The life-sized Terminator skeleton standing just stage left shuttered to life—eyes glowing red, head cocking in that clunky Hall of Presidents style. On stage, McG—the Charlie's Angels director tasked with picking up where James Cameron (but not Jonathan Mostow, but more on that later) left off—is explaining that he hunkered down with the late Stan Winston before he passed away to ensure that the various Terminators in this movie would be walking, talking, human-menacing thugs, and not just CG afterthoughts. We're in the screening room of the Time Warner Center in New York, and McG is in town to present about 20 minutes worth of still unfinished Terminator: Salvation footage, to ensure that its May 2009 release date is drilled deep into our organic skulls.

In order to present his geek cred correctly, McG explains that there's a reason this particular skinless Terminator looks huskier, clunkier, and dirtier than the shiny endoskeleton we saw in The Terminator. This is the T-600, which fanboys will remember was mentioned by Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese in a line of dialogue, when he explained to Sarah Connor that Skynet (the all-powerful computer that launched war on mankind in the future) experimented with janky early Terminator models that could be seen coming from a mile away. Until the more subtle T-800. Before Arnie.

McG explained that this is what his movie is all about. It's not T4, it's another story altogether. It takes place entirely in the future, and it details how John Connor (now played by Christian Bale, no stranger to franchise reboots) helped form the human resistance against the machines and, more importantly, how Skynet experiments with human subjects to gradually refine their giant, monstrous, Transformer-like (whoops) original Terminators into well-disguised humanoids who can blend in and infiltrate mankind's hiding spots.


"We're honoring Jim Cameron, but telling a new story" McG insists, comparing this film to Batman Begins and the Daniel Craig Bond movies. When asked how the film will handle the time-jumping of the first three, he coyly admits that they are paying close attention to The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He smiles but says nothing when Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is mentioned. We got ya.

Before cuing up the clips, McG complains that he can't give away some of the surprises of the movie, even though he's dying to. He's literally chomping at the bit, but then composes himself. "I can't tell you about the surprises…" he shrugs, before quickly adding, "I can't tell you about…the governor of California." Bring on the clips!


Clip 1:
This is the big one. We see a young man who we're told is named Kyle Reese (played by Anton Yelchin) riding in a big truck with a hard-ass looking dude named Marcus (Sam Worthington, who McG gushed about in the intro). They arrive at a gas station and are greeted by gun-toting human survivors. Just as their stand-off reaches a crescendo, a giant robot claw crashes through the ceiling and starts plucking up humans like dandelions. This is the giant Terminator glimpsed in the first trailer, the one that got Michael Bay all up in arms. The sequence then goes instantly batshit: People running, cars getting blown up, and a tanker trunk used as a grenade to stop the enormous "harvester" (which leads to a neat "Terminator you thought was dead walking through a wall of fire" gag, echoing both the original movie and T2). Just when you think the sequence is over, the giant robo launches "motorcycle terminators" (literally, sentient motorcycles) and the scene becomes a highway chase. Even with the unfinished effects, it looks like a show-stopper.

Clip 2:
A shorter clip, this one has John Connor struggling to keep a helicopter in the air over a huge body of water filled with "aqua terminators." Picture the sentinels from The Matrix with face-hugger-like heads. They're like giant robot eels, and they're pretty cool. The scene ends with a verbal stand-off between Connor and Marcus and…there's a pretty huge spoiler revealed. Scroll down for it:











SPOILER: Marcus has a robot skeleton. He's the prototype of the Arnie cyborg. The only problem is, he's aware that he is. He's still got some of his humanity intact, but Connor is unsure whether or not he can trust him. This, we're told, is one of the major conflicts of the film. END SPOILER.











The other two clips were just montages of various scenes, which we're sure will constitute upcoming trailers. There's hottie fighter pilot Moon Bloodgood kicking some redneck ass. There's shots of even more unique and unusual Terminator models. And finally, another decent gag: Yelchin's young Reese telling someone "Come with me if you want to live."

Overall, the movie looks have tons of action, and the story has a lot going on (whether it can keep all the balls in the air remains to be seen. But we refuse to nitpick at such an early stage. Still, how can a 60-foot robot sneak up on people? Ah, forget it). We're psyched to watch Skynet mimic Apple, constantly honing and producing newer and newer models, each one slicker than the last. Now, what's up with that Arnie cameo…?

To seem some glimpses of the movie (and the harvester, and the moto terminators) check out the teaser TRAILER.