Not many know that Terminator: Salvation hitting theaters in less than a month isn’t just another tale in the legend of John Connor, but hopefully the starting point of a whole new cinematic trilogy. The director of the film[s] (and regular persona-non-grata in the fan community), McG recently sounded off in an interview with Film Journal on his thoughts for a sequel, which will count as the fifth film in the Terminator franchise, and probably the most confusing: (Possible Spoilers)
I strongly suspect the next movie is going to take place in a [pre-Judgment Day] 2011. John Connor is going to travel back in time and he’s going to have to galvanize the militaries of the world for an impending Skynet invasion. They’ve figured out time travel to the degree where they can send more than [just] one naked entity. So you’re going to have hunter killers and transports and harvesters and everything arriving in our time and Connor fighting back with conventional military warfare, which I think is going to be fucking awesome. I also think he’s going to meet a scientist that’s going to look a lot like present-day Robert Patrick [who famously played the T-1000 in Terminator 2], talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves.
While this is great news for anybody who was a fan of Robert Patrick in T2, this doesn’t sound like very good news for fans of the franchise, or even coherent time-travel stories. This throws out the Terminator rule that “only living flesh can be sent back in time”, which is why we got gratuitous Arnold butt-shots back in the 80s. If one were to break down McG’s statement, there are plenty more holes in our Terminator universe. So does this mean he’s just messing with our heads in an attempt to be hip? And where is Summer Glau??
