MANILA, Philippines – From playing Batman in The Dark Knight, Christian Bale now portrays another iconic hero in John Connor, the leader of the Resistance against the Machines in Columbia Pictures’ new action-thriller Terminator Salvation.
To embody the character who is the fulcrum of the vast Terminator saga, director McG cast Bale, who became a critical component of the former’s vision for the film. “Christian is a wonderfully talented actor and a true collaborator,” the director says. “Few actors bring the kind of weight and gravitas to the screen that Christian does.”
“Christian was hesitant at first to do the film because he needed to know that it would be more than just an action picture,” recalls executive producer Jeanne Allgood. So early in their development process, a new vision for John Connor began to take shape. “He’s so much older and he has gone through Judgment Day,” Bale says. “Living through an event like that alters everybody, so in many ways he’s a completely different person.”
As the movie begins, Connor fights on the front lines of the Resistance, but is not yet its leader. New developments by Skynet have rocked his vision of the future, as told to him throughout his life by his mother. She believed the future was not set, and his own doubts are growing that he may not live to initiate the events that will result in his own conception, namely, sending Kyle Reese (his would-be father) back in time to protect his mother.
The man John Connor has become is at once an extension of his younger persona and someone entirely new. Bale affirms, “He’s definitely a guy with a lot of issues, somebody who has been told the future all his life and bears the burden of that knowledge. But his mother also told him there is no fate but what you make, so knowing that, he can’t just go hide and think everything’s going to be fine. He’s got to be out there fighting. I saw him very much like an Achilles-type character. He’s somebody who loves the fray. But he’s battling with what soldiers deal with every day — the loss of very good friends — and his fears that he is not the leader that people are probably expecting at that point.”
Opening May 27 in theaters, Terminator Salvation is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.