The Terminator Franchise is the only sci-fi/action series to get into the 21st Century with its dignity intact. Terminator Salvation may have its detractors, but it’s no Alien vs. Predator, a film that managed to kill two proud franchises in one foul swoop.
There’s certainly enough fuel for articles discussing the resurrection of the Alien and Predator franchises (Your plot for the next Alien vs. Predator film: a Predator vessel crashes onto an Alien planet and the two races fight for 90 minutes!) or their possible replacement (the logical replacement for the Alien Franchise? Halo), but with Terminator Salvation having garnered mixed reviews, it’s time to look back over the Terminator franchise; its hits and misses and its big discussion points.
I’ve been a huge Terminator fan since I was old enough to watch the films, and can talk about it for hours on end. Given that, I’ve broken this retrospective down into three parts, with part one covering the original film, this second part covering the sequel and some brief notes on the spin-offs over the following years, and finally the third film and the recently cancelled TV series.
Part Two – Same Make, Same Model, New Mission.
one of the original Dark Horse comics covers
There wasn’t a lot of Terminator material available during the seven years between the first two films. A couple of comic series were produced by NOW Comics and Dark Horse between 1988 and 1990, but I can’t comment on them too much. Sufficed to say, they must have done reasonably well to last as long as they did before Terminator 2 was released. That film’s cultural impact pretty much cemented Terminator as a multi-media franchise.
In 1990 the first Terminator game released, based on the first film. The Terminator created by Bethesda Softworks, and they retained the licence for Terminator games into the mid 90s. Bethesda is now more well know for The Elder Scrolls Series and Fallout 3; you could argue that the reason they did a post-apocalyptic RPG so well with Fallout 3 was because they recreated a post Judgement Day world as best they could with much earlier technology.
In the game, players took either the role of Kyle Reese, tasked with protecting Sarah Connor, or playing the Terminator, tasked with tracking Sarah Connor down and killing her. I don’t think this was the first sandbox game, but it’s certainly one of the first. The thing I remember most about this game was that it got a voluntary Mature Rating from the company, and this was in the days before The Office of Film and Television Classification slapped ratings on computer games.
Now, as for the movie sequel, I was one of those kids who saw Terminator 2: Judgement Day on video before I saw The Terminator. Despite watching the superior film first, it didn’t hurt my appreciation of the original.
Terminator 2 is a very dangerous film to mention around my circle of friends, the amount of times we’ve started talking about it and then had to dash to the closest friend’s home with a copy of it to watch borders on ridiculous. But frankly, the film is just that good. That being said, where the Hell do you start talking about it?
The Poster for possibly the toughest movie EVER.
I’m going to start with the trailers for this thing. The first teaser was perfect; a production line of T-800 endoskeletons being assembled; a concept not realised on film until Terminator Salvation. One of the endoskeletons receives the instantly recognisable living tissue casing, and the viewer is given the impression that Arnie would once again be playing the villain. The first trailer initially reinforces this, before hinting that a new Terminator would be the villain. Given Arnie’s image at the time as an action hero, this little subterfuge is cute in retrospect. Naturally, it couldn’t last.
I’ll be talking about the 1993 Special Edition over the original film. Cameron added 17 minutes to the original cut, and like his Aliens Director’s Cut, I think the additions improve an already great film.
The film starts hard and puts you through an emotional wringer, and that’s just the credits! Sarah Connor’s opening narration reminds the viewer after a seven year gap of the War against The Machines before one of the coolest ground battles ever seen in science-fiction begins.
I’d argue that nothing in Terminator Salvation comes close to this pre-titles sequence, as we see T-800s and Hunter-Killers in a huge battle against the Tech-Com Army. One thing the latest film did nail is that it’s flying HKs felt more solid than the ones blown up here. It’s here that The Computer is first given its name, Skynet, and we first see John Connor, Leader of the Resistance. It’s only a glimpse, but the image of that grim, battle-scarred man spoke volumes.
The actual credits are beautiful and horrible in equal measure. You can say this for a lot of this film, but Stan Winston and his effects team really outdid themselves. The imagery of the burning playground swept by flames to Brad Fiedel’s powerful and sometimes moving score is iconic, and the final shot of the T-800 emerging slowly from the fire is terrifying.
The opening scenes of the two Terminators arriving are played out well. The T-800’s procurement of clothing, wheels and weapons is handled quickly and is notably far less bloody (though no less violent) than the original. This film has Arnie at the height of his powers; he’s the untouchable action superstar here, and this film only cemented that. Say what you will about his acting ability, but he nailed all the beats he had to here, and manages to do some interesting things with his performance of an emotionless cyborg. The final scene generates actual emotion; the killing machine having actually learned the value of human life. It’s one of the few times manly tears are acceptable, and the thumb’s up is just cool.
The "Caddy" of robots, the T-800 ass kicker.
This film really cements the idea that the venerable T-800 model really was the Cadillac of Terminators; it’s big and bulky, but ultimately reliable and pretty much unstoppable. This thing tears off its own arm to complete its mission, and manages to reroute critical systems to get back up one last time. Incidentally, that’s my favourite scene, and my favourite musical cue on the soundtrack.
There’s been some talk for McG’s next Terminator film about Skynet sending its war machines back in time to fight in the present. It’s a bad idea, as it totally undermines the fully realised world he managed to create in Salvation. And if you want to send machines back to attack humanity, that’s done perfectly in Terminator 2 already, as the T-800 stands high on a building and demolishes a police task force with a mini-gun. Once again, Brad Fiedel’s awesome score helps nail that scene.
The T-1000 seems to live up to the original concept of the Terminator Cameron had in mind, a much smaller man than the obvious juggernaut. The T-800’s introduction is a bad boy fantasy; the T-1000’s inspires mistrust in the system. Robert Patrick had a tough act to follow as the T-1000, but he managed to convey an air of menace behind a veneer of civility. Having the ultimate killing machine take the form of a police officer subverts expectations and makes the viewer uncomfortable; just look at the performance as the T-1000 questions John Connor’s foster parents, there’s a whole Uncanny Valley vibe going on there. By all accounts I hear Robert Patrick’s actually a nice guy, despite how often he cranks out a creepy performance!
One idea that’s played up a little bit is that the Terminators essentially are the same intelligence in different bodies. They both have the same files, and can somewhat predict each others next move, leading to a bizarre game of Cat and Also Cat. However the T-800 becomes more compassionate as he goes along and arguably smarter, thanks to a modification to his CPU performed by the Connors. The T-1000 seems to get more sadistic as the film goes on, his disdain for humanity showing through, and almost taking pleasure in damaging and hurting Sarah. It almost seems annoyed when it starts to malfunction at the end; the environmental extremes having caused its structure damage.
Incidentally, I have no idea what mimetic polyalloy is. I originally thought it was a nanite flow (a liquid structure composed of millions on nanotech machines), but apparently it’s a type of intelligent metal that can simulate organic material to utilise Time Displacement Equipment. In early drafts of the Terminator 2 script, it was stated that Skynet, being an advanced machine intelligence, created a science that diverted from and was far above any human science. The mimetic polyalloy is a direct result of that. I’m moving along now!
The T-1000 a mimetic poly alloy apparently.
Both Terminators have some pretty amazing special-effects work done with them; the progressive damage of the T-800 was award winning, but what this film’s remembered for is the T-1000’s morphing effects. They are no longer cutting-edge, but are still damn impressive by today’s standards. Music and special effects are what date movies the most, and in those instances this film seems almost timeless.
The most jarring transformation’s for the Terminator sequel was Linda Hamilton’s as Sarah Connor ten years on in movie time. Gone was the mousy and uncertain young woman from the Ëœ80s, this Sarah was a muscled, well trained and dangerous psychotic who would stop at nothing to protect her son, and if she could, stop the nightmare of Judgement Day from happening by any means necessary. She can still be vulnerable though; the fear when she sees the T-800 for the first time is very well played.
Say what you will about Cameron, but he transformed two stereotypical victims (the other being Alien’s Ellen Ripley) into strong, iconic female characters that have been imitated but never replaced. However, he did take the actress who played Vasquez in Aliens and turn her into a housewife in Terminator 2.
Despite her aggression and her violence (what she does to Dr Silberman is pretty nasty, and I always wince when I hear the noise as she breaks that orderly’s nose, but he had it coming) one thing that is again touched upon here but only expanded upon later is that Sarah Connor cannot kill. She tries damn hard to kill Miles Dyson, but ultimately can’t follow through with the act, especially with his wife and son watching.
The choice not to kill is a noble one, and it’s probably from this that John Connor’s compassion stems, however he certainly believes that his mother is capable of killing another human. This idea is played with more in the television series.
Sarah’s nightmares are shown in vivid detail; she’s never seen Judgement Day, but through her dreams we learn to be terrified of it. I’ve heard that Stan Winston and his people actually had trouble dealing with the realism of the special effects depicting a nuclear blast they’d created. It is a horrific scene, with Sarah’s body blown apart by the blast wave as she continues screaming. These nightmares are what make Sarah a little too protective of John; this Sarah Connor is hardly going to win any Mother of the Year Awards. Sarah also dreams of Kyle; another element played out in future incarnations of the series.
Finally regarding Sarah, the Kyle’s message to her has now been ret conned as The Message from the Future, and is far more poetic The Future is not set, there is no fate but what we make for ourselves. One of the main criticisms of Terminator 3 is that this concept was thrown out the window, with Skynet unable to be stopped. I will argue against that, but in the next part.
Eddie and his protector, a tough teamup indeed.
The main focus of the story, John Connor, gets a good introduction in this film. It’s kinda hard to believe this is Eddie Furlong’s first film, and arguably he never did anything after this that was as good as this performance sadly. This is one of the few times where this conceptual reversal actually works; we don’t see the hero in his prime, we see him as a child growing into his role. A lot of people have trouble with kids in movies playing kids; this is usually applicable only to kid-sidekicks and John Connor is certainly not that. He’s a messed up kid, angry at the world with a skill set and a burden no child should have. But despite all of this, you can see why he is destined to be this Great Military Leader. He’s skilled, resourceful and charismatic. You can understand why older and more experienced people listen to him and follow his ideas. But ultimately he’s compassionate; he calls his foster parents to try and warn them that something’s coming for them, he stops two guys he jerked around from getting slaughtered, and he tries to teach the ultimate killing machine the value of human life, successfully. John genuinely cares about other people, even those he has a reason to dislike, and that’s why he’ll be the Leader.
Dr Silberman’s return is a great link to the previous film, casting Earl Boen was a happy accident. While Silberman falls into that category of he’s a dick cos he’s annoying our heroes, the fact that he’s stayed with Sarah’s case for ten years speaks volumes; there’s no career advancement or profit in this for him. Sure, he turns a blind eye to the casual cruelty of the orderlies, but I get the sense he’s genuinely trying to help her. Ultimately he cannot succeed sadly, and while his cameo in Terminator 3 is little more than an in-joke, some fascinating things are done with the character in the television series.
Another character with a connection to Sarah during her ten years off screen is Enrique; he represents the kind of military specialists that Sarah took John to train under over the years. He’s played as kind of a nut, but a Believer to some extent in this crazy woman’s claims. I only mention him here as this character is revisited later, but what h represents is crucial; training for the future Leader of the Resistance.
The man who pays the biggest price, Miles Dyson. Also maker of vacuums.
The final character that must be mentioned is Miles Dyson, the creator of Skynet, and arguably the First Hero of the Resistance. A genuinely good man who sought to change everything when confronted with the truth of what he was actually creating, and ultimately trying to buy a better future for humanity with his life. The scenes where the T-800 explains what will happen are well executed; Dyson goes from horror to fascination in an instant as he recognises the T-800’s endoskeleton. Dyson’s death is tragic, the result of frightened cops panicking and opening fire before asking questions (though given Sarah Connor’s and the T-800’s reputation, it’s an understandable oversight). Despite this, Dyson died a hero, and it’s touched upon again later in other material. There’s some confusion as to how many kids Dyson has, only his son Danny is ever named, though it’s suggested he has a daughter too. It’s interesting to note that in one possible future, Danny Dyson becomes Chief Scientific Advisor to John Connor in the Tech-Com Army.
Terminator 2 is a pure action film; it has none of the horror or police procedural elements grafted into it like its predecessor. The action scenes are huge and exciting and do things to vehicles they should never recover from; wanna know how to fuck a Harley or a truck? Watch this film!
There are some retreads of the beats from the first film, but they could be seen as homage rather than direct copying. It starts out as a chase film, but the protagonists get jack of this two thirds of the way through and decide to go on the offensive, leading to an awesome finale.
The film isn’t perfect though; there’s a couple of effects shots that don’t look the best (rubbery heads and dummies are always a problem really before CGI replaced them) and there’s a flow problem of scenes during the tail end from the first act. From the moment the T-800 links up with John to the break out of Sarah from Pescadero, things happen too quickly and in the wrong order. I understand that the police would want to question Sarah immediately over the fact that a guy who killed 17 police officers ten years ago has suddenly turned up again, but the way scenes are shown makes the timeline impossible, especially with the T-1000’s and the T-800’s involvement.
But that’s just nit-picking; it doesn’t detract from one of the Greatest Action Films of All Time, and one of my Top Three Action Films.
And I can’t keep a retrospective piece about Terminator 2 under 2000 words. Fuck.
What do you think? Is Terminator 2 the greatest action film of the last 30 years? or a hack-job full of cliches and unbelievable characters and stereotypes… (or is that Revenge of the Fallen?) feedback on the blog folks!
Buy Terminator 2 – Judgement Day from Amazon.com
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I have just seen this (on Blu-ray) yesterday and my old love for this film was reignited. Cameron is the man; Aliens, T2, True Lies being among the best action films ever made (IMO).
“There’s some confusion as to how many kids Dyson has, only his son Danny is ever named, though it’s suggested he has a daughter too.”
The daughter is seen very briefly during the scene where his wife stops him working so he can go out for swimming with the kids. In the later scene where the T-800 reveals himself she’s is presumably bed sleeping,
The timeline problems mentioned are not really apparent while watchig the film and probably are a result of discussing the details over and over.