Action Movies

Terminator: Salvation

releases in the United States on May 21 as a pre-Memorial Day release. Expect it to be a major blockbuster to kick off the summer movie season. As with the previous movies, this one will be action-packed, loaded with the newest and best CGI available, and offer a high body count. Here’s what you need to know before you head to the theater:

Terminator 4 Quick Facts

Alert: Arnold Schwarzenegger is NOT the star of this movie. This is an all new series brought to use by pretentiously-named director McG. He’s mostly known for commercials, music videos, and some major films like Charlie’s Angels.

John Connor

Like all previous films in the franchise, there will be a new John Connor. This time Christian Bale steps up to the plate. Expect brooding in dark leather and deep method acting. It worked when he played Batman, why not another human hero?

The Machines

This movie may or may not feature humanoid robots like the T-101 and above. That’s one of the mysteries. We do know that there will be several different types of nasty machines, from motorcycle robots to monstrous smasher robots. Regardless of the type of machine, they are all designed to carry out the basic Terminator goal: capture and eliminate the human population. It’s never been clear why the machines need their own planet, but they think they do, so we’ll go with it.

The Resistance

As with all previous movies in the Terminator franchise, and frankly, all sci-fi apocalypse movies, the humans will not take this lying down. When robots attack, we fight back. When aliens attack, we fight back. So, we will fight back again. Of course, we will be outgunned, because these are machines. There are more of them than us and they don’t bleed. But we can blow them up, melt them, rip them apart, chain them up, and do all sorts of other dastardly things to them and not feel bad.

Hmmm, maybe it’s the years of bad technical support and repair service that has them so upset. Hear that computer repair departments of the world? This is your fault! If you’d just replaced the keyboard more quickly, none of this would have happened.

The Plot

Here’s a quick rundown of the plot, as revealed by the Terminator trailer and leaked information:

The year is 2018. Skynet has attacked and life as we know it is over. John Connor has been broadcasting from his bunker and emerges to join the resistance. He brings with him his wife, the doctor. He quickly becomes the leader of the resistance. In that role, he meets Marcus Wright, a mysterious figure whose only memory is of being on death row. He doesn’t know if he’s from the past or the future. He also doesn’t know whether or not he’s a machine or a human. Marcus, John, and a few other characters, work together to infiltrate the Skynet headquarters to destroy the command module and bring an end to the Terminator machines that are capturing the humans. They hope to succeed before the machines succeed in creating a humanoid Terminator. They find evidence that the machines are already attempting this, presumably so they can send one back in time to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to John Connor.

We do have to wonder this though: why are the machines so fixated on John Connor? If he hadn’t been born, someone else would have stepped up to lead the resistance. The humans would not have surrendered without him to lead him. We guess it’s just proof that the machines may be sentient, but they aren’t truly intelligent. Not like those Cylons.

However, as long as you don’t think too hard into the plot and can happily go along for the explosive ride, the Terminator 4 installment should satisfy your need for action. You’ll even be satisfied without Arnold and the special brand of humor he demonstrated in the second two Terminator movies.