[ TERMINATOR:SALVATION TRAILER 2 REVIEWED ] +MAR 02 2008

JUST RELEASED: the new TERMINATOR:SALVATION Theatrical Trailer 2 is now available for viewing with T:2018 review below:

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the TERMINATOR:SALVATION second theatrical trailer is how deeply it delves into the evolution — or is it revolution — of the TERMINATOR mythology and how events have changed what we thought we knew about its future.  As John Connor, in his brooding voiceovers by actor Christian Bale, has intoned since the first teaser trailer: this is not the future Sarah Connor warned him about.  Sarah spent her life warning him about and preparing him for the eventual war to save humanity from extermination, but by 2018 the post-Judgment Day world John occupies as a Resistance soldier is becoming strangely foreign territory.

The trailer opens by establishing Skynet's factory stock of Terminators (presumably T-700s) on the assembly line, waiting to be deployed in the war. John describes his species' status as "outnumbered by machines" yet "humans have a strength which cannot be measured." Connor's hopefulness is contrasted by shots of captured humans collected in pens, deposited there by the dreaded giant Harvesters who literally pluck victims out of the war, likely never to be seen again.

Human resistance remains strong as Connor and fellow soldiers crush a Terminator under their helicopter skid, John firing two rounds into its endoskull.  This clip is part of a larger battle scene between humans and machines on the flat plains of a satellite dish array — perhaps a key communications node for Skynet operations — in which A-10 Warthog strafes a line of fire through the installation.  Add these separated shots together and it appears humans have won the day.

But the war is far from over, and following scenes show Skynet's advanced technology unleashed to turn back the tide: Mototerminators pursue humans in vehicles along a debris-scattered road, spinning and diving acrobatically around and under obstacles to press the chase; then the claws of a monstrous Harvester rip through a building to snatch up Resistance soldiers amid the battle, revealing its towering size as John's voice over reveals, "Skynet is taking human prisoners . . . replicating human tissue."

Then the TERMINATOR mythology turns in on its itself, morphing into a terrible nightmare never yet imagined through three prior films: Marcus Wright, under medical observation by Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard), John and Barnes (Common), drops the A-bomb of plot revelations — he's a mechanized hybrid who until this moment thought he was human!  John, shocked and revolted at this gruesome escalation of Skynet technology, frees Marcus' restraints so he can discover the horrible truth for himself . . . about himself.  While the carefully chosen shots and soft focus lens work hide the graphic reality of Marcus' ripped flesh exposing his endoskeletal chassis, Wright moans in horror at the site of his own body's betrayal to his human identity.  John's narration reveals the all-in stakes now at risk: "In this future, I don't know if we can win this war."

While only the final film will bear out the actual results, the implications of this dialogue line, the terrible omen which is Marcus Wright, and the action-packed contents of this new trailer perhaps indicate the brilliant evolution of mythology in TERMINATOR:SALVATION: Judgment Day and the future war which follows is not simply a battle to preserve humanity, it has become an imperative battle to explore and define what is humanity.

The future Sarah Connor warned her son about, the destruction of civilization they once thought was avoided, has unleashed unpredictable changes in the war that previous time-traveling characters like Kyle Reese and the Schwarzenegger T-101 models couldn't prepare John for in his predetermined rise to lead humanity to victory.  Amid following battle scenes and the John-Marcus interchange "What are you?" "I don't know!", a title card appears: FORGET THE PAST.  This is not a simple request for audiences to forget what they know (or think they know) from previous TERMINATOR films; instead it is the harsh reality John Connor must now face in 2018 — this isn't the future he was trained to face and survive in his past.

When Sarah taught John there is no fate, it was originally a lesson about hope and humans' ability to avoid its own self-destruction, that Judgment Day (at least up through James Cameron's TERMINATOR 2) was not inevitable but was only one possible timeline which could be avoided.  In McG's film this summer, John Connor now must face the flipside of self-determination: we have control over some events and outcomes, but not all of them.  Even if humanity avoids or postpones Judgment Day in the past, it also changes future results in unexpected, unpredictable ways humanity cannot see, perhaps until it's too late.

The war no longer settles the question of can humanity survive, but now struggles to determine what aspects of humanity may survive, if any.  Skynet has relentlessly insisted on Judgment Day and the termination of human beings not merely to defeat its enemy, but to eradicate the essence of humanity as its mortal antithesis.  That which spawned Skynet is the only entity which can destroy it.  Perhaps It may well be that the human impulse which nearly led to its own destruction may be superceded only by humanity's core need to preserve itself, and it is the spark of that spirit living within each human which must be extinguished completely if Skynet is ever to survive.

John Connor may have been born to champion the cause of humanity's survival, but the existence of Marcus Wright rewrites John's cause drastically, and he must somehow reconcile the man/machine contradiction built into Marcus if human beings are to prevail.  Accordingly this new trailer ends with a shot of Marcus, exposed as half-human/half-Terminator, stating coldly and promisingly, "I'm the only hope you have."  It is fighting this internal battle, literally and figuratively, that will determine which form of life continues on Earth.  THE END BEGINS, the final title card promises like its the ultimate sci-fi heavyweight bout of the century, and indeed the end for one of these two combatant forces will begin in TERMINATOR:SALVATION.  As fiery explosions erupt over the Los Angeles cityscape ruins, as in the notoriously cool motion poster for the film, the visage of a Terminator skull emerges from the destruction — but the question remains which lifeform will arise from these ashes as the final victor, and exactly what world will they inhabit after the last battle is waged?  Indeed, exactly what will the winner have preserved in its victory?

With any luck and favor from the film gods, TERMINATOR:SALVATION may only be the opening act in answering that multipart question. If half of the philosophical conundrums and eye-popping action hinted at by this new trailer pay off for the film this May, McG could well deliver the best reboot of a feature franchise ever.

Stay tuned at TERMINATOR:2018 for continuing coverage of movie news, videos and more as we countdown to TERMINATOR:SALVATION, opening May 21st in the U.S. and soon thereafter around the world.