2009’s Terminator Salvation director McG has reflected on his intended dark ending to the future war-set installment.
While promoting his upcoming Netflix body-switching comedy Family Switch in an interview with ComicBook.com, McG explained how disappointed he was when his Terminator movie underwent numerous changes by Warner Bros., including his darker conclusion to the story that was left on the cutting room floor.
“We tried hard. On that one, we brought in Jonah Nolan to write it. There was a writers’ strike back then. Brought in Christian Bale, you can’t reach much higher than that. We certainly gave it everything we had. A lot of people like that movie. It didn’t quite do what I hoped it was gonna do, and I’ve been living with that wound a long time,” McG said. “There’s a cut out there with an entirely different ending, I just can’t share it with the world yet. It’s beyond dark.”
As the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise and the first without star Arnold Schwarzenegger (with the exception of a CGI cameo), Terminator Salvation focused on the future war between the human Resistance led by John Connor (Christian Bale) and Skynet. Along the way, the Resistance crosses paths with a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and a human-terminator hybrid named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington).
While the theatrical ending of Terminator Salvation had Connor surviving a near-fatal heart injury in his battle with the T-800, earlier drafts of the script had Connor dying and having his skin grafted on Wright, who proceeded to kill Connor’s Resistance allies. After the script leaked online, however, the studio changed the third act. It is unknown if McG had shot this specific version of the ending during production.
Released in the summer of 2009, Terminator Salvation was a critical and commercial disappointment that failed to launch a new trilogy in the franchise. Additionally, the movie was overshadowed by Bale’s audio-recorded outburst against cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who disrupted a take during the shoot. Subsequent releases, Terminator Genisys in 2015 and Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, both underperformed as failed attempts to revitalize the franchise with original star Schwarzenegger in his iconic role.
The future of the Terminator franchise
The next iteration of Terminator will come in the form of an anime series for Netflix from writer/showrunner Mattson Tomlin (The Batman Part II), director Masashi Kudo (Bleach), and animation studio Production IG (Ghost in the Shell). The eight-episode series will focus on the future war between the Resistance and Skynet.
Terminator: The Anime Series does not have a premiere date.
