Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American military science fiction action film. It is the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise, serving as a sequel to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). It is directed by McG and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. It is the only Terminator film to date not to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger, though his likeness briefly appears digitally. Instead, it stars Christian Bale and Sam Worthington with Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Michael Ironside, and Helena Bonham Carter in supporting roles. In a departure from the previous installments, Salvation is a post-apocalyptic film set in the year 2018. It focuses on the war between Skynet's machine network and humanity, as the remnants of the world's militaries have united to form the Resistance to fight against Skynet. Bale portrays John Connor, a Resistance fighter and central character, while Worthington portrays cyborg Marcus Wright. Yelchin plays a young Kyle Reese, a character first introduced in The Terminator (1984), and the film depicts the origins of the T-800 Terminator. After troubled pre-production, with the Halcyon Company acquiring the rights from Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, and with several writers working on the screenplay, filming began in May 2008 in New Mexico, and ran for 77 days. Terminator Salvation was released on May 21, 2009, by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, and by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label internationally. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics and underperformed at the box office, grossing over $371.4 million on a $200 million budget. While originally intended to be the first installment of a second Terminator trilogy, these plans were canceled following the Halcyon Company filing for bankruptcy after the film's release. The franchise rights were sold in 2012 to Annapurna Pictures, resulting in Terminator Genisys, a reboot of the series, being released in 2015 with Schwarzenegger reprising his role.
Plot In 2003, Dr. Serena Kogan of Cyberdyne Systems convinces death row inmate Marcus Wright to sign over his body for medical research following his execution. Sometime later, the automated Skynet system is activated, becomes self-aware, and perceives humans as a threat to its existence, starting a nuclear holocaust known as "Judgment Day". In 2018, John Connor leads an attack on a Skynet base where he discovers schematics of human prisoners being incorporated as living tissue for a new Terminator: the T-800. John survives a nuclear explosion on the base and proceeds to extraction. Following John's departure, Marcus emerges from the base's wreckage and begins heading toward Los Angeles. John heads to the Resistance headquarters aboard a Los Angeles-class submarine and confronts General Ashdown and the Resistance commanders. They reveal that the Resistance has discovered a hidden signal that they believe can shut down Skynet's machines and plans to launch an offensive against Skynet's headquarters in San Francisco in four days due to an intercepted kill list created by Skynet, which will eliminate the Resistance's leaders within the same time frame. John learns that he is second on this list, after Kyle Reese, realizing Skynet has learned that Kyle will eventually travel back in time and become his father. Arriving in L.A., Marcus encounters Kyle and a mute child named Star during a skirmish with Skynet's machines. Kyle and Star are subsequently abducted and taken prisoner by Skynet. Two Resistance A-10 airplanes are shot down while trying to intercept a machine transport. Marcus rescues downed pilot Blair Williams, and they make their way to John's base, where a magnetic land mine wounds Marcus. Attempting to save his life, the Resistance discovers that Marcus is a cyborg, with a cybernetic endoskeleton, a partially artificial cerebral cortex, and a human heart. Although Marcus insists that he is human, John and his wife, Kate, suspect that Marcus has been sent to kill them, and John orders him to be executed. Blair helps Marcus escape. During the pursuit, Marcus saves John from Skynet's hydrobots, and the two make a bargain: Marcus will enter Skynet's headquarters in San Francisco to help John rescue Kyle and the other prisoners if he lets him live. John pleads with Ashdown to delay the offensive so he can formulate a plan to extract the human captives, but Ashdown refuses and relieves John of his command. However, the Resistance disobeys Ashdown's orders and instead awaits John's signal. Marcus enters the base, interfaces with the computer, and disables perimeter defenses so that John can infiltrate and release the prisoners. Marcus learns from Skynet that he was resurrected to lure John to the base; when the Resistance launches its attack, John will be killed, achieving Skynet's goal. The hidden signal that the Resistance received earlier is revealed to be a ruse, and Skynet uses it to track down and destroy the Resistance command submarine. Refusing to accept his fate, Marcus tears out the hardware linking him to Skynet and leaves to aid John. John locates Kyle and Star, but a T-800 Terminator ambushes them. As Kyle and Star escape, Marcus appears and fights the T-800, while John rigs together nuclear fuel cells to destroy the facility. Marcus is outmatched and temporarily disabled until John comes to his aid, after which John is stabbed through the chest by the T-800. Marcus destroys the T-800 by tearing its head off, and he, John, Kyle, and Star are airlifted out. John detonates the explosives, destroying the entire base. John's injury is fatal as his heart was damaged. Marcus offers his heart for transplantation, sacrificing himself to save John. As he recovers, John radios to the Resistance that, although this battle has been won, the war continues.
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