History Film / TerminatorSalvation

* IronicEcho: Kyle Reese tries this with Marcus's line about shooting people ("You point that gun at someone, you better be ready to pull the trigger"). Subverted in that he says this to people holding him at gunpoint and who really would be willing. Marcus naturally gives him a "WhatAnIdiot" stare.

-->''"This is John Connor. If you are hearing this, you are the Resistance."''
--->--'''John Connor'''

* FocusGroupEnding: [[spoiler:The film originally ended with John Connor dying, and his corpse was skinned and placed over Marcus so that Marcus would impersonate him from then on. Test audiences hated it. The "heart transplant" ending saving his life was a quickly filmed ''AuthorsSavingThrow'' re-shot to change the ending into one that audiences would accept.]]

* XanatosGambit:
** [[spoiler:[=SkyNet=]'s plan in ''T4'' to destroy the Resistance by giving it a false shutdown signal for its machines]]. The preferable goal is for the group to use the information but if they don't their situation will get worse.

* RealityEnsues: John Connor doesn't get to be leader of the entire human resistance by declaring he's TheChosenOne.
-->'''Joseph [=McGinty=]:''' You survived the nuclear holocaust and you crawl out of the hole after three-to-five years and say, "Well, I know what's going on -- I'm the one!" Some SAS guy isn't going to say, "Where do I go, boss?" He'd say, "Shut the fuck up and get in line."

* ApocalypticLogistics: The Resistance operates a small airforce and a Nuclear submarine, but its unclear how they find the supplies to keep any of those in service in a world controlled by Skynet a good decade after a nuclear apocalypse, nor how they keep their airbase hidden from Skynet.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terminator_salvation_3829.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine The end begins.]]'']]

* AmbiguousSituation: Marcus just stands watching while Kyle and Star engulf the food presented by the gas station dwellers, leading to an interrogant from their matriarch. In the novelization, Marcus's reaction is the logic wonder of someone who hasn't seen altruism in a long time, but as the film doesn't show his inner thoughts, [[spoiler:we are led to think that he cannot feel hunger, which lampshades his nature as a Terminator.]]

** The Moto-Terminator chase scene involves a bridge, a motorcycle driven by a Terminator (or ''is'' a Terminator), a stolen truck [[spoiler:driven by a Terminator]] with a windshield that the driver breaks, and the truck driving over one of the bikes is a reference to the DownTheLADrain scene from ''T2''.

** When we first see John Connor, he is wearing Jungle Tiger Stripe Pants. In ''T2'', those are the same pattern and style of pants that John wore as a child. Later on, during his infiltration of Skynet, John is wearing an M65 Jacket. When the Terminator first showed up in 1984, the thug that He stole clothing from, was wearing a modified M65 jacket.

''Terminator Salvation'' is the fourth film in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise. It was directed by [=McG=].

** Moon Bloodgood's deleted topless scene was meant to be a shot-for-shot homage to a similar scene with Kelly [=McGillis=] in the '80s film ''Witness''.

** Marcus teaches Reese the tying-the-sawn-off-shotgun-to-your-arm trick in ''T4'', which he uses in the first film. ChekhovsGun in reverse?

** Its concurrent plan to trap and kill [[spoiler:John Connor]] was pretty much a GambitRoulette, considering the sheer number of coincidences required for [[spoiler:Marcus to run into Reese, let alone make his way to Connor without being killed or exposed at some point. In fact, Marcus ''is'' exposed as an infiltrator, but manages to fulfill his mission anyway.]]

There was also a prequel 6-part animated series called ''Terminator Salvatiom: The Machinima Series'' that featured the voice of Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams set before the events of the film. The series was animated using the character models and settings from the video game tie-in, as well as some additional sequences made using 3D animation software.

* RapunzelHair: The female fighters in ''T4'' all have long wild hair, despite its impracticality. If they can't have a crew-cut for {{fanservice}} reasons, would a [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft-style ponytail]] be all that terrible?

* KissOfDeath": Played with. Marcus kisses Dr. Kogan, who is dying of cancer. The kiss is his sole request for donating his body to science. He muses, "So that's what death tastes like."

* UpgradeVersusPrototypeFight: Briefly, the clumsy T-600 is firing wildly and standing in the way of the recently activated T-800, who rips it in half.

* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: All over the place with the Resistance. John is a very good visual example of this, as he's primarily seen wearing a Alpha Industries B3 Bomber Jacket that has been modified for his usage, with a less shearling lining the inside of the coat, and a shaved collar and fittings. He also wears a pair of Vietnam War Era tiger stripe camo pants, with removable kneepad holders sewn in. Later in the movie, He mix and matches a M65 field jacket with a pair of Crye Precision Black AC Trousers, which are used by various militaries all over the world.

* BigNO: Marcus [[spoiler: when he finds out he's a Terminator.]]

* BloodlessCarnage: Done so the movie would get a PG-13 instead of an R. [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VhYEmBMPYKM/SKRU0A4XuHI/AAAAAAAAALM/slY0_O3uE9Q/s400/TerminatorTruck.jpg Just]] [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/terminator/images/7/7a/Terminator2_1.gif compare]] [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BwjXUcnTAXU/TIZyfvvtozI/AAAAAAAAB78/pMnrXIv3JI4/s1600/Terminator3-09.jpg these]] [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/terminator/images/4/48/Marcus_damage.jpg images]].
* BookEnds: Marcus' execution by lethal injection is extremely similar to [[spoiler:his HeroicSacrifice, donating his heart to John.]]

* CopKiller: The film starts with the execution of Marcus Wright. We find out quickly that he killed a cop. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental materials]] enlighten that it was the final result of a drug-fueled PlethoraOfMistakes that also took Marcus' brother (the police killed him, Marcus fired back). Even AfterTheEnd and being reborn by UnwillingRoboticisation, Wright feels he's so past the MoralEventHorizon [[DeathSeeker he deserves whatever he gets]].
* CrapsackWorld: This movie has it in spades.
** The world is in the grips of nuclear winter after the bombs went off. There's pretty much no ozone layer and hideous amounts of UV gets through unfiltered.
** Residual fallout is everywhere with the accompanying radiation hotspots. Lots of red moss, dark green or black foliage, and dead vegetation everywhere.
** The pulverized and rusting remains of the cities are perpetually smoldering and smoke-and-dust-filled messes.
** 2/3rds of the world's population is dead and the rest are dying from gang/militia-related violence, being attacked by Terminators on patrol, starvation or dehydration, radiation poisoning, or being marched off to Skynet's death camps.
** Lakes, rivers and oceans are filled with nasty swarms of Hydrobots and other Skynet nasties.

** The Resistance is fighting a losing war against Skynet and its seemingly endless legions of Terminators. And to top it off, Skynet is constantly refining its methods and creating newer ways to fuck with Humans.

* DownerEnding: ''Would'' have happened if the original ending had been kept. [[spoiler:John actually dies from his injuries in the Skynet base, but the Resistance skins him and puts it on Marcus's body so that the Resistance won't lose hope. In ''another'' ending Marcus proceeds to kill off Kate, Kyle and Star, having been under Skynet's control the whole time.]] Since it didn't, it's bittersweet instead; Marcus dies when he gives his heart in order to save John.

[[caption-width-right:300:''"[[TagLine The end begins.]]"'']]

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