McG’s post-Judgment Day sequel is still weeks away from hitting theaters, but the Terminator Salvation director is already out and about, talking up a potential Terminator 5. He even has a pretty good idea of what it’s about.
If a fifth movie happens, they’ll go back in time to where it all begins. Or at least that’s McG’s idea. He tells Film Journal, “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 [who famously played the T-1000 in Terminator 2], talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves.”
This is why, unless it’s orchestrated by Doc Brown, I hate time travel. It just keeps going around and around and around until we all throw up. We already know Connor wasn’t able to stop Judgment Day. Judgment Day happened. Terminator Salvation is all about dealing with a world in which Judgement Day has happened. Can’t we stick with that? At what point does John Connor wise up and realize that ok, I can’t stop Judgement Day. How about a new plan? Give it a rest John.
Though running with this particular plot idea basically turns John Connor into a future-fighting version of Wyle E. Coyote, if you can get past the ridiculousness of it, it would be sort of cool to see those giant robot harvesters from the trailer in a modern environment. Wait, wouldn’t that turn Terminator into Transformers? They sort of have the giant robots demolish a modern downtown metropolis thing in hand.
