Terminator Salvation writers

For the Writers Guild of America West, Dylan Callaghan talks to the writers of Terminator Salvation, John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris.

John D. Brancato: I think we needed a whole new way in -- a whole new franchise character and a whole different approach to telling the story. We wanted to take a character from our world, the present day, and deposit him in this post-apocalyptic nightmare. We wanted him waking up to this and not knowing where he is -- if he’s alive or in hell -- and then reveal the world through his eyes.

That’s really what enables this story to unfold -- that we have this character that starts out on death row, about to receive a lethal injection and then wakes up in a new world 20 years later and tries to make heads or tales of it.

Michael Ferris: From there the fun thing to think about is what is Skynet’s ultimate agenda? Beyond just wanting to destroy man, what is this sentient computer network ultimately after? That’s something that really wasn’t addressed in any of the first three movies.