What were the most complicated scenes to shoot?

McG: Well a lot of the scenes take place in one shot, and figuring out places to hide the cuts... Again, I go to Children of Men -- the car sequence, where the motorbikes come, and Julianne Moore is shot, and the whole thing plays in one shot. Figuring that out is very difficult, and you've got to figure out exactly where you're going to have your blend points; you need to measure everything off, and consult with the visual effects people.

There's a big gas station sequence that had that, and that was very, very tedious, and very, very technical filmmaking. And that's why I love this film -- one day we're shooting a very intimate, character-driven scene, and there's nothing going on but Connor and his wife in a room, and she's the only one he can talk to about what's on his mind. And then the next day we're, you know, blowing up half of New Mexico, and going to a place of extraordinary action. So those are decidedly different hats to wear, day in, day out.

Do you deliberately do as much physically as you can? George Lucas would shoot the whole thing on a green screen, with guys wearing ping-pong balls...

McG: I say with respect to George Lucas, who I adore, I don't like that at all. This is why Stan Winston's team is here. We do as much practically and in camera as possible. I want the machines to be real and we built all the machines. We built all the prosthetics. And then they're accentuated and added to, certainly.

Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation.
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McG: I believe in visual effects completely. But I just don't believe in saying, "throw up the green screen, and let's make it happen." I think the audience has become so skilled in recognising that - they sniff it out and it loses its potency. We're going to have 800 CGI shots in this -- I mean it's a CG festival, that's why I brought in the best minds in the business to come in and get it done - but we don't just say, "put a blue sleeve on the Marcus character," I mean -- the guy spent six hours in make-up.

How do you inject humour and warmth into this universe?

McG: I don't. There's not a great deal of humour and warmth in this universe. It's very largely influenced by the Cormac McCarthy novel The Road. It's designed to feel that way -- detached and existential, it's got a great deal of Camus' The Stranger in it. But there's a gallows humour. We could all be in a bunker somewhere, and every now and again, you elbow the guy next to you and you make a wisecrack -- what else are you going to do? It's one of the defining characteristics of being human, even in the face of death. But the movie is designed to be very serious and very credible.

Could you take Linda Hamilton in a fight?

McG: Most certainly not. After those pull-ups in the psychiatric ward, I don't think I could make that happen.