TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009)

TERMINATOR SALVATION is the fourth instalment in the TERMINATOR franchise and sees a grown-up John Connor leading the human resistance movement. It has been passed '12' for scenes of moderate violence and intense action.

The setting of the narrative in this film is an all-out war between the human resistance movement and Skynet with its army of Terminators. There are some spectacular battle sequences with heavy explosions and gunfire which include sight of many robots being destroyed, including a close-up shot of a robotic head being crushed by a helicopter. This sets the tone for much of the violence in the film. Most of the damage and injury is caused to the robotic characters while the human characters generally emerge unscathed. There is some injury detail seen, to the Connor character in particular, but these sequences do not dwell on detail and do not contain any emphasis on injuries or blood. For the most part the injuries are impressionistic and the fantasy setting is always well to the fore. Given this approach to the depiction of violence the film is contained at '12' under the terms of the Guidelines for violence at that level.

The film as a whole does have an unrelenting intensity which is a well established feature of fantasy films at the '12' level but the tone is comparatively light and plays very much to audience expectations for the genre. There is none of the darker, sadistic, elements that occasionally take such works to the higher category. 'Mature themes' and 'sustained moderate threat and menace' are allowed at '12' in the Guidelines and these are all elements that contributed to placing TERMINATOR SALVATION at '12'.

The extended version of the film also contains a scene featuring brief sexualised nudity as we see a woman remove her top, revealing one of her breasts. This is only seen from considerable distance and there is no clear or sustained nudity present within a sexual context. At '12', the BBFC Guidelines state that in a sexual context nudity must be 'brief and discreet' and this sequence in TERMINATOR SALVATION falls within those limits.