McG Plans to Convolute Time Travel to the Max in Terminator 5

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 4, 2009

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Director McG hasn’t even released his entry into the Terminator franchise to the public yet and it appears as if he’s already got some ideas for another one. Along the press tour for Terminator Salvation (5/21), the much ballyhooed action director took some time to talk to the folks at Film Journal. Warning: Spoilers May Follow.

During the interview, McG explained what might happen, should he be tasked to direct another Terminator film:

I strongly suspect the next movie is going to take place in a [pre-Judgment Day] 2011. John Connor is going to travel back in time and he’s going to have to galvanize the militaries of the world for an impending Skynet invasion. They’ve figured out time travel to the degree where they can send more than [just] one naked entity. So you’re going to have hunter killers and transports and harvesters and everything arriving in our time and Connor fighting back with conventional military warfare, which I think is going to be fucking awesome. I also think he’s going to meet a scientist that’s going to look a lot like present-day Robert Patrick [who famously played the T-1000 in Terminator 2], talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves…

And this is where McG — even moreso than when he called upon Michael Bay to “whip it out” — might start some shit.

The essential problem with this thought, as Charlie over at io9 points out, is that McG’s idea goes strongly against the Terminator franchise’s one rule for time travel. You see, the only thing that can travel back in time in this universe is living tissue, everything else is destroyed in the transfer — thus the iconic ass-shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first film. As well, if SkyNet gains the ability to send machines like the Hunter-Killer (that big fucker) back in time, what is to stop the Robopocalypse from happening all over again, in ludicrous speed?

It all seems a bit wonky, if you ask me. Depending on how Terminator Salvation comes to a close, I would urge McG to stick to what seems to be working for him: the future. Going back into the past poses all sorts of continuity issues. Not to mention the fact that his stated idea seems to be walking down a road toward a place where time travel becomes a completely conveluted concept, obliterating the basic set of rules that this franchise has already set up.

Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 21, 2009.


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  • k(Black)
    continuity issues! CONTINUITY ISSUES!? Does anyone care about continuity any more?

    I know I do. But does Hollywood? It pisses-me-off to no end how writers, producers, directors seem to totally ignore continuity. If you know how to write you should be able to write a good enough story that works within the frame that has already been set. Not this crap of writing a story that totally ignores what has been standing for years. That's the main reason why I stopped reading comics.

    Too many guys started writing these dumb-ass stories that totally ignored continuity. Continuity that has stood the test of time for decades....
  • There is no continuity when it comes to Time Travel. That is the essence of time travel.
  • I think it actually sounds kind of cool. Visually at least. As for continuity, 2 things: Let's say that in 2019 they invent time travel. Terminator 1 and 2, despite "taking place" in their relative years in the late 80s and 90s, they actually take place in a timeline that has only reached 2019. Now, let's say that this timeline is at 2040 and time travel technology has advanced to the point they can send robots and machinery back. So despite taking place in 2011, the timeline is actually 2040. Also, why 2011? Didn't Judgement Day happen in July 2004 - according to T3. He would be jumping 7 years too late. Something he would know, considering he was in a bunker when Judgement Day happened.

    Second point about the time travel and "living tissue." Underneath his living Tissue, Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 was several hundred pounds of steel. The T-1000 had no biological tissue at all - he was liquid metal. The T-X also had no living tissue - it was a solid metal skeleton covered in liquid metal. Basically T-800 + T-1000 = T-X.

    So really, people are just showing up ass naked because they want to. Clearly and very obviously, from the very beginning, non-living tissue has been transported back through time. If all it takes is a thin layer of living tissue to surround something, then they would just cover their ships, temporarily, in a big skin blanket. But in every Terminator movie, non-living tissue has been transported back through time.
  • Seaghan
    mmmm.....big skin blanket...
  • Venture82
    It's 2011 because they're essentially disavowing anything that happened in T3, which is just sensible. That movie was good popcorny fun, but it didn't really mean anything to the series. Have to admit, the Robert Patrick scientist angle is intriguing and could be good if done well.
  • NadaNuff
    This is wrong on so many levels. First and foremost, he's going backwards artistically. I thought we were past modern-esque Terminator movies? Who wants to see Terminators and their machinery fought with conventional weapons? We take one dip into the future, and then it's back to the same-old thing?

    Secondly, if Terminators and their machinery can now be sent back, doesn't that make Judgment Day meaningless? The war can now be found before that happens, so JD doesn't matter. We'd be fighting before it anyway, and we'd be fighting afterwards.

    Lastly (and this is closely related to my first point) John Connor is supposed to be a hero of the future. It creates all kind of continuity issues to have Connor as a hero in the present AND the future. What's next--is he gonna groom himself to be a hero?
  • I frigging swear, I had to wait for 20 years to get to see a terminator movie in the future and McG is now wanting to go back to the past? What the FUCK? How stupid do you have to be to believe that people want to see a basic remake of the past movies with a different version of terminators?

    This is as bad as hollywood not understanding that people want to see the Aliens franchise in the FUTURE not present day.
  • McG was recently at the Newport Beach Film Festival showing a clip from the Terminator. He tried to set the clip up but the projection failed. Everyone was disappointed to say the least. After the failed showing he was trying to explain to the audience what his concept was. Our film instructor was totally taken aback at his negative views of hollywood. He told us during the next lecture that he's never overly critical of his students because he does not want to stiffle their creativity. We as a class did not dig McG.
  • terminatorfanfanfan
    I and my friends are a very big terminator film fans and we have talked with other people and we have to say that, we are very dissapointed in McG. In another way but T4 brought back a good terminator feeling again, and we have to say that 1000 times was cool than the T3... what was nothing for us... It's true the T4 was not a J.Cameron style movie, but was good ! So: we are dissapointed first the T4 Alternate ending idea: when Connor has become a robot, and the secon thing is: the plan of the T5 movie... ( Time traveling of Connor and sending robots throught time in the pre.days ). This was the world's biggest fool thing that i ever heard... This is not a stargate film or something, but the terminator... J. Cameron rules must keep if they don't want to make the fans and a lot of people angry or dissapointed. This T5 plan must to change into another story... We want to see the future battles, alfa units ( infiltrators), the birth of t-1000 for example, or skynet... or they should focusing to the contact of John and Reese..and so and so...there are many normal idea, but we dont't like this one. Oh and by the way...they should not to strain the appearence of Arnold... Everybody and i also like Arnold but there are a lot of actor who can play the role of Arnie... We are strongly praying about the termination of this T5 plan...because if this film will be born with this idiotic story we are going to be the first audiences who put this film into the refuse bin.
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