Terminator Salvation Trivia Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "Terminator Salvation" begins in the year 2003, at the Longview State Correctional Facility. Marcus Wright, an inmate on death row, is given a supposedly noble opportunity to donate his organs. The paper that Dr. Kogan gives him to sign bears what ominous name on the header?

Answer: Cyberdyne Systems

Marcus Wright (played by Australian actor Sam Worthington) is approached with this opportunity by Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter), a scientist with cancer who is employed by Cyberdyne Systems, the company that would develop the malevolent A.I. known as Skynet. Marcus agrees to sign in exchange for one thing: a kiss. "So that's what death tastes like," Marcus says after they kiss. His execution by lethal injection proceeds, with Kogan looking on.

Marcus had received the death sentence because he had killed two police officers and his brother. Director McG expands on this story: Marcus was a car thief who had taken his brother along for the first time. His brother panicked when the police showed up; Marcus killed the policemen, and his brother died in the shootout.

2. Fast forward fifteen years: Judgment Day, Skynet's nuclear attack, has decimated the earth. The few human survivors tenaciously fight the machines, against all odds. One man, however, can save them: John Connor. In 2018, as the film begins, what is Connor's role in the Resistance?

Answer: Some consider him the "key to salvation."

John Connor (Christian Bale) has lived his entire life knowing that the responsibility of saving mankind rests upon his shoulders; he will one day lead the human Resistance to defeat the evil machines of Skynet. John is not yet their leader, but some in the Resistance already recognize him as their future Messiah. Skynet, too, is aware that only Connor will be able to thwart their plans of eradicating humanity.

Originally, the machines began to focus their efforts on Connor in the year 2029, when they were losing to the Resistance.

However, in the "Salvation" timeline, the interference of time travel has sped things up and Skynet identifies Connor as their key target much earlier.

3. During a mission to rescue prisoners and obtain information at a Skynet facility, John Connor discovers that what model machine is in production, ahead of schedule?

Answer: T-800, an infiltrator model

The T-800 series Terminators are the first to be cybernetic organisms: "living tissue over a metal endoskeleton," as the reprogrammed T-800 explains to young Connor in "T2" (1991). Their human appearance makes them ideal for infiltration. In 2018, the 600 model series is the primary humanoid soldier in use by Skynet. Though not seen in "Salvation", Kyle Reese explains in "The Terminator" that some T-600s have rubber skin, making them easy to spot in comparison with the T-800. With production beginning in 2018, the T-800's creation is about 10 years ahead of schedule - a fact that deeply concerns John.

4. Marcus Wright, his last memory that of being executed in 2003, finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world during a war he knows nothing of. He finds the only humans in the area, teenager Kyle Reese and a young mute girl named Star. Kyle and Star form what branch of the Resistance?

Answer: The L.A. branch

Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) rescues Marcus from a persistent T-600 with the classic line, "Come with me if you want to live!" Kyle introduces Star (Jadagrace Berry) and himself as the sole members of the L.A. branch of the Resistance. After Marcus repairs their radio and they hear John Connor's message to the Resistance, they know that they need to find this Connor.

They set off in the Jeep Marcus fixed, but after they stop for supplies at a service station that houses a Resistance base, the Terminators attack. Kyle and Star are captured by the machines.

5. The machines of 2018 are focusing their efforts on a new target, whom they successfully capture: Kyle Reese. Why is Kyle Reese of such vital importance in the war?

Answer: He is John Connor's father.

Let the paradoxes begin! As seen in "The Terminator" (1984), this is a case where the future precedes and actually causes the past to unfold in a certain way. In 2029, Skynet sends a T-800 to 1984 to kill John Connor's mother, Sarah, so that John will never be born. To counteract that threat and protect his mother, John sends Kyle Reese to 1984 where Kyle fathers John. Thanks to the alternate timelines created by all of this messy time travel, Kyle Reese has become a part of the past and Skynet is now aware that, if there is no Kyle Reese to send back in 2029, there will be no John Connor and thus, no salvation for humanity.

6. Marcus meets a Resistance soldier named Blair Williams, who, though not realizing Marcus's true nature, recognizes his humanity. While close to him, to share body heat, Blair comments on what feature of his?

Answer: The sound of his heart

This scene is rather ironic: the beating heart that Blair finds comfort in is encased in the very thing her life is devoted to destroying, metal. Marcus's brain and heart are all that remain of his body, but he has no idea what has happened to him during the last fifteen years.

The Marcus/Blair romance is developed quite subtly, but makes the film that much more poignant. Blair Williams is portrayed by Moon Bloodgood, whose name reflects her Korean and Dutch heritage.

7. Blair convinces Marcus, who is searching for Kyle, to talk to John Connor because he might know of a way to find Kyle. On their way back to the base, what happens to reveal what Marcus really is?

Answer: He sets off a magnetic landmine.

Marcus questions Blair when they approach the minefield, but she assures him that it's one of theirs and they will be fine. She goes through first, but Marcus's metal body sets off a magnetic landmine. Back at the Resistance base, medic Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard) tries to treat him, first thinking that he has a prosthetic, but upon opening his shirt there is no doubt about what Marcus Wright really is. Or is there?

8. Despite his distrust of machines, John knows the importance of Kyle's rescue and that Marcus is the only hope he has. He makes a deal with Marcus, who goes inside Skynet Central. While there, Marcus is told that his purpose had been what?

Answer: To infiltrate the Resistance and lure Connor to the Skynet base

Skynet had the perfect opportunity to eliminate the resistance; their fatal flaw was counting out Marcus's humanity remaining intact. The Resistance's new weapon against Skynet, a hidden frequency that could shut down the machines, turns out to be a Skynet trap.

Instead of deactivating the machines, the frequency is a tracking signal that leads Skynet straight to the Resistance leaders on their submarine. Marcus had performed his mission flawlessly, though unwittingly, by luring John Connor and Kyle Reese right into Skynet's hands.

However, once he is told the truth about himself, he refuses to side with Skynet. Instead, tearing the chip from his head, he decides to help Connor.

9. Inside Skynet Central, looking for Kyle, John comes face to face with a fearsome T-800. The machine's human appearance is a computer-generated cameo for what actor from the original "Terminator" movie?

Answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the original T-800 from "The Terminator", who was sent back to kill Sarah Connor, and he also starred in the two follow-up films as a machine reprogrammed by John Connor and sent back in time to protect John. McG explains that the footage of Schwarzenegger was made by scanning images of him as he appeared in the first film, and studying "The Terminator" very closely. With Schwarzenegger's face on Roland Kickinger's body, the result is a rather convincing scene, created by Industrial Light & Magic.

The T-800's flesh is soon blasted off in its fight with Connor, revealing its even more terrifying visage, that of a metal monster.

10. Marcus tries to take on the T-800, but it soon realizes the vulnerability of his human heart and takes advantage of it. John fights the T-800, pouring molten metal on it and dousing it with coolant. John revives Marcus by shocking his heart, but John is stabbed through with a metal rod. How does John survive?

Answer: Marcus gives John his heart.

This encounter is also where John receives the severe facial scar seen in "T2": the Terminator claws into John's face with its superheated metal hand. Upon being revived, Marcus defeats the Terminator, and the fatally wounded Connor is taken back to his base for immediate medical attention. Kate Connor knows that her husband's heart cannot hold out much longer. Marcus sees this as a second chance, however, to do what he had originally signed up for: to give himself to a noble cause.

The heart transplant saves Connor's life.

The war is still ongoing, but as John Connor believes, "There is no fate but what we make."

Source: Author darthrevan89

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Directed by McG, "Terminator Salvation" (2009) is the fourth installment of the "Terminator" franchise, and stars Sam Worthington and Christian Bale. Enjoy!

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