Terminator Genisys (2015) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Setting aside the quality of the trailer, it did get my brain thinking about the laws of consequences, and the fact that the Jason Clarke John Connor is literally a different man from the Nick Stahl/Christian Bale John Connor. Every time you change the events prior to the moment of conception, you change the genetic lottery.

Presumably there have been at least three John Connors:
1) The son of Sarah Connor and some unknown man, who grew up to be so extraordinary that Skynet bent the laws of time itself to prevent him from even being born.
2) The son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, who grew up being told he was humanity's messiah, and receiving the very specific life experiences and training needed to step up and into that role. This John Connor is also dangerous enough that Skynet bent the laws of time itself to try and kill him as a child.
3) The son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, who was conceived in a different time and a different place because this Sarah Connor has been raised by a T-800 from the age of nine to survive long enough to become the mother of John Connor.

 

[andySu]

(Uh, well, no, Lucas did it because he decided to cut back his original nine-movie series to six movies by saying "Uh, yeah, it's the story of Anakin, and it already ended in Jedi, that's it!" instead of the entire war. But anyway: )


Correct answer: B
Carolco Pictures, with Gale Ann Hurd, was "the creators of Aliens and The Terminator", ie. by also being the producers of the Cameron classics (including The Abyss and True Lies) and the Paul Verhoeven classics (including Total Recall and Basic Instinct)
But Carolco Pictures also had its two most infamous studio-crushing flops in 1995, Showgirls and Cutthroat Island, and within a few years, Carolco Pictures was no more.

Which left a lot of properties up for grabs that could be bought at a fire sale, and while Fox held onto the Aliens name for being their studio's property, the independent titles like the Terminator series could now be bought by whoever ponied up the cash.
And they've been ponying up since 2003. Some of the original Carolco tried to reform as "C-2 Productions", which gave us the immortal T3 and Basic Instinct II, in their hopes to put the original Cameron/Hurd/Verhoeven titles back under their "proper" owners, but...think you can guess what happened already.
Terminator: Salvation became one of the last productions for the Halcyon Company, and now Skydance Productions think they have a shot at the big ol' revived brass ring. Heheh...Poor saps.

Yeah I recall that company logo C-2 and Skydance on Star Trek a well.

 

[andySu]

Setting aside the quality of the trailer, it did get my brain thinking about the laws of consequences, and the fact that the Jason Clarke John Connor is literally a different man from the Nick Stahl/Christian Bale John Connor. Every time you change the events prior to the moment of conception, you change the genetic lottery.

Presumably there have been at least three John Connors:
1) The son of Sarah Connor and some unknown man, who grew up to be so extraordinary that Skynet bent the laws of time itself to prevent him from even being born.
2) The son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, who grew up being told he was humanity's messiah, and receiving the very specific life experiences and training needed to step up and into that role. This John Connor is also dangerous enough that Skynet bent the laws of time itself to try and kill him as a child.
3) The son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, who was conceived in a different time and a different place because this Sarah Connor has been raised by a T-800 from the age of nine to survive long enough to become the mother of John Connor.

Old John Connor played by (Michael Edwards) in Terminator 2 at the start of the film. And seen at the end of special edition.

If John Connor shot himself would it still change the events would his future self suddenly die or maybe his future self doesn't yet exist. Interesting had he pulled the trigger. The poor guy is living in fear and doesn't want it. Who can blame him?

The Terminator all the future has for dinner is rats. Yeah very appetizing.

 

[Brett_M]

Personally, I giggled like a little girl throughout the trailer. I LOVE THE TERMINATOR. I am excited about the cast and the balls-out action we can look forward to.

 

[Greg.K]

This trailer made me want to go watch the first two movies again. They were enough.

 

[Tony J Case]

Eh, I'll give it a shot. After being burned by the shitty T4, and the worse TV show I was done. But the "Hey, the Time War is really getting going" vibe - oh hell, I've seen worse at the theater and I'm a sucker for Terminator.

 

[TravisR]

I've only seen Terminator 4 once but remember thinking it was OK (and compared to Terminator 3, it was Terminator 2).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've only seen Terminator 4 once but remember thinking it was OK (and compared to Terminator 3, it was Terminator 2).

I was just having a conversation with someone literally two minutes ago where I said, "I'll take Terminator Salvation" over "Terminator 3" any day! Neither of them are going to be confused with best picture winners anytime soon, but I think Salvation was better overall.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I feel the opposite. Terminator 3 is a competent, standard-fare action movie for the first two-thirds and then a great companion piece to the series for the final third.

After being promised the story of the future war, Terminator Salvation gives us the story of a character we don't care about, with John Connor as a muted peripheral player with relatively small operational authority. It has a lot of plot, but doesn't actually say anything. And for all of the money thrown at the screen, there isn't a single moment as powerful as that old fifties command center cackling to life:"Hello? Can someone hear me? This is Montana Civil Defense. Somebody, please come in.""Hello, anybody reading me?""Hello, is anybody there?"
"Command and control have broken down out here."
"Anybody there? Come in!""Is anyone receiving me?"
"Somebody, please come in."
[cacophony of voices]
"Is anybody there?"
"This is John Connor. At Crystal Peak."
"Connor? What the hell is happening? Who's in charge there?"
"I am."

And for all of his alcoholism and substance abuse problems, I thought Nick Stahl made a far more empathetic John Connor than Christian Bale.

 

[SamT]

I hated T3's music.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I feel the opposite. Terminator 3 is a competent, standard-fare action movie for the first two-thirds and then a great companion piece to the series for the final third.

After being promised the story of the future war, Terminator Salvation gives us the story of a character we don't care about, with John Connor as a muted peripheral player with relatively small operational authority. It has a lot of plot, but doesn't actually say anything. And for all of the money thrown at the screen, there isn't a single moment as powerful as that old fifties command center cackling to life:

I like the idea of that ending more than I like how it played out. I just remember not having high hopes for T3, and still being disappointed. To me, while that ending scene in and of itself was a very powerful moment, it almost felt like the movie didn't really earn it.

And I completely agree that Terminator Salvation had a lot ideas that don't really add up to much. It circles around some interesting ideas but doesn't really do anything with them. The ending was pretty silly (the original draft of that ending which I read after the fact was even worse). But the overall production just worked better for me than T3.

My favorite post-James Cameron iteration of "The Terminator" is actually the "Sarah Connor Chronicles" TV show. I think it started off a little rough, but by the time the second season rolls around, it starts turning into something special. I wish they would have stayed on the air a little longer, by about halfway through the second season, it went from a show that I DVR'd and watched when time permitted to one I was eagerly awaiting every week.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My favorite post-James Cameron iteration of "The Terminator" is actually the "Sarah Connor Chronicles" TV show. I think it started off a little rough, but by the time the second season rolls around, it starts turning into something special. I wish they would have stayed on the air a little longer, by about halfway through the second season, it went from a show that I DVR'd and watched when time permitted to one I was eagerly awaiting every week.

I agree with you on this point. Of all the post "T2" takes on the franchise, that show best grappled with the ideas underlying the series.

And I still don't forgive Fox for canceling the show after that whopper of a second season cliffhanger.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I agree with you on this point. Of all the post "T2" takes on the franchise, that show best grappled with the ideas underlying the series.

And I still don't forgive Fox for canceling the show after that whopper of a second season cliffhanger.

Right there with you! That was a great Friday night for television while it lasted, Season Two of "Sarah Connor Chronicles" at 8pm on Fox, then "Dollhouse" at 9pm, and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" premiered during that same time too.

That cliffhanger to me is right there with the last episode of "Twin Peaks" -- I recommend both shows to people all the time with the caveat that they're going to find the lack of resolution infuriating, but that the journey to that point was so enjoyable, that it's worth the frustration.

 

[Tim Glover]

I feel the opposite. Terminator 3 is a competent, standard-fare action movie for the first two-thirds and then a great companion piece to the series for the final third.

After being promised the story of the future war, Terminator Salvation gives us the story of a character we don't care about, with John Connor as a muted peripheral player with relatively small operational authority. It has a lot of plot, but doesn't actually say anything. And for all of the money thrown at the screen, there isn't a single moment as powerful as that old fifties command center cackling to life:"Hello? Can someone hear me? This is Montana Civil Defense. Somebody, please come in.""Hello, anybody reading me?""Hello, is anybody there?"
"Command and control have broken down out here."
"Anybody there? Come in!""Is anyone receiving me?"
"Somebody, please come in."
[cacophony of voices]
"Is anybody there?"
"This is John Connor. At Crystal Peak."
"Connor? What the hell is happening? Who's in charge there?"
"I am."

And for all of his alcoholism and substance abuse problems, I thought Nick Stahl made a far more empathetic John Connor than Christian Bale.

Totally agreed. I loved T3.

 

[Ejanss]

Right there with you! That was a great Friday night for television while it lasted, Season Two of "Sarah Connor Chronicles" at 8pm on Fox, then "Dollhouse" at 9pm, and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" premiered during that same time too.

That cliffhanger to me is right there with the last episode of "Twin Peaks" -- I recommend both shows to people all the time with the caveat that they're going to find the lack of resolution infuriating, but that the journey to that point was so enjoyable, that it's worth the frustration.

Also TSCC was the third, and arguably most successful, of C2 Productions' attempt to hold onto Carolco's legacy (and brandnames), before their other two films sank it.

After being promised the story of the future war, Terminator Salvation gives us the story of a character we don't care about, with John Connor as a muted peripheral player with relatively small operational authority. It has a lot of plot, but doesn't actually say anything.

I remember T:S came out in the same summer as X-Men: Wolverine, and for some reason, struck me as the exact same movie:
The violent amnesiac anti-hero (who has some connection to the larger story, but not enough of it that we want to follow him for two hours at the expense of everyone else) in search of his identity, only now becoming aware that the bad guys had Frankensteined him with technology to become the ultimate fighting machine, but striking out for independence by revenging himself on his roots--for reasons we can't follow and don't particularly care about--and eventually turning good enough to officially join the Good Guys.....later. Maybe in the next movie.

And yeah, fans feel they've been "promised" the story of the future war, because they think it's not too hard to imagine what the "next" Terminator after 2 should be--The opening scenes of T2, with the big war of humans and skeletal robots shooting each other.
And despite a lot of blind optimism that should have turned cynical two films ago, the fans keep getting everything BUT that. Because with the whole hot-potato game of Franchise-Franchise-Who's-Got-the-Franchise, actually showing the Cyberdyne Wars onscreen would require James Cameron's own innate ability to throw large amounts of money at the movie without a second thought.
And the other producers simply don't have that. The money, that is.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I thought the premise of T3 was excellent: Judgement Day is unavoidable as long as we keep playing with technology, but the execution was terrible. For much of the movie it was simply a remake of T2 but with the quality of a Syfy Original Movie. T4's premise was pretty weak but it was better made and I did like it more. Of course it suffered from the usual "How big is King Kong / Godzilla?" with respect to the T800's strength and how hard it was to kill. The T800 seemed to be getting weaker in T1-3 but then in T4 it was so powerful that one should have been able to wipe out most of humanity.

The premise for T5 make the whole movie pointless. If they can always change any future and constantly change timelines, it really doesn't matter what happens in the movie because we have a reset button built into the premise. It does look like it could be a good action movie for what it is. Just ignore the implications of the premise.

 

[Ejanss]

And if it's "Genisys", does that mean they're going to release the Ape Virus?

 

[Chuck Anstey]

And if it's "Genisys", does that mean they're going to release the Ape Virus?

I think it is the Genesis Device v2.0, aka Genisys, that will wipe out all existing organic life so the machines can deposit whatever life forms they see fit.

I mean, when you consider the problems of food supply and overpopulation, the usefulness of this device is apparent.

 

[SamT]

 

[SamT]