Warner Media’s decision to release Zack Snyder’s cut of 2018's Justice League—available on HBO Max in 2021, in just four fleet one-hour installments!—has set an interesting potential new precedent for the relationship between big-name directors, studios, and the fans who fuel their franchise dreams. And if you don’t believe that from us, maybe you’ll believe it from our old pal McG, who’s out here suggesting that people might now be very interested in a “darker” director’s cut of his strong contender for the competitive field of “least memorable Terminator movie,” 2009's Terminator Salvation.
Given that McG’s film remains more notable in the public mind for Bale’s rather, uh, vocal critiques of some of the crew’s on-set behavior than it is for anything that actually happened during its plot, it’s interesting to see him suggest in a recent chat with CBR that “the film has started to age better” in the 11 years after its release. Also: “There is a different cut: I have my own cut of that film and there’s people online that talk about wanting to see that cut. And that’s interesting!”
Admittedly, this isn’t an especially new beat for the director, who’s spent the decade since Salvation did fine—but not “Let’s make 5 more of these” fine—at the box office working on smaller-scale projects like the Shadowhunters TV series and last year’s Rim Of The World. He was, in fact, out here talking about the much darker original ending of Salvation (which supposedly saw Bale’s John Connor get killed, only to be imitated and replaced by a Skynet-controlled Sam Worthington) since pretty much right after the film was first released. The new twist is, of course, the changed climate crated by the Snyder Cut movement, which suggests that if enough people beg loudly enough for studios to release the “McG Cut” of Salvation, they might actually get their wish. Or, as McG puts it himself in the 2020 interview: “I don’t know. That’s for the fans to say.”
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RELEASE THE McG CUT!!!!!
no
Oh, okay.
Now only at McDonald’s The McG Cut Deluxe for a limited time only!
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut
#ReleaseTheAyerCut
#BuryTheMcGCutUnder15FeetOfConcrete
That ending sounds suspiciously similar to the ending of Terminator Genesis/Genysys…
Salvation has the distinction of being, by far, the most boring Terminator movie.Anyway, the whole “we just keep kicking Judgment Day down the road” trope is annoying at this point. I’d like to see a Terminator story where someone figures out that the reason Skynet seems inevitable is that humans keep building an AI and teaching it to be genocidal. What if humans built an AI and taught it to be compassionate? Maybe that’s how they ultimately prevent the robot apocalypse.
I’d like to see a Terminator story where someone figures out that the reason Skynet seems inevitable is that humans keep building an AI and teaching it to be genocidal. What if humans built an AI and taught it to be compassionate?That may have been where the television series was going or there was something about teaching a Skynet rival ethics, whatever that’s way behind us. It’s a neat idea though.The idea of John Connor dying and being replaced by Skynet is terribly stupid.
The funny thing about Genisys is, despite how bad it was, I do remember a lot of it. I remember the intentionally goofy stuff, I remember the dumb goofy stuff, I remember Matt Smith as an absurd AI, I remember boring John Connor being evil for no reason. I remember that movie for all it’s faults.
Salvation? I remember a lot of grey, a lot of bland and I think maybe Helena Bonham Carter was in it. I’d much rather a memorably bad film than a boring forgettable film.
I just saw Genisys a month or so ago, and I pretty much agree with you. It was definitely bad, though some of the action was good enough (the thing with the school bus, for instance, and the T-1000 that kinda went nowhere) and some of the casting (e.g. the two main leads) was questionable, but yeah, I do remember a fair amount of it for some reason, aside from just recency bias.Salvation I remember basically nothing. I’m fine with that.I did see Dark Fate shortly after Genisys; it was better, though still not… just not quite ‘there’.
Genysis kind of burned me out on the franchise. I remember seeing the trailers for dark fate and just feeling so bored. I’m happy in my head to make Genysis the wacky awful climax to a franchise that should have ended after the second movie.
Yeah, I actually quite enjoyed Genisys. I’ve shown my kid the first three Terminator movies and plan to show him Genisys next without telling him anything about it. (Did the same thing with T2, his jaw dropped when he realized the T-800 was the good guy)
It was grey and sad, and sad and grey, and slow. And grey and sad.I was so pumped for Terminator: Salvation after Rise of the Machines, because Rise of the Machines was so very dumbed down. And bad.And it was so goddamn depressing to watch that film. Everything is bad, everything is broken, there are two facets to life: dying and trying to not be dying. It is bleak and hopeless.Presenting that landscape is really important, knowing what the characters deal with is very, very important – it allows us to have context for their livelihoods, the pressures they face, all of that. But it’s.. every scene. Or nearly every scene. It blends into “it’s all grey and explode-y, people shoot big guns, there’s a case? then an explosion, and it’s really grey.”The whole movie.
Just watch Person of Interest if that’s what you want. No chance a movie can do that story better IMO.
It’s well crafted, but nothing happens. There’s no point to the movie. The “darker cut” that McG is threatening is probably the alternate ending where John Connor dies and they take his skin and wrap it around the good terminator.The plot you’re describing is basically the TV show though.
“the alternate ending where John Connor dies and they take his skin and wrap it around the good terminator.”That was written out of the script long before filming.
Anyway, the whole “we just keep kicking Judgment Day down the road” trope is annoying at this point.
…That’s the one thing that made Salvation memorable, though; it was the movie where they finally said “Screw it, Judgment Day happened, here’s the story about the Resistance audiences claim they’ve wanted to see for 20-odd years.”
I don’t know which audiences they were talking to because endless gray and brown grime was not something I wanted to see.I do appreciate that Salvation changed up the formula and tried to do something different, but it failed, and not even in an interesting way.
I think Salvation is easily the most conceptually interesting of the four 21st Century sequels. The idea behind Sam Worthington’s character must have seemed very interesting on the page. Yet somehow the end result is a dull slab of a film, not necessarily the worst of the lot but easily the least entertaining.
There is a bit of lore mentioned in T2 (also shown in T3, but who cares about T3) that right after the AI goes online, the humans try to shut it down. I think Cameron had the idea that the AI tries to kill humanity because humanity tried to kill the AI first. To my knowledge this hasn’t been contradicted in the mainline movies, although Salvation was so bad that I block out most of that one.
Assuming “they tried to shut it down” was actually true (for all the T-800 knows, that’s a story Skynet invented after the fact to justify nuking humanity), the humans still created an AI specifically to wage war, and then gave it control of nuclear weapons. Maybe in that universe sapient AIs are inevitable, but they still have to be initially created by humans, and humans could choose to teach them positive values instead of creating them to be destructive.
I find it weird how people keep talking up the dangers of AI on websites where we are constantly bombarded with AI produced advertising such as these:I think Skynet still has a long way to go.*For those non-antipodeans out there the first pic is particularly funny as that’s New Zealand’s flag. Also the man in question is Dick Smith. He is a dick
I don’t think AI is a danger in real life, for a variety of reasons. But we’re talking about a fictional universe, not real life.
I know. It wasn’t aimed at yourself. I posted my observation as a reply to you as you also appeared to be questioning the old trope of killer AI turning on it’s creators
“humans keep building an AI and teaching it to be genocidal.”Hhave you ever WATCHED a Terminator movie?
The thing I remember about Salvation is that Worthington’s character gets executed by lethal injection (or so we’re led to believe!) in the film’s opening minutes and the screen fades to white – indicating the light at the end of the tunnel or transition to the afterlife or whatever – and then the text “Directed by McG” appears.Still, 11 years later, when I think about it I’m like “This motherfucker…”
“What if humans built an AI and taught it to be compassionate?”The AI would kill off the human species sooner?
It’s almost as if big-budget movies are a collaborative process and all directors must edit their movies to mollify producers and studio heads to some extent.
A “darker” cut you say! Great idea, I always said the movie’s big problem was how it was too full of lighthearted hijinks and an overreliance on comic relief.
Yeah, I watched it a few weeks ago and it’s all dour and dire, brown and grey. A but-moreso cut from a guy who calls himself McG is not something I was hoping for.
I think the closest thing to a joke in the film, the shot of Yosemite Sam mudflaps, was cut out of the Extended Blu-ray cut already
I sincerely scrolled past this thinking it was an Onion headline.
Brian Robbins Teases Darker Director’s Cut Of Norbit.
Everybody gets a do-over!
The darker cut is mainly leaving in footage of Bale berating a lighting guy or something.
Nothing scarier than a Welsh accent, I reckon.
…THE FOOK ARE YOO DOIN’?!!
… boyo
But from start to finish, Bale never drops his John Connor accent. That’s dedication to the craft, right there.
Rasict
I’m fired, aren’t I?
I’m alone in this, but I remember liking Salvation, especially the first half. I get why people say the movie is boring and unmemorable, but it hit a post-apocalyptic robot war spot for me that very few movies have pulled off. And it didn’t spend all this time explaining the set-up, which bugs me about every other Terminator movie except the first one. It’s nowhere near as good as Fury Road in any way, don’t misunderstand, but in terms of set-up, they have a lot of positive ideas in common.
The alternate ending above is better than what they did. Also Bale and Worthington should have switched parts.
I remember enjoying it in the theater and I even bought the blu ray. I’ve avoided watching it again to preserve fond memories.
This’s a blockbuster, in a long list of blockbusters, which went cheap to HBO (old-timey HBO) and thus became a staple of what I’d watch while at my grandparents house. So I’ve probably seen it a dozen times. And I remember really, really enjoying the big robots, and the little motorcycle robots, and the VTOL robots, and that was enough for me.
It’s the only film since the first that doesn’t retread the same setup. I wish it had gotten its sequels.
Anton Yelchin was great. And I remember the sequence where he and Worthington (I think) are being stalked by a T-600 (again, I think) as being pretty good – the design of the robot especially.
“I think …” pretty much sums up any Sam Worthington appearance in a film …
There were some pretty cool designs in that movie. I thought the motorcycles were a bit silly though. Why did they have to have human skeletal features? It’s very Gigeresque but with more mechanical than bio.
Oh god it was Yelchin as Reese. He was such a great actor, what a shitty loss.
I thought I read somewhere that Bale originally had the Worthington part, but things were changed because he really wanted to play John Connor.
Huh that’s interesting. Worthington’s character was much more interesting, so I’m surprised by that. But certainly Bale knows what he wants as an actor, and is usually right. Unless the director of photography gets in his way. Ahhh, too easy.
I think it was because it was John Connor as opposed to some new person we’d never seen before. I think Connor’s part was smaller and they beefed it up when Bale wanted to play him. I agree Worthington’s character was more interesting
I think it was because it was John Connor as opposed to some new person we’d never seen before. I think Connor’s part was smaller and they beefed it up when Bale wanted to play him. (Actually, maybe Bale was never in Worthington’s part, but just the focus changed after Bale wanted to be Connor?) I agree Worthington’s character was more interesting
[Shift manager pokes head in breakroom]
“Hey McG! Those McNuggets won’t fry themselves.”
“Yes, sir.”
Originally it was about a meal; chef’s salad (with your choice of dressing), baked potato (with chives, sour cream and bacon bits), onion soup (with the slice of cheese on top), wine, a steak (cooked just how you like it), capped with an Irish Coffee and baked Alaska for dessert.** Terminator Salivation
Bravo, sir.
McG: I have a director’s cutinternet: Ohhhh gooooood for you! And how was it!? I hope it was fucking good cause its useless now isn’t it!?! For fucks sake man you’re amateur!
Someone really needs to point out to these directors that it’s not the 90s anymore. ‘Darker’ does not automatically equate to better let alone good.
Considering how blatantly the theatrical version had a new ending tacked on, this is honestly one of the more valid cases.
This. I’m surprised more people aren’t noting this.
Except that it didnt. It is the only ending they shot.
It’s been a long time since I watched it, but I remember thinking the movie was close to being good. Maybe this would’ve helped.
to be fair, i do wonder why you would hire a ‘name’ director to make a movie and then re-cut it. if you think its going to suck, drop it or shelve it. re-cut stuff never seems to play out well for the studios
“a ‘name’ director” Emphasis on ‘a’.
Yah, don’t reshoot or recut it, just eat the hundred million dollars. That makes total sense.You are not bright. At all.
Terminator: Salvation is the movie in which a genocidal AI created fast 2-wheeled killing machines that can not only be captured and rendered inert, but were also designed to be comfortably ridden by a human being.That was a head-slappingly stupid moment when I first saw it and I can’t believe it hasn’t been talked about more.
That’s the only part of the movie that I even remember!
It makes more sense when you learn the operating system of the AI began as the Kinja commenting software.
I always think of it as Terminator: The One Nobody Remembers.
Holy shit these people are fucking exhausting.NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR SHITTY B ROLL.
2020 is the year of the Butthole Cut
“Admittedly, this isn’t an especially new beat for the director, who’s spent the decade since Salvation did fine—“Jesus, Hughes. Who’s dick did you suck to get to be a writer? You’re an idiot.
there’s people online that talk about wanting to see that cut
Solid recommendation there.
“If a TV store was playing it in the window as I walked past, sure. I’d pause momentarily.”
Those are the same “people who are talking” that Trump gets all his info from.
Salvation might not be the best Terminator movie but not only was it a big step up from the cheap and awful Terminator 3 it also gave me the “collectible” Slurpee cup that I use to dish out cat food to this day. So really I have nothing but positive associations with it.
“not only was it a big step up from the cheap and awful Terminator 3″It sure as hell was NOT that.
Terminator Brand Cat Food
More like “pawsitive” associations amirite?No. No, I am not.
t3 was the most expensive movie ever made at that time.
And none of that money made it to the screen.
I don’t know. I think a lot of the shots of the A-10 warthogs were real and looked nice. The image I posted below looks like it came from a CGI shot. It was just the first one that came up.
Awwww, that’s so cute, good for him!
“there’s people online that talk about wanting to see that cut”lol sure
Order the McG, when you need Michael Bay but can’t afford his nuance and sophistication.
saw his SFX team at a conference awhile back and got the distinct impression that McG was kind of an asshole who didn’t care what was possible or what looked good; he just wanted what he wanted.they said when he asked for something ridiculous, they’d give him a version with the thing he wanted, and a version with the thing they wanted, and about half the time, after seeing both, he’d take the thing they wanted. I thought it was a good lesson, actually!
Calling yourself “McG” is a more obvious sign.
Ugh. I hate all Terminator movies except for the first one. It was entirely self-contained. The Universe in that story was deterministic, and Skynet’s last act of sending a Terminator back in time to destroy Sarah Connor set its own destruction in motion. The circle was closed and unchangeable. There was absolutely no room for, and no reason to, make a sequel.So of course they made five. And a TV series. And two web series. Because Hollywood.
OK, from the top.Excellent comic book sequel to Terminator Salvation by J. Michael Straczynski (so of course it’s excellent), first two issues to read free here:https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-terminator-the-last-battle-bombshell-plus-read-two-1636523202Ties all the film versions together to that point very satisfyingly. Then of course Genisys came along and ruined everything (so, no surprises there).I’ve heard different versions of stories about other endings for Salvation, don’t know how true they are:One was supposedly the one described, where John Connor dies and is replaced with a Terminator who either carries on his role or was the one to murder him at the end depending on which source you read.The other was the Project Angel ending where it turns out Skynet was trying to save humanity all along and the war wasn’t what we all thought it was (I believe that’s how the plot went) but then it got leaked on the Internet and so got scrapped.https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/Project_AngelYou can also see images from a version where Serena Kogan had a body as opposed to just appearing on a screen at the end.https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/Serena_Koganhttps://www.hopeofthefuture.net/deletedscenes/t4del00.html
Or, as McG puts it himself in the 2020 interview: “I don’t know. That’s for the fans to say.”This fan says you’ve already wasted enough of my time with the boring brown lifeless Terminator Salvation cut that already exists, Mr. McG. No thank you.
I didn’t mind Salvation that much. I liked that it was in the future after Skynet destroys most of the world. I’m kinda over having a Terminator and human go back in time to stop Judgement Day. Figure out how to stop it in the future timeline instead. Plus it was a part roadtrip movie of evading hostiles that I thought was cool.
People say that they want to see my darker cut of this film. That’s what I’m hearing. That’s what people are saying
So “Darker” means Moon Bloodgood’s bizarre, gratuitous, let-me-shower outside-in-some-disgusting-sewage-runnoff nude scene wasn’t cut?
I mean, yeah i guess i’d like to see that
Please make it stop.