Edward Furlong and Nick Stahl never quite seemed the type to save humanity in a great war against the machines. Which may be why John Connor in Terminator Salvation is played by Christian Bale, a man so badass that the police have to be called to save people from his verbal assaults.
Bale, alas, is currently in Japan promoting The Dark Knight and not talking about his alleged family altercation, but director McG and cast members including Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Worthington, Common, and Moon Bloodgood showed up to an enthused Comic-Con panel with some early footage.
Of course, everyone wanted to know whether Arnold will be back. McG played it coy: "The T-800 model is indeed part of the mythology of the Terminator."
The striking thing about the new trailer is that, while prior Terminator films showed the future in eternal nuclear winter darkness, this one features intense desert daylight. As the special effects are still being finished, very little of the robots was shown, and what we saw looked more like a Mad Max sequel—armored trucks, car chases, Bale doing motorcycle jumps.
No one says "I'll be back," but Anton Yelchin, playing the young Kyle Reese, does get the secondary signature line, "Come with me if you want to live." Sam Worthington appears to be the new Terminator—Bale gets in his face to scowl, "You and me, we've been at war since before either of us even existed."
McG promises new robots, including "machines that we call harvesters and hydrobots." The timeline of the previous three movies will be honored "with some fudging," but given the nature of the story, "we definitely play with the notion of fate." The main baddies are the T-600s, old and rusty robots with rubbery fake skin that McG describes as being the robot equivalent of Soviet tanks.
Look for the full theatrical trailer to screen before the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. And stay tuned for more Comic-Con scoop. In other words, I'll be back. Sorry, somebody had to say it.