A dark highway at night. Lines painted on the road race by in a blur. We are taken back to the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day. A woman’s voice over is heard and suddenly it is daytime. We see a woman driving a truck in the desert. She looks to be in a panic. Her vehicle screeches to a halt in front of a school. A male student is reading a book in the library. The woman finds him and yells, “John, now! NOW!” The boy, John Connor, snaps into action. The woman, Sarah Connor, and John exit the school towards the parking lot. They stop in their tracks and are confronted by an army of police officers with guns drawn. John and Sarah are handcuffed and placed in the back of separate cars. Sarah notices a man walking towards the commotion in front of the school. His clothing and facial features very closely resemble the Terminators sent back in time to kill her and protect John. Sarah subdues a cop and manages to free herself from the handcuffs. A squad car attempts to leave the scene but their path is blocked by this Terminator. Terminator pulls out a shotgun and fires at the windshield of the cruiser. Terminator then pulls out automatic machine guns and begins firing at the police cars and officers. Sarah pulls John from the back of his cop car and releases him from the handcuffs as gunfire and glass erupt around them. Sarah yells for John to run. Terminator tracks John running away when Sarah unloads a full clip of ammo from a Beretta she acquired. Terminator turns toward her and smiles an evil grin. Terminator resumes tracking John and fires one single shot. The bullet connects with John and he falls to the ground. Sarah runs to her son’s side and holds him. Terminator approaches the Connors and stands over them. Sarah pleads to the Terminator, “Kill me! Nothing matters anymore!” The Terminator replies, “You are correct. The future is ours. It begins now.” A blinding flash of light appears behind the school. Mushroom clouds form as the shockwave demolishes the school. Flesh burns away from the Terminator and reveals a gleaming endoskeleton. Terminator walks forward and grabs Sarah by the neck. It looks like the end when……suddenly she wakes up.

That was the powerful first four minutes and thirty seconds of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This television series begins with character introductions and development. Sarah Connor, played by Lena Heady, and her son John, played by Thomas Dekker, are living in a small rural town in West Fork, Nebraska. The date is August 24th, 1999. Almost two years have passed since Judgment Day should have happened. Sarah and John are trying to find a normal life. Sarah has a boyfriend Charley Dixon, played by Dean Winters, who proposes. She takes John and unexpectedly leaves Charley, which prompts him to go to the police. This inquiry catches the eye of FBI Special Agent James Ellison, played by Richard T. Jones who continues to hunt down the Connors. Charley finds out about Sarah’s colorful past from Ellison.
Sarah and John move to Red Valley, New Mexico. John attends the local high school and meets Cameron, played by Summer Glau, a very attractive girl in his class. A substitute teacher enters the classroom and takes role. He arrives at the name John Reese, pulls out a gun from inside his leg, and fires at John. John escapes to the parking lot while the substitute teacher/terminator known as Cromartie, played by Owain Yeoman, is in hot pursuit. Cromartie finds John and is about to kill him when he is hit by a truck driven by Cameron. She opens the door and delivers the trademark line, “Come with me if you want to live.” Sarah hears about the gunfire at the school and searches for John. Cromartie finds her and takes her back to the Connor house. John enters the home and is shot, but he is really Cameron. Another battle ensues while Sarah and John escape. Cameron disables Cromartie and a new rule for terminators is established. They will reboot after one hundred twenty seconds. Cameron hops in the truck bed of the Connor escape vehicle and they hide out in a garage.
Cameron explains why she is here. She was sent from 2027 by John to protect John. Skynet goes online April 19, 2011. Two days later it triggers the apocalypse, Judgment Day. The Connors and Cameron travel to Los Angeles to the home of Tarissa Dyson, played by Charlayne Woodard, the widow of Miles Dyson. Sarah attempts to acquire information on who would take up Miles research. Cromartie finds them and is hit by a car again. He pursues the Connors and Cameron when a truck explodes, exposing the metal beneath the flesh on his face.
Cameron takes the Connors to a bank. Security Trust bank was established in 1963 and Cameron explains she has a safety deposit box here. They hold up the bank and request the teller lock them inside the bank vault. Police and S.W.A.T. forces arrive and surround the bank. Cromartie arrives as well and enters the bank. The officers do not try to stop him as they see exposed metal on his face. Cameron, John, and Sarah remove contents of specific deposit boxes. Cameron builds a gun from the future. Cameron exposes panel in the vault that has a monitor and keyboard controls. She explains that an engineer from the future built the vault for a way home. Cameron enters a date of 2007. This is the date they must go to stop Skynet from being born. Cromartie rips apart the vault door and enters just as Cameron hits the execute button. Sarah fires the gun just before the time travel bubble forms.

On a busy highway at night a time travel bubble forms. Traffic expertly avoids the bubble as three naked people materialize. A young man in a car shoots a video of the naked people on his cell phone. Sarah, John and Cameron go to a construction site and see a flashing sign. They realize they have traveled into the future to September 10th, 2007. Cameron acquires them clothing. Sarah has a voice over and says, “The death of one person is the death of a whole world.”
Future Charley is watching a news report and sees the video of Sarah on the highway. It is eight years later and he is married. The Connors have acquired a new home and Cameron is the ever villigent terminator that will protect them.
The Pilot is action packed and terminator filled. It has a rough feel to it, as most pilot episodes do. The acting is better than average for television standards. I think any Terminator fan will greatly enjoy the throwbacks to the previous two films. Keeping in mind that this is a television series, the graphics are amazing. The initial opening sequence has a big screen movie feel to it. Lena Heady and Thomas Dekker are perfectly cast for their roles. Lena may not look anything like Linda Hamilton, yet she channels the character of Sarah Connor perfectly. Thomas has great acting chops. He portrays John as a distraught, brooding teenager. One begins to understand how his life is and will never be normal because terminators are everywhere. This episode grabs you like a metal endo hand and won’t let go.

Rating: 8 out of 10 Skulls

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