It’s long been a recognized fact of existence that the best Terminator concept art is the Judgment Day concept art, or else art showing the war against Skynet in the future. So these brand new art pieces, showing Judgment Day in action, are pure apocalyptic gold.
To promote the Terminator Genisys DVD/Blu-ray, Paramount commissioned four concept artists to create brand new artwork showing what Judgment Day would have looked like in four American cities. And because they picked four of our favorite artists working in movies today, the results are grand.
http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-Gen...
Check them out:
Emmanuel Shiu (Game of Thrones, Cloud Atlas) Does New York:
“This is an establishing shot of Time Square post ‘Judgment Day’ — I wanted to bring a more intimate feel to this piece by placing the camera closer to the ground so you could be right down in the thick of the action where the T-800s are patrolling the streets. I also wanted to play with daylight breaking through the monolithic Time square buildings and post nuclear fallout where the atmospheric effect adds to the drama.”
Jan Urschel (Star Wars Rogue One) does Chicago:
“A squadron of hunter killers is approaching in this aerial shot of downtown Chicago. Between the towering ruins of the old world, the dried out riverbed has given way to Skynet installations glistening with their metallic precision in the evening sun. The sky gives a hopeful feeling that not all is lost for mankind, capturing the overall mood and message of the movie.”
Pat Presley (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) does DC:
“The Destruction of Washington, D.C. — With so many iconic locations to use, I decided to go with the National Mall to establish the overall devastation and show that a lot of time has pass since Judgement Day. The nuclear winter has long set in while the Hunter-Killer still looking for any resistance. Taking advantage of the dramatic fallout sky, I used the sunbeams to focus attention on the remain of Washington Monument in the foreground and the US Capitol in the background. There’s also a hint that The Machine starting to build on top of the city’s carcass. It could be an outpost or a reactor facility.”
Annemieke Loomis Hutchins (Star Trek Into Darkness, Captain America) does Seattle
“A wide establishing shot of Seattle post Judgment Day - taking advantage of the fog and haze elements found in the Seattle area. The T-800 surveys from a high vantage point while the ships patrol the downtown area. I thought that the nuclear fallout and it’s particulate in the sky might make for some interesting sky coloration, so I pushed it to more of an orange-yellow.”
Regardless of how you feel about Terminator Genisys, these are some pretty sweet pieces of Terminator art. And the studio also released the first few minutes of the film, showing Judgment Day, as a promo clip. This is one of the most effective parts of the whole movie, for my money:
Contact the author at charliejane@io9.com and follow her on Twitter @Charliejane