There are potential spoilers in this post regarding Terminator: Salvation, so if you don’t want to read them, don’t go on.
There have been a bunch of minor “controversies” surrounding the new Terminator film even before it started filming. Sure, most people just remember the little Christian Bale 3 year old outburst… but there were plenty of complaints and rumors of problems running around before that.
One of the nastier ones (that quite honestly I ignored because I didn’t think there was anything to it) was the rumor that McG kills off John Conor, and then they make a terminator that looks like him… and it got worse! The good folks over at Cinema Blend give us this:
But with the movie just two weeks away from release, McG is finally coming clean about the leaked ending. SciFiWire reported on the director’s spoiler-filled roundtable conversation at the Terminator junket, in which McG admitted the leaked ending we heard about was only one part of a terrible, terrible ending.
SPOILERS OF TERMINATOR: SALVATION BELOW
“”There was this leak that Connor dies and they put Connor’s face on top of the machine body of [half-man, half-machine] Marcus [Sam Worthington]. Everybody went, ‘Booo! What’s that?’ That’s half of it. We had a jet-black ending. Connor dies, we’re in a room with all the people we care about. You take Connor’s likeness, you put it on the living machine of Marcus. He sits up now looking like Christian Bale, takes a gun, kills Kate, kills Kyle, kills Star, kills everybody, eyes flare red, the end.”Apparently they were so attached to the notion of Connor becoming half-man, half-machine that they wrote out several different versions of the dark ending, including one in which the Terminator version of Connor goes on to lead the resistance just as before.
I have two thoughts about this. First of all, I’m glad he changed that ending. I think it would have been far too “out there”. I respect them wanting to make some changes with the terminator franchise at this point “This is not the future my mother told me about”… but at the same time there are some things I don’t think you touch… like killing Kyle off before he jumps back in time. Just my thought.
BUT… having said that… I also think a director should stay true to his own vision. Yeah it might sound bad… but only he really knows how it plays out in his head. If you have a vision for your story, then make it and let other people judge your vision AFTER you’ve put it on screen.
So like I said… I’m not sure how I feel about this news. Either way I’m really looking forward to seeing the movie next week.
You cant kill John Conner off. Its like killing Jack Bauer off 24. It will ruin the whole franchise.
Simple
Such a bizarre ending idea! I’d agree with any other director, stick to your guns, but McG? No offense meant, but the man’s full name is three letters… Terminator Salvation is not looking to be as cool as we all thought, eh?
um… i guess im the only one who thinks this ending would be AWESOME?!? just the idea is all crazy and messed up. i mean a machine leading the war against the machines? i dont get how thatd be a bad ending. itd be a “WTF just happened?!?” ending. but then it would sink in and people would love it. i still hope they do a version of this ending somehow…
Call me crazy, but didn’t Rodney already post something involving this a few days ago?
i ain’t gonna call you crazy because i thought the same thing, and I’m sure he did or this is the same post but its been changed.
Will be there first week to see it for myself what McG has come up with.
I’ve heard the action scenes are fantastic in this film…Gotta love it!
bale >>>>>> worthington.
Sounds to me that this franchise managed to do in reality what it did in its story. It changed the future! And the producers did it for commercial reasons in order to keep the franchise alive past part 4 and make even more money by making sequels which we’ll probably hate in the future(well, what did you expect?).
What if the franchise was actually supposed to end once and for all with the death of Connor and the whole Time Paradox collapsing? I believe that, in closer storyline and scientific inspection, if Connor dies, Skynet never gets made and none of this ever happens at all!
So…Humanity is actually saved from all this future threat. Hence “Salvation”. I think it would only be fitting and logical for a franchise that deals with Time Paradoxes to actually end like this. It would be Connor making the ultimate sacrifice to save Humanity and spare them the trouble. Connor choosing to commit suicide would be a rather dramatic, revolutionary, unconventional, unexpected and rule-breaking plot twist. A bold ending indeed which allows NO other sequels to be made.
Connor would have destroyed the Paradox creating a safe, alternate reality for Humans to live in.
I personally like this “leaked ending” very much! I’m sure that now we’ll probably get a more conventional ending we all more or less expect (Reece being sent to the Past etc.) and we’ll probably see more Terminator films in the future.
But, I choose for myself the “alternate future” of our real world in which this franchise ended with the leaked ending! Before the Producers intervened and created a different ending for us to watch.
However, I’m 99% sure that noone will agree with me on this point of view so…I rest my case! :P
don’t you mean that you believe a director should stay true to his/her vision unless the studio wants him/her to change it?;p
and killing newt wasn’t the thing that made alien 3 tank. the fact that it was fucking boring was the biggest problem
Hey Alfie,
You said:
don’t you mean that you believe a director should stay true to his/her vision unless the studio wants him/her to change it?;p
Actually… yes… you’re right. I should have specified. :)
that would have been the dumbest ending they could have ever come up with. idiot McG
I am there on opening day…this is what i have been waiting for since T2…i liked T3 except the bitch…who the fuck is this ultra hot borg bitch…just stupid….but this one has potential to make or break…and im hoping it makes it.!
That ending would have caused the box-office to drop 80% weekend # 2. Way to daring. I wouldn’t have liked it. I agree with your directors vision argument but if it alienates 90% of the audience he’s not the right director for this material.
Its like David Fincher killing off the little girl Newt off screen at the beginning of Alien 3. Yes it was his vision but people hate that to this day! Fox was sleep walking when they agreed to that storyline.
chuck
well, I still have high hopes that this movie will kick some ass, so far looks great, keeping my fingers crossed.
They forgot the ending where Connor meets Neo.
lol
Director keeping to his vision is one thing.
But Johnny-come-lately changing core ideals of the “visons” of other directors/creators (and
this is NOT a “reboot”) is a whole different matter.
That would have been a case of pissing on the fans shouting “How do you like that!”
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Not cool. Glad he wised up.
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Now as far has his next plan to send Conner back
in time seems a waste of story since we finally
are getting to the “future” part of the story
we have been waiting to see since 1984!
I want shiny terminators stomping the shit out
of resisance fighters and HK’s flying overhead.
Seeing Conner meet Kyle and then having to send his dad back in time to die. And beating Skynet back against all odds.
All else was done in T1-T3. Stay with the fresh
stuff this new movie seems to provide.
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Just IMO.
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Can’t wait to see the film next week either.