Rather than go into criticizing Christian Bale himself, there is someone else who deserves their fair share of blame for the controversy. After all, Christian Bale is merely an employee in a contract with a company in order to make a film that will hopefully make money for a film that is being produced. Ultimately in the short-term, the big brunt of damage may not be to Christian Bale who is already sitting pretty after numerous blockbuster hits. Rather, many critics of the outburst have come up with various quips to the incident, such as “Why do we need another Terminator?” etc.

The success of the film may have suffered a deep blow from the publicity. The incident did not become popularly known until months later, when the audiotape had been leaked. Film executives at Warner Brothers sent the tape to the insurance company that insured the film in case Bale bailed. This is where the trouble begins.

Rather than keep this incident to as few people as possible, Warner Brothers decided to get greedy and keep it as a potential blackmailing tool. With such an explosive and potentially damaging material, Warner Brothers clearly did not recognize that it should be destroyed at once and word of it suppressed for the sake of their film’s potential success. Christian Bale was in a contract regardless, and if he attempted to bail the film, which we see months later he still has not, Bale would be violating that contract. Not to mention, blackmail has been and always is a risky business. The worst possible result to Warner Brothers has emerged from this, instead turning the tables on themselves. Since it had not been leaked for months, we can assume that the leak most likely came from the insurance company that Warner Brothers sent the audiotape to for the express purpose of blackmailing the actor in the event he decided to leave the film early.

In all of this, the true villain does not seem to be Christian Bale, as upset as he may have gotten, no one got hurt, and it is nothing people have not seen in their own lives when a friend or relative explodes angrily. Instead, it was Warner Brothers who was conducting an almost definitely criminal attempt at blackmail against Christian Bale. Christian Bale might actually improve his image by filing such a suit against Warner Brothers, but timing would critical if Bale wishes to see the film succeed. Perhaps a year after release, Bale could file suit on multiple charges, first blackmail, but there is another possibility as well. Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements are signed on most Hollywood sets, yet someone clearly violated this. Once again, it would most likely be Warner Brothers, if the insurance company was not party to the agreements, who violated that agreement in sending the material, which was then leaked most likely by an employee at that company.

In the end, Christian Bale has apologized for it quite sincerely, and can explain that he was kind of method acting in a scene in which his character John Connor was kind of crazy, and it may have rubbed off on his character. Bale and Shane were back on good terms the very same day of the incident. Bale also hopes that his one-time lapse in judgment does not haunt the movie, and hopes the hard work of all those members on the film is not harmed by the incident, but ultimately it may be Warner Brothers who will pay the price for this indiscretion.