Stealing a whole bunch of pages from the official Christopher Nolan franchise-rebooting playbook, Terminator Salvation director McG has upped the series’ grim intensity, cast Christian Bale as his lead, and instructed him to speak in his raspiest, throat-sawing Batman growl. And, in light of this awesome just-released trailer, we’d like to go on record as having absolutely no problem with at least two of those things. Bale’s never yet let us down, and McG’s super-dark, mostly CGI-less vision of post–Judgment Day is scarier than anything in Terminator 3 or The Sarah Connor Chronicles (plus those badass self-piloting motorcycles make Robert Patrick’s T2 villain look like an inconsiderate toaster by comparison). Also, we suppose Bale’s growl is slightly more forgivable in postapocalyptic 2018 than it is in modern-day Gotham City, if only because it’s probably way harder to get a humidifier there.
