"Terminator Salvation" ending POLL (Spoilers)

[The Borgified Corpse]

After all of the discussion of the different endings to Terminator Salvation, I thought we should get some numbers attached to this. Personally, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced the movie was shite anyway. I'm not sure either ending satisfies me.

What did you folks think?

 

[T'Baio]

They should have stuck with their original idea of grafting Connor's skin onto Marcus' endoskeleton.

That was interesting in the way it turns the mythos' theme on its head.

 

[trampledamage]

I agree. Just think where they could have gone with the idea of the leader of the Resistance being a machine.

Although I don't think they should have grafted Connor's skin because that would mean Christian Bale playing him in the next movie. I think they should have just let it be Marcus taking on the name of Connor - since very few people know what he looks like anyway.

 

[Skywalker]

Although I don't think they should have grafted Connor's skin because that would mean Christian Bale playing him in the next movie. I think they should have just let it be Marcus taking on the name of Connor - since very few people know what he looks like anyway.

If that's what they had planned to do, I would have been fine with the idea. But actually grafting Connor's skin onto Marcus' endoskeleton? No thanks.

 

[Thrall]

The original ending sounds stupid. They use dogs to spot Terminators. That right there puts a kink in things.

 

[nx1701g]

That isn't entirely the original ending. McG revealed what the actual final scenes would have been:

After Connor's skin was grafted onto Marcus' endoskeleton he would open his eyes and look at everyone in the room. He would have then killed everyone in attendance in the operating theatre. The final scenes were the camera zooming in on Connor/Marcus' face and the eyes flashing red.

 

[Skywalker]

That isn't entirely the original ending. McG revealed what the actual final scenes would have been:

After Connor's skin was grafted onto Marcus' endoskeleton he would open his eyes and look at everyone in the room. He would have then killed everyone in attendance in the operating theatre. The final scenes were the camera zooming in on Connor/Marcus' face and the eyes flashing red.

I'm really glad they didn't go that route.

 

[nx1701g]

^ I think it could have been interesting, and would have been a more fitting end for the franchise.

 

[Thrall]

^ I think it could have been interesting, and would have been a more fitting end for the franchise.

How? It kind of pisses all over it IMO.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I like the idea of Marcus taking over as Conner, but I think the skin grafting idea is a bit farfetched, even for this franchise.

 

[DarKush]

I think the original idea would've been a bolder choice and the storyline perhaps would've made more sense and been more satisfying. Even when they went in another direction, they seemed to have kept most of the previous storyline so the new tacked on ending just didn't feel right, particularly when Salvation remained more of Marcus's story than John's.

I definitely think a cyborg leading the resistance would be pretty ironic, interesting and open up some moments of character development/interaction sorely lacking from Salvation. How would his cell respond to him after the transplant? How would he feel? It would be this big secret that they would have to keep I suppose and could add a lot of internal drama, tension, and suspense.

Where it stands now is that John's relationship with his cell hasn't changed. They respect and revere him just like at the beginning of the film. Its a pretty static relationship. He still has to convince others that he's the best leader to follow I suppose, but I don't think that's as interesting as him having to do so while hiding such a big secret. Making him a cyborg adds an element of doubt, of fear, and perhaps even discovery that might have taken the Terminator franchise in a direction that really added something new to the Terminator franchise and made us see what came before in a different light instead of just playing in Cameron's, Hamilton's, and Arnold's sandbox, which isn't that bad since they constructed an awesome sandbox. It's just not that fresh.

 

[Mr Light]

I find these rebels doing a heart transplant far-fetched enough as it is, but doing a "Face/Off" on John Connor's body? That sounds even more ridiculous. They just stuck Marcus' super duper pumper heart into Connor. Hopefully in the next movie Connor will be slightly stronger and faster than your aver-age bear.

 

[barnaclelapse]

The ending they went with made sense since they were kind of working towards this whole Christ/Marcus metaphor anyway.

 

[nx1701g]

^ I think it could have been interesting, and would have been a more fitting end for the franchise.

How? It kind of pisses all over it IMO.

It would have shown that Skynet always wins, which is sort of what I'm afraid the numbers may mean for the future of the franchise.

 

[Thrall]

^ I think it could have been interesting, and would have been a more fitting end for the franchise.

How? It kind of pisses all over it IMO.

It would have shown that Skynet always wins, which is sort of what I'm afraid the numbers may mean for the future of the franchise.

But Skynet never wins. Conner always beats it one way or another.

 

[nx1701g]

How? It kind of pisses all over it IMO.

It would have shown that Skynet always wins, which is sort of what I'm afraid the numbers may mean for the future of the franchise.

But Skynet never wins. Conner always beats it one way or another.

Its never been proven canonly that Skynet has been defeated in any of the incarnations. The only time that you could potentially claim that it was defeated was in "The Terminator", but that timeline was overwritten by the subsequent films.

 

[Thrall]

It would have shown that Skynet always wins, which is sort of what I'm afraid the numbers may mean for the future of the franchise.

But Skynet never wins. Conner always beats it one way or another.

Its never been proven canonly that Skynet has been defeated in any of the incarnations. The only time that you could potentially claim that it was defeated was in "The Terminator", but that timeline was overwritten by the subsequent films.

Yes, Kyle flat out said that Conner beat Skynet and it sent Arnold Part 1 back to 1984 as a last resort.

But they also showed a flashback/flash forward in Part 3, of John celebrating with his troops, with his victory over Skynet.

That's farr more proof and evidence then Skynet being the ultimate winner. The only victory Skynet ever got was Judgment Day. And going by Part 3's established canon, you can only hold off the pre-determined you can't completely change it. So Conner will always win. No matter what.

Conner is pre-destined to defeat Skynet. No matter what time line. Always was. Always will be. It's his character arc.

 

[nx1701g]

But Skynet never wins. Conner always beats it one way or another.

Its never been proven canonly that Skynet has been defeated in any of the incarnations. The only time that you could potentially claim that it was defeated was in "The Terminator", but that timeline was overwritten by the subsequent films.

Yes, Kyle flat out said that Conner beat Skynet and it sent Arnold Part 1 back to 1984 as a last resort.

But they also showed a flashback/flash forward in Part 3, of John celebrating with his troops, with his victory over Skynet.

That's farr more proof and evidence then Skynet being the ultimate winner. The only victory Skynet ever got was Judgment Day. And going by Part 3's established canon, you can only hold off the pre-determined you can't completely change it. So Conner will always win. No matter what.

Conner is pre-destined to defeat Skynet. No matter what time line. Always was. Always will be. It's his character arc.

You do realize the winning scenes in T3 were not events in the future war but were his thoughts right? It's also clearly said in the film that John Connor died before the end of the war because he was shot and killed by T-850 (if you want to go by the expanded script it was while Connor was planning for the invasion of Skynet Command in his office at Resistance Headquarters). Mostow admitted that these scenes were filmed but were cut due to time constraints. There are no actual Future War scenes in the film, only John's thoughts on what it would look like.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^And yet the only deleted scenes on the DVD are Schwarzenegger speaking with a badly dubbed southern accent as "Sgt. Candy."

Making him a cyborg adds an element of doubt, of fear, and perhaps even discovery that might have taken the Terminator franchise in a direction that really added something new to the Terminator franchise and made us see what came before in a different light instead of just playing in Cameron's, Hamilton's, and Arnold's sandbox, which isn't that bad since they constructed an awesome sandbox. It's just not that fresh.

McG peed in Cameron's sandbox!

They just stuck Marcus' super duper pumper heart into Connor. Hopefully in the next movie Connor will be slightly stronger and faster than your aver-age bear.

In which case, who would win in a fight between John Connor post-heart transplant and Chev Chelios from the Crank movies?!

 

[Thrall]

Its never been proven canonly that Skynet has been defeated in any of the incarnations. The only time that you could potentially claim that it was defeated was in "The Terminator", but that timeline was overwritten by the subsequent films.

Yes, Kyle flat out said that Conner beat Skynet and it sent Arnold Part 1 back to 1984 as a last resort.

But they also showed a flashback/flash forward in Part 3, of John celebrating with his troops, with his victory over Skynet.

That's farr more proof and evidence then Skynet being the ultimate winner. The only victory Skynet ever got was Judgment Day. And going by Part 3's established canon, you can only hold off the pre-determined you can't completely change it. So Conner will always win. No matter what.

Conner is pre-destined to defeat Skynet. No matter what time line. Always was. Always will be. It's his character arc.

You do realize the winning scenes in T3 were not events in the future war but were his thoughts right? It's also clearly said in the film that John Connor died before the end of the war because he was shot and killed by T-850 (if you want to go by the expanded script it was while Connor was planning for the invasion of Skynet Command in his office at Resistance Headquarters). Mostow admitted that these scenes were filmed but were cut due to time constraints. There are no actual Future War scenes in the film, only John's thoughts on what it would look like.

But no where does it contradict Kyle's statement that The Resistance had basically won. And since pre-determined events cannot be changed, Humans beat Skynet.