Terminator Salvation

Posted on 16/06/2009 in Homepage 3, Specials

It’s now on Italian screens Terminator Salvation, the fourth episode of the science fiction saga created on 1984 by James Cameron. The movie, directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels), picks up the story of the previous episodes (Terminator by James Cameron, 1984, Terminator 2: Judgment Day by James Cameron, 1991 e Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines by Jonathan Mostow, 2003), and it ignores the events of the 2007 tv series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The movie is set on 2018. The Judgment Day has come and gone, leveling modern civilization. An army of Terminators roams the post-apocalyptic landscape, killing or collecting humans where they hide in the desolate cities and deserts. Controlling the Terminators is the artificial intelligence network Skynet, which became self-aware 14 years earlier and, in the blink of an eye, turned on its creators, unleashing nuclear annihilation on an unsuspecting world. Only one man saw Judgment Day coming. One man, whose destiny has always been intertwined with the fate of human existence: John Connor (Christian Bale). Now the world is on the brink of the future that Connor has been warned about all his life. But something totally new has shaken his belief that humanity stands a chance of winning this war: the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger from the past whose last memory is of being on death row before awakening in this strange, new world.

The chief protagonists of the movie are the amazing special effects: the battles between humans and machines are very credible and the new generation of terminator are very refined. The special effects are by Industrial Light & Magic and many other companies (New Deal Studios, Kerner Optical, Matte World Digital, Rising Sun Pictures, Asylum, Rodeo FX) and don’t disappoint the audience: they are able to come to life again digitally the famous T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the previous episodes.

The movie wants to celebrate the previous movies and to mark a new starting point of the story, a new start after the nucreal explotion that ended Terminator 3. The first Terminator, by James Cameron, was released in 1984 and introduced the world to the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The T-800 was sent back in time to stop the future leader of the Resistance from ever being born. Cameron’s follow-up, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, released in 1991, became a global box office phenomenon: the T-800 came back from the future to protect John Connor. In the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines John Connor was still chased by a killer terminator. The movie was directed by Jonathan Mostow and the screenplay was by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who returned to the franchise to write the screenplay for Terminator Salvation.

The amazing make up of the first Terminator (1984) was by Stan Winston, the lendary creature creator, and he has directed also the making of the new terminator generation. Sadly, Winston passed away during the making of this film. John Rosengrant, an effects supervisor at Stan Winston Studio, led the 60-member team to continue the Winston’ work, and also oversaw all the special effects make-up.

One of the main character is the Harvester Terminator: approximately 80 feet tall, the Harvester resembles a  spider, with multiple steel arms and legs extending from a thorax-like body with jointed claw-like appendages for capturing its prey, and multiple camera eyes on long stalks for viewing the carnage. The Harvester unleashes Moto-Terminators, which are bike-like Terminators that race off after the humans and bring them back. These slick machines are based on the Ducati motorbike. The Italian company was approached by the filmmakers and was thrilled to be involved.

One of the most difficult challenge was the making Marcus’s character: the human Terminator hybrid. A combination of large prosthetic pieces sculpted using the latest technology, make-up, and CGI: the creation of Marcus was a complex endeavor.

The making of (ILM)

The official web site