In  this steel against flesh movie, Christian Bale  who stars as John Conner  is given the role to save mankind from Skynet and its army of Terminators from their barbarous onslaught against the human race. With the appearance of Marcus Wright ( Sam Worthington), both are launched into an enigmatic  mission to unravel Sam's identity whose last memory after waking up in 2018 is being on death row.

In retrospect, the movie beings with Marcus somewhere in 2003 on his execution day after killing two cops and his brother. Leading up to his execution, there is Sarah( Helena Bonham) whose  scientific research motions her to approach Marcus, with the hope that he signs the rights of his body over to her after being executed. Marcus later wakes up in post-apocalyptic 2018, bewildered about his surroundings and the sequences that led up to his present moment.

He later meets Kyle Resse, a teenager who traveled in time to rescue Sarah Conner and seal the irreversible event of him impregnating his mother and becoming John Conner's father. Personally, of all the immoral plots that have been written and edited, this one could have been taken another twist to make Reese continue with his angel like performance before the idea of impregnating his mother.

Whether rewind or fast-forward the viewer will agree that the past, present and future in Terminator Salvation are intrinsically linked to arrive at the climax of the plot. Keeping Reese alive is the 'gas' that fuels the movie as he is the main link that will ensure that Conner becomes the paladin for human salvation.

It is after  Reese and Star are captured by Skynet that the movie gets heated with action. Marcus encounters Blair, a participant in Connor's resistant movement and they both plunge themselves into a rescue mission that takes them into Starnet's operations and see for themselves the monstrous plan that the army of Terminators will unleash, to leave mankind in a desperate battle for survival.

Action is the ideal adjective to describe Terminal Salvation  and there is enough of it to keep the viewer on the edge of his seat, frightened to look, but curious enough to know that will happen next. The softer moments, however, have been smothered out  to know each character intimately. This is the only shortcoming that McG committed while directing this movie, he forgot to let the viewer relax. From one heart pounding action scene to the next and very little quite moments for the viewer to prepare himself for the next scene, adrenaline is produced continuously.

Marcus seems to hold the torch in the movie as he is the one that steals the spotlight in  Terminator Salvation. John Conner is more like the 'God Father', the one who instills hope and perseverance in his onlookers, despite all the hell that is breaking loose. There are other characters whose contributions to Terminal Salvation are of equal importance to arrive at the final result, such as: Charlotte Gainsbourge as Kate Conner, Michael Ironside as General Ashdown, Arnold Schwarsenegger and Common as Barnes. One thing is for sure, Terminator Salvation has more content than the inflated green guy.