Released in 2009, Terminator Salvation was the first of a proposed trilogy that would, unlike its predecessors, focus on the future war between Skynet and the survivors of Judgement Day. There's a a lot to like in this mostly forgotten entry in the Terminator franchise. The cinematography and sound design are fantastic. Christian Bale's performance is committed and intense. Even Sam Worthington seems to be successfully channeling Mel Gibson's Mad Max circa 1981. So why didn't this film fare better with critics? And what might have been done differently to mitigate these problems?
What Death Tastes Like
From the very first scene, we know something's not right. There's no Sarah Connor, no John Connor, no T-800 to remind us that this is a Terminator movie. Instead, we're introduced to Marcus Wright, Sam Worthington's killer with a heart of gold. He's in the process of selling his body to Cyberdyne Systems' rep. Dr Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter). In case you didn't get that Marcus is on death row, and the ill-fitting bald cap didn't give away that Serena is dying of cancer, Marcus tells her he's 'not the only one with a death sentence'. Still didn't catch the fact that Serena has cancer? Luckily, Marcus clears that up for us with his next line - "Do you think I'm gonna cure your cancer?" Everything about this scene seems superfluous. Outside of a brief mention of his brother and two cops being dead because of him, there's no real explanation as to how Marcus got here, nor is there any elaboration regarding what Cyberdyne intends to do with Marcus' body (pre Skynet). Is Marcus the only prisoner that Selena is petitioning, and if so, what makes him so special? Does Marcus have any last words before receiving a state sanctioned lethal injection? Nope. All we get from this scene is the broad strokes of an anti-hero protagonist and a very strong sense that we'll see Marcus later in the film with some terminator-esque superpowers. So when we get the big reveal at the end of Act 2 that Marcus is one of a new breed of human/terminator hybrids, not a single person in the audience is surprised. There's also no stakes, because we know that:
a) John Connor won't die
b) Kyle Reese won't die
c) Marcus is a robot
What if, instead of revealing this secret in the first five minutes of the movie, we start the film at the beginning of Scene 2, with the Resistance choppers heading towards the secret Skynet lab? The movie then opens with an awesome action sequence and we focus our introduction on John Connor. Even better if all the dialogue is stripped from the start of the scene (especially the pointlessly obvious "Connor is on the ground" line, and the ridiculous exposition dump as they're rappelling into the underground lab).
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| "Don't forget to do the one thing we explicitly came here to do!" |
The first time we'd see Marcus is when he escapes the destroyed lab, naked and screaming. That way, it would seem like he's just one of many prisoners from the facility and we could be drip fed his backstory throughout the movie. We wouldn't get our first clue that he's part machine until the magnetic mine field sequence; provided, of course, you haven't already purchased the Marcus action figure (with robot hand) or the 'Terminator Gear' Battle Damage Marcus Mask and Endo Fist.
Who's Number One?
In this future world, prophesied leader of the Resistance John Connor has been relegated to second fiddle. There's a whole submarine full of powerful men, like Michael Ironside, that he has to answer to. Now, having seen the previous films in the franchise, we know it won't be long before Connor takes his place as leader of the Resistance. Why would Skynet go to all the trouble of sending robots back in time to kill Connor's mother if he wasn't solely responsible for Skynet's downfall? Come to think of it, why would John Connor be on an intercepted Skynet kill list at all? At this point in the timeline, how does Skynet even know that Connor is their second biggest threat? Maybe because he's the one broadcasting to survivors, rallying them under the banner of Resistance and prophesying the coming of the T-800? That makes sense. In fact, John Connor is really just a figurehead, a voice on a radio that people are willing to listen to and follow. He is dangerous because he gives the humans hope (and some crafty tips on how to defeat the terminators). Which brings me to the second major gripe with this film - why is Kyle Reese Number One on Skynet's kill list? At this stage, Skynet has not sent any terminators to the past. They don't even know that they'll lose the war, which precipitates their use of time travel. So how the hell do they know that Kyle Reese will one day travel back to 1984 using Skynet brand technology and impregnate Sarah Connor, who will give birth to and train the one man left on Earth who could defeat them? That's right - they can't. The whole plot involving Kyle Reese is flawed, but it can be salvaged. All it requires is some trimming of dialogue, and Kyle Reese becomes just some teenage kid who's in the same sort of life threatening danger as every other teenage kid in this future apocalypse. And to be clear - if Skynet were serious about ensuring John Connor was never born, all they need to do is send a terminator back to when Skynet invented time travel and like, ask them not to.
Don't Look At Me Like That, Star
The first humans that Marcus finds after escaping the lab are Kyle Reese and his mute young friend, Star. Star continues the tradition of introducing a child character into an established science fiction franchise, with the clear intention of providing an emotional outlet for our grizzled lead (and a cynical attempt to broaden its potential demographic). Star does not take on the surrogate child role as Newt does in Aliens, nor does she represent innocence lost, like the Feral Kid in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
Like Radar O'Reilly in M*A*S*H, Star's ears perk up whenever a terminator attack is imminent - on three separate occasions, no less. Not early enough to help those around her, but just enough to imbue her character with some form of magical purpose. Inexplicably, she is also on hand to remind John Connor that he rigged a bunch of explosives that need to be detonated at the end of the film. These inclusions feel calculated and insincere, and detract from the movie. Again, this is an easy fix, requiring a few seconds of unnecessary footage to be excised.
Everybody Deserves a Second Chance
The final problem that hinders Terminator Salvation is the ending, which sees our protagonist sacrifice his life to save John Connor - the person he was programmed to assassinate. Firstly, lets overlook the stupidity of that plot point, and the fact that Connor receives a heart transplant in a tent while relative strangers look on. Instead, let's focus on Marcus' act of sacrifice. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling like it was John Connor who was supposed to die in this scene, not Marcus. It's no coincidence that the savior of humanity has the initials JC (like a certain biblical character). I wouldn't be surprised if the original script had Connor die and be replaced by (or resurrected as) Marcus, which makes sense when you recall the footage from Terminator 2: Judgement Day of a somewhat robotic looking John Connor surveying the field of battle.
As stated earlier, John Connor is merely a figurehead of the Resistance. There's no reason why he couldn't have been replaced by someone else, as long as he was able to continue delivering his message of hope to the survivors. This could have been a great set up for the second movie in this future war trilogy, in which Marcus has to step into the shoes of Connor and continue the fight against the machines. He already has an established relationship with Kyle Reese, so it would make sense for him to trust Kyle to travel to the past in the third film to protect Connor's mum - with none of the baggage of knowing that Kyle was Connor's father.
Terminator Salvation rides the line of guilty pleasure trash and a good movie. All it would take is a small nudge in the right direction, and it might have been a memorable film. More importantly, it could have staunched the flow of awful Terminator movies that have been made since.