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177-762: Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American military science fiction action film that is the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise , serving as a sequel to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), but also as a soft reboot . It is directed by McG and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris . It is the only Terminator film to date not to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger , though his likeness briefly appears digitally. Instead, it stars Christian Bale and Sam Worthington with Anton Yelchin , Moon Bloodgood , Bryce Dallas Howard , Common , Michael Ironside , and Helena Bonham Carter in supporting roles. In

354-578: A Strategic Defense Initiative in which satellites would be set up to shoot at nuclear missiles. The two authors were Larry Niven , the author of the Ringworld series, and Jerry Pournelle . Along with like-minded colleagues, they formed a committee to lobby the United States on space issues and influence Reagan's space policies. Pournelle advocated a "robust, technocratic military state". In addition to Pournelle's science fiction writing, he wrote

531-653: A downed F-117 pilot. The A-10s were deployed to support search and rescue missions, but gradually received more ground attack missions. The A-10's first successful attack in Operation Allied Force happened on 6 April 1999; A-10s remained in action until the end of combat in June 1999. During the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan , A-10s did not initially take part. Beginning in March 2002, A-10 squadrons were deployed to Pakistan and Bagram Air Base , Afghanistan for

708-535: A false canopy painted in dark gray on the underside of the aircraft, just behind the gun. This form of automimicry is an attempt to confuse the enemy as to aircraft attitude and maneuver direction. Many A-10s feature nose art , such as shark mouth or warthog head features. The first unit to receive the A-10 was the 355th Tactical Training Wing , based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base , Arizona, in March 1976. The first unit to achieve initial operating capability

885-457: A "more disciplined and more realistic notion of the kind of armies which might fight interplanetary and interstellar wars, and the kinds of weapons they might use". In many stories, the usage or advancement of a specific technology plays a role in advancing the plot, such as deploying a new weapon or spaceship. Some works draw heavy parallels to human history and how a scientific breakthrough or new military doctrine can significantly change how war

1062-556: A "paper for the Air Force on stability's role in national security". President Reagan read the space advice that Niven, Pournelle, and their colleagues prepared, which influenced Reagan's 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative . "Niven and Pournelle saw an opportunity to shape the great void in their political image, and Reagan viewed space as yet another tool to defend America against the communist superpower...". Science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov criticized

1239-586: A 30-day right of first refusal to finance and distribute the fifth Terminator film. Finally, Warner Bros. paid $ 60 million to acquire the United States distribution rights of Terminator Salvation ; Sony Pictures also paid just over $ 100 million to acquire the film's distribution rights in all international territories (excluding South Korea, Japan and the Middle East, where it was respectively distributed by Lotte Entertainment and Mars Entertainment, Toho-Towa , and Gulf Film). McG signed on to direct, as

1416-748: A broad review of its tactical force structure, the USAF decided to adopt a low-cost aircraft to supplement the F-4 and F-111. It first focused on the Northrop F-5 , which had air-to-air capability. A 1965 cost-effectiveness study shifted the focus from the F-5 to the less expensive A-7D variant of the LTV A-7 Corsair II , and a contract was awarded. However, this aircraft doubled in cost with demands for an upgraded engine and new avionics. During this period,

1593-472: A cantilever low-wing monoplane wing with a wide chord . It has superior maneuverability at low speeds and altitude due to its large wing area, high wing aspect ratio , and large ailerons . The wing also allows short takeoffs and landings , permitting operations from austere forward airfields near front lines. The A-10 can loiter for extended periods and operate under 1,000-foot (300 m) ceilings with 1.5-mile (2.4 km) visibility. It typically flies at

1770-609: A captain, and are armed with semi-automatic rifles . Eventually, as science fiction became an established and separate genre, military science fiction established itself as a subgenre. One such work is H. Beam Piper 's Uller Uprising (1952) (based on the events of the Sepoy Mutiny ). Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) is another work of military science fiction, along with Gordon Dickson 's Dorsai (1960), and these are thought to be mostly responsible for popularizing this subgenre's popularity among young readers of

1947-475: A couple bumps and bruises on the way, but you get it in an integrity and a realism that hopefully echoes Apocalypse Now . You couldn't say, 'Let's just shoot Apocalypse Now in Burbank , I think it's going to feel just as good. ' " The film used Technicolor 's Oz process during post-production. This is a partial silver retention on the interpositive , similar to bleach bypass , which will be used to lend to

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2124-476: A departure from the previous installments, Salvation is a post-apocalyptic film set in the year 2018. It focuses on the war between Skynet 's machine network and humanity, as the remnants of the world's militaries have united to form the Resistance to fight against Skynet. Bale portrays John Connor , a Resistance fighter and central character, while Worthington portrays cyborg Marcus Wright. Yelchin plays

2301-627: A digital comic of the first issue of the official film prequel comic. Both versions include a digital copy of the theatrical cut for portable media players . Target Stores was the only retailer to carry the Director's Cut on DVD. On its first week of retail, Terminator Salvation debuted at the top spot of the Blu-ray charts, and second in the DVD charts, behind Night at the Museum: Battle of

2478-480: A form of faster-than-light travel in order to facilitate the enormous scale of interstellar war . The long spans of time (e.g., decades or centuries) required for human soldiers to travel interstellar distances, even at relativistic speeds, and the consequences for the characters, is a dilemma examined by authors such as Joe Haldeman and Alastair Reynolds . Other writers such as Larry Niven have created plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonization of

2655-527: A future mercenary tank regiment . Drake's series which "helped initiate a fashion for sf about mercenaries", including The Warrior's Apprentice (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold . A twist was introduced in Harry Turtledove 's Worldwar series depicting an alternate history in which WWII is disrupted by extraterrestrials invading Earth in 1942, forcing humans to stop fighting each other and unite against this common enemy. Turtledove depicts

2832-453: A galactic empire is sometimes a "core world," such as a planet relatively near a galaxy's centrally-located supermassive black hole, which has advanced considerably in science and technology compared to current human civilization. Characterizations of these empires can vary wildly from malevolent forces that attack sympathetic victims, to apathetic or amoral bureaucracies, to more reasonable entities focused on social progress. A writer may posit

3009-481: A gratuitous moment of a girl taking her top off in an action picture, and I didn't want that to convolute the story or the characters." In September 2020 McG again mentioned that he had a darker cut of the film that might have worked better. The producers had expected the rating because of the modern leniency toward violence in PG-13 films, such as the 2007 action film, Live Free or Die Hard . The DVD and Blu-ray of

3186-423: A ground-collision warning system. In 1999, aircraft began receiving Global Positioning System navigation systems and a multi-function display. The LASTE system was upgraded with an Integrated Flight & Fire Control Computer (IFFCC). Proposed further upgrades included integrated combat search and rescue locator systems and improved early warning and anti-jam self-protection systems, and the USAF recognized that

3363-466: A horrible future scape of pain, deprivation and ad-hoc guerrilla warfare", he writes, but "in contrast, producer Jeffrey Silver explained that the Department of Defense gave 'fantastic cooperation [to Salvation] because they recognized that in the future portrayed in this film, the military will still be the men and women who protect us, no matter what may come'". Alford concludes that "for a world that

3540-458: A law enforcement setting. Some examples include Richard Morgan 's Takashi Kovacs book such as Altered Carbon (2002) and Elizabeth Bear 's Jenny Casey books, such as Hammered (2004). Precursors for military science fiction can be found in "future war" stories dating back at least to George Chesney 's story " The Battle of Dorking " (1871). Written just after the Prussian victory in

3717-427: A long struggle with multiple myeloma . McG dedicated the film to him in the end credits. John Rosengrant and Charlie Gibson replaced Winston, and McG commented that they are "trying to achieve something that's never been done before" and "push the envelope". Asylum Visual Effects created digital plates, Marcus' endoskeleton, and a digital T-600. Rising Sun Pictures did the digital correction of day for night scenes,

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3894-495: A machine transport. Marcus rescues downed pilot Blair Williams, and they make their way to John's base, where Marcus is wounded by a magnetic land mine. Attempting to save his life, the Resistance discover that Marcus is a cyborg , with a cybernetic endoskeleton and a partially artificial cerebral cortex . Although Marcus insists that he is human, John and his wife Kate suspect that Marcus has been sent to kill them, and John orders him to be executed. Blair helps Marcus escape. During

4071-493: A manhole cover being blown into the air, which hit Menardis and partially severed his leg. McG noted it was a testament to the gritty style of the film. "I say with respect, I didn't want that Star Wars experience of everything's a blue screen, tennis balls, and go for it. I had Stan Winston build all the machines. We built all the sets, the explosive power, the explosive power so you feel that wind and that percussion and that heat blowing your eyebrows off. And with that, you get

4248-530: A military science fiction story can speculate about war in the future, in space, or involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, a story with a fictional military plot may have relatively superficial science fictional elements. The term "military space opera" may occasionally denote this latter style, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga . Examples that feature aspects of both military science fiction and space opera include

4425-523: A motion poster, showing a T-800 with the words: "Welcome to Los Angeles, 2018". In December 2008, the first theatrical trailer was released on the Apple website. In March 2009, the second trailer was released on Yahoo! Movies and was attached to Watchmen , accompanied by a remix version of Nine Inch Nails ' " The Day the World Went Away ". On May 8, 2009, the extended four-minute final trailer

4602-497: A new plan to address these issues and increase life span to 16,000 hours. This led to the "HOG UP" program, which commenced in 1999. Additional aspects were added to HOG UP over time, including new fuel bladders, flight control system changes, and engine nacelle inspections. In 2001, the cracks were reclassified as "critical", which meant they were considered repairs and not upgrades, which allowed bypassing normal acquisition channels for more rapid implementation. An independent review of

4779-413: A relatively low speed of 300 knots (350 mph; 560 km/h), which makes it a better platform for the ground-attack role than fast fighter-bombers, which often have difficulty targeting small, slow-moving targets. The leading edge of the wing has a honeycomb structure panel construction, providing strength with minimal weight; similar panels cover the flap shrouds, elevators, rudders and sections of

4956-525: A simple interface, " free of the frills —anything that a machine would not purely need", and with more software bugs and anomalies since the robots of Salvation were not as advanced as the Terminators from the previous films. The main special effects were done by Industrial Light & Magic. Salvation was one of the last films that Stan Winston , the visual effects supervisor on the first three films, worked on. Winston died on June 15, 2008, after

5133-465: A space colony requiring defense against attack out on the frontier. Gene Roddenberry described Star Trek: The Original Series as a Space Western (or more poetically, as " Wagon Train to the stars"). The TV series Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity literalized the Western aspects of the space Western subgenre as popularized by Star Trek : it features frontier towns, horses, and

5310-577: A specialized CAS aircraft be designed, developed, and obtained. On 22 December, a Requirements Action Directive was issued for the A-X CAS airplane, and the Attack Experimental (A-X) program office was formed. On 6 March 1967, the USAF released a request for information to 21 defense contractors for the A-X. In May 1970, the USAF issued a modified, more detailed request for proposals for

5487-713: A specialized attack aircraft. On 7 June 1961, the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the USAF to develop two tactical aircraft, one for the long-range strike and interdictor role, and the other focusing on the fighter-bomber mission. The former was the Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) intended to be a common design for the USAF and the US Navy, which emerged as the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark , while

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5664-511: A study of likely trajectories and deflection angles. The armor makes up almost six percent of the A-10's empty weight. Any interior surface of the tub directly exposed to the pilot is covered by a multi-layer nylon spall shield to protect against shell fragmentation. The front windscreen and canopy are resistant to small arms fire. Its durability was demonstrated on 7 April 2003 when Captain Kim Campbell , while flying over Baghdad during

5841-452: A subject were collected and marketed as such. The series of anthologies with the group title There Will be War edited by Pournelle and John F. Carr (nine volumes from 1983 through 1990) helped keep the category active, and encouraged new writers to add to it. David Drake wrote stories about future mercenaries, including the Hammer's Slammers series (1979), which follows the career of

6018-405: A tank had been conducted in 1997 but did not involve combat evaluation. Over 30 flight tests were conducted by the 40th Flight Test Squadron to gather data on the aircraft's handling characteristics and performance across different load configurations. It was reported that the tank slightly reduced stability in the yaw axis, but there was no decrease in aircraft tracking performance. The A-10 has

6195-451: A twelve-issue sequel comic to the film, titled Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle by J. Michael Straczynski from 2013 to 2014. Playmates Toys , Sideshow Collectibles , Hot Toys , Character Options, and DC Unlimited produced merchandise, while Chrysler , Sony , Pizza Hut , and 7-Eleven were among the product placement partners. On May 23, 2009, a roller coaster named after the film opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain . In 2011,

6372-500: A unit cost of US$ 1.4 million ($ 11 million today). The A-X would be the first USAF aircraft designed exclusively for CAS. During this time, a separate RFP was released for A-X's 30 mm cannon with requirements for a high rate of fire (4,000 rounds per minute) and a high muzzle velocity. Six companies submitted aircraft proposals, with Northrop and Fairchild Republic in Germantown, Maryland , selected to build prototypes:

6549-461: A visual style evocative of classic John Ford Westerns. Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar challenges as that of a frontier settlement in a classic Western. Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets. A "thematic subdivision" of MSF are works where "ex-military protagonists [are] drawing on their battle experience for tough and violent operations in (more or less) civilian life", typically in

6726-702: A young Kyle Reese , a character first introduced in The Terminator (1984), and the film depicts the origins of the T-800 Terminator . After troubled pre-production, with the Halcyon Company acquiring the rights from Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar , and with several writers working on the screenplay, filming began in May 2008 in New Mexico , and ran for 77 days. Terminator Salvation

6903-493: Is activated, becomes self-aware, and perceives humans as a threat to its existence, starting a nuclear holocaust known as "Judgment Day". In 2018, John Connor leads an attack on a Skynet base where he discovers schematics of human prisoners being incorporated as living tissue for a new Terminator : the T-800 . John survives a nuclear explosion on the base and proceeds to extraction. Following John's departure, Marcus emerges from

7080-438: Is chased by a crippled Terminator. McG did this to reflect the skills John learned from her. With an estimated $ 200 million budget, Terminator Salvation is the most expensive Terminator film to date, followed closely by Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) (estimated budget $ 185-$ 196 million). The shooting of the film started on May 5, 2008, in New Mexico , with parts of the filming taking place at Kirtland Air Force Base , after

7257-481: Is equipped to carry GPS- and laser- guided bombs , such as the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb , Paveway series bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser and AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon glide bombs . A-10s usually fly with an ALQ-131 Electronic countermeasures (ECM) pod under one wing and two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles for self-defense under

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7434-503: Is fairly static, and weapons that would be familiar to present-day soldiers are used, but other aspects of society have changed. Technology may not be emphasized in such stories as much as other aspects of the characters' military lives, cultures, or societies. For example, women may be accepted as equal partners for combat roles, or preferred over men. When the "extravagan[t]" depictions of war in space operas faded along with pulp fiction more generally, military science fiction developed with

7611-427: Is fought, the outcome of a battle, and the fortunes of the combatants. Many works explore how human progress, discovery, and suffering affect military doctrine or battle, and how the protagonists and antagonists reflect on and adapt to such changes. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning fictional empire as a background for the story, or have explored the growth and/or decline of such an empire. The capital of

7788-404: Is lost, a combination of gravity and aerodynamic drag can lower and lock the gear in place. The A-10 is battle-hardened to an exceptional degree, being able to survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm. It has double-redundant hydraulic flight systems, and a mechanical system as a backup if hydraulics are lost. Flight without hydraulic power uses

7965-491: Is normally a high risk. The unusual location of the General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofan engines decreases ingestion risk and also allows the engines to run while the aircraft is serviced and rearmed by ground crews, reducing turn-around time. The wings are also mounted closer to the ground, simplifying servicing and rearming operations. The heavy engines require strong support: four bolts connect

8142-489: Is not necessarily set in outer space or on multiple worlds, as in space opera and the space Western . Both military science fiction and the space Western may consider an interstellar war and oppression by a galactic empire as the story's backdrop. They may focus on a lone gunslinger , soldier, or veteran in a futuristic space frontier setting . Western elements and conventions in military science fiction may be explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or more subtle, as in

8319-532: Is offset to the aircraft's right to allow placement of the 30 mm cannon with its firing barrel along the centerline of the aircraft. During ground taxi, the offset front landing gear causes the A-10 to have dissimilar turning radii ; turning to the right on the ground takes less distance than turning left. The wheels of the main landing gear partially protrude from their nacelles when retracted, making gear-up belly landings easier to control and less damaging. All landing gears retract forward; if hydraulic power

8496-561: Is science fiction which is written about a military situation with a fundamental understanding of how military lifestyles and characters differ from civilian lifestyles and characters. It is science fiction which attempts to realistically portray the military within a science-fiction context. It is not 'bug shoots'. It is about human beings, and members of other species, caught up in warfare and carnage. It isn't an excuse for simplistic solutions to problems. In 1980 and 1981, two science fiction authors inspired President Ronald Reagan 's vision for

8673-426: Is set just fifteen years after a global nuclear holocaust the survivors are fancifully healthy, not to mention hairy" and that this "normalises the unthinkable". Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of the preceding three films in the series, initially remarked that Terminator Salvation was "a great film, I was very excited", but later reversed this position and said it was "...awful. It tried hard, not that they didn't try,

8850-473: Is stabbed through the chest by the T-800. Marcus destroys the T-800 by tearing its head off and he, John, Kyle, and Star are airlifted out. John detonates the explosives, destroying the entire base. John's injury is fatal as his heart was damaged, so Marcus offers his heart for transplantation , sacrificing himself to save John. As he recovers, John radios to the Resistance that, although this battle has been won,

9027-453: Is that many of the aircraft's parts are interchangeable between the left and right sides, including the engines, main landing gear, and vertical stabilizers. The sturdy landing gear, low-pressure tires and large, straight wings allow operation from short rough strips even with a heavy aircraft ordnance load, allowing the aircraft to operate from damaged airbases, flying from taxiways, or even straight roadway sections . The front landing gear

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9204-646: The Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein 's 1959 novel Starship Troopers . A key distinction of military science fiction from space opera is that space operas focus more on adventurous stories and melodrama, while military science fiction focuses more on warfare and technical aspects. The principal characters in a space opera are also not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary . Stories in both subgenres often concern an interstellar war in which humans fight themselves and/or nonhuman entities. Military science fiction, however,

9381-650: The 104th Fighter Squadron of the Maryland Air National Guard . The A-10C's digital avionics and communications systems greatly reduced the time to acquire and attack CAS targets. A-10s flew 32 percent of combat sorties in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. These sorties ranged from 27,800 to 34,500 annually between 2009 and 2012. In the first half of 2013, they flew 11,189 sorties in Afghanistan. From

9558-417: The 2003 invasion of Iraq , suffered extensive flak damage that damaged one engine and crippled the hydraulic system, requiring the stabilizer and flight controls to be operated via manual reversion mode. Despite this, Campbell's A-10 flew for nearly an hour and landed safely. The A-10 was intended to fly from forward air bases and semi-prepared runways where foreign object damage to an aircraft's engines

9735-412: The 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike , Nolan had to abruptly leave the project due to another commitment. Anthony E. Zuiker contributed to the script as well. So extensive were the rewrites that Alan Dean Foster decided to rewrite the entire novelization after submitting it to his publisher because the compiled shooting script was very different from the one he was given beforehand. You survived

9912-615: The AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missile. Targeted via electro-optical (TV-guided) or infrared systems, the Maverick can hit targets much farther away than the cannon, and thus incur less risk from anti-aircraft systems. During Desert Storm , in the absence of dedicated forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras for night vision, the Maverick's infrared camera was used for night missions as a "poor man's FLIR". Other weapons include cluster bombs and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The A-10

10089-554: The Franco-Prussian War , it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country in which the Royal Navy is destroyed by a futuristic wonder-weapon ("fatal engines"). Other works of military science fiction followed, including H.G. Wells 's " The Land Ironclads ". It described tank-like "land ironclads ," 80-to-100-foot-long (24 to 30 m) armoured fighting vehicles that carry riflemen, engineers, and

10266-687: The Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), the American-led intervention against Iraq 's invasion of Kuwait , where the aircraft distinguished itself. The A-10 also participated in other conflicts such as the Balkans , Afghanistan , the Iraq War , and against the Islamic State in the Middle East. The A-10A single-seat variant was the only version produced, though one pre-production airframe

10443-611: The Pave Penny laser receiver pod, mounted on a pylon attached below the right side of the cockpit, which receives reflected laser radiation from laser designators to allow the aircraft to deliver laser-guided munitions . In 1980, the A-10 began receiving an inertial navigation system . In the early 1990s, the A-10 began to receive the Low-Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement (LASTE) upgrade, which provided computerized weapon-aiming equipment, an autopilot, and

10620-460: The Terminator series had passed from the feuding Vajna and Kassar to the Halcyon Company . The producers hoped to start a new trilogy. The purchase was financed with a loan by Pacificor, a hedge fund from Santa Monica . By July 19, the project was in legal limbo due to a lawsuit between MGM and Halcyon subsidiary T Asset. MGM had an exclusive window of 30 days to negotiate for distribution of

10797-561: The United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1977, it is named after the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt , but is commonly referred to as the " Warthog " or simply " Hog ". The A-10 was designed to provide close air support (CAS) to ground troops by attacking enemy armored vehicles, tanks, and other ground forces; it is the only production-built aircraft designed solely for CAS to have served with

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10974-921: The United States Air Force agreed to provide the crew guidance and aircraft. The filmmakers had originally intended to begin filming on March 15 in Budapest or Australia, but a 25 percent tax rebate and absence of an interest rate cap and floor made the filmmakers seek the cheaper New Mexico, because of their elevated budget. To avoid delays caused by a possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike in July, all exterior scenes were completed by then, so production could restart easily. The shoot ended on July 20, 2008, though some pick-ups took place in January 2009. In addition to Bale breaking his hand and Worthington hurting his back, special effects technician Mike Menardis almost lost his leg filming an explosion. The sequence required

11151-695: The United States Army had been introducing the Bell UH-1 Iroquois into service. First used in its intended role as a transport, it was soon modified in the field to carry more machine guns in what became known as the helicopter gunship role. This proved effective against the lightly armed enemy, and new gun and rocket pods were added. Soon the Bell AH-1 Cobra was introduced. This was an attack helicopter armed with long-range BGM-71 TOW missiles able to destroy tanks from outside

11328-686: The YA-9A and YA-10A, respectively. General Electric and Philco-Ford were selected to build and test GAU-8 cannon prototypes. Two YA-10 prototypes were built in the Republic factory in Farmingdale, New York , and first flown on 10 May 1972 by pilot Howard "Sam" Nelson. Production A-10s were built by Fairchild in Hagerstown, Maryland . After trials and a fly-off against the YA-9, on 18 January 1973,

11505-653: The asteroid belt and outer planets by means of technologies utilizing the laws of physics as currently understood. Several subsets of military science fiction share characteristics of the space opera subgenre, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons in an interstellar war . Many stories can be considered to be in one or both the military science fiction and space opera subgenres, such as The Sten Chronicles by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch , Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card , Honorverse by David Weber , Deathstalker by Simon R. Green , and Armor by John Steakley. At one extreme,

11682-403: The 2009 video game, comprising six episodes. Set after Judgment Day, Blair Williams (again voiced by Bloodgood) is fighting the war against the machines in downtown Los Angeles while tracking down the computer hacker named Laz Howard (voiced by Cam Clarke ) and trying to convince him to join sides with the resistance. The series was created using real-time computer animation from the video game. It

11859-587: The A-10 could operate to 2040 with the new TUSK wings. From 2005 to June 2011, the entire fleet of 356 A-10s and OA-10s were modernized in the Precision Engagement program and redesignated A-10C. Upgrades included all-weather combat capability, an improved fire-control system (FCS), electronic countermeasures (ECM), smart bomb targeting, a modern communications suite including a Link 16 radio and Satcom , and cockpit upgrades comprising two multifunction displays and HOTAS configuration mixing

12036-568: The A-10 to be operated up to 2035 if necessary. Re-winging work was organized under the Thick-skin Urgent Spares Kitting (TUSK) Program. In 2014, as part of plans to retire the A-10, the USAF considered halting the wing replacement program to save an additional $ 500 million; however, by May 2015 the re-winging program was too advanced to be financially efficient to cancel. Boeing stated in February 2016 that

12213-479: The A-10's engine power was sub-optimal and had planned to replace them with more powerful engines since at least 2001 at an estimated cost of $ 2 billion. In 1987, Grumman Aerospace took over support for the A-10 program. In 1993, Grumman updated the damage tolerance assessment and Force Structural Maintenance Plan and Damage Threat Assessment. Over the next few years, problems with wing structure fatigue, first noticed in production years earlier, began to come to

12390-616: The Aerial Hunter Killers from the previous films. The Aerostats send a signal to the 60-foot-tall (18 m) humanoid Harvesters. They are very big and slow, so they use Mototerminators to capture humans, and the Harvesters place them in Transporters. Laing was unsure of how to design the Transporters until he saw a cattle transport while driving through Albuquerque. The film features the first aquatic Skynet robot,

12567-509: The Cheyenne could fill. The study concluded that the service should acquire a simple, inexpensive, dedicated CAS aircraft at least as capable as the A-1, and that it should develop doctrine, tactics, and procedures for such aircraft to accomplish the missions for which the attack helicopters were provided. On 8 September 1966, General John P. McConnell , Chief of Staff of the USAF , ordered that

12744-607: The F-16's flight stick with the F-15's throttle. The Government Accountability Office in 2007 estimated the cost of upgrading, refurbishing, and service life extension plans to total $ 2.25 billion through 2013. In July 2010, the USAF issued Raytheon a contract to integrate a Helmet Mounted Integrated Targeting (HMIT) system into the A-10C. The LASTE system was replaced with the integrated flight and fire control computer (IFFCC) included in

12921-531: The GAU-8 cannon. The first of these was shot down by Captain Robert Swain over Kuwait on 6 February 1991 for the A-10's first air-to-air victory. Four A-10s were shot down during the war by surface-to-air missiles and eleven A-10s were hit by anti-air artillery rounds. Another two battle-damaged A-10s and OA-10As returned to base and were written off. Some sustained additional damage in crash landings. At

13098-515: The HOG UP program, presented in September 2003, concluded that the data on which the wing upgrade relied could no longer be trusted. Shortly thereafter, fatigue testing on a test wing failed prematurely and also mounting problems with wings failing in-service inspections at an increasing rate became apparent. The USAF estimated that they would run out of wings by 2011. Of the plans explored, replacing

13275-510: The Hydrobot, which Laing modeled on eels , and was built by the animatronics crew with its exterior made of metal-looking rubber so it could be used in the aquatic scenes. The film features rubber-skinned T-600 robots. McG interpreted Kyle Reese's description in the original film of the T-600 as being easy to spot by making them tall and bulky. For scenes of humans fighting with Terminators,

13452-485: The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , giving it a lower first-weekend take than its predecessor, becoming the first film in the series not to open at number one and failing to meet Boxoffice Magazine predictions by 50%. Terminator Salvation was more successful in its international release, opening at number one in 66 of 70 territories through the first week of June, and continuing to be the highest-grossing film in

13629-568: The PE upgrade. Throughout its life, multiple software upgrades have been made. While this work was to be stopped under plans to retire the A-10 in February 2014, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James ordered that the latest upgrade, designated Suite 8, continue in response to congressional pressure. Suite 8 software includes IFF Mode 5 , which modernizes the ability to identify the A-10 to friendly units. Additionally,

13806-584: The Pave Penny pods and pylons were removed as their receive-only capability has been replaced by the AN/AAQ-28(V)4 LITENING AT targeting pods or Sniper XR targeting pod, which both have laser designators and laser rangefinders. In 2012, Air Combat Command requested the testing of a 600-US-gallon (2,300 L; 500 imp gal) external fuel tank which would extend the A-10's loitering time by 45–60 minutes; flight testing of such

13983-435: The Resistance command submarine. Refusing to accept his fate, Marcus tears out the hardware linking him to Skynet and leaves to aid John. John locates Kyle and Star, but they are ambushed by a T-800 Terminator. As Kyle and Star escape, Marcus appears and fights the T-800 while John rigs together nuclear fuel cells to destroy the facility. Marcus is outmatched and temporarily disabled until John comes to his aid, after which John

14160-482: The Resistance's leaders within the same time frame. John learns that he is on this list, including Kyle Reese . John realizes that Skynet has learned that Kyle will eventually travel back in time and become his father. Arriving at Los Angeles, Marcus encounters Kyle and a mute child named Star during a skirmish with Skynet's machines. Kyle and Star are subsequently abducted and taken prisoner by Skynet. Two Resistance A-10 airplanes are shot down while trying to intercept

14337-616: The Serbs agreed to return the remaining heavy weapons. In August 1995, NATO launched an offensive called Operation Deliberate Force . A-10s flew CAS missions, attacking Bosnian Serb artillery and positions. In late September, A-10s began flying patrols again. A-10s returned to the Balkan region as part of Operation Allied Force in Kosovo beginning in March 1999. In March 1999, A-10s escorted and supported search and rescue helicopters in finding

14514-709: The Smithsonian . The film made $ 29,811,432 in domestic DVD sales bringing its total gross to $ 401,439,971 In 2019, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray in Europe and Australia. [1] A North American Ultra HD Blu-ray release from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is scheduled to be released in the near future. The film's first nationwide U.S. screenings on Thursday, May 21, 2009, made $ 3 million from midnight screenings and earned $ 13.3 million in its first day and grossed an additional $ 42,558,390 on its four-day Memorial Day opening weekend from 3,530 theaters. It debuted at number two behind Night at

14691-537: The Strategic Defense Initiative. After the 9/11 terrorism attacks, a group of sci-fi authors called Sigma, including Pournelle and Niven, advised the "Department of Homeland Security on technological strategies for defeating terrorist threats." In 2021, Worldcrunch reported that the French military has hired fiction writers to develop futuristic warfare scenarios, including situations that

14868-489: The T-800. McG sought to create as many "in-camera" elements as possible to make the film more realistic. Many of the settings were hand-built, including an entire gas station for the Harvester attack scenes. The Terminator factory was built in an abandoned factory, and the design crew consulted robot manufacturer companies for a more realistic depiction. A 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) model built and detonated by Kerner Optical

15045-474: The Terminator films. When negotiating for Terminator 4 , Halcyon rejected their initial proposal, and MGM suspended negotiations. After the 30 days were over, MGM claimed that the period during which negotiations were suspended did not count and their exclusive period was still open. Halcyon asked a court for an injunction allowing them to approach other distributors. Later, the lawsuit was settled and MGM got

15222-516: The U.S. Air Force. Its secondary mission is to direct other aircraft in attacks on ground targets, a role called forward air controller (FAC)-airborne; aircraft used primarily in this role are designated OA-10. The A-10 was intended to improve on the performance and firepower of the Douglas A-1 Skyraider . The Thunderbolt II's airframe was designed around the high-power 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger rotary autocannon . The airframe

15399-475: The U.S. Army's "Advanced Aerial Fire Support System" helicopter could be delivered. The Army selected the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne , a more capable attack aircraft with greater speed for initial production. The development of the anti-tank helicopter concerned the USAF; a 1966 USAF study of existing close air support (CAS) capabilities revealed gaps in the escort and fire suppression roles that

15576-403: The USAF and in political circles. The USAF gained congressional permission to start retiring A-10s in 2023, but further retirements were paused until the USAF can demonstrate that the A-10's close-air-support capabilities can be replaced. The development of conventionally armed attack aircraft in the United States stagnated after World War II, as design efforts for tactical aircraft focused on

15753-670: The USAF announced the YA-10's selection for production. General Electric was selected to build the GAU-8 cannon in June 1973. The YA-10 had an additional fly-off in 1974 against the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair II , the principal USAF attack aircraft at the time, to prove the need for a new attack aircraft. The first production A-10 flew in October 1975, and deliveries commenced in March 1976. One experimental two-seat A-10 Night Adverse Weather (N/AW) version

15930-576: The USAF; most pilots did not want to switch to it as fighter pilots traditionally favored speed and appearance. In 1987, many A-10s were shifted to the forward air control (FAC) role and redesignated OA-10 . In the FAC role, the OA-10 is typically equipped with up to six pods of 2.75 inch (70 mm) Hydra rockets, usually with smoke or white phosphorus warheads used for target marking. OA-10s are physically unchanged and remain fully combat capable despite

16107-569: The Vietnam War's influence can be seen indirectly in novels such as Joe Haldeman 's The Forever War (published in Analog over 1972–1975) and Lucius Shepard 's Life During Wartime (1987). The Vietnam War resulted in veterans with combat experience deciding to write science fiction, including Joe Haldeman and David Drake . Throughout the 1970s, works such as Haldeman's The Forever War and Drake's Hammer's Slammers helped increase

16284-677: The acting and everything. It missed the boat." Military science fiction A detailed description of the conflict, belligerents (which may involve extraterrestrials), tactics and weapons used for it, and the role of a military service and the individual members of that military organization form the basis for a typical work of military science fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies with similar characteristics, battleships replaced by space battleships, small arms and artillery replaced by lasers, soldiers replaced by space marines, and certain events changed so

16461-499: The actors interacted with stuntmen wearing motion capture suits, later replaced by digital robots. For the Moto-Terminators, Ducati designers were hired to create the robots, and the on-screen robot was a combination of stuntmen driving actual Ducatis and a Moto-Terminator mock-up, as well as a digital Moto-Terminator. Visual effects studio Imaginary Forces created the Terminator point-of-view sequences, and tried to depict

16638-446: The aircraft. The threat of Soviet armored forces and all-weather attack operations had become more serious. The requirements now included that the aircraft would be designed specifically for the 30 mm rotary cannon. The RFP also specified a maximum speed of 460 mph (400 kn; 740 km/h), takeoff distance of 4,000 feet (1,200 m), external load of 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg), 285-mile (460 km) mission radius, and

16815-438: The author can extrapolate what might have occurred. Traditional military values of courage under fire, sense of duty, honor, sacrifice, loyalty, and camaraderie are often emphasized. The action is typically described from the point of view of a soldier in a science fictional setting of or near battle . Typically, the technology is more advanced than that of the present and described in detail. In some stories, however, technology

16992-474: The authorities, and someone of future importance is being protected, and in this film, it is Kyle Reese. The first full screenplay for the film was written by Terminator 3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who received full screenplay credit. Paul Haggis rewrote Brancato and Ferris's script, and Shawn Ryan made another revision three weeks before filming. Jonathan Nolan also wrote on set, which led to McG to say, "I would have to characterize Jonah as

17169-520: The base's wreckage and begins heading toward Los Angeles . John heads to the Resistance headquarters aboard a Los Angeles -class submarine and confronts General Ashdown. He reveals that the Resistance have discovered a hidden signal that they believe can shut down Skynet's machines and plans to launch an offensive against Skynet's headquarters in San Francisco in four days due to an intercepted kill list created by Skynet, which will eliminate

17346-417: The base, interfaces with the computer, and disables perimeter defenses so that John can infiltrate and release the prisoners. Marcus learns from Skynet that he was resurrected to lure John to the base; when the Resistance launches its attack, John will be killed, achieving Skynet's goal. The hidden signal that the Resistance received earlier is revealed to be a ruse, and Skynet uses it to track down and destroy

17523-553: The beginning of the war, A-10s flew missions against the Iraqi Republican Guard , but due to heavy attrition, from 15 February they were restricted to within 20 nautical miles (37 km) of the southern border. A-10s also flew missions hunting Iraqi Scud missiles . The A-10 had a mission capable rate of 95.7 percent, flew 8,100 sorties, and launched 90 percent of the AGM-65 Maverick missiles fired in

17700-454: The best in people, such as when they worked together to survive during the Blitz . The title was derived from this second chance given to humanity and to Marcus, in addition to John's efforts to save humanity from the machines. The film's original title was Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins , but this was dropped during filming. Throughout writing, the cast and crew would watch scenes from

17877-490: The campaign against Taliban and Al-Qaeda , known as Operation Anaconda . Afterward, they remained in-country, fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants. Operation Iraqi Freedom began on 20 March 2003. Sixty OA-10/A-10s took part in early combat. United States Air Forces Central Command issued Operation Iraqi Freedom: By the Numbers , a declassified report about the aerial campaign in the conflict on 30 April 2003. During

18054-670: The conflict. Shortly after the Gulf War, the USAF abandoned the idea of replacing the A-10 with a CAS version of the F-16 . A-10s fired approximately 10,000 30 mm rounds in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994–95. Following the seizure of heavy weapons by Bosnian Serbs from a warehouse in Ilidža , multiple sorties were launched to locate and destroy the captured equipment. On 5 August 1994, two A-10s located and strafed an anti-tank vehicle. Afterward,

18231-874: The delivery of nuclear weapons using high-speed designs such as the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo and Republic F-105 Thunderchief . As the U.S. military entered the Vietnam War , its main ground-attack aircraft was the Korean War -era Douglas A-1 Skyraider . A capable aircraft for its era, with a relatively large payload and long loiter time, the propeller-driven design was relatively slow and vulnerable to ground fire. The U.S. Air Force and Navy lost 266 A-1s in action in Vietnam, largely from small-arms fire. It also had inadequate firepower. The lack of modern conventional attack capability prompted calls for

18408-455: The destruction of the submarine and Marcus' robot hand. Danny Elfman began composing the score in January 2009. Elfman's score had a different theme but it did feature the five-note percussive sequence that had been featured in every Terminator film. Originally, McG wanted to hire Gustavo Santaolalla to work on the music for the human characters, while having either Thom Yorke or Jonny Greenwood compose Skynet's themes. McG had met with

18585-414: The end of the picture, delivering action generics (yet another Terminator fight in a factory) while never finding their own hook that would give this movie more of an impact than you would get from an expanded universe novel." In contrast, James Berardinelli considered the ending the best part of the film, feeling that the first two-thirds were "rambling and disjointed" and that the lack of a central villain

18762-407: The engine pylons to the airframe. The engines' high 6:1 bypass ratio contributes to a relatively small infrared signature , and their position directs exhaust over the tailplanes further shielding it from detection by infrared homing surface-to-air missiles . To reduce the likelihood of damage to the fuel system, all four fuel tanks are located near the aircraft's center and are separated from

18939-563: The film a grade B+ on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, saying that "After scrutinizing the film, I offer you my summary of the story: Guy dies, finds himself resurrected, meets others, fights. That lasts for almost two hours." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film isn't the same without Arnold Schwarzenegger and that it misses its dramatic element. Likewise, Claudia Puig of USA Today gave

19116-495: The film four out of five stars with its verdict: "The Terminator story recharges with a post-apocalyptic jolt of energy. Frantic and full of welcome ties to the past, it also ploughs new ground with purpose. Fingers crossed McG will follow Cameron's lead and serve up a worthy sequel." Devin Faraci of Empire also gave a positive rating of four out of five stars, saying: "McG has sparked a moribund franchise back to life, giving fans

19293-501: The film has "a brute integrity lacking in some of the other seasonal franchise movies" and "efficient, reasonably swift storytelling". Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz gave the film a "See It" and "Skip It", respectively, on their show At the Movies with the latter mentioning that it "is the worst big budget summer release I've seen in some time". In Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy , Matthew Alford argued that with

19470-469: The film has an approval rating of 33% based on 281 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With storytelling as robotic as the film's iconic villains, Terminator Salvation offers plenty of great effects but lacks the heart of the original films." On Metacritic , the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 46 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave

19647-412: The film two out of four stars and called it "predictable" with the "dramatic elements flat-lin[ing]". She considered Christian Bale's performance "one-dimensional", but found his co-stars to "come off better", saying Sam Worthington had "a quiet intensity marred only by yelling "Nooooo!" three times in about 10 minutes" and that Anton Yelchin had "some of the best lines". Total Film ' s review gave

19824-486: The film was released on December 1, 2009. The DVD contains the theatrical cut of the film with a featurette on the Moto-Terminators. The Blu-ray features both the theatrical cut and the R-rated Director's cut , which is three minutes longer (118 minutes), with bonus material including Maximum Movie Mode, a video commentary in which director McG talks about the film while it plays, featurettes, a video archive, and

20001-480: The film's release. The franchise rights were sold in 2012 to Annapurna Pictures , resulting in Terminator Genisys , a reboot of the series, being released in 2015 with Schwarzenegger reprising his role. In 2003, Dr. Serena Kogan of Cyberdyne Systems convinces death row inmate Marcus Wright to sign over his body for medical research following his execution. Sometime later, the automated Skynet system

20178-532: The film, Rose McGowan voiced the character of Angie Salter, an ex-high school teacher. The game is set in 2016, after the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and before the events of Terminator Salvation . Another video game also titled Terminator Salvation was released in 2010 in arcades. It is a light gun shooter developed by Play Mechanix and published by Raw Thrills . On May 18, 2009, Machinima released Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series , an animated prequel web series set before

20355-479: The film. McG and Nolan did continue the Christ element of John's character though, in which he has some followers who believe what he knows about Skynet and others who do not. McG described the film's theme as "where you draw the line between machines and humans". The friendship between Marcus—who was executed (for murder) when humanity still ruled the world—and Kyle Reese illustrates how war and suffering can bring out

20532-402: The fins. The skin panels are integral with the stringers and are fabricated using computer-controlled machining, reducing production time and cost. Combat experience has shown that this type of panel is more resistant to damage. The skin is not load-bearing, so damaged skin sections can be easily replaced in the field, with makeshift materials if necessary. The ailerons are at the far ends of

20709-455: The first attacks between Skynet and humans. T4 would follow immediately afterward and centered primarily on the war briefly seen in the first two films. Warner Bros. gave the film the codename "Project Angel". Following the release of Terminator 3 in 2003, producers Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar contracted Nick Stahl and Claire Danes to return as John Connor and Kate Brewster in another film. Director Jonathan Mostow helped develop

20886-400: The first second, and 65 or 70 rounds per second thereafter. It is accurate enough to place 80 percent of its shots within a 40-foot (12.4 m) diameter circle from 4,000 feet (1,220 m) while in flight. The GAU-8 is optimized for a slant range of 4,000 feet (1,220 m) with the A-10 in a 30-degree dive. The aircraft's fuselage was designed around the cannon. The GAU-8/A is mounted slightly to

21063-468: The first two films were among his favorites, and he had even cast Robert Patrick (who played the T-1000 ) in his previous films. Though he was initially unsure about "flogging a dead horse," he felt the post-apocalyptic setting allowed the film to be different enough so as not to be just an inferior sequel. The idea that events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines altered

21240-410: The flight-control systems are protected by 1,200 lb (540 kg) of titanium aircraft armor , referred to as a "bathtub". The armor has been tested to withstand strikes from 23 mm (0.91 in) cannon fire and some indirect hits from 57 mm (2.2 in) shell fragments. It is made up of titanium plates with thicknesses varying from 0.5 to 1.5 inches (13 to 38 mm) determined by

21417-411: The following week. The film's total domestic gross was $ 125,322,469, along with $ 246,030,532 from overseas territories, for a worldwide gross of $ 371,353,001. As of December 2009, the film ranked 14th for the year internationally and 23rd domestically (U.S. and Canada), which put it below initial expectations in terms of domestic gross and first weekend, as well as overall global take. On Rotten Tomatoes

21594-497: The fore. Implementation of the maintenance plan was greatly delayed by the base realignment and closure commission (BRAC), which led to 80% of the original workforce being let go. During inspections in 1995 and 1996, cracks at the WS23 location were found on many A-10s; while many were in line with updated predictions from 1993, two of these were classified as "near-critical" size, well beyond predictions. In August 1998, Grumman produced

21771-431: The fourth installment, "the franchise had made a clear shift towards supporting establishment narratives, despite its earlier reservations" and that a "central theme" is whether John Connor "should prioritise striking a decisive military blow against the machines or rescue some captured humans, who are entombed—with shades of Auschwitz —by the Terminators". "[T]he flashforwards from the first three Terminator films hinted at

21948-466: The fuselage; projectiles would need to penetrate the aircraft's skin before reaching a fuel tank's outer skin. Compromised fuel transfer lines self-seal; if damage exceeds a tank's self-sealing capabilities, check valves to prevent fuel from flowing into a compromised tank. Most fuel system components are inside the tanks so component failure will not lead to fuel loss. The refueling system is also purged after use. Reticulated polyurethane foam lines both

22125-399: The future allowed them to be flexible with their presentation of the futuristic world. McG met with the series' co-creator James Cameron, and, although he neither blessed nor denigrated the project, Cameron told the new director he had faced a similar challenge when following Ridley Scott 's Alien with Aliens . He maintained two elements of the previous films; that John is an outsider to

22302-678: The gap is not too wide for the humans to bridge. For example, the invaders have more advanced tanks, but the German Wehrmacht's tank crews facing them – a major theme in the series – are more skilled and far more experienced. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists three notable women authors of MSF: Lois McMaster Bujold ; Elizabeth Moon (particularly her Familias Regnant stories such as Hunting Party (1993)), and Karen Traviss . Several authors have presented stories with political messages of varying types as major or minor themes of their works. David Drake has often written of

22479-489: The horrors and futility of war. He has said, in the afterwords of several of his Hammer's Slammers books (1979 and later), that one of his reasons for writing is to educate those people who have not experienced war, but who might have to make the decision to start or endorse a war (as policymakers or as voters) about what war is really like, and what the powers and limits of the military as an instrument of policy are. David Weber has said: For me, military science fiction

22656-531: The initial invasion of Iraq, A-10s had a mission capable rate of 85 percent and fired 311,597 rounds of 30 mm ammunition. The type also flew 32 missions to airdrop propaganda leaflets. A single A-10 was shot down near Baghdad International Airport by Iraqi fire late in the campaign. In September 2007, the A-10C with the Precision Engagement Upgrade reached initial operating capability. The A-10C first deployed to Iraq in 2007 with

22833-436: The inner and outer sides of the fuel tanks, retaining debris and restricting fuel spillage in the event of damage. The engines are shielded from the rest of the airframe by firewalls and fire extinguishing equipment. If all four main tanks were lost, two self-sealing sump tanks contain fuel for 230 miles (370 km) of flight. The A-10's primary built-in weapon is the 30×173 mm GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon . One of

23010-456: The lead writer of the film. " In response to whether or not Nolan would receive a writing credit for his contribution, McG went on to say, "I don't know how the WGA rules work, but honest to goodness, we did the heaviest lifting with Jonah." Nolan contributed to the film after Bale signed on and created Connor's arc of becoming a leader. Unfortunately according to its main actor Christian Bale , due to

23187-635: The manual reversion control system; pitch and yaw control engages automatically, and roll control is pilot-selected. In manual reversion mode, the A-10 is sufficiently controllable under favorable conditions to return to base, though control forces are greater than normal. It is designed to be able to fly with one engine, half of the tail, one elevator, and half of a wing missing. As the A-10 operates close to enemy positions, making it an easy target for man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS), surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and enemy aircraft, it carries both flares and chaff cartridges. The cockpit and parts of

23364-539: The media. The rating decision was made after McG cut out a shot of Marcus stabbing a thug with a screwdriver, as the director felt disallowing the young audience due to that one shot was unfair. He also deleted a topless scene for Moon Bloodgood because "It was a soft moment between a man and a woman that was designed to echo the Kelly McGillis / Harrison Ford moment in Witness [but] in the end, it felt more like

23541-410: The military become "more resourceful." The German military is also using science fiction to help its military but in its approach, they do not hire science fiction writers to develop scenarios. Instead, they "use existing science fiction" to help the army "predict the "world's next potential conflict." The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) hired two science fiction writers to pen short stories about "what

23718-481: The military cannot directly study for "ethical reasons, such as Autonomous Lethality Weapon Systems (ALWS), or augmented humans." The French military says the authors are asked to imagine warfare situations that "destabilize us, scare us, blame, or even beat us", in order to provide the army with a "fresh set of practice scenarios". Military planners use the science fiction authors' scenarios to "prepare for previously unthought of situations", "boos[t] creativity" and help

23895-465: The most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown, the GAU-8 is a hydraulically driven seven-barrel rotary cannon designed for the anti-tank role with a high rate of fire . The original design could be switched by the pilot to 2,100 or 4,200 depleted uranium armor-piercing shells per minute; this was later changed to a fixed rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. The cannon takes about a half second to spin up to its maximum rate of fire, firing 50 rounds during

24072-460: The novel The Road , as his visual influences. He instructed his cast to read the latter as well as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Like Children of Men , McG would storyboard scenes so that it would be edited together to resemble a seamless, continuous shot . It took two weeks to film a two-minute shot of Connor getting caught up in a bombing on the Skynet base where he discovers plans for

24249-437: The nuclear holocaust and you crawl out of the hole after three-to-five years and say, 'Well, I know what's going on—I'm the one!' Some SAS guy isn't going to say, 'Where do I go, boss?' He'd say, 'Shut the fuck up and get in line.' — McG on John's struggles to become the leader. In the early script drafts, John was a secondary character. Producer James Middleton explained " Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ , but it

24426-481: The original Terminator composer Brad Fiedel but decided he did not want a repeat of the original score in his film. McG wanted Elfman's themes and ambient sounds to have a " Wagnerian quality". Reprise Records released the 15-track soundtrack on May 19, 2009. While Common had expressed interest in writing a song for the soundtrack, Alice in Chains ' " Rooster " is the only featured song. Although not included in

24603-521: The other wing. Aircraft camouflage is used to make the A-10 more difficult to see as it flies low to the ground at subsonic speeds. Many types of paint schemes have been tried. These have included a "peanut scheme" of sand, yellow, and field drab; black and white colors for winter operations; and a tan, green, and brown mixed pattern. The most common Cold War-era scheme was the European I woodland camouflage, whose dark green, medium green, and dark gray

24780-542: The outboard portions of the wings are joined to the fuselage. The first production change was to address this problem by adding cold working at WS23. Soon after, the USAF found that the real-world A-10 fleet fatigue was harsher than estimated, forcing a change to fatigue testing and introduced "spectrum 3" equivalent flight-hour testing. Spectrum 3 fatigue testing started in 1979. This round of testing quickly determined that more drastic reinforcement would be needed. The second change in production, starting with aircraft No. 442,

24957-518: The popularity of the genre. Short stories also were popular, collected in books such as Combat SF , edited by Gordon R. Dickson . This anthology includes one of the first Hammer's Slammers stories, as well as one of the BOLO stories by Keith Laumer and one of the Berserker stories by Fred Saberhagen . This anthology seems to have been the first time these stories specifically dealing with war as

25134-454: The port side; the barrel in the firing location is on the starboard side so it is aligned with the aircraft's centerline. The gun's 5-foot, 11.5-inch (1.816 m) ammunition drum can hold up to 1,350 rounds of 30 mm ammunition, but generally holds 1,174 rounds. To protect the rounds from enemy fire, armor plates of differing thicknesses between the aircraft skin and the drum are designed to detonate incoming shells. The A-10 commonly carries

25311-417: The post-apocalyptic action they've been craving since they first saw a metal foot crush a human skull two decades ago." However, on CHUD, the latter said, "Bale's desire to star as John Connor was probably the most fatal blow to the film; it completely distorted the shape of the story as it existed." Furthermore, he expressed that the third act was when the film began falling apart, saying, "McG and Nolan muddied

25488-539: The pursuit, Marcus saves John's life from Skynet's hydrobots and the two make a bargain: Marcus will enter Skynet's headquarters in San Francisco to help John rescue Kyle and the other prisoners if he lets him live. John pleads with Ashdown to delay the offensive so he can formulate a plan to extract the human captives, but Ashdown refuses and relieves John of his command. However, the Resistance disobeys Ashdown's orders and instead awaits John's signal. Marcus enters

25665-501: The range of defensive fire. The helicopter was effective and prompted the U.S. military to change its defensive strategy in Europe into blunting any Warsaw Pact advance with anti-tank helicopters instead of the tactical nuclear weapons that had been the basis for NATO's battle plans since the 1950s. The Cobra was a quickly-made helicopter based on the UH-1 Iroquois and was introduced in the mid-1960s as an interim design until

25842-468: The redesignation. The 23rd TFW 's A-10s were deployed to Bridgetown , Barbados during Operation Urgent Fury, the 1983 American Invasion of Grenada . They provided air cover for the U.S. Marine Corps landings on the island of Carriacou in late October 1983, but did not fire weapons as no resistance was met. The A-10 was used in combat for the first time during the Gulf War in 1991, with 132 being deployed. A-10s shot down two Iraqi helicopters with

26019-408: The ride was no longer licensed and renamed as Apocalypse: The Ride . A third-person shooter video game of the same name was released on the same week of the release of the film. Christian Bale declined to lend his voice, so Gideon Emery voiced the character of John Connor. The game features the voices of Common and Moon Bloodgood as Barnes and Blair Williams, respectively. Despite not appearing in

26196-405: The script, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris , and was set to begin production in 2005 after completing another film. It was known by then that Arnold Schwarzenegger's role would be limited, as he had assumed office as Governor of California . The producers sought to have Warner Bros. finance the picture as they did for Terminator 3 . In 2005, Stahl said John and Kate would be recast as

26373-628: The second was filled by a version of the U.S. Navy 's McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II . While the Phantom went on to be one of the most successful fighter designs of the 1960s and proved to be a capable fighter-bomber, its short loiter time was a major problem, as was its poor low-speed performance, albeit to a lesser extent. It was also expensive to buy and operate, with a flyaway cost of $ 2 million in FY1965 ($ 19.3 million today), and operational costs over $ 900 per hour ($ 9,000 per hour today). After

26550-476: The sense of detachment from the modern world McG was looking for. Industrial Light & Magic developed shader programs to make the desaturated lighting of the CGI realistic and well-integrated to the on-set footage. The filmmakers consulted with many scientists about the effects of an abandoned world and nuclear winter . McG cited Mad Max 2 , the original Star Wars trilogy and Children of Men , as well as

26727-419: The soundtrack, " You Could Be Mine " by Guns N' Roses , which was featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day , can be heard briefly in a scene of the film as well. All music is composed by Danny Elfman except "Rooster". On July 16, 2008, Warner Bros. debuted the film's teaser trailer on Yahoo! , accompanied by a voiceover by Christian Bale's character of John Connor. On November 25, 2008, Sony Pictures unveiled

26904-485: The story jumped forward in time. By 2006, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (a successor to Orion Pictures and current owners of the Hemdale Film Corporation library, distributor and producer of the original film, respectively) was set to distribute the fourth film as part of the new CEO Harry Sloan's scheme to make the studio a viable Hollywood player. On May 9, 2007, it was announced that production rights to

27081-401: The tactics and strategy of this new course of the war in detail, showing how American, British, Soviet, and German soldiers and Jewish guerrillas (some of them historical figures) deal with this extraordinary new situation, as well as providing a not unsympathetic detailed point of view of individual invader warriors. In the war situation posited by Turtledove, the invaders have superior arms, but

27258-455: The three films to pick moments to reference or tribute, including "Come with me if you want to live" and " I'll be back ", which is uttered by John in this film. McG found himself having to decide which ideas for references would be included and which would not. An opening scene has John fighting a Terminator on a crashed helicopter, which was storyboarded as an homage to the climax of the original film, where his mother Sarah, having broken her leg,

27435-700: The time. The Vietnam War led to the "polarization of the sf community", which can be seen in the June 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction , in which one page of pro-war sf authors listed their names and on another page, anti-war sf authors put their names. The Vietnam War has been noted by the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as having impacted anthologies such as In the Field of Fire (1987) and novels such as The Healer's War (1988) by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Dream Baby (1989) by Bruce McAllister . The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that

27612-452: The use of Fictional Intelligence ( FicInt ), which they define as "useful fictions". FicInt, a concept developed by Cole in 2015, combines "fiction writing with intelligence to imagine future scenarios in ways grounded in reality." Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin - turbofan , straight-wing , subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for

27789-448: The war continues. In 1999, two years after C2 Pictures purchased the rights, two Terminator films' premises were mapped out and were supposed to be developed simultaneously. Tedi Sarafian was hired to write Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines , which he eventually received shared story credit for, while David C. Wilson was to write Terminator 4 . Before any revisions were done, T3 initially took place in 2001 and revolved around

27966-485: The wars of tomorrow will look like." The MOD hired Peter Warren Singer and August Cole to write eight short stories about threats from "emerging technologies" including " artificial intelligence (AI), data modeling, drone swarms, quantum computing and human enhancement" in a battlefield context. The MOD hired sci-fi writers because they have a "unique ability to imagine the unimaginable." As well, both authors know about "security subjects and modern warfare." They advocate

28143-443: The wings for greater rolling moment and have two distinguishing features: The ailerons are larger than is typical, almost 50 percent of the wingspan , providing improved control even at slow speeds; the aileron is also split, making it a deceleron . The A-10 is designed to be refueled, rearmed, and serviced with minimal equipment. Its simple design enables maintenance at forward bases with limited facilities. An unusual feature

28320-436: The wings with new ones was the least expensive, at an initial cost of $ 741 million and a total cost of $ 1.72 billion over the program's life. In 2005, a business case was produced with three options to extend the fleet's life. The first two options involved expanding the service life extension program (SLEP) at a cost of $ 4.6 billion and $ 3.16 billion, respectively. The third option, worth $ 1.72 billion,

28497-489: Was Mexico , because of the swine flu outbreak in the country, which forced Sony to push the release date to July 31, 2009. It is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action, and language," unlike the first three films which are rated R. The decision to release the film with a PG-13 rating was met with much criticism from fans, as well as

28674-414: Was built by Fairchild by converting the first Demonstration Testing and Evaluation (DT&E) A-10A for consideration by the USAF. It included a second seat for a weapon systems officer responsible for electronic countermeasures (ECM), navigation and target acquisition. The N/AW version did not interest the USAF or export customers. The two-seat trainer version was ordered by the USAF in 1981, but funding

28851-605: Was canceled by U.S. Congress and was not produced. The only two-seat A-10 resides at Edwards Air Force Base 's Flight Test Center Museum. On 10 February 1976, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Clements authorized full-rate production while the first A-10 was accepted by the USAF Tactical Air Command on 30 March 1976. Production continued and reached a peak rate of 13 aircraft per month. By 1984, 715 airplanes, including two prototypes and six development aircraft, had been delivered. When full-rate production

29028-411: Was designed for durability, with measures such as 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of titanium armor to protect the cockpit and aircraft systems, enabling it to absorb damage and continue flying. Its ability to take off and land from relatively short and/or unpaved runways permits operation from airstrips close to the front lines, and its simple design enables maintenance with minimal facilities. It served in

29205-681: Was distributed by Warner Premiere , produced by Wonderland Sound and Vision and The Halcyon Company and was released on DVD on November 3, 2009. The film was released in North America on May 21, 2009, with Warner Bros. setting the American premiere on May 14, 2009, at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood . Elsewhere, Sony Pictures Entertainment released the film in most overseas territories on different dates in June. One exception

29382-439: Was first authorized, the A-10's planned service life was 6,000 hours. A small design reinforcement was quickly adopted when initial fatigue testing failed at 80% of testing; the A-10 passed fatigue tests with the fix. 8,000-flight-hour service lives were becoming common at the time, so fatigue testing of the A-10 continued with a new 8,000-hour target. This new target quickly discovered serious cracks at Wing Station 23 (WS23) where

29559-471: Was his story. Much in that way, this [new main] character will be influenced by John Connor." The original ending was to have John killed, and his image kept alive by the resistance by grafting his skin onto Marcus' cybernetic body. Marcus would have then murdered Kate, Barnes, Kyle, and Star. However, after the ending was leaked on the Internet, Warner Bros. decided to completely change the entire third act of

29736-447: Was initiated with aircraft No. 582, again to address the problems discovered with spectrum 3 testing. This change increased the thickness of the lower skin on the center wing panel, but it required modifications to the lower spar caps to accommodate the thicker skin. The USAF found it economically unfeasible to retrofit earlier planes with this modification. The A-10 has received many upgrades since entering service. In 1978, it received

29913-415: Was meant to blend in with the typical European forest terrain. It reflected the assumption that the threat from hostile fighter aircraft outweighed that from ground fire. After the 1991 Gulf War, the threat from ground fire was deemed more pressing than the air-to-air threat, leading to the "Compass Ghost" scheme with darker gray on top and a lighter gray on the underside of the aircraft. Many A-10s also had

30090-547: Was modified into the YA-10B twin-seat prototype to test an all-weather night-capable version. In 2005, a program was started to upgrade the remaining A-10A aircraft to the A-10C configuration, with modern avionics for use with precision weaponry. The U.S. Air Force had stated the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II would replace the A-10 as it entered service, but this remains highly contentious within

30267-571: Was only fixed when the T-800 appeared. Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times stated that "[Bale's] strengths do not serve him, or the movie, as well here" and that "when the story starts to crumble around Bale, Worthington is there to pick up the pieces". Craig Sharp of FilmShaft gave the film three out of five stars, saying "If you're looking for action then this is one damn good film! If it's character depth you're after then move along please." A.O. Scott of The New York Times said

30444-580: Was released on Apple. In addition to the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, a prequel novel titled Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn was released. Two further books were inspired by the film Cold War by Greg Cox and Trial by Fire , again by Zahn. IDW Publishing released a four-issue prequel comic, as well as an adaptation. It follows Connor rallying together the resistance in 2017, as well as examining normal people overcoming their intolerances to defeat Skynet. Dark Horse Comics released

30621-418: Was released on May 21, 2009, by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, and by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label internationally, and grossed over $ 371.4 million worldwide but received mixed-to-negative reviews. While originally intended to be the first installment of a second Terminator trilogy, these plans were canceled following the Halcyon Company filing for bankruptcy after

30798-637: Was the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base , South Carolina, in October 1977. A-10 deployments followed at bases both at home and abroad, including England AFB , Louisiana; Eielson AFB , Alaska; Osan Air Base , South Korea; and RAF Bentwaters / RAF Woodbridge , England. The 81st TFW of RAF Bentwaters/RAF Woodbridge operated rotating detachments of A-10s at four bases in Germany known as Forward Operating Locations (FOLs): Leipheim, Sembach Air Base , Nörvenich Air Base , and RAF Ahlhorn . A-10s were initially an unwelcome addition to many in

30975-539: Was to build 242 new wings and avoid the need to expand the SLEP. In 2006, option 3 was chosen and Boeing won the contract. The base contract is for 117 wings with options for 125 additional wings. In 2013, the USAF exercised a portion of the option to add 56 wings, putting 173 wings on order with options remaining for 69 additional wings. In November 2011, two A-10s flew with the new wings fitted. The new wings improved mission readiness, decreased maintenance costs, and allowed

31152-417: Was to increase the thickness of the lower skin on the outer wing panels. A tech order was issued to retrofit the "thick skin" to the whole fleet, but the tech order was rescinded after roughly 242 planes, leaving about 200 planes with the original "thin skin". Starting with aircraft No. 530, cold working at WS0 was performed, and this retrofit was performed on earlier aircraft. A fourth, even more drastic change

31329-589: Was used for the explosion of Skynet's 30-story San Francisco-based lab. The majority of the machines were designed by Martin Laing, a crew member on Cameron's Titanic and Ghosts of the Abyss . McG described many of the machines as having an H. R. Giger influence. McG's intent was to create a gritty, tactile 2018 on screen, and Laing concurred the robots would have to be black and degraded as none of them are new. Laing devised Aerostats , which are smaller versions of

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