Trivia for
Terminator Salvation (2009) More at IMDbPro »

• After Claire Danes declined to reprise her role as Kate Brewster, Charlotte Gainsbourg was once attached to star before pulling out due to a scheduling conflict with another film. She was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard.
  
  
• Helena Bonham Carter replaced Tilda Swinton shortly before filming was set to begin. She filmed her role in 10 days.
  
  
• Helena Bonham Carter lost four members of her family in a car crash. As a result, filming was halted indefinitely so she could return to the UK to tend to her family.
  
  
• Director McG asked the cast and crew to read the novel "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick - the basis for Blade Runner (1982) - because he wanted them to absorb the bleakness of the world in the novels.
  
  
• In early 2008, Paul Haggis was brought on to polish the script. After he was done, three weeks before filming, Shawn Ryan was asked to rewrite the script, and he took "a pretty big whack" at it. However, he later had to return to television, and the filmmakers "subsequently brought in one or two other writers to continue the work," most likely Anthony E. Zuiker and Jonathan Nolan. So extensive were the rewrites that Alan Dean Foster decided to rewrite the entire novelization after submitting it to his publisher, because the compiled shooting script was very different from the one he was given beforehand.
  
  
• Josh Brolin was asked to play Marcus Wright, but he turned it down.
  
  
• During filming in the summer of 2008, Christian Bale yelled and used profanity at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who was adjusting the light in the background while Bale was doing an intense scene and got distracted by the cinematographer. Bale's tirade was then leaked on the Internet. After it was leaked, Bale publicly apologized for his remarks and insisted that he and Hurlbut are on good terms.
  
  
• This is the first Terminator movie not to feature Earl Boen, who played a doubting psychiatrist in the other films.
  
  
• Christian Bale is one of seven actors to play John Connor. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the adult John Connor was played by Michael Edwards, the teenage John Connor was played by Edward Furlong and the infant John Connor (who appeared during Sarah Connor's dream sequence of the nuclear attack) was played by Dalton Abbott. Nick Stahl played the fourth John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Thomas Dekker currently plays John Connor in the TV series, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008), with John DeVito playing a younger John in a flashback.
  
  
• Marcus Wright is also the name of a Terran Marine who breaks free of his neural resocialization programming in Christie Golden's "Starcraft: The Dark Templar Saga" Trilogy. In the Starcraft universe, "Re-Soc'd" Marines are Death Row inmates or others criminals deemed unfit for normal society.
  
  
• The first Terminator film to receive a PG-13 rating (the previous films were R).
  
  
• Principal photography took place over 77 days.
  
  
• This is the first film in which John Connor and his father Kyle Reese have appeared together (if one disregards the Special Edition of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), where Kyle Reese makes an appearance in a dream sequence that was deleted from the Theatrical Version).
  
  
• The song "You Could Be Mine" by Guns N' Roses appears in the film. The song was previously used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and appeared on the film's soundtrack.
  
  
• All four 'Terminator' films have had their climactic battle scenes take place in industrial settings. The Terminator (1984) saw Kyle and Sarah face a skinless T-101 in an automated factory; Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) had the T-101 and the T-1000 face off in a steel mill; Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) placed John, Kate and the T-850 at Cyber Research Systems, where John and Kate escaped the TX in a particle accelerator; and 'Salvation' sees John and Marcus face off with the very first T-800 in a Skynet factory.
  
  
• In several scenes, Kyle can be seen wearing Nike shoes. They are strikingly similar to the Nike Vandals Reese wore in The Terminator (1984).
  
  
• At one point, the film carried the subtitle "The Future Begins." Coincidentally, the film Star Trek (2009) (which opened weeks before Terminator Salvation (2009)) used the same saying as a tagline. Actor Anton Yelchin appears in both films.
  
  
• The third Terminator film to have the line, "Come with me if you want to live." In The Terminator (1984), Kyle Reese says it to Sarah Connor at the Tech-Noir club. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the Terminator says it to Sarah Connor when they first meet at the mental institution. In 'Salvation' Kyle Reese says it to Marcus Wright when they first meet. In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), a paraphrased version of this line ("Do you wanna live? Come on!") is spoken by John Connor to Kate Brewster when he and the T-850 rescue her in the graveyard. "Come with me if you want to live" is also spoken by Cameron in the pilot episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008), when rescuing the teenage John Connor from the 'Cromartie' T-888.
  
  
• The appearance of the clown mascot for the abandoned toy factory is based on serial killer John Wayne Gacy. He entertained children as "Pogo the Clown."
  
  
• Several shots focus on the feet of the characters. This is a trademark of director James Cameron, who made the first two Terminator films.
  
  
• Old recordings of Sarah Connor are played in the film, with lines nearly word-for-word from The Terminator (1984). Linda Hamilton voiced the lines herself in an uncredited role.
  
  
• Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to cameo in the film, stating that a brief appearance would be cheating the audience.
  
  
• In the original The Terminator (1984) Kyle Reese asks the police "What day is it? What year?" And the first thing Marcus Wright says to Kyle Reese is "What day is it? What year?".
  
  
• The T-101 arrived in 1984 at the Griffith Park Observatory. This is the same place Marcus and Kyle went to get a car in this movie.
  
  
• The trick with keeping a shotgun attached around the arm that Marcus shows Kyle Reese, is used by the older Kyle Reese played by Michael Biehn at the beginning of the original The Terminator (1984), after he saws off the butt to shorten the shotgun he stole from the police squad car.
  
  
• The first recording that John Connor listens to of his mother is an edited version of the recording that she makes at the end of the first The Terminator (1984); moments before the picture that he has and eventually gives to Kyle Reese is taken.
  
  
• In one scene, we see Marcus snatching the shotgun from Kyle. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the T101 grab a shotgun from a bar owner in the same manner.
  
  
• Each Terminator film has been produced under a different company. The Terminator (1984) was produced by Hemdale and went through Orion, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) went through Carolco and Tri-Star (which was owned by Columbia), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) was produced by C-2 Pictures and distributed through both Warner Bros. (Domestic release) and Columbia Pictures (international release), and Terminator Salvation (2009) was produced by The Halcyon Company and distributed through both Warner Bros. (Domestic release) and Columbia Pictures (international release).
  
  
• In the intro, the camera focuses on each letter of the film's title before the words "Terminator" and "Salvation" intersect with each other before being placed in their appropriate places, is similar to the intro from The Terminator (1984).
  
  
• Earlier drafts of the script before rewrites focused a lot more on just Marcus Wright and Kyle Reese, with John Connor making an appearance in the last few scenes. Christian Bale was first offered the role of Marcus but took more interest in the character of John Connor so rewrites took place to give him more of a substantial role throughout the film.
  
  
• Both the original Terminator and Terminator Salvation show the T-400 and the T-101 climbing stairs, showing its feet climbing, and using many of the same fighting acts on an industrial platform .
  
  
• Dedicated to the memory of Stan Winston.
  
  
• John Connor and Marcus both use a Sony UX which is the small hand-held PDA device they receive information through and use as an interface to some of the systems, this is a micro PC with a 4.5in screen and weighing just over 1lb.
  
  
• The first Terminator movie not to feature time travel.
  
  
• The song that plays when Marcus Wright starts the truck in LA is 'Rooster' by Alice in Chains. The song was written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell about his father's experiences in Vietnam (Rooster was Jerry Cantrell, Sr.'s nickname), and the opening line, "Ain't found a way to kill me yet" parallels the movie from John Connor's perspective, with the machines as yet unsuccessful in their numerous attempts to kill him.
  
  
• The silver-looking machine where the nuclear fuel cells are stored at the Skynet factory is actually a piece of equipment from a semiconductor manufacturing plant, an SVG 90-S coater/developer for silicon wafers.
  
  
• The digital rendering of Arnold Schwarzenegger's face onto Roland Kickinger's body is eerily reminiscent of his previous film The Running Man (1987), which features a similar technology being employed to fake Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger's) death.
  
  
• Being Released in 2009, Terminator Salvation (2009) marks the 25th Aniversary of The Terminator (1984)
  
  
• Terry Crews was cast as Captain Jericho but his scenes ended up being cut from the final film. However, Crews is still visible in one scene as a dead body left in the aftermath of a battle.
  
  
• A similar desert gas station appears in all four Terminator films. In the first Sarah stops at one before driving to the Mojave Desert. In the second film Sarah, John and the T-800 camp in one for the night after she escapes from the hospital. In the third film it is where The T-101 stops for supplies and gas. In this film it is the hideout for the refugees shortly before they are attacked by the Harvester Terminator.
  
  
• Despite prominent billing, Helena Bonham Carter only gets five minutes of screentime.
  
  
• Special effects wizard Stan Winston died during filming, making Terminator Salvation (2009) the last film he provided visual effects for.
  
  
• John Connor dumps molten steel over a Terminator and then freezes it at the climax. This references Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), when the T-1000 was frozen by liquid nitrogen and then thawed out by molten steel at a steel works.
  
  
• Assuming there is small margin of error between the "correct" and "alternate" time lines of the previous films, this installment takes place about 11 and a half years (2018) before the events leading up to the first (2029).
  
  
• Features only three characters who have appeared earlier in the franchise, all three of whom are played by new actors. Each of those actors has replaced other actors in other franchises. Christian Bale became the new Batman in 2005. Anton Yelchin appeared as Chekov in Star Trek (2009). Bryce Dallas Howard replaced Nicole Kidman in Manderlay (2005) and Rachelle Lefevre in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010).
  
  

• SPOILER: Roland Kickinger was chosen to portray the Terminator's body, while Arnold Schwarzenegger's face was digitally grafted onto the body. Coincidentally, the former portrayed Schwarzenegger in the biographical film See Arnold Run (2005) (TV).
  
  
• SPOILER: This is the second franchise that both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christian Bale have both been involved in, without ever appearing together. They have both also appeared in the Batman films.
  
  
• SPOILER: Near the end of the movie, there's a confrontation with a newly-minted Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger's face. However, Schwarzenegger didn't shoot anything for this movie; the effects team scanned his face from a previous film and applied the result to the stunt double. The result is a character with a much younger face than Arnold possesses today.
  
  
• SPOILER: The scars that appear on post Judgment Day John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) are a direct result of the final climactic scene in this movie which the molten hot T-101 scratches John Connor's face in their confrontation at SkyNet Central.
  
  
• SPOILER: In one scene, moto-terminators attack a semi-tow truck driven by Kyle Reese, Marcus Wright and Star as they try to fight the machines off. This is a reference-in-reverse to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), where the T-1000 drives a semi-tower, chasing the young John Connor on a dirt bike. Also, the moment where the moto-terminator jumps off the bridge and lands in front of the tow truck is a reference to the T-800s jump into the canal in T2: the T2 stunt was originally planned to happen the same way but was changed due to safety and budgetary issues.
  
  
• SPOILER: During the final encounter, the T-800 picks up a concrete block and repeatedly bashes it into Marcus' chest. This is reminiscent of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) where the T-1000 uses a steel girder in a similar manner, crushing the T-800's head and chest area.
  
  

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