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McG Plans To Bring The Future War Back in Time in Terminator 5

Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

Terminator Salvation Concept Art

We’ve known since the beginning that Terminator Salvation was being set-up to be the first film in a new trilogy of Terminator movies. We’ve been told that the ending of this new film might divide audiences, as McG admitted that its “not a happy little bow of an ending at all. The ending is tough and requires reflection.” McG has even shared his idea of how he might bring T2 star Robert Patrick back for a cameo in the next film. But aside from that concept-in-progress, we’ve been told nothing about the story for the next film… until now.

McG tells the FilmJournal that he strongly suspects that Terminator 5 “is going to take place in a [pre-Judgment Day] 2011.” And the film is aiming for a 2011 release, how convenient. McG reveals that the story might follow John Connor traveling back in time on a mission to “galvanize the militaries of the world for an impending Skynet invasion.” Okay, sounds a bit lame… until… wait for it… wait for it…

“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.”

Fucking awesome indeed… Just as we thought this was going to be a trilogy set in a post-Judgment Day, they change it up completely. The movie would then essentially be set at Judgement Day, in a tangent timeline. And yes, it is even more confusing than it sounds.

Judgment Day now becomes something else entirely. No longer is it the day that Skynet becomes self aware and launches a nuclear attack on the United States, Russia and China, but it now becomes the setting of a machine led invasion. What would this then mean for the other John Conner? You know, the 7-years younger version of Bale who is living in 2011.

I love the idea of setting the future war in modern times, but the concept will raise a lot of questions and probably require some convoluted answers. Also, according to Terminator 3, Judgment Day takes place in 2004. So how can 2011 be pre-Judgment Day?

Discuss: What do you think about this posssible Terminator 5 storyline?

via: io9

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  • Didn't they say to forget everything that happened in T3?
  • no that was the sarah connor chronicles - which in my opinion is a much better followup than these movies.
  • Because you can make a judgment like that without having seen the movies
  • Of course you can, he/she saw the movie in the future, and has now come back to comment on it. Come on guys, it's rudimentary movie time travel.
  • Sammy Jankis
    That makes sense, since you have not seen this one yet....
  • Merciful_budah
    Might as well, T3 was a pretty terrible follow up. I'm completely fine with not stressing about anything that is ignored from that movie. As long as it makes sense with the Cameron films I'm psyched.

    I'm actually pretty impressed with how McG is handling this franchise from what I've seen so far. It's an interesting new take that allows them to move forward on their own but still be spawned from the chronology of the original films. Bale was a great pick too. "You and I have been at war since before either of us even existed."
  • Dave Rees
    I think T3 was a bit over the top, i liked T1 and T2 better, T4 i think is good too. i hope they continue these films until the war ends
  • Sorry to say this bub but, T3 is the reason why John Connor says "This isn't the future my mother warned me". Judgement Day happens in 2004 technology has vastly improved when they postpone J-day that was originally 97. which will explain why everything is different.
  • Marcus2015
    John Connor is not 8 in 2011. He is 26. Born in 1985.
  • I didn't say he would be 8, I said "7-years younger version", because they are traveling 7 years back in time...
  • mike
    John Conner becomes part machine
  • Marcus2015
    Would like to see how they pull of the whole time travel and it affects J Day. And in 2011 do they have the technology to time travel if not will we ever see 2029.
  • [A]
    sounds pretty lame. no wonder you guys loved the idea
  • I don't mind them involving the time traveling aspect or even showing how Skynet developed it...I just think the whole idea of having an invasion during Judgment Day would be odd to see so early in this three picture storyline..that sounds like the big ending/last stand of a third film...I'd like to see Connor and the resistance learning how to reprogram terminators and try to stop Skynet from starting their time traveling advances...I think the whole invasion concept could be a last desperate attempt by the machines in the third film...third films usually aren't the greatest McG might want to use the iffy premises then...

    let's just hope they hired Nolan again...maybe have him write the whole thing this time
  • 50caliber
    i dont understand the time travelling bit of it. 2004 (Or 2011) Skynet would have no idea its future self would send an invasion force back in time. The machines would have a plan ready and 04/11 skynet would not have one ready. 2011 would have way better tech and the ability to destroy the machines, sonce future day skynet could not control the invasion force because theyre in different time periods. 04/11 skynet would have to program all the new terminators that havent been invented yet into its system, giving humans enough time to wipe the machines and 04 skynet out.
  • g0x
    @marcus2015 - i thought so aswell. It says 8 years YOUNGER though ...
  • I like the idea of John Connor going back in time.
  • I know they're saying the future is different and all but the really are changing everything.

    I the 1st film they hadnt figured out timetravel fully yet and they were sent back from a time near the end of the war not the start or middle like this film is set. so they are even more advanced in the future than they would of been without the original films events taking place.

    confused?

    still cant wait for this though. ignoring T3 the terminators are in my top films of all time.
  • I'm still wondering about the unhappy ending.
    It better not be an ending like the mist.
    Great movie but that ending wasn't bad but it was so sad
  • The
    How can you not like the ending of The Mist? After seeing so many films I was relieved that finally... somebody got screwed over.
  • Cranex42
    What a terrible idea.

    Looks like McG is just Michael Bay v2.0.
  • Gaius
    This is fucking stupid. That's just the plot of Transformers only robots fighting other robots in our present time, its robots fighting people in our present time.

    If McG doesn't want to be remembered as an utter and complete hack, he'd better keep the damn robots (and John Connor) in the future. Keeping the story original and non-hacky with the future timeline intact would impress me, not some jump the shark moment with everything coming back in time.
  • filmkid
    stop bring up Transformers when they do Voltron or Robotech movie you going to say thats a copy of Transformers
  • Gaius
    But that's really what it is, this plot that McG is describing. It's Transformers with humans in place of the Autobots in the present day time. This is the Terminator series, and people in the present have to only fight low-key battles with stealth Terminators, while people in the future should remain in post-Judgment Day battle mode. When you break those two rules, the entire series becomes contrived.

    If you can make the story fresh and original without breaking those two rules, that's impressive, but once you bleed the timelines together, it's just Transformers.

    T3 only got one thing right, and that's that Judgment Day is inevitable, McG better heed those rules, or else it will ruin the series.
  • Final Word
    You realize the whole time travel thing HAS ALWAYS been part of the Terminator story? Since the very first Terminator they have always had time travel.

    I think the Transformers complaint the haters always brings up is so lame and unoriginal. They see one big machine and everything now is Transformers. How ironic that these unoriginal haters accuse someone else of being unoriginal.

    Come up with some new material.
  • I couldnt agree more. The thing that made me want to see Salvation was because it was the future war, I'm sick of the time travel bullshit. It was great for T1 and T2, and for a mild plot point here and there in the show, but its really fucking old now. If they do this timeline jump... it will become the opening and ending scenes of Transformers... keep in mind there are "good Terminators" apparently... they take the place of Autobots.
  • mike
    u got that brother n terminator was out alot earlier than the transformers movie
  • MyCle
    Not robots...cyborgs :p
  • 50caliber
    you are wrong. He said disregard the sarah connor chronicals. T3 is for real.
  • 50caliber
    srry meant to reply to grey
  • greycolumbus
    I'm half certain I heard something about McG saying that T3 wouldn't be taken into account.

    Could be wrong though.
  • Lpfanaddy
    They should have never made T3 in the first place. It served no purpose at all...
  • Ryan
    Of course it did, for Judgement day to happen


    It sounds like an okey idea but im going to agree with Gaius
  • Lpfanaddy
    The Judgement Day sequence in T2 was much more inspired all of the actual plot that occurred in T3 could have been exposition for this new Terminator film, since obviously they're not using a lot of what happened in the third movie for Terminator Salvation.
  • lux
    No wonder why the machines gain power in judgment day, they send a fucking army from the future to that day! nono, fuck wait, that's fucking brilliant!!

    But I don't know, don't like the idea of the film happening entirely in the past, in Judgement day, maybe part of the movie in the past, part of it in the present, i mean, their present, you know.. the future future.. the.. oh headache..
  • lux
    And stop whinning that "it's like transformers now".. it is not, you brainless morons.
  • McG will come up with something great. Im sure of that.
    He does a great job making Terminator Salvation.
    And he will make a great job making next movie (Terminator 5).
  • Matt
    Who cares...Everyone keeps this MCG vs. Bay thing going, but its like arguing over who was worse, Stalin or Hitler...Neither of these guys have ever made anything worth my time...Sure these movies are suppsoed to be 'fun'...But they are anything but...They are fucking depressing, derivitive pieces of garbage...These guys arent even directors, their special effects guys do all the work anyway...T5 basically sounds like they want to erase the history of the franchise, no it doesnt make sense...Its just a horrible attempt at being clever.....Just call these movies something else,its that simple....Instead of Transformers, just call it 'Transforming Robots:The movie....or instead of Terminator, just call it 'Future Robot Wars'.....These new versions are just using the publics stupidity to their advantage, conning everyone into thinking this is something familiar, which its not, its utter shit, and its ruining blow em up movies....If you want to be entertained read a fucking book.
  • f4star
    Maybe you should read a book Matt. You obviously did not pay attention in school when they taught grammar. McG is a tremendous director and Terminator Salvation was awesome. Maybe you should actually watch a movie some time and then comment on it.
  • Dave Rees
    stop winging and actually watch these movies, if you don't like terminator then don't watch them simple as.
  • Very interesting, thanks for the information.
  • LoL ur mom is a bad idea
  • This is so stupid. So is John Connor going to be played by a younger version of Christian Bale if he travels back in time to 2011...? What the hell. Why is McG ruining this franchise for us?
  • Sounds like it could be cool. They need to do something different for the next movies, having 3 movies all set in the future could get boring pretty quickly, without something to mix things up a bit.

    Whether or not it will work, well that depends on how well McG handled Salvation, and we don't know that yet.
  • Weyland_Yutani
    I hope they keep it in the future, but that's really more about my desire to see an escalating future war and the continued rise of both factions. I suppose, that once you try to get past the T-1000 it can get pretty daunting from a filmmaking standpoint, but not out of the question. Robots vs. robots? If it gets to that, which I'm assuming it will, I'm all for it. Just keep the story on a high level.

    We'll know if that is possible in a few weeks.
  • bobby s
    if we're going to make it this elaborate, can we at least put this in the hands of a competent director?

    we know james cameron doesn't want to revisit it, how about ridley scott? how about michael mann? how about nolan + bale for this series?
    throw 20 mil their way and see if they want to take up the challenge?

    i don't understand how in the world they can trust the guy who made charlie's angels 2 with 100s of millions of dollars like this.
  • dlb
    the answer is simple.

    hollywood does not know movies
  • lame
    If all that turns out to be true... them having such control of time travel...
    what prevents skynet from going back to the original plot and try to kill sarah?
    why would john risk himself (after three movies talking about how important he is) and travel back in time?
    if he can travel too... how come he didn't return on the first movie? what happens that is so important that he has to come?
    just sounds like an awful idea... (as bad as the idea of john traveling to the future on the [horrible] tv show just so the production could save money on making it look like the 90's)
  • Lets make sure Salvation is good before we get into sequel ideas. McG really needs to prove to everybody that he can actually make a good movie.
  • Cat
    Awesome!
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