In a post-apocalyptic planet devastated by nuclear war and the subsequent fallout, John Connor returns, this time as a grown man and the leader of the human resistance against a world controlled by machines. The first of the films in the Terminator series to offer a look into the future rather than the past, Terminator Salvation follows the story of John Connor after the events of Judgment Day have already transpired. It is an action-packed and thrilling movie that explores the idea of what is human versus what is machine, and the role that technology and machinery play in the future of the human race.

The film is set in the year 2018. Previously, Skynet, a military defense computer designed to be the most technologically-advanced weapons system of its time, became self-aware and in the process identified humans as a threat and began targeting them as enemies. Using an army of robotic machines, it launched an all-out nuclear war on the planet, leaving a completely devastated earth and a small number of human survivors. Banding together to help preserve the human race and take back the planet, the survivors of Judgment Day, known as the Resistance, have been at war with the machines ever since.

Thanks to the time travel of some very well known Terminators into the past, John Connor, the most infamous of the survivors, is known as the man who will lead the resistance movement against the machines and the human race to ultimate victory. As the film's opening credits point out, some say Connor is the key to salvation. Others say he is a false prophet. Despite what has already supposedly occurred in the future, the resistance movement is well aware that the future may not necessarily already be set in stone and they are fighting a smart and powerful enemy who is doing its very best to change the end of the story by keeping certain events, such as John's birth and life, from ever occurring.

The film actually opens before Judgment Day ever occurs with a man named Marcus Wright, a prisoner on death row. As he awaits execution, Dr. Serena Kogan, a cancer victim, pleads with Marcus to offer up his body for her research as she desperately seeks out a cure for her disease. Although reluctant at first, as Marcus signs his body away, he holds on to the hope that though in his current life he is guilty, sometime in the future he will have a second chance to redeem his life of past mistakes and accomplish something good in the end.

Fast forward to the post-Judgment Day world. Marcus is alive and well and very confused and unaware of any of the events that have occurred in the past relating to Skynet and the rise of the machines. In his search for answers and other human life on the planet he encounters another very important player from the Resistance, Kyle Reese. Kyle's role is extremely vital to the war on the machines, which has made him a primary target for elimination by Skynet. Kyle is John Connor's father who meets John's mother, Sarah Connor, when he is sent back in time. To eliminate Kyle Reese would be to eliminate John Connor, thus tipping the scales very much in Skynet's favor.

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