REACTION: New 'Terminator Salvation' trailer exhilaratingly rallies interest in the fight for humanity's survival

Although not entirely new, the latest "Terminator Salvation" trailer has plenty of fresh footage, riveting action sequences, cool tag lines and appropriate background rock music to make anyone excited about its May 21 release.

Most revealing about the trailer is footage that shows that Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright's body is not only made up of replicated human tissue over metal endoskeleton, but that he - it would be more accurate to say "it" - for some reason believes himself to be human and the only hope for the human resistance. 

Could Marcus Wright be an all-too-human reconnaissance cyborg that the resistance can turn against SkyNet? If the machine proves himself to be as loyal as Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) believes him to be, perhaps he is the one that provides the know-how of how to reprogram Terminators to serve the human resistance.

New cuts of footage also show John Connor (Christian Bale) attempting to contact via a radio the members of the human resistance presumably from the Crystal Peak military complex moviegoers last saw him in toward the end of 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

John Connor likely has his own battalion, but is looking for new recruits or to join forces with Michael Ironside's General Ashdown's unit. One has to wonder if John Connor saying "If we stay the course, we are all dead!" refers to a difference in the battle strategies of both leaders. 

  

More of Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard) is shown in her role as a veterinarian-turned-battle-physician, discovering that Marcus Wright is more than just a run-of-the-mill human and something she and John have never before seen.

This indicates that his cyborg physiology is either entirely different from known T-600 and T-800 models or something else entirely. 

A bulk of the trailer's footage reveals nothing new so much as it shows new footage of what has already been seen such as a Moto Terminator motorcycle performing an awesome evasive maneuver, T-600 Terminator models being worked on by someone in some unknown production line and one on the floor with his head having been blown open, a clearer look at The Harvester, more shots of HK-aerial planes and hydrobots, many humans standing around in cattle-like enclosures. 

Not to mention the human resistance combating a combination of SkyNet's metal cronies on a bridge that apparently survived Judgement Day in tact, but might not be left standing by the end of this 130-minute-long film. 

Has humanity begun rebuilding society or does the war take place somewhere outside of the immediate blast radius of the nuclear war?

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REACTION: McG sizes up 'Terminator Salvation' as an origin movie ... that seems more like a prequel?

Director Joseph McGinty Nichol elaborated on known "Terminator Salvation" plot details on Feb. 8 at the New York City ComicCon, saying that it is essentially an origin movie for most of the lead characters.

Christian Bale's John Connor progresses into the human resistance leader he is destined to become, SkyNet develops the famed Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 model and Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese feels as though he has to volunteer, but not yet go back in time to do his part to save humanity after seeing so many of his comrades' sacrifices.

Is this more of a prequel to "The Terminator" than it is an origin movie? Is it both?

Five minutes of footage later showed that John Connor went into hiding after the nuclear holocaust in 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines," later trying to contact members of the human resistance via a radio broadcast. He realizes about 15 years have passed when meeting a young Kyle Reese.

The footage also showed that John Connor's claims about the future cause him to come into conflict with the human resistance's official leader, Michael Ironside's skeptical General Ashdown.

Imagine an intense Bale-interpreted John Connor channeling his mother's behavior while in an insane asylum going up against a hardened military officer portrayed by the actor who was once General Sam Lane on "Smallville" and voiced Darkseid in "Superman: The Animated Series."

McG further revealed how close "Terminator Salvation" might be to its 1984 predecessor, saying Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor and Schwarzenegger could yet be in the movie in some form and that he has been in contact with Robert Patrick, who portrayed a T-1000 model in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," and Michael Biehn, who portrayed an adult Kyle Reese in "The Terminator."

Biehn would not necessarily fit in any capacity.

A fews shots in the dark are that McG wants the film to begin with a Sarah Connor voice-over, Schwarzenegger's face to be superimposed on Roland Kickinger's body and Patrick to be a random resistance fighter caught by SkyNet harvesters.

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REACTION: Christian Bale suggests he invokes Linda Hamilton's crazy Sarah Connor in 'Terminator Salvation'

Christian Bale said on Feb. 6 that he was tapping into Linda Hamilton's interpretation of Sarah Connor while shooting a "Terminator Salvation" scene during which he confronted the film's director of photography.

Specifically, Bale said he was trying to recreate the "blood craziness" of Hamilton's performance when her character is being held in an insane asylum in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and that somehow he took the performance too far when it was translated into a verbal reprimand. 

His explanation seemingly makes sense in that Hamilton's portrayal as Sarah Connor during the insane asylum sequences is more violent and intense than what would be required for what has been described as a very emotional scene between Bale's John Connor and Bryce Dallas Howard's Kate Connor in "Terminator Salvation."

Cuts from the film's trailer teases that at some point John Connor leaves a pregnant Kate Connor right before he is about to engage in a dangerous mission that could result in the end of the war between the human resistance and SkyNet. One cut in particular suggests John Connor is killed.

Was Bale tapping into the all-or-nothing feeling Sarah Connor character must feel in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" knowing that her escape from the asylum could affect the fate of the human race, which will require a leader to rally them against the machines in the future?

Maybe the prospect of becoming a father changes John Connor the way it changed Sarah Connor when she became a mother in that he finally has a reason to care whether human kind survives annihilation beyond saving his own neck. 

This would make sense given that an Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 model tells the future military leader in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" that his days are numbered, and that would make anyone crazy.

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REACTION: Christian Bale's outburst on 'Terminator Salvation' set sign of character-driven film lacking one key scene?

All that will be posted about Christian Bale's incident with a "Terminator Salvation" director of photography is that he must be determined to portray a very deep and intense John Connor.

It is worth mentioning that Bale was initially not interested in portraying the character unless Director Joseph McGinty Nichol could show the Welsh actor a script that could metaphorically hold an audience's interest if it were read by two naked actors for two hours. He set a level of professionalism for the film's production that was allegedly not adhered to on the set many times.

One has to agree with Harry Knowles from "Ain't It Cool News" that Bale's outburst is not news.

Not only did the incident occur two months ago, but it has very little to do with the film except that maybe what has been called the most emotional scene between Bale's character and Bryce Dallas Howard's Kate Brewster will not be as natural as it could have been given that the actor's concentration was interrupted and thus had to be reshot.

But self-censorship is another matter altogether for a news Web site, though it could be argued that the released audio of Bale verbally reprimanding Shane Hurlbut is accessible anywhere on the Web. 

If anything, moviegoers should hear the recording of what happened to reassure themselves that Bale takes portraying the man whose very existence means the difference between the survival of the human race and its extinction at the hands of cybernetic organisms very seriously. 

"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines" left a lot for John Connor to prove in terms of his worthiness to accomplish this task. "I am" will not secure his place as leader of the human resistance, but Bale is evidently charged up and ready for the challenge in "Terminator Salvation."

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REACTION: McG hints at what will happen in third act of 'Terminator Salvation'

Director Joseph McGinty Nichol posed two questions on Jan. 30 that might be the basis of the third act of "Terminator Salvation," saying that it is likely to make moviegoers both mad and think.

"Is Skynet smart enough to use the best parts of ourselves against ourselves? Can we trust the machine?" McG said.

McG refers to the artificial intelligence that is SkyNet abducting human beings to use as guinea pigs in trying to develop the T-800 Arnold Schwarzenegger model that is sent back in time to kill Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese in 1984's "The Terminator." He portrays its development in "Terminator Salvation" as the beginning of the end for the human race. 

Striking about this part of the director's interview with Wired is the prospect that this berserk defense network so often mentioned as an unstoppable force in past Terminator films has its own limitations that the human resistance might exploit. 

Especially shocking about what McG said is that it might be possible to trust SkyNet or its Terminator assassins.

This bodes well for a film that McG indicates is as much character-driven and philosophical in terms of its overall plot as it is jam-packed with action as it relates to human resistance fighters making machines wish they had never been assembled.

Likening the aim of the script to be something with which Christian Bale would be willing to be involved, McG said "The Dark Knight" star wanted to read a script that two naked actors could portray and that it remain compelling for two hours. He also referenced in talking about the film an affinity for stories guided by the saying, "That which makes us great will be our undoing."

All the aforementioned parts of McG's interview suggest that perhaps SkyNet will be portrayed as using organic body parts in a quest to improve itself as a defensive network the same way that human beings use technology to make fighting wars more efficient. 

Lacking in perspective from the battle-hardened protagonists in the past Terminator films is that SkyNet triggered, but did not cause an arms exchange between the U.S. and Russia because it deemed the latter nation's nuclear stockpile as threatening.

What if SkyNet simply did not understand the human concept of Mutually Assured Destruction? Could an attempt to destroy the defense network lead to this revelation?

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REACTION: McG reveals extended 'Terminator Salvation' sequences of John Connor water wrestling, Kyle Reese at gas station

Remember Christian Bale's John Connor manhandling a metal water slug and Sam Worthington's puzzled Marcus Wright walking into a dilapidated gas station in the "Terminator Salvation" trailer? 

Director Joseph McGinty Nichol showed footage from the film as part of his roadshow at the Los Angeles-based Directors Guild of America building on Jan. 14 that put these two cuts from the trailer into perspective.

Part of the footage provided an explanation as to why John Connor ends up fighting a snake-like machine called a hydrobot, which yanks the character's helicopter out of the sky and into a body of water.

John Connor then fights off a hydrobot and makes his way ashore before Marcus Wright, whose metal endoskeleton is exposed, tackles more incoming opponents as the first sequence continues. 

Subsequent dialogue between the two characters indicates that they are on their way to save Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese from being used by SkyNet to create cyborgs.

Another part of the footage shows that a jumbo Terminator called a Harvester snatches up raggedy human beings including Kyle Reese that are scavenging through the gas station's remains.

After a gun battle on a stretch of road in the second sequence, The Harvester unleashes from its leg compartments two Moto-Terminator motorcycles, which chase after Kyle Reese, Marcus Wright and a little girl in a tow truck. They are inevitably caught underneath an incoming fireball.

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REVERIE: Who is Terminator 4's Marcus Wright? Friend or foe?

Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright is the new kid on the post-Judgment Day block in "Terminator Salvation," the success and novelty of which depends on the mystery of the character's personal history.

The decommissioned Terminator's sudden appearance should prompt a battle-hardened John Connor (Christian Bale) to beat answers out of this mysterious newcomer, the true nature of which has fans of the movie franchise speculating about.

"Complications," a season two episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," reveals that in the future Skynet captures members of the human resistance to study and emulate for the purposes of infiltration and termination of its targets.

Marcus Wright, whom the official movie trailer shows does not have any memory of Judgement Day, could be a sleeper agent that has learned to emulate human beings so well that he believes he is one and forgets that he is a cybernetic organism. That or Skynet does not trust Terminators with a lot of information other than on how to kill targets. Maybe "Terminator Salvation" explains why.

Or could Marcus Wright be the embodiment of Skynet itself? Maybe this is the first attempt by the computer system to reconnoiter human culture and use acquired intelligence to develop a basic blueprint from which to develop humanoid Terminators - T800s.

That would explain why John Connor says to him in the trailer, "You tried to kill my mother. You killed my father. You will not kill me." Only Skynet or the original T-800 Arnold Schwarzenegger model could be tied to that rap sheet.

"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines" made about anything possible.

What is improbable is that Marcus Wright will tear the skin off a dead John Connor, wear it and assume command of the human resistance in order to maintain morale at the end of "Terminator Salvation," as was written in the original draft of the screenplay.

Allowing a machine to turn the tide of the war against Skynet is improbable because it would diminish the significance of human beings in the overall story and of the past three Terminator movies.

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REACTION: New 'Terminator Salvation' trailer reveals the revved up fate of the human race

There is no fate except that which the main characters in the past three Terminator movies make. At least that is what is indicated in the new "Terminator Salvation" trailer.

Which starts off with Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright walking toward the remains of a post-Judgment Day gas station similar to the one at which Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor declared that a storm was coming at the end of 1984's "The Terminator."

Trailer dialogue indicates Marcus Wright is a Terminator, but it is not clear whether the machine is friend or foe. This is one way that the movie stands out from its predecessors.

What makes this future different from that which Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese told Sarah Connor about before knocking her up and from the couple of war scenes at the start of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine" is that some of the Terminators now have arms equipped with machine gun turrets, others look like motorcycles straight out of hell and one in particular comes in jumbo size.

How the new 2018 post-Judgement Day future differs from the one established as having come to be in 2018 is that the human resistance, though Christian Bale's John Connor says in the new trailer that they are losing, is equipped with more than just guns and Terminator-sniffing dogs this time around. They now have Road-Warrior-like mack trucks, helicopters and wear not-so-rag-tag looking military garb. In other words, it seems as though they are all dressed up with nowhere to go in terms of an effective battle strategy.

Of course, it stands to reason and should be no surprise that the future would be different in a movie series that started with the premise of traveling back in time to change the past. But what clips from the latest trailer reveal about the plot of "Terminator Salvation" is that these efforts only served to intensify the war John Connor was destined to wage.

Kyle Reese was partly right in "The Terminator" when he told Sarah Connor that the future had no yet been written, though he must have meant that the details of the war were yet to be determined. Maybe he was just trying to make her comfortable enough for some passion that might some day lead the human race to victory against cybernetic organisms.

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