Claim: Terminator Salvation falls under the category of post-apocalyptic science fiction war films.

Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic science fiction war film directed by McG and starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington . It is the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise . In a departure from the previous installments , which were set between 1984 and 2003 and used time travel as a key plot element , Salvation is a post-apocalyptic film set in the year 2018 , fifteen years after the events of Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines . It focuses on the war between Skynet 's machine network and humanity ; the remnants of the world 's military have organized as the Resistance , fighting against Skynet 's killing machines . Bale portrays John Connor , Resistance fighter and central character to the franchise , while Worthington portrays cyborg Marcus Wright . Terminator Salvation also featured Anton Yelchin as a young Kyle Reese , a character first introduced in The Terminator , and the film depicts the origin of the T-800 -LRB- Model 101 -RRB- Terminator .   After a troubled pre-production , with The Halcyon Company acquiring the rights for the franchise from Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar and several writers working on the screenplay , filming began in May 2008 in New Mexico and ran for 77 days . Terminator Salvation was released on May 21 , 2009 in the United States and Canada , followed by early June releases in the United Kingdom , Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa . Warner Bros. handled the North American release while Columbia Pictures handled the international release . The film grossed over $ 371 million worldwide and met with mixed reviews . A reboot of the film franchise occurred with the release of Terminator Genisys in 2015 .