Director McG was facing an initially rather hostile crowd at Comic Con’s Terminator Salvation panel this morning. Fans have been vocally sceptical of the upcoming McTerminator reboot and even after the brief teaser that made it online last week, the film has been held as a potential tombstone for the franchise. Knowing this, the director strode out and addressed fans' concerns head on.
“We knew we were facing a challenge of credibility," he said. "It’s the privilege of the audience to say, ‘hey, I don’t know about this. I don’t know about this McG guy. I don’t know what their intentions are with this movie.’ So I wanted to protect the movie and protect all of you by hiring the most credible actor of his generation: Christian Bale.
"This whole thing began with listening. We listened to the fans and everybody wanted to look at the future. We weren’t excited about making T4, we were excited about making a new beginning. This feature is post judgement day to get a look at those worlds that the previous pictures only teased. Prior to making the picture I made sure to talk to Jim Cameron, of course Arnold Schwarzenegger. We hired Stan Winston, may he rest in peace and his designs are all over this picture.”
McG also revealed some previously unknown information, that the film’s screenwriter is, in fact, Jonah Nolan, the scribe behind The Dark Knight. At the mention of this and McG’s other comments, the crowd began cheering this man they’d so long reviled and could be heard buying in to his vision of The Terminator.
He further eased concerns with news that he wasn’t planning to make a kiddie-friendly Terminator in order to ensure maximum box office receipts. “We’re shooting the picture with the picture first at all times. I know there’s been some talk about a PG-13 rating. Something I guaranteed Christian is that we put the picture first at all times. And I’ve been given [the studio heads’] blessing to make the picture and if it’s a rated R picture it’s a rated R picture and that’s that. The picture comes first.”
And if that wasn’t enough to win over this toughest of crowds, he then went on to reveal an extended three minute trailer, which set fans screaming till Empire feared the hall would collapse. There was no CG as the film is only halfway through filming but what we saw as nothing short of jaw-dropping. McTerminator detractors may need to find a new whipping boy because, if what we saw is anything to go by, McG might have knocked this one out of the park.
Read on for a full description of the trailer.
The future. A barren wasteland with the smoking wreckage of a helicopter.
Radio: “Bravo 10, Bravo 10, is anyone there? Answer please. Come in. Anyone there? How many survivors are there?”
A survivor moves, it’s Christian Bale as John Connor.
Connor: “One.”
Radio: “Repeat.”
Connor: “...ONE!”
Cut to: Bale stepping over the corpse of a terminator.
Cut to: Bale face to face with Sam Worthington’s Marcus Wright.
Connor: “If I let you down, you’ll kill everyone in this room.”
Wright: “Not everyone, just you Connor. Because I don’t give a shit about you. I didn’t even know your name until two days ago.”
Connor: (whispered) “Kill me? We’ve been at war since before either of us even existed.”
Cut to: Marcus Wright standing in a wreckage strewn courtyard.
Wright: “Hey!”
Suddenly weapon fire shatters the silence and bullets begin chewing up the ground around him. Just as it seems he’s done for a figure dives out from out of shot and knocks him out of the line of fire. He looks up and it’s Antol Yelchin’s Kyle Reese.
Reese: “Come with me if you want to live.”
We see the barrel of a minigun blazing and a Terminator’s feet as it walks towards them, crushing a human skull beneath its weight.
Wright: (echoing Michael Biehn’s lines form the first film while talking to Reese) “What day is it? What year?”
Reese: “2018.”
Wright: “What happened here?”
Reese: “Judgement day happened.”
Cut to: a truck with a snow plough welded to the front crashing through obstacles on a road, a jeep driving through the desert, resistance fighters running across a train track and three humans jumping over a precipice with abseiling ropes attached to them.
Voice: “Go! Go! Go!”
Cut to: the burned face of a T-600, its metal skull showing through the ruin of its flesh.
Cut to: the silhouette of a terminator endoskeleton holding a gun, it’s eyes glow red against the darkness.
Cut to: A night shot of Moon Bloodgood’s Blair Williams standing outside with her back to us, topless. She turns around, her hands covering her modesty.
Cut to: figures running amidst explosions and gunfire, a figure on a motorbike flying through the air.
Cut to: John Connor and his men inside a bunker. There is a huge cybernetic arm tied to a table – it’s about seven feet long and topped with a claw. Connor crouches nest to the claw to study it and the claw comes to life, snapping at the air.
Cut to: A huge metal machine rearing into shot with red eyes and an enormous metal carapace. An inhuman howl fills the air.
Connor: “This is not the future that my mother told me about. Something has changed.”
The familiar Terminator beat hammers out.
Kate Connor: “If you saved us once in another future, you can save us in this one.”
Cut to: Reese turning to Connor.
Reese: “Who are you?”
Connor: “John Connor!”
Cut to: Bryce Dallas Howard’s Kate Connor running toward s the camera and screaming “John!”
Cut to: Connor face to face with Wright again.
Connor: “You tried killing my mother. You killed my father. You will not kill me.”
Cut to: A figure covered head to toe in mud and screaming into the night (could be Worthington or Bale – hard to tell).
Cut to: a terminator trapped under the landing strut of a helicopter. A gun barrel lowers to its skull and puts it out of its misery. The camera pans up to reveal John Connor looking decidedly mean.
Cut to: the inside of a building. A huge cybernetic arm crashes through the ceiling and grabs someone, pulling him through the hole in the roof. It’s the arm of a harvester, one of the machine’s huge man hunters.
Cut to: A terminator being crushed by a falling car.
End title comes up word by word: The. End. Begins.
Cut to: Bale lying prone, clearly in pain with a terminator’s hand descending towards his face.
Connor: “You son of a bitch!”
It claws furrows down the front of his face. He screams.