Judgement Day
Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor
Terminator Salvation is about Getting New John into Power
Christian Bale is a solid actor. Go see The Machinist and say different, and I’ll smack you in the face for blasphemy. But Terminator Salvation was seen as a trashy tie-in film that didn’t support either the franchise or general storytelling in any way.
Unless…
Imagine that you are Skynet. You’ve spent countless gallons of Time Juice to ensure that humanity’s savior, John Connor, never exists. You tried to kill his mother, then kept the resistance from taking out the far more ineffective Connor/Reese, then tried to kill off his friends so the resistance would be even less powerful (remember that the Terminatrix wasn’t there to kill John, only to kill his wife and generals). So what is the point of creating robo-Worthington to infiltrate the resistance and meet John Connor/Reese?
In order to put him in control of the rebels.
John is a soldier at the beginning of Salvation. In fact, he is pretty low on the totem. His superiors don’t respect him, despite the fact that HE IS THE CHOSEN ONE, HAS FOUGHT TERMINATORS BEFORE, AND KNEW ABOUT THIS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. He is certainly not in a position of power, and that doesn’t work for the machines. So they devise a plan to get him there.
It makes NO sense to send Helena Bonham Carterbot to the past to turn a prisoner into a robo-spy. It makes less sense to make that robo-spy completely unaware of his programming (robots don’t crack under pressure, and knowing his mission would not have made him any less effective of a spy). And the MacGuffin of a sonic disruptor that shuts down robots is even less worth speculation. This is a super intelligent computer system that figured out how to wipe out humanity, it’s not pissing in the wind with ideas. It is cold and calculating. What the hell is it doing?
Skynet was trying to take out the leadership.
That’s Michael Ironside as General Mynamedoesntmatterbecauseimpointless (it’s German). He is in charge of humanity. You know why? Because of those 4 stars on his shoulder. That is a military leader. He and his fellow generals and admirals know warfare. They may be outgunned and outmanned, but they have thousands of years of history to call upon, and they will WIN this war. Skynet knows that too. It may be a student of combat, but it is far from a master. The only way to defeat humanity, rather than facing an insurgency, is to cut off the head of the snake.
Even better is putting an wishy washy fortune cookie of a soldier in charge afterward.
So they use more Time Juice to get robo-Worthington up an running. His job is to, once again, keep John safe. If John were to die, some other person (possible a well-trained soldier with brains and guts) would take over and lead humanity to possible victory. That is an unacceptable outcome, so Skynet makes sure that “Hasta la vista baby” Conner/Reese gets the nomination. Sure, the way they go about it is stupid as f***, but it gets the job done. John is in charge, and humanity is basically doomed.
Humanity had to steal Time Juice in order to: Send back Kyle Reese; Try to kill Connor/Reese; Keep Connor/Reese alive because someone is better than no one. They have precious little left. So they are resigned to their fate of slow attrition. The war is all but lost. But there is one last chance. Maybe, just maybe, they can send that rust old T-800 to the past to protect Sarah one more time. Not from Skynet, mind you. From herself. They need to train Sarah from the beginning to be a warrior mom. She needs to live healthy and not die from lazy screenwriting. That way, Connor/Reese or not, SHE can lead the resistance of humanity against the machines.
Wait…did I just make the case for Terminator: Genesys?