Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation
This is the first of our reports from the set.
In June I was invited with several other online outlets to visit the set of the new Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation. Shooting took place outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a place where you’d think an atomic bomb went off because there is nothing out there except a destroyed gas station.
The first things I saw when I entered the studio were the artistic drawings of the T-600 and various other terminators. I must admit they were unbelievably scary and brutal looking. These things made my flesh crawl thinking about how they tear apart humans -- even if only on the big screen.
We also saw sketch drawings of the Transports, Aerostats, Hunter-killer, Harvester, Hydrobot and the Motor-terminator (Yes, a terminator on two wheels. Harley-Davidson would be so proud). Director McG explained the Hydrobots patrol the water, Transports move human prisoners around, Harvesters collect human beings as lab rats for Skynet and Aerostats (the size of a frisbee) survey all that is going on with the Resistance the world over.
I got the chance to talk to McG, who, I have to admit, I didn’t initially have that much confidence in to direct this--the last thing we need is an MTV version of The Terminator. Then again, before James Cameron directed The Terminator, he had only directed Piranha 2. But after meeting McG, I definitely changed my mind. Not only was he a cool guy to talk to, he was as geeked as a school kid getting his first kiss from a girl when he showed us 20 minutes of the action sequences from the movie. Footage even the studio hadn’t yet seen. Needless to say, he was not supposed to do it, but he wanted our opinion to see if he was on the right track. Man, it was awesome. The scenes were dark and brutal. Nothing but emptiness, twisted metal, burnt land and dead trees. You could see death everywhere. You felt the destruction of mankind. And this was before any special effects were in place.
As well, I got a chance to talk to everyone in the cast but Christian Bale, who was busy filming the last scene of the movie. Man, what a cool scene. Big surprise at the end of this film!! Don’t worry – I’m not telling. Helena Bonham Carter had just signed on to play Serena, the film’s uber-antagonist; Sam Worthington plays a real bad-ass and was busy staying in character for his scenes with Christian (McG went out of his way to make one of Sam’s key scenes seem real by visiting an actual execution chamber and then having a replica built with an actual lethal injection table); Anton Yelchin explained how his character, Kyle Reese, fits into the story line as a young man who goes back in time to save Sarah Connor from the first Terminator; and Moon Bloodgood told me about how fun it was to play a character who heavily influences John Connor and Kyle Reese’s development.
I’ll have more to come closer to the film’s release in May, as well as video from the set. Stay tuned!
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