[ SKYNET RESEARCH VIRAL VIDEO ONLINE ] +FEB 13 2009

T:2018 reveals Skynet's earliest steps toward the apocalypse of Judgment Day continue with this viral video from SkynetResearch.com, which self-activated on Friday, February 13th.  This seemingly innocuous video advertises Skynet's Enhancement Module - Model 101, a robot programmed to "provide a new level of speed and efficiency" to any consumer-level bots in the home.  SR even gives visitors a chance write in why they deserve a Module in their domestic environment, further speeding up the seemingly innocuous spread of Skynet into our world.  Are you human enough to dare request a Model 101 for your home?

[ TERMINATOR:SALVATION TRAILER 2 ] +DEC 10 2008

The TERMINATOR:SALVATION Trailer 2 is now available for viewing and download in QuickTime and Windows Media formats below:

This new trailer has certainly feeds the rumor mill and speculation runs amok about the meaning of John Connor (Christian Bale) confronting Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose mysterious appearance in 2018 apparently throws the future out of line, as predicted by Sarah Connor.  Always in motion is the future, a wrinkly Muppet once said!  The trailer implies stronger than ever that John's destiny as the savior of humanity is far from certain now — has Skynet thrown one more time-travel wrench into future events to exterminate its creators?

It's surprising how many scenes are in daylight, given how James Cameron's TERMINATOR films always depicted the post-Judgment Day world in nighttime combat — presumably because it's a cheaper way to confine the set-building budget by limited the audience's vision, and it hides those HK's wires so nicely!   But seriously, the day shots are perhaps more unsettling in illustrating the bleak destruction and isolation of human survivors by clearly showing what we lost in the war.  I'm interested to see how this aspect plays out in May.

This new trailer also gives us much better looks at the rest of the cast including Bryce Dallas Howard as John's wife Kate Connor, Anton Yelchin as a young Kyle Reese (he's getting a lot of that work lately!), plus glimpses of Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams and Common as Barnes.  And of course there plenty of quick-cut action, if on a slightly less grand scale than T2's wave of Hunter Killers laying waste to resistance soldiers, though the resistance has a surprising amount of battle technology working, including A-10 'Warthog' attack jets and helicopters.  The T-600 looks quite menacing in action, and appropriately less sophisticated than the T-800 series.

TERMINATOR:SALVATION is starting to shape up, though I wish this new trailer had given us a bit less plot and more story.  Perhaps a second trailer will put us into John Connor's personal bind now that the franchise is reintroduced to audiences and the new film is on their radar — consider the wow factor (courtesy of the giant Harvester Terminator in the last shot) covered.

[ MORE T4 INTERVIEWS FROM COMIC-CON ] +JUL 30 2008

T:2018 is glad to offer you fans some great bonus interviews from Comic-Con featuring TERMINATOR:SALVATION director McG and actor Sam Worthington.  After his well-received panel presentation and Q&A, McG shoots straight from the hip with the Australian press about the power and screen presence of Christian Bale and Perth-native Worthington: "I regard Christian as the premiere actor of his generation," says McG elaborating, "And then as far as Sam Worthington, I need someone who can stand up to Christian in a two-shot, and that's a tall order because today's actors are all skinny little waify guys that aren't tough.  Frankly, Sam reminds me of an early Mel Gibson, an early Russell Crowe, and he's a tough bricklayer from Perth."

Worthington also gets to speak out on the Comic-Con audience who got the cast pumped up to return to filming, as McG speaks to the advantages of starting a new TERMINATOR story after Judgment Day: "We don't want to make TERMINATOR 4. We're trying to make TERMINATOR:SALVATION that honors the TERMINATOR pictures but truly begins again."  Bold words, and I like them!   Though with due respect, I'll occasionally refer to his film in shorthand as T4 just to save some space and repetitive typing on this site — but you'll know I support your point, McG.

[ T4 PANEL VIDEO FROM COMIC-CON ] +JUL 30 2008

Trailer Addict hosts 12-plus minutes of the TERMINATOR:SALVATION panel at Comic-Con 2008 by IFC News, featuring director McG, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, Common, and Moon Bloodgood. McG also introduced a preview clip from the film and the T-600 endoskeleton on-stage, but neither are seen in this video.  Still, the panel comments by director and most of the starring cast (Christian Bale was in Japan promoting THE DARK KNIGHT) are very much worth viewing.

[ TERMINATOR:SALVATION TEASER TRAILER ] +JUL 17 2008

The TERMINATOR:SALVATION Teaser Trailer is now available for viewing and download in QuickTime and Windows Media formats below:

This is not the future Sarah Connor warned us about, and John Connor (Christian Bale) is anything but sure he and the human resistsance can win their war against Skynet's Terminator army.  This teaser gives us only short fractions of scenes from the film but together with Bale's voiceover, it paints a dark and unsettling vista of desolation and destruction after Judgment Day. 

McG's vision is certainly a break from the pattern to see so much of Connor's future world in daylight, but perhaps this implies the battle hasn't shifted entirely in favor of Skynet yet, at least not to the all-out conflagration seen in 2029 during the previous three films. While a giant machine claw appears to pluck one unlucky human out of the ruins, it appears humans still have the ability to move around in daylight and much of the action is shown under a harsh desert sun.  That's a far cry from the cool metallic blues of James Cameron's nightmare with waves of chrome T-800s blasting away human soldiers in a swath of plasma rifle beams!

In fact, here John Connor seems to do most of his battle with Terminators in underground locations, which puts the glowing-eye monsters back in the dark where they seem to look and work their best.  The new-style Terminator rising up from what appears to be a sewer definitely catches Connor off-guard, which implies he may be venturing into Skynet's lair to strike at the heart of his enemy — shades of Universal's TERMINATOR 2: 3D attraction storyline but in a much dirtier, less-sophisticated era of the war.  In any case, TERMINATOR:SALVATION is looking great so far: scary, serious and flipping the plot ahead to tell John Connor's story after Judgment Day in a world TERMINATOR fans have been waiting decades to see depicted in its full and horrible glory!