McG’s “Terminator Salvation” is set to be one of the major players in this summer’s blockbuster slate and, if all goes well, plans for a sequel and fifth installment in the franchise are definitely in the cards.
The controversial director had previously spoken of his preliminary plans for a sequel, with “Terminator 2” star Robert Patrick eyed for a return. Speaking with Film Journal now though, McG has seemingly inadvertently revealed his proposed basic story for the next 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 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, talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves.”
We assume this is just a very early story plan from McG so changes will probably be aplenty even before any scripting begins. One thing that can be concluded: it definitely sounds like the overall arc of McG’s proposed trilogy will be very much war and action based. More and more, McG looks and sounds like a director trying find excuses to justify his action film for ‘Terminator’ sci-fi fanboys. But it’s probably better if he avoided the hard sci-fi of James Cameron’s films and focused on all the guns and explosions anyway, right? And whatever happens, fans really have nothing to lose after “Rise Of The Machines.”
“Terminator Salvation” comes out May 21st.