--- title: "Terminator Salvation" year: 2009 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/terminator-salvation" fi1m_score: 49 critics_score: 46 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-19T17:06:22.010874+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T17:06:22.463805+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Terminator Salvation (2009) Directed by McG · 1h 55m · MPA PG-13 · Action, Science Fiction, Thriller **Fi1m score: 49** · Critics 46 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* The machines have wiped out most of humanity and all of the colours except grey > McG builds a convincing dead world and stages one desert chase that belongs in the series. Around it Christian Bale shouts, the script recites old lines, and a film about the end of the human race plays like a wait for the next instalment. ## Synopsis It is 2003 and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a murderer awaiting execution, signs his body over to a dying Cyberdyne researcher, Serena (Helena Bonham Carter), and is put to death. Fifteen years later the bombs have fallen, Skynet’s machines hunt the survivors, and John Connor (Christian Bale) is a Resistance soldier whose superiors, led by General Ashdown (Michael Ironside), think he is a crank with a radio show. A raid on a Skynet site ends in an explosion; Marcus climbs out of the crater, alive and with no memory of how. In the ruins of Los Angeles he falls in with a teenage scavenger, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), and a mute child, while Connor learns that Reese’s name sits at the top of Skynet’s kill list. ## Review *Terminator Salvation* is the first film in the series to spend the whole of its running time in the war the others only glimpsed. James Cameron’s [*The Terminator*](https://film.one/film/the-terminator) (1984) and [*Terminator 2: Judgment Day*](https://film.one/film/terminator-2-judgment-day) (1991) showed the dead future in flashes, blue-lit, with skulls under the tank treads. Here John Brancato and Michael Ferris set the entire story there, in 2018, and the question is whether a place that worked as a nightmare works as somewhere to spend 115 minutes. The answer is partly, and not for long. The look is the best of it. Martin Laing’s production design gives the Resistance patched-up helicopters and a hideout in the scrub, and gives Skynet machines that look as if they weigh something: a Harvester the height of a petrol station, and motorcycles that drop off it and hunt on their own. Shane Hurlbut shoots it all in a bleached, near-monochrome light, the sky the colour of ash and the faces the colour of the sky, so that a fireball is the only warm thing in the frame. Michael Wilkinson puts everyone in the same grey rags, which suits the world and wears on the eye. There is one sequence we would defend to anyone. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and a mute child are sheltering in a wrecked petrol station when the Harvester comes through the roof, and the film follows them into a tow truck and down a desert road, with the motorcycles alongside and a transport aircraft overhead. Conrad Buff IV cuts it so that we always know where the truck is and where the machines are. We sat forward, and for six minutes we forgot how much of the film was left. It is the one stretch McG has plainly planned shot by shot. Then there is John Connor. Christian Bale plays the man the whole series has been about as a hoarse, humourless officer who delivers every line at the same volume, whether to a general or to his wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard). The performance is not bad, but it is shut; there is no scene in which Connor is surprised, amused or afraid. We were bored by his radio broadcasts to the survivors, and then annoyed at being bored by a character we have been asked to care about for a quarter of a century. Worthington has the better part and mostly earns it, playing a man who does not understand why he is alive and has decided not to ask. Yelchin is better still. His Reese is quick, scared and funny, the only person on screen who remembers these films used to have jokes in them. Brancato and Ferris, who also wrote *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines* (2003), have built the dialogue out of things people have already said. Reese gets the old line about coming with him if you want to live within minutes of arriving; Connor gets the older one about coming back; each time, the film pauses as if for applause. The 12A certificate keeps the violence bloodless in a story about the extermination of the species. Michael Ironside’s General Ashdown runs the Resistance from a submarine and is there to disagree with Connor until he stops. Danny Elfman’s score quotes the old clanking theme for a bar or two and otherwise supplies brass where the feeling should be. Moon Bloodgood, as the pilot Blair Williams, has a romance the film keeps forgetting to write. The second half takes turns we will not describe. The last act settles into a Skynet factory that Laing has designed with care and McG uses as somewhere to hit things. Set against the series, this sits below Cameron’s two and beside the third, which it resembles more than it would like: another film about the war to come, except that now the war has come and turns out to be corridors. Most critics have landed close to where we have, torn between the hardware and the humans, and we see no reason to argue. Watch it for the Harvester and the desert road, and for Yelchin. The rest is a loud, grey, competent evening that reminds you of better films at regular intervals and then declines to be one. *Fi1m score 49, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews lean negative, with six of twelve against and only four clearly in favour, but almost everyone agrees on where the film’s strengths lie. The action and the hardware get the praise: the future-war setting, the variety of machine designs and the set-pieces, with even the harshest notices allowing that one desert chase stands with the best in the series. Among the cast, Sam Worthington’s Marcus Wright is the performance most often singled out, and Anton Yelchin’s Kyle Reese picks up several mentions. The complaints gather around the people rather than the metal. Most critics find the human drama thin, John Connor underwritten and Christian Bale given little to do, and a few miss the humour and irony of the earlier films. The spread is wide: Empire calls it a clear step up from the third instalment, while The Guardian finds it dull and Time Out a mess. Slant goes furthest, saying it finishes the series off. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Empire**, empire (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film pretty damn good overall and a big step up from Terminator 3, praising its propulsive plot, exciting set-pieces and strong performances from Christian Bale and Anton Yelchin. They single out the fresh men-on-a-mission structure and variety of robot designs for praise. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/terminator-salvation-review/) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The machines should get top billing in this dark fourth instalment; it makes up in stylish visuals and thunderous action for what it lacks in human drama and narrative focus. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/terminator-salvation/5001279.article) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (70/100, inferred): The film is a sturdy and serviceable sequel with brute integrity, efficient storytelling, and mastery of chases, fights, and explosions. McG manages speed and technomayhem with aplomb despite lacking a signature style. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/movies/21term.html) - **Total Film**, Simon Edwards (70/100, inferred): The critic says McG largely delivers on the future-war premise with exciting action and hardware, highlighting Sam Worthington's full arc and performance as the standout. They single out the strong set-pieces for praise while noting weaker character work outside the main quartet and limited accessibility for newcomers. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/terminator-salvation-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Betsy Sharkey (60/100, inferred): The movie delivers pyrotechnics and heavy artillery for fans but loses the chess match tension between man and machine; Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright steals the show as the conflicted warrior. Bale's John Connor struggles to anchor the chaos. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-may-20-et-terminator20-story.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, The Associated Press (30/100, inferred): The film delivers plenty of crunching heavy metal action in its post-apocalyptic setting but offers little dramatic life or satisfying human element. It is not the same without Schwarzenegger, resulting in terminally sullen results unlikely to match the scale of bigger blockbusters. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/terminator-salvation-film-review-93173/) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (30/100, inferred): The film is a confused, humorless grind that has lost the irony and fun of earlier entries, with oversized machines and self-important tone dominating. Performances and design fail to lift the weary saga. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/01/fighting-to-survive) - **Slant Magazine** (20/100, inferred): McG fails to deepen the series' timeline or storytelling and instead shifts to a lighter, impersonal Transformers-like approach with one-note characters and escapable machines. The film is rife with dumb callbacks, lacks internal logic, and finishes off the Terminator series. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/terminator-salvation/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a fantastically dull fourth episode that brings the franchise to a creative standstill. He singles out the uninvolving action sequences and Christian Bale's dull performance for complaint. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/04/terminator-salvation-film-review) - **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (20/100, inferred): It is a shambolic, deafening, intelligence-insulting mess and a crushing failure on almost all counts, though one desert chase scene rivals anything in the series. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/terminator-salvation-1) - **Den of Geek**, Duncan Bowles (3/5): The critic is torn between enjoying the film as spectacle and finding it lacking in emotional depth and heart. They single out the strong final act and Anton Yelchin's portrayal of Kyle Reese for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/terminator-salvation-review-2/) - **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (30/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a stopgap more interested in setting up sequels than standing on its own, with impressive but unremarkable SFX and an underwritten John Connor role that wastes Christian Bale. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/terminator-salvation-film-review-by-anton-bitel) ## Details - **Director:** McG - **Director:** McG - **Writer:** John Brancato, Michael Ferris - **Cinematography:** Shane Hurlbut - **Editor:** Conrad Buff IV - **Music:** Danny Elfman - **Production design:** Martin Laing - **Costume design:** Michael Wilkinson - **Producer:** Jeffrey Silver, Moritz Borman, Victor Kubicek - **Cast:** Christian Bale as John Connor; Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright; Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams; Helena Bonham Carter as Serena; Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese; Common as Barnes; Zach McGowan as Soldier on Osprey; Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor - **Runtime:** 1h 55m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 20 May 2009 - **Genres:** Action, Science Fiction, Thriller - **Budget:** $200 million - **Box office:** $371 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dayIedrLq_U ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Terminator* (1984), Fi1m 88: Cameron’s original: cheap, fast and frightening, with a Los Angeles you can feel. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-terminator.md) - *Mad Max 2* (1981), Fi1m 88: Australian scrap-metal apocalypse built around one long chase this film’s best scene remembers. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mad-max-2.md) - *Threads* (1984), Fi1m 92: Nuclear war in Sheffield, told flat and without effects; worse than any machine. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/threads.md) - *Children of Men* (2006), Fi1m 85: A dying future shot handheld, where every death on screen costs somebody something. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/children-of-men.md) - *Ghost in the Shell* (1995), Fi1m 83: A machine wondering what it is, given the curiosity Marcus Wright never receives. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ghost-in-the-shell.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/terminator-salvation