Today I had a chat with someone about Terminator: Salvation. It got me thinking about what kind of Terminator movie I would make. Terminator was never about the war, it was about trying to dodge the future. The first movie involved Skynet sending a machine back to kill its perceived enemy, John Connor.. but the story wasn't about John Connor at all, it was about Sarah Connor.

The second movie was about John Connor because apparently he's still enough of a threat that Skynet needs to try again. The window for sending machines back must be closing right? Whatever Skynet is doing, it is doing it wrong because Connor is not only able to send back someone to stop the machines but also knows what the machines were after too.

So let's get back to the roots of the story.. battling against insurmountable odds. What's say we have Skynet try to pull a fast one - send a copy of itself back in time to give it foreknowledge of all the battles to come. We know paradoxes are okay in the Terminator universe, because of who John's father is.

So Skynet sends back a machine to go and upgrade Skynet before the battles even begin.. Connor sends someone after the machine. Now, this is a person who comes from an era where they have basically won the war. Yes, machines are tough, but they know how to beat them. They also know almost as much about Skynet as Skynet knows about itself. So now we have a machine being terminated by a human. I'd find that twist to be very interesting and enjoyable.

Of course, the machine will eventually kill the human and if you want to keep the series going, you leave it with the status quo.. however, I wouldn't. I would give Skynet the upgrade and I'd have Connor's man successfully stop Judgement day. But stopping the nukes from flying most certainly won't stop the rise of the machines....