TERMINATOR 3 - RISE OF THE MACHINES - Complete VINTAGE Base Set (72 Cards) - COMIC IMAGES - 2003
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (also known as T3) is a 2003 science fiction action film, the third instalment in the Terminator franchise and a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. In the film, Skynet sends a Terminator, the T-X (Loken), back in time to ensure the rise of machines by killing top members of the future human resistance, which will be led by John Connor (Stahl). Among the T-X's targets is John's future wife Kate Brewster (Danes), but not John himself, as his whereabouts are unknown to Skynet. John's life is placed in danger when the T-X finds him. The Resistance has also sent its own Terminator (Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect John and Kate.
By the end of 1995, James Cameron was interested in directing a third Terminator film. He had previously directed and co-written the earlier films, but he ultimately had no involvement with Terminator 3. Carolco Pictures, which owned half of the rights to future Terminator sequels, went into bankruptcy in November 1995. Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar obtained the full rights in 1998, and they produced the film. In 1999, Tedi Sarafian was hired to write the first draft of the script. Mostow joined the project as director in 2001, and he brought on John Brancato and Michael Ferris to rewrite Sarafian's script. With a final budget of $187.3 million, it was the most expensive film ever made up to that point. The budget included a $5 million salary for Mostow and a record $30 million salary for Schwarzenegger. Filming took place in California from April to September 2002. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Stan Winston created the special effects, as they did for the previous film.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines premiered in Westwood, Los Angeles on June 30, 2003, and was released on July 2, 2003 by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States and by Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International in worldwide territories. It grossed over $433.4 million worldwide and was followed by a sequel, Terminator Salvation, in 2009.
Ten years after destroying Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, John Connor has been living as a nomad following the death of his mother Sarah to hide from Skynet, despite a war between humans and machines not happening in 1997, as foretold. Unable to locate John in the past, Skynet sends a new Terminator model, the T-X, back in time to John's present in Los Angeles, to instead kill his future allies in the Human Resistance. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed Terminator (a T-101 referred to as the "Terminator") to protect the T-X's targets, including John and his future wife, Kate Brewster.
After killing other targets, the T-X locates the pair at an animal hospital, where Kate works. John becomes the T-X's primary target, but the Terminator helps him and Kate escape, taking them to a mausoleum where John's mother is supposedly interred. Inside her vault, they find a weapons cache left at Sarah's request in case Judgment Day was not averted and the Terminators returned. They escape from an armed battle with the police and fend off the pursuing T-X. The Terminator reveals that John and Sarah's actions only delayed Judgment Day and that it plans to drive John and Kate to Mexico to escape the fallout when Skynet begins its nuclear attack at 6:18 p.m. John orders the Terminator to take Kate and him to see Kate's father, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. The Terminator refuses to do so, but agrees to Kate's identical request. It explains that it killed John in the future, but Kate reprogrammed it and sent it back in time, meaning that only she can give it orders.
Meanwhile, General Brewster is supervising the development of Skynet for Cyber Research Systems (CRS), which also develops autonomous weapons. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff[a] pressures him to activate Skynet to stop an anomalous computer virus from invading servers worldwide; Brewster is unaware that the virus is actually Skynet establishing control over them. John and Kate arrive too late to stop Skynet from being activated. The T-X wounds General Brewster and activates the CRS weaponized machines, which kill the employees. Before dying, General Brewster gives Kate and John the location of what John believes is Skynet's system core. The pair head for the tarmac to take General Brewster's single-engine plane to Crystal Peak, a facility built inside the Sierra Nevada. After a battle, the T-X severely damages the Terminator and then reprograms it to kill John. The T-X pursues John and Kate through the CRS facility, but when a particle accelerator is activated, it magnetically binds the T-X to the equipment. The still-consciously-aware Terminator struggles to control its outer functions. As it prepares to kill John, he urges the Terminator to choose between its conflicting programming; it deliberately shuts down its corrupted system, enabling the pair's escape. Shortly after they leave, the Terminator's system reboots. Meanwhile, the T-X escapes the accelerator and resumes pursuit.
After John and Kate reach Crystal Peak, the T-X arrives by helicopter. Before it can attack, the Terminator arrives in a second helicopter and crashes into and crushes the T-X. The T-X pulls itself from the wreckage, losing its legs, and attempts to drag itself inside the bunker to follow the pair. The Terminator holds the bunker door open long enough for the pair to lock them inside then uses its last hydrogen fuel cells to destroy both itself and the T-X.
John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak is not Skynet's core, but rather a nuclear fallout shelter and command facility for government and military officials. Having no core, Skynet has become a part of cyberspace after becoming self-aware. Judgment Day begins as Skynet fires nuclear missiles worldwide, starting a nuclear holocaust that kills billions. The pair begin receiving radio transmissions on the emergency equipment; John tentatively assumes command by answering radio calls, and they reluctantly accept their fate.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator: Reprising his role from the first two films, this was Schwarzenegger's final film role before becoming Governor of California.
Nick Stahl as John Connor. Stahl replaces Edward Furlong from the second film.
Kristanna Loken as the T-X, an advanced Terminator sent back to murder John's resistance lieutenants
Claire Danes as Katherine "Kate" Brewster, John's future wife
David Andrews as Lieutenant General Robert Brewster, Kate's father who is also the program director at CRS, which has acquired Cyberdyne Sytems' remaining assets
Mark Famiglietti as Scott Mason: Kate Brewster's slain fiancé was originally named Scott Peterson, but the name was changed in order to avoid association with the Scott Peterson case involving the murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner. In the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Petersen".
Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman: Reprising his role from the first two films, Boen appears in one scene, attempting to comfort Kate after she witnesses the acts of the Terminator. Boen and Schwarzenegger are the only actors to appear in all of the first three Terminator films. This is also Boen's final film role before his retirement from his film career to focus on his voice acting career.
Jay Acovone portrayed an LAPD Officer. Kim Robillard and Mark Hicks portrayed Detective Edwards and Detective Bell. In the film's dialogue Bell is identified correctly, however in the film's end credits his name is listed as "Detective Martinez". One of Schwarzenegger's stunt doubles, Billy D. Lucas, portrayed a civilian who has his car accidentally wrecked by John.
James Cameron had directed and co-written the previous Terminator films. The film rights to the franchise were held by Carolco Pictures and by Cameron's ex-wife Gale Anne Hurd, who both held 50 percent of the rights. Cameron had sold his stake to Hurd for $1 prior to directing The Terminator (1984). In July 1991, while Terminator 2: Judgment Day was in its theatrical run, Cameron said that if the film were successful then "there may be some economic pressure" to do a sequel. During the same month, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said, "I've always felt the story lent itself wonderfully to being a continuing tale." She believed it was natural that a third film would happen, but was unsure at that time if Arnold Schwarzenegger would reprise his role as the Terminator. She said that for Schwarzenegger to commit to another film, he would have to read a finished script, approve a director, and see if the project fit into his schedule. In May 1992, Carolco Pictures co-founder Mario Kassar said he expected to make a Terminator 3 film within the next five to seven years. TriStar, which distributed Terminator 2, would be involved in the new film. That month, TriStar chief Mike Medavoy said the film would probably take a couple of years.
By the end of 1995, Carolco had filed for bankruptcy, and Cameron wanted to direct a third film with the involvement of 20th Century Fox. Cameron's 3D film ride, Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time, would open later in 1996. The project reunited the main cast of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and had prompted Cameron to begin writing a script for a Terminator 3 film. Cameron said Terminator 2 3D: Battle Across Time would serve as a "stepping stone" toward a third Terminator film. However, such a film would not be ready for a few years as Cameron was busy working on Titanic for 20th Century Fox.
When Carolco filed for bankruptcy on November 10, 1995, its assets were bound to a liquidation auction. That day, 20th Century Fox signed a $50 million deal to acquire all of Carolco's assets, including the rights to Terminator sequels, as well as the company's existing film library. Fox withdrew its bid in January 1996, when Canal Plus bid $58 million for Carolco's film library. Canal Plus' offer did not include purchasing the rights for Carolco sequel films, but Fox wanted all of Carolco's assets and was unwilling to match or exceed the bid offer made by Canal Plus. The sequel rights would ultimately be auctioned through U.S. bankruptcy court, where Fox intended to purchase them.
The new Terminator film would have Schwarzenegger reprising his role. Linda Hamilton had also talked with Cameron about reprising her role as Sarah Connor. During 1997, Fox spent nine months negotiating with Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Hurd, the latter in regard to her share of the sequel rights. Bill Mechanic, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, oversaw the project and negotiations at that time. Mechanic wanted the trio to be involved in the new film, so he sought to first secure deals with them before proceeding with a purchase of the Carolco rights. Mechanic also believed that a deal with the trio would give him necessary leverage with the U.S. bankruptcy court to acquire the rights from Carolco. At that time, Cameron committed to writing and producing the film, and reserved the right to direct it in the event that he wanted to do so.
Fox intended to make the new Terminator film on a budget similar to its predecessor, approximately $95 million. However, it was determined that the film could not be made on the intended budget when considering the additional cost of purchasing Carolco's rights, as well as Schwarzenegger's desired $25 million salary. At some point, Schwarzenegger had talked to Cameron about the two of them buying the rights themselves, but Cameron was not interested in this idea and wanted to let Fox handle the rights. Schwarzenegger said about Fox, "Only later did I learn they were making these ridiculous lowball offers, like $750,000. We could have owned this ourselves, but Jim didn't want to be in that business."
Dimension Films, a division of Miramax, had agreed to purchase the rights that were owned by Hurd and also intended to buy Carolco's rights through the auction. However, a judge ruled against an earlier motion which stated that only an established studio should be allowed to bid for the Carolco rights. This allowed Andrew G. Vajna to participate in the bidding. Vajna had co-founded Carolco with Kassar, but left the company in 1989.
In September 1997, Cameron invited his friends Vajna and Kassar to see an early edit of Titanic, during which Vajna and Kassar learned that the Terminator rights were still available. That month, Mechanic discovered that Vajna had been quietly negotiating with the bankruptcy court to acquire the rights for himself and Kassar; the duo planned to form a new production company with Terminator 3 as its debut. During September 1997, Vajna signed a tentative $7.5 million agreement to purchase the rights, which were to be sold later in an auction scheduled for the following month. Mechanic was upset to learn of Vajna's agreement, having spent months in negotiations with Schwarzenegger, Cameron, and Hurd. Cameron was upset as well, as Vajna and Kassar had not mentioned their intention to buy the rights during their meeting days earlier. This would lead to the deterioration of their friendship. Vajna later said he was unaware that Cameron was already planning Terminator 3. Miramax dropped out of the bidding when Vajna raised his bid to $8 million.
By October 1997, the budgetary concerns over Terminator 3 and Cameron's troubled post-production of Titanic for Fox led them both to abandon the Terminator project and not pursue the rights. Mechanic had asked Cameron if he wanted Fox to outbid Vajna, but Cameron decided he did not want to be involved in the project. Mechanic believed that Cameron was "only hanging in there at the end because of Arnold and quality control. It was something that Arnold always wanted to do again. Period. And Jim was more than happy to do it." Cameron gave his approval for Hurd and Schwarzenegger to make another Terminator film without him, although Schwarzenegger did not want to make the film without Cameron, and initially refused to star in the third film.
Over time, Schwarzenegger would continue trying to persuade Cameron to be involved in the new film. In 2003, Cameron said that he felt he had already told the whole story with his first two Terminator films, something that he came to realize during the post-production of Titanic. Cameron later stated, "I just felt as a filmmaker maybe I've gone beyond it. I really wasn't that interested. I felt like I'd told the story I wanted to tell. I suppose I could have pursued it more aggressively and gone to the mat for it but I felt like I was laboring in someone else's house to an extent because I had sold the rights very early on." Nevertheless, feeling that the Terminator character was as much Schwarzenegger's as it was his own, Cameron eventually advised Schwarzenegger to do the third film without him, saying, "If they can come up with a good script and they pay you a lot of money, don't think twice." The film was in high demand according to Schwarzenegger, who said he was frequently asked in interviews about the possibility of a third film.
In October 1997, the rights to future Terminator films were auctioned to Vajna for $8 million. Hurd had opposed Vajna's attempt to buy the rights, and had tried unsuccessfully to change Cameron's mind about purchasing the rights. On the night that the rights were auctioned, Vajna contacted Cameron and Schwarzenegger to resolve the situation. Vajna was surprised that Cameron would be upset about the rights being sold, later saying, "What difference does it make to Jim who's financing the movie, a studio or us? His deal would have been the same. Arnold tried to convince Jim over a long period of time to do the film. Arnold felt very loyal." Vajna said that Cameron "felt that we 'stole his baby', even though we're the ones who put it together last time round. So we felt that that was kind of strange and then we went on to do it ourselves."
Cameron said in January 1998 that it was unlikely he would direct Terminator 3. In March 1998, Vajna and Kassar acquired Hurd's half of the Terminator rights for $8 million, to become full owners of the franchise, with plans to proceed on Terminator 3. Hurd served as an executive producer on the film. Kassar and Vajna contacted Cameron with the hope that he would direct, but he declined. According to Kassar, Cameron was trying to obtain the auctioned Terminator rights for himself at the time that he was asked to direct. Cameron and his company, Lightstorm Entertainment, had considered trying to obtain the rights, but ultimately chose not to do so; it was estimated that acquiring the rights and paying Schwarzenegger to reprise his role could cost up to $100 million.
By 1999, Kassar and Vajna had been negotiating with various studios about partnering on the project, but decided to finalize the film's concept and script first. They founded C2 Pictures that year, and by October 1999, they had brought Toho-Towa and German company VCL onboard the project as co-financiers. The latter companies helped finance development of a script by Tedi Sarafian, who was hired for the film in 1999, along with David C. Wilson for a possible fourth installment. Fox held discussions with Vajna and Kassar about buying the rights from them for Cameron. Mechanic said these discussions were never serious. It was also reported that Fox and Cameron had been in discussions with Vajna and Kassar about partnering on the film. Vajna and Kassar accepted a proposal from Fox, but it fell apart once Toho-Towa and VCL were brought onto the project, as the latter companies purchased the distribution rights for Japan and Germany, the largest markets outside of the United States. Kassar and Vajna intended to proceed on the film with or without Schwarzenegger, although Kassar preferred that he be involved. Filming was expected to begin in 2000 for a release the following year.
In March 2000, it was announced that VCL would have a 25 percent stake in the film, as well as the rights in German-speaking territories. At the time, Sarafian was days away from completing his draft, and Kassar hoped to announce a director within 45 days. Filming was still expected to commence later that year, with a release scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2001. Kassar wanted to have Terminator 3 and Terminator 4 shot back to back, possibly with different directors. Plans to shoot the film and its sequel simultaneously were later dropped, in case Terminator 3 did not become a success. Later in 2000, the start of production on Terminator 3 was delayed by a year.
Sarafian's script, titled T-3: Rise of the Machines, featured John Connor working in a dot-com company. The script's villain was the T-1G, a female Terminator sent from the future, with the ability to turn invisible. By July 2000, Cameron had been given a copy of Sarafian's script, but he passed on directing the film due to his estranged relationship with Vajna and Kassar. Cameron later stated that he refused to direct or produce Terminator 3 because he disliked the idea of working from somebody else's script in a story he originated. According to Schwarzenegger, Cameron declined involvement on the project because he did not want to commit to a time frame, as he was busy and had other projects he wanted to explore. Other directors being considered in 2000 included Ang Lee, Christian Duguay, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, and Roland Emmerich. Lee passed on the project to instead direct Hulk (2003). Intermedia was announced as a co-financier in October 2000.
Although production was scheduled to begin in 2001, it was delayed in anticipation of a writers strike, which ultimately did not occur. There was also the possibility of an actors strike, and filming was scheduled to begin after it ended. In March 2001, Jonathan Mostow and his producing partner Hal Lieberman were in negotiations to join the project as director and producer respectively. Mostow said he was "not shy" when he started working on the project; as he later recalled, "I said, 'Here's the movie I'm going to make, here's how I'm going to do it. If you don't want to do it my way, you should find a different director.'" Mostow had concerns about Sarafian's script and declined to start filming until it was perfected.
Mostow invited his college classmates John Brancato and Michael Ferris to rework the screenplay; they signed on to rewrite it in June 2001. Sarafian still got a story credit, although much of his draft was rewritten, and scenes were added to make it more of a road movie, fulfilling Mostow's vision for the film. Brancato said there was initial consideration given to ignoring the basic format of the earlier films by removing aspects of time travel and killer machines from the future: "We tried all sorts of wacky scenarios [...] But to be honest it just wasn't working." The idea of a female Terminator was retained from Sarafian's draft, although Mostow disliked Sarafian's idea that the character could turn invisible, saying, "It's not visceral." The film makes a subtle reference to Schwarzenegger's age by depicting his character as an obsolete Terminator compared to the T-X. Mostow said, "It's always great if you can have your protagonist or hero be completely outmatched."
In December 2001, several companies competed for the distribution rights to the film. The heads of each major studio were invited that month to a secret hotel room meeting to read the script and bid for the rights. Fox declined to participate in the meeting, out of loyalty to Cameron. Warner Bros. won the U.S. distribution rights that month, with filming scheduled to begin in April 2002. Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International subsequently acquired most of the international distribution rights, including those that would have been handled by VCL, which was suffering financially at the time.
The film's production budget was initially set at $169–170 million, making it the most expensive film ever to be greenlit at the time. The budget would include paying off the debts of Carolco, as well as a $5 million salary for Mostow and a record $30 million salary for Schwarzenegger. The distribution rights were sold for $145 million, while the remaining $25 million would be covered by Vajna, Kassar, and Intermedia. Budget statements for the film put the final cost at $187.3 million (or $167.3 million excluding the production overhead), maintaining the film's title as the most expensive film ever made up to that point. Product placement deals, with companies such as PepsiCo and Toyota, helped regenerate profit. For example, the film prominently features the then-new Toyota Tundra truck. Schwarzenegger received a record salary of $29.25 million, plus 20 percent of the profits, although he agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia, from Los Angeles. Initially, the film was to have a 100-day shoot, with 62 days in Vancouver and 38 days in Los Angeles. The cast and crew generally agreed that they did not want to relocate from California, so $8 million was trimmed from the budget, allowing for filming to take place entirely in the state. Another benefit of shooting in Los Angeles is that the film is set there. It was announced in February 2002 that the shoot would take place entirely in California.
Schwarzenegger signed on to the project in June 2000, after reading Sarafian's draft. Edward Furlong signed on in August 2000, to reprise his role as John Connor from the previous film. However, in December 2001, casting began for a new actor to replace Furlong, who was dropped from the project because of a substance abuse problem. Furlong was removed by Warner Bros., which was concerned that his publicized drug problems could jeopardize the project. Furlong later stated "I don't know [what happened]. It just wasn't the time. I was going through my own thing at the point in my life – whatever, it just wasn't meant to be".
According to Mostow, Furlong had been considered, but the director wanted to start from scratch with a new actor, as John would be portrayed as "a very different character now." Mostow described the character as someone who has carried the burden of being a leader in the future, saying "it's very lonely because nobody else in the world knows about it or believes it. Even if he tried to explain to somebody, they'd think he was crazy and that's a really interesting character." Mostow wanted the character to have soulfulness and he believed that Nick Stahl was the right actor for the role. Although John Connor was written as being 10 years old in the script for Terminator 2, Furlong was actually several years older than that. For Terminator 3, Mostow wondered whether the character's current age should be faithful to what was written before. After some consideration, Mostow chose to make the character slightly older for Terminator 3, to be consistent with Furlong's real age. The film states that John was 13 years old during the events of the previous film. Mostow said he tried to avoid the age discrepancy as much as possible in the film. Some fans were disappointed by the decision to recast Furlong, and some were alienated by the age change.
In November 2000, Linda Hamilton said she had turned down an offer to reprise her role as Sarah Connor. Hamilton said in October 2001 that the script did not take her character in any new directions: "The film is really about turning the baton over to Sarah's son John, played by Eddie Furlong. It's Eddie's movie - and Arnold's. It was like a no-win situation for me." She also was dissuaded by the fact that Cameron would have no involvement in the film. Hamilton later explained her decision not to reprise her role: "They offered me a part. I read it and I knew my character arc was so complete in the first two, and in the third one it was a negligible character. She died halfway through and there was no time to mourn her. It was kind of disposable, so I said no thank you." When Mostow signed on as director, one of his conditions was that Hamilton reprise her role. However, he realized that the character would not have changed much since the previous film and that she would not contribute much to the story, saying later, "Linda Hamilton is too important to the franchise to stick her in as the third wheel." Mostow realized that John Connor would need to be the focus of the story, although the mausoleum scene was added as a way of integrating Hamilton's character into the story as well. Old footage of Hamilton was expected to be used for flashback scenes of Sarah Connor, although no such scenes exist in the final film. Mostow said the flashbacks made "a complicated story even more complicated."
When Schwarzenegger was called into Kassar and Vajna's office in April 2001, he did not expect them to bring up Terminator 3 given the film's long stint in development hell. Instead, he wanted to talk to the producers about his political interests, including a potential candidacy as Governor of California in the 2002 election. However, pre-production was rolling along, with the screenplay nearly finished and set deals for both merchandising and distribution. Schwarzenegger postponed his gubernatorial plans, which eventually came into fruition with the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election. Instead, the actor combined production of the film with the promotion of Proposition 49, which advocated increased extracurricular activity in California schools. At times Schwarzenegger even received politicians, journalists, and potential financial backers of the proposition on the film set. During pre-production, Schwarzenegger worked out daily to prepare for the role, to get into the same physical shape that he was in when he shot the previous films. Schwarzenegger felt it was important to be in the same physical condition as he was for the previous film, saying, "Otherwise, people would say, 'He's lost it; he's all saggy and flabby,' and that would be all anyone would talk about it. I didn't want to be digitized, because someone would blab, and it would be in all the columns. So I just worked harder."
Approximately 10,000 women auditioned for the role of the T-X. Schwarzenegger originally wanted wrestling star Chyna to portray the T-X. Famke Janssen subsequently emerged as the most likely candidate for the role. Following the 2001 release of The Fast and the Furious, starring Vin Diesel, there was consideration given to rewriting the T-X character as a man with Diesel in the role. In early 2002, Kristanna Loken was cast as the T-X, while Stahl was cast as John Connor. Stahl auditioned approximately five times, and underwent three screen tests, before receiving the role. Other actors considered for the role of John Connor included Shane West, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Logan Marshall-Green. For the film, Stahl took some weapons training and learned how to ride a motorcycle. Stahl did not aim to impersonate Furlong's earlier performance. For her role, Loken underwent six weeks of training, involving weights, fighting, and weapons. She also undertook Krav Maga, and gained 14 pounds of muscle. In addition, Loken took a mime movement class to perfect her character's robotic movements.
Mostow originally wanted Claire Danes for the role of Kate Brewster, but the initial effort to get her involved did not work out. Sophia Bush was cast in the role instead, and Mostow was more excited about her casting than any other character. However, during filming, Mostow felt that Bush's appearance and performance seemed too youthful for the role. He said, "I tried everything I could to make her look older, but ultimately the camera doesn't lie. So I had to replace her and it was heart breaking because it was a huge break for her." After reading the script, Danes decided to join the cast to play Kate. Bush was replaced by Danes in May 2002, a month into filming. Danes began filming the day after she was hired.
Filming began on April 15, 2002. The first night of filming involved Schwarzenegger's Terminator crashing a vehicle into the T-X outside the animal hospital, which was constructed as a set in Los Angeles' Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood. Initially, Mostow was somewhat hesitant about following Cameron's footsteps as director, but he eventually put aside such concerns and later said, "Everyone will see this movie and make comparisons, but I can't control any of that." Schwarzenegger missed working with Cameron and initially did not have the same kind of confidence in Mostow as filming began. However, during the first week of filming, Schwarzenegger became convinced that Mostow was an adequate choice.
Production designer Jeff Mann and his crew of 350 people designed and constructed multiple sets for the film during a four-month period prior to filming. Los Angeles Center Studios was a major filming location, as the production used six sound stages there. At least three sound stages were occupied by the project at all times during filming, and at one point all of the stages were in use for the shoot. In June 2002, driving scenes were filmed at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Filming also took place at Big Bend National Park in Texas. Some sequences use more than 1,000 simultaneous tracks of audio.
Stahl had few scenes during the initial weeks of filming, giving him time to work on his physique. Schwarzenegger worked out during lunch breaks to maintain his physical appearance. He had a 20-foot trailer with a gym inside, where he would work out in between filming. Schwarzenegger also performed many of his own stunts, something that he enjoyed doing. One of the most elaborate and choreographed stunts was devised by Mostow and stunt coordinator Simon Crane. The scene involves the T-X driving a 100-ton mobile crane down a street in pursuit of John Connor. During the scene, Schwarzenegger's Terminator hangs on to the crane arm as it is swung around, smashing him into a glass building and a passing fire truck. Fourteen cameras were used for the shot in which he crashes through a glass building, as the film crew would only have one chance to film it, which was the case with many of the film's stunts. Schwarzenegger enjoyed filming the scene and called it "unbelievable," while stating, "We used every safety precaution, but there were close calls, many times." The street chase was filmed on a quarter-mile set of road and buildings, constructed at a Boeing plant in Downey, California. The film's showdown between the two Terminators is set in a marble and steel bathroom. Mostow's vision for the scene was to have the bathroom completely destroyed by the Terminators by the end of their battle. The scene took four weeks to rehearse and two weeks to film. In early September 2002, scenes were filmed at San Bernardino International Airport.
As with the previous films, the Terminator characters arrive naked after travelling through time. One of the film's opening scenes is set at the Desert Star bar, where Schwarzenegger's Terminator goes in search of clothes. The scene was filmed at the Cowboy Palace bar in the San Fernando Valley. The Sierra Inn bar and restaurant, in Agua Dulce, California, was also used for exterior shots of the Desert Star. The final scene to be filmed was another opening scene in which the T-X arrives naked on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Mostow said shooting the scene discreetly was a challenge due to the tourist popularity of Rodeo Drive. The filmmakers had to wait five months before finally receiving clearance to shoot the scene. The street had to be closed for filming to take place. The 100-day shoot proceeded as scheduled, and concluded on September 8, 2002.
The film features more than 600 special effects shots. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Stan Winston created the special effects, as they had done for the previous film. Winston created the Terminator special effects and also designed the T-1, an early Terminator machine that appears in the CRS facility near the end of the film. Mostow said about the T-1, "I wanted to depict the first generation of Terminator robots, to show where it all began. […] We came up with this primitive but deadly robotic machine that is part tank, part robot." Winston created five full-sized, functioning T-1 robots, each one controlled by hydraulics. Winston's team also designed the T-X's endoskeleton frame, as well as her weapons. Certain sequences involving fire and explosions were deemed too dangerous for Schwarzenegger and Loken to perform, so Winston and his team constructed life-sized robot replicas of the actors for such scenes. When the start of production was delayed from its earlier 2001 date, it allowed Winston more time to develop the various special effects. ILM used miniature sculptures and computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create numerous visual effects for brief scenes set in the future, depicting the post-apocalyptic war between humans and machines. ILM's effects included Terminator endoskeletons seen during the future war. The endoskeletons were created entirely through CGI.
One challenging scene for the visual effects team takes place at a cemetery, where the T-X has taken on the appearance of Kate's fiancé, before morphing to her original appearance. The scene required several repeated shots of the same area with the use of controlled camera movements that were the same for each take. Another difficult scene depicts the T-X's liquid metal exterior peeling off to reveal her endoskeleton. The visual effects team took six months to develop a method that would adequately simulate the scene. Pablo Helman, visual effects supervisor for ILM, said, "We had no application for creating and controlling streams of liquid metal, so we had to begin by determining the density, weight, shape and mass of this material, and how it would move under these conditions. It was a really complicated process." Another scene features the crane vehicle flipping over at the end of the road chase sequence. The production crew determined that it would be too dangerous and impractical to use the actual vehicle during this portion of the sequence, so ILM digitally recreated the crane using photos of the actual vehicle.
One scene depicts the T-101 cutting open his chest cavity to remove a failing fuel cell battery, while simultaneously driving a truck. For the scene, Winston's team used cyber scans to create a body cast replica of Schwarzenegger that would sit in the driver's seat. Schwarzenegger was situated in the back of the truck, and his head and arms were visible in the front seat to give the impression that he was connected to the body cast. Several shots during the bathroom battle used CGI to simulate the Terminators. Helman said the scene required "a tremendous amount of visual effects to accomplish, and in some shots, large sections of the bathroom are completely computer generated." Mostow said the battle was "actually a much more complicated sequence from a visual effects standpoint than the audience will ever realize." A combination of Schwarzenegger's real body, prosthetics, and CGI were used to create the T-101 for its final scene in the film.
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American military science fiction action film directed by McG and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. It is the fourth installment of the Terminator film series, and 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, which were set between 1984 and 2004 and used time travel as a key plot element, Salvation is a post-apocalyptic film set in the year 2018, fourteen years after the events of 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It focuses on the war between Skynet's machine network and humanity, as the remnants of the world's military have united to form the Resistance to fight against Skynet's killing machines. Bale portrays John Connor, a Resistance fighter and central character to the franchise, while Worthington portrays cyborg Marcus Wright. Yelchin plays a young Kyle Reese, a character first introduced in The Terminator, and the film depicts the origins of the T-800 (Model 101) Terminator.
After a troubled pre-production, with The Halcyon Company acquiring the rights for the franchise from Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar and 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 North America and by Columbia Pictures internationally, and grossed over $371 million worldwide and received mixed reviews. The film should have been the first installment of second Terminator trilogy, set mainly in the future war. However, the sequels were canceled and a reboot of the film franchise, Terminator Genisys, was released in 2015.
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. One year later, the automated Skynet system is activated and becomes self-aware; perceiving humans as a threat to its existence, it starts a nuclear holocaust to eradicate them in the event known as "Judgment Day".
In 2018, John Connor leads an attack on a Skynet base, where he discovers human prisoners and schematics for incorporating living tissue to a new type of Terminator, the T-800. John survives an explosion on the base, which is destroyed. Following John's departure, Marcus emerges from the base's wreckage and begins walking towards Los Angeles.
John returns to the Resistance headquarters located aboard a nuclear submarine and is briefed by General Hugh Ashdown that the Resistance has discovered a hidden signal containing a code protocol which they believe can initiate a shutdown of Skynet's machines. Working on this intelligence, the Resistance plans to launch an offensive against Skynet's headquarters in San Francisco. It is decided among the Resistance that the offensive will commence in four days, due to an intercepted kill-list created by Skynet, which plans to terminate the Resistance's command staff within the same time frame. John learns he is second on this list, following Kyle Reese. The Resistance leaders are unaware of Kyle's importance, but John knows that Kyle will eventually travel back in time and become his father (as seen in The Terminator), and realizes that Skynet has learned of this fact.
Arriving at the ruins of Los Angeles, Marcus encounters Kyle and a mute child named Star during a skirmish with Skynet's machines where 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 locates downed pilot Blair Williams. They then make their way to John's base, where thereafter, Marcus is wounded by a magnetic land mine. Attempting to save his life, the Resistance fighters discover that Marcus is actually a cyborg, with a mechanical endoskeleton and a partially artificial cerebral cortex. Although Marcus believes himself to be human, John and his wife Kate think that Marcus has been sent to execute him and orders him to be killed. Blair helps Marcus escape. During the pursuit, Marcus saves John's life 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 General 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, await John's signal. Marcus enters the base, interfaces with the computer, and disables perimeter defenses so that Connor can infiltrate the cellblock and release human prisoners. Marcus learns from Skynet (which assumes the form of Dr. Kogan on a screen), that he was resurrected and built into a machine to lure John to the base; when the Resistance launches its attack, John will be killed, achieving the goal that Skynet had failed to accomplish in the past. The hidden signal that the Resistance received earlier is revealed to be a ruse, and Skynet uses it to track down and destroy the command submarine with the Resistance leaders aboard.
Marcus tears out the hardware linking him to Skynet and assists John in battling the new T-800 (Model 101) Terminator. Marcus is soon outclassed in strength and temporarily disabled until John comes to his aid. Marcus eventually defeats the T-800 by tearing its head off, while John destroys the base by rigging together explosives. John, Marcus, Kyle and Star are airlifted out. John though was seriously wounded during the assault with a life-threatening injury to his heart. Marcus offers his own heart for transplantation, sacrificing himself to save John. As he recovers, John radios to other Resistance fighters that, although this battle has been won, the war still continues.
Christian Bale as John Connor. Director McG, deemed Bale "the most credible action star in the world" during development. McG wanted Bale for Marcus, but the actor—even though he "can't really remember why"—wanted to play John, and that led to the character's role getting expanded in rewrites of the script. Bale was the first person to be cast and signed on for the role in November 2007. McG talked extensively with Bale in the UK about the role while the latter was filming The Dark Knight, and they both agreed to proceed. Although a fan of the Terminator series, he was at first uninterested until McG convinced him the story would be character-based and not rely on special effects. They kept working on the story every day, along with Worthington. McG said Bale broke his hand punching a Terminator prop during filming. Bale spent six to eight hours each day with McG in the editing room to advise the finished product. In January 2018, Bale revealed he rejected the role three times before accepting it, in part to prove people who told him not to take the role wrong.
Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a human-terminator hybrid experiment. Worthington compared Marcus to Dorothy (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) and Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) due to being "this person waking up in another world [who then] tries to find himself". Terminator creator James Cameron personally recommended Worthington (whom he directed in Avatar) to McG. Russell Crowe also recommended him to McG. The director decided Worthington looked tougher than the "great many of today's young male actors". Worthington recalled Cameron told him "the Terminator to make is the one with the war". Worthington tore his intercostal muscles during the first weeks of filming but nevertheless insisted on performing his own stunts. McG once expressed interest in casting Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis or Josh Brolin in the part. Brolin did talk to Bale and read a draft of the screenplay, which he found "interesting and dark; ultimately, though, I didn't think it felt right".
Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, a teenage refugee and admirer of John Connor and the Resistance. As portrayed by Michael Biehn in The Terminator, he was sent back in time to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor to ensure the survival of the human race, and fathered John with her. Yelchin said he wanted to portray Kyle as Biehn did and not make him appear weaker because it was a younger version of the character. The difference in his portrayal lies in showing Kyle as intense, but not concentrated until he joins the resistance proper. Yelchin tried to convey Kyle's intensity by focusing on how fast Biehn appeared when running in the original film.
Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, a "no-nonsense and battle-hardened" pilot of the Resistance who suffers from survivor's guilt and serves as a romantic interest for Marcus. McG characterizes her as continuing the feminine strength that has been prominent throughout the franchise.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, John's wife. Charlotte Gainsbourg was originally set to play the part, but left due to scheduling conflicts with another film. As portrayed by Claire Danes in the third film, Kate was a veterinarian; but in this film, she is now a physician. Howard suggested, as part of the character's backstory, that Kate studied medical books and interviewed many surviving doctors after the events of Judgment Day. The film's subject matter reminded her of developing countries, devastated by war and lacking basic supplies such as clean water, which "reflects things that are going on currently in this privileged world that we are living in where there hasn't been an apocalypse and robots haven't taken over the world. I think that's something definitely for us to reinvestigate and that we continue to make choices for our own future to take that into consideration". Howard focused on Kate "being accustomed to fear and loss" because the character was a military brat.
Common as Barnes, John's right-hand man. Common stated the character was not overly developed, being "only just a bad-ass character, you know, really the big heavy of the movie", before McG's intervention. Common agreed with this, as "I didn’t want to just be the big, bulky guy there" and worked on the emotional side, "thinking about how it would be in a world that’s post-apocalyptic, a world where, you know, things have been destroyed and we’re really fighting for survival."
Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Serena Kogan / Skynet: an ex-Cyberdyne scientist who convinces Marcus to donate his body for her research. Her face is later used by the Skynet computer to communicate with Marcus. Tilda Swinton was originally considered for the part, but Bonham Carter replaced her before filming. She accepted the part because her then-domestic partner, Tim Burton, was a Terminator fan. Her role was a "small but pivotal" one and would only require ten days of shooting. However, on July 20, 2008, Bonham Carter delayed filming by a day, and was given an indefinite leave due to the death of four of her family members in a minibus accident in South Africa.
Michael Ironside as General Hugh Ashdown, the leader of the Resistance.
Roland Kickinger as T-800 "Model 101": the first Terminator covered in living tissue. Bodybuilder and actor Kickinger, who previously portrayed Schwarzenegger in the 2005 biographical film See Arnold Run, was his physical double on set. When asked about his role, Kickinger said it is "Arnold's character in the first Terminator. That's basically my role, but 20 years before, so it establishes how the Terminator came about." Polish strongman athlete Mariusz Pudzianowski was also considered for doubling Schwarzenegger. If Schwarzenegger had decided not to lend his appearance to the film, then John would have shot the T-800s face off before the audience got a good look at him.
Jadagrace Berry as Star, an 8-year-old girl in Kyle's care. Born after Judgment Day, Star is mute due to the trauma of the post-apocalyptic world. Therefore, this has given her the unnatural ability to sense when a Skynet unit is approaching.
Brian Steele as the T-600.
Linda Hamilton as the uncredited voice of Sarah Connor. In the two scenes of the film, where John Connor played Sarah's recording tapes.
In 1999, two years after C2 Pictures purchased the rights to the franchise, two Terminator films' premises were mapped out and were supposed to be developed simultaneously. Tedi Sarafian was hired to write Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which he eventually received shared story credit for, while David C. Wilson was to write Terminator 4. Before any revisions were done, T3 initially took place in 2001 and revolved around the first attacks between Skynet and humans. T4 would follow immediately afterward and centered primarily on the war seen in the first two films. Warner Bros. gave the film the codename "Project Angel".
Following the release of Terminator 3 in 2003, producers Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar contracted Nick Stahl and Claire Danes to return as John Connor and Kate Brewster in another film. Director Jonathan Mostow helped develop the script, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, and was set to begin production in 2005 after completing another film. It was known by then that Arnold Schwarzenegger's role would be limited, as he had assumed office as Governor of California. The producers sought to have Warner Bros. finance the picture as they did for Terminator 3. In 2005, Stahl said John and Kate would be recast as the story jumped forward in time. By 2006, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (a successor to Orion Pictures and current owners of the Hemdale Film Corporation library, distributor and producer of the original film, respectively) was set to distribute the fourth film as part of the new CEO Harry Sloan's scheme to make the studio a viable Hollywood player.
On May 9, 2007, it was announced that production rights to the Terminator series had passed from the feuding Vajna and Kassar to the Halcyon Company. The producers hoped to start a new trilogy based on the franchise. The purchase was financed with a loan by Pacificor, a hedge fund from Santa Monica. By July 19, the project was in legal limbo due to a lawsuit between MGM and Halcyon subsidiary T Asset. MGM had an exclusive window of 30 days to negotiate for distribution of the Terminator films. When negotiating for Terminator 4, Halcyon rejected their initial proposal, and MGM suspended negotiations. After the 30 days were over, MGM claimed that the period during which negotiations were suspended did not count and their exclusive period was still open. Halcyon asked a court for an injunction allowing them to approach other distributors. Later, the lawsuit was settled and MGM got a 30-day right of first refusal to finance and distribute the fifth Terminator film.
Finally, Warner Bros. paid $60 million to acquire the United States distribution rights of Terminator Salvation; Sony Pictures also paid just over $100 million to acquire this film's distribution rights in all international territories.
McG signed on to direct as the first two films were among his favorites, and he had even cast Robert Patrick (who played the T-1000) in his films. Though he was initially unsure about "flogging a dead horse," he felt the post-apocalyptic setting allowed the film to be different enough so as not to be just an inferior sequel. The idea that events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines altered the future allowed them to be flexible with their presentation of the futuristic world. McG met with the series' co-creator James Cameron, and, although he neither blessed nor denigrated the project, Cameron told the new director he had faced a similar challenge when following Ridley Scott's Alien with Aliens. He maintained two elements of the previous films; that John is an outsider to the authorities, and someone of future importance is being protected, and in this film, it is Kyle Reese.
The first full screenplay for the film was written by Terminator 3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who received full screenplay credit. Paul Haggis rewrote Brancato and Ferris's script, and Shawn Ryan made another revision three weeks before filming. Jonathan Nolan also wrote on set, which led to McG to say, "I would have to characterize Jonah as the lead writer of the film." In response to whether or not Nolan would receive a writing credit for his contribution, McG went on to say, "I don’t know how the WGA rules work, but honest to goodness, we did the heaviest lifting with Jonah.” Nolan contributed to the film after Bale signed on and created Connor's arc of becoming a leader. However due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Nolan had to abruptly leave the project due to another commitment. Anthony E. Zuiker contributed to the script as well. So extensive were the rewrites that Alan Dean Foster decided to rewrite the entire novelization after submitting it to his publisher because the compiled shooting script was very different from the one he was given beforehand.