The guild has taken no strike vote. It was widely expected to delay that step until it learned the outcome of a vote by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, another actors’ union with overlapping membership, on a tentative agreement with terms that guild leaders have called inadequate. The vote results are expected to be released next week.

Set for release by Warner Brothers next Memorial Day weekend, the fourth installment in the “Terminator” series, this one directed by McG, began shooting in May. Principal photography is not set to wrap until well into August.

The movie’s cast, including the lead, Christian Bale, would be pulled off the set if actors chose to strike. (Arnold Schwarzenegger is not starring.) That would leave its independent producers  including the Halcyon Company and Intermedia Films  with half a movie and a tangled mess of equipment, sound stages, locations and crew members on hold.

Yet “Terminator Salvation,” like the “Da Vinci Code” sequel “Angels & Demons” from Sony Pictures and “Transformers 2” from Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks, has moved forward, largely because the film industry’s needs have overwhelmed any conviction that actors will actually walk out.

“Around April or May, they just started making plans,” Lisa Strout, director of the New Mexico Film Office, said this week during an interview at her Santa Fe headquarters. She was referring to a shift by studios, which earlier had promised to shut down rather than get into a game of chicken with the actors. “We’re expecting a very strong summer and fall,” Ms. Strout added.