TERMINATOR SALVATION
US, 2009, 115 minutes, Colour.
Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Helena Bonham- Carter, Anton Yelchin, Jadagrace Bryce, Dallas Howard Common, Jane Alexander, Michael Ironside.
Directed by Mc G
There are incessant slams and even more bangs in this slambang third edition of the Terminator saga.
If you are not up-to-date on the details of the series (which began as long ago as 1984), then it is recommended that you find a Terminator geek and get filled in on the plot background – because it deals with time travel which makes no realistic logical sense except, maybe, on the screenplay page. Otherwise, look up the IMDb and check with the plot information there, which I did (and found it actually did remind me of the past stories and explained what had happened and how this plot fits in quite well with what has gone before!).
MCG, or Mc G (for Joseph Mc Ginty) has directed two Charlie's Angels films, so he knows how to do action stuff. Here, he has been given free rein and has taken it. The film looks distinctive. He has opted for a desaturated look, minimal colour, for what is a very bleak post-apocalyptic landscape of LA and the California desert. Since machines are dominating humans, this atmosphere is quite dehumanised as the pocket resistance groups try to survive against the ever more powerful terminator constructs. And there are plenty of chases, pursuits, menacing, fights, battles to illustrate this. The film also has a pounding Danny Elfman score, with beating drums, and sound engineering which seems to make the cinema reverberate. Technically, with the design of the Terminators and their superhuman, supermachine abilities and activities, and the creation of the bleak sets, the film is well crafted.
And the plot? We are in 2018. John Connor (Christian Bale) is heading the resistance. He is married with a pregnant doctor wife (Bryce Dallas Howard). Out there is the teenage Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) who, we know from the previous films, will go back to 1984 in 2029 to save John Connor's mother who is threatened by the original Terminator (and this time we have a flashback of the governor of California from that film). Connor, of course, wants to save him from destruction, especially after he hears that he has been captured along with a mute little girl and a grandmother-figure (Jane Alexander).
A complication comes in the character of Marcus whom we see executed in 2003 but signing away his body to an agent of Skynet (Helena Bonham Carter). You will have guessed that he is made the subject of a machine experiment, human heart and brain combined with metal – and a mission to kill John Connor. As played by Sam Worthington, he becomes a more interesting and sympathetic character than John Connor himself, befriending the prisoners and determined to rescue them, unaware of his human-machine constitution and not knowing that he is to kill Connor.
Given these bases, the plot is rather predictable – but that doesn't really matter as we are swept along with the action (which includes an interesting reverse parallel chase to Terminator 2 where a menacing truck pursued the young John on a motor bike whereas here, Marcus in a truck pursues an evil terminator on a bike) – and we are subdued into submissive acceptance by the beating score and the pounding sound.
1.The popularity of the Terminator films? Over twenty-five years? Audience expectations?
2.The future: bleak, post-apocalyptic, a world of resistance to the machines? Touches of hope? The cataclysmic Event? Its consequences?
3.The technical bravura of the film? The desaturated colour, the red eyes in the dark background? Grim landscapes, ruins? Los Angeles? The special effects for the machines, their size, action, battles? Sky Net Laboratories? The pounding score, the reverberating sound engineering and its effect?
4.Issues of time, time travel? The philosophical possibility or not? Especially for Kyle Reese and the fact that in 2029 he goes into the past? Becomes John Connor’s father? The possibilities of changing the past and the future or not?
5.The introduction to Marcus Wright, in prison, his sense of guilt, Doctor Serena Kogan visiting him, her looking as if she were dying of cancer? Her plea, the cause of science? His wanting the kiss – the taste of death? Signing the document? The scene of his execution? The tone that this gives the film?
6.John Connor, the leader of the Resistance, married, his wife pregnant? General Ashdown and the strategy to combat the machines? His headquarters, his officers? The role of the Resistance? John Connor on the radio, his team, Blair Williams, Barnes? The action against the machines?
7.The Resistance and Kyle Reese, his age, with the little girl, Star? The bonds between them? Virginia, the grandmother figure, her care for the child? The fighting with the machines, their being captured, transferred to prison?
8.Marcus, alone in the desert, meeting this Resistance group, their suspicions? Kate and the physical examination? Finding the metal? His fighting, his motivation, travelling, seeking John Connor? The encounter with Blair Williams? Down the well, surviving, his wounds? Connor’s suspicions? The metal, human brain and human heart? Suspicion about his mission to kill Connor – which was a reality? Testing him? Blair saving him, Connor allowing this?
9.The characters of the machines, their power, the vehicles? The way of disabling the machines? The Terminator cycle chase with the machines on the bikes? Marcus in pursuit?
10.The build-up to the final confrontation, Marcus and John Connor? The rescue of Kyle Reese and the others? Marcus and the information from doctor Kogan? The truth about himself, his mission? The nightmare experience? Connor and the attack? Marcus and his having a second chance?
11.Connor and his wounds, his wife tending him, the possibility of the heart transplant? Marcus agreeing, making reparation for the wrong that he had done?
12.The title, salvation for Marcus, salvation for Connor, salvation for the human race?
