computer to its endgame. Since the Terminator is a supercomputer it would have had the designs to build Marcus in its Cpu.
Unless Skynet watched the movies, lol,,,
Speaking of the ending,,, One thing about Bale’s performance that bugged me was he sees the Arnold model, he hardly seemed to be surprised. Sure he knew eventually that day would come but a little jaw dropping sigh would have been a nice touch…
For all the praise Bale gets from some ppl, he didn’t impress me. I also think he was miscast as Connor…
I’m back !!!
Also, one more mind screw of logic.
Killing Reese might have led to Skynets destruction, as Skynet and Cyberdyne were all founded on the fact that remnants of the first T-800 were found in the past.
Also, how does Connor rationalize that he won’t be born if he doesn’t send Kyle back. That’s not the way it works as they are already living in an alternative time line that began in 1984… It doesn’t matter at this point in time.
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Anyone notice the Griffith Observatory was a nod to the original location where the first Terminator time traveled to in T1,,,
The hillside where they find the jeep looks exactly like that in real life. However they blew it with the Hollywood sign as those letters are over 100 ft tall not 20 ft tall as in the film.
@790, well I also found that it was cool the Cyberdyne systems logo was present all over the place. But in T3, it is stated Cyberdyne sold some of their patents to CRS/govt, not that they changed into them. But I think it is pretty clear that T3 did happen in this movie because of Kate and John being together, and the fact that Judgement day happens in 2003 as described in T3, since we see Marcus in jail before Judgement Day, in 2003.
I also dont like the idea that skynet somehow knows about the future and time travel events of the three terminators it sent back.