Because the previous three Terminator films gave us time-hopping folks from the future, Terminator Salvation acts oddly as both a sequel (it takes place in 2018, after all) and a prequel (many of the characters are ones we’ve met before, albeit at different ages).
Before you start bending your mind around doppelgangers, paradoxes and past-present continuity conundrums, here’s a who’s-who in the science-fiction action extravaganza, which opens in theatres nationally a minute after midnight on Thursday (essentially late Wednesday):
JOHN CONNOR
(Christian Bale)
Previously portrayed on the big screen by Edward Furlong and Nick Stahl (as well as Michael Edwards in T2’s very brief prologue), he’s the messiah who rescues humanity from A.I.-led annihilation.
KATE CONNOR
(Bryce Dallas Howard)
Originated by Claire Danes in 2003’s Terminator 3:
Rise of the Machines, Kate is John Connor’s wife, confidante and mother of
his unborn child.
MARCUS WRIGHT
(Sam Worthington)
An addition to the mythos, Marcus starts out as a death-row inmate who signs his body over to medical science. He wakes up in a post-apocalyptic landscape and discovers he’s no longer wholly human.
KYLE REESE
(Anton Yelchin):
The 17-year-old version of the hero Michael Biehn played in 1984’s Terminator. He will eventually be sent by John Connor back in time to protect Sarah Connor. Reese saves her and dies, but not before knocking her up — with Connor.
BLAIR WILLIAMS
(Moon Bloodgood)
A new character, she nonetheless strikes familiar chords: Clearly intended to fill the franchise’s requirement for a tough-as-nail warrior woman, a la Hamilton. She’s a pilot who bonds with the mysterious Marcus.
BARNES
(Common)
Connor’s second-in-command, he doesn’t have much screen time in Salvation — presumably something that will be remedied if more Terminator movies ar made. (Salvation is intended as the first of a trilogy.)
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