Sean French - The Terminator

8/12/2019 Sean French - The Terminator

1/70

DN

he T rlinator

OFI PUBLISHING


2/70


3/70

Contents

Introductin 6

1 Beginnings 1

2 Brrings 15

3 Making The Teinator 3

The Plt 27

5 Schwarzenegger 3

6 Defending The Teinator

7 Watcng The Teiator

8 terlfe 6

Credits 70


4/70

B M O R N CLA S S I C S

u

Other peope so I have read treasre memorabe moments in their

ives: the time one cmbed the Parthenon at snrise the mmernight one met a oney gir in Centra Park and achieved with her a

sweet and natra reationship as they say in books I too once met

a gir in Centra Park bt it is not mch to remember What I

remember is the time John Wayne kied three men with a carbine as

he was faing to the dsty street in ecoc and the time the

kitten fond Orson Wees in the doorway in e

Walkr Prcy, The Moegoe 96

It cd be said of Cameron that no one did so mch to redeem the

eighties genre of hightch threat throgh the overay of genine

hman interest stories Bt that description smacks of the formic

Perhaps t wod be more to the point to ask who smothered so

many promising stories with effects and apparats?

Davd Thomso, A Bogaphca Dconay o/m 1994

th alphabtcal srdpty, th try aftr Jams Caro D avd

Thomso's Bogaphca Dconay s Camro's polar oppost,artscally as wl as ltrally, Ja Campo Thomso rhapsoss ovr

h Pano ss of plac, of sprt, ad of slc sWordswortha rar potry o has bttr caught th m of

sstvty ad foty th huma magato' Ths s th sort of

pras Campo's lm asks for Wth ts sstmatc symbolism, tsschatc charactrsato, Th Pano was mafstly cocvd as amatrpc ad ths tto s vdt vry fram, vry

carfully composd stup t s a lm for adults

How dffrt rom Th Tnao th sort of proct that smsto av b dvlopd wtout v th tto of g ay goo

Th lm's producrs at ro could scarcly hav atcpat much

from ts wrtr-drctor Jams Camro had work varous tchcal


5/70

H N capacities for Rogr Corman and had conmd hs lack of promis at

th m of a disastrous chapo squl to Jo Dant's 1978)

His T storyln was largly clld from ti-travl das thathad alrady bn xplod n scinc ction shows k T Os and k Th m's star was a Austan musclman, aEuropan mpot th tradition of Anna Stn who had alrady bcom

a laughnstock bcaus of hs iabity to act and hs inracabl

accnt (To crush your nms,' wnt on of hs lins of dialog in his

prvius as tanscribd by Nigl Andrws T Ms

d Ts ld cTo s dm drivn bfor yo and

to har d lantato of d v Th acton was hailydpndnt on visual ffcts, yt th was intally budgtd at aminuscul $ illion (lss than th spcial cts budgt alo for thsam yar's Gbss) and raisd to $65 on only with tgratst rluctanc.

Evn whn th had opnd and bn iitially acclaid,Camron himslf was rully modst in hs xpctations tlling Fl

C (anuarFbruary 1985) W kow wr going to gtstompd by th Cristmas movis. 201 I' b g up to sthm why shouldn't vrybody ls?' ? 210? is nowrmmbr as David Lynch's $5 milion disastr. Ptr Hyams's 201isn't rmmbrd by anybody xcpt Cmron hmslf wo has tc

adaptd its cntral concit according to which th computr H thvlain of th rst coms good in th squl. Ian Holm's android

btrays th crw inl whil anc Hnrikns anroid sacricshimslf for ply Als; and in T 2 Schwrzng'scyborg is rprogammd to protct John Connor instad of dstrong

him)

Isn't thr somting wrong with symbolism a obrsiv s what

an Campio prsnts us wth i T ? If you want a ral sns ofslnc look instd at th st v mnuts of Hawks's R v

1959) Dan Martin's alcoholc Dud shws th dpth of hisdgradation by scrbblng for a coin in h spitton John Wayn tris to


6/70

B M O E R N CL S S I C Ssav Mart from hmslf ad s struck dow by hm Claud Aks

commts murdr ad walks dow th strt to aothr bar W har th

soud of th door swgg op offscr t s Way oc mor wthblood trcklg dow hs fa Spakg th rst words th @m harrsts Aks ad sts moto th drama t s a magctly bold

pc of cmatc arratv, yt t dos't call attto to tslf th

way that mor clbratd opg ous de foce do such as that ofWs's Touch of or th parodc log opg tak of RobrtAtma's Th Paye

Crtc s ar proccupd wth thms of lms , what thy ar

about' . d f a obvously commrcal, popular @m should b foud

worthy of attto, th that must b baus t has som srous

thms as wll s ths o? Bao s about loyalty, hoour adrdmpto, suppos, but s't t also about Ag Dckso throwg

th vas through th wdow as Rcky Nlso tosss th r to oh

ay ad shoots wo m whl t's th ar? Ad Way rllg hscgartts wth o had ad costatly sarchg for match? Da

Mart otcg blood drpg to hs drk ad turg ad kllg thmurdrr of Ward od a sgl shot? t's about th aplomb wth

whch Hawks ad hs cast ca tak th most clchd of Wstr

archtyps, a dacg grl, a comc Mca, a druk, a crppld old

tmr, ad mak thm strag ad compl oc mor

Mayb thr ar som lms that work lk a Hy ams ovl, as

a orgac whol, but most of th os that mattr to us ar bout

momts, qurky dtals w tak away from thm ad trasur , a oddcamo hr, a fuy l thr, a audacous camra movmt, a

amusg cut, a dazzlg spcal ct or a satsgly baroqu mac

gu ou kow your wapos, buddy, ' a s Dck Mr says to

Schwarzggr th gu shop s Flm s a vscral, ktc form

for whch crtcl crtra largly drvd from ltratur ad th thatr

ar ll sutd

y h s ow acout, ams C amro grw up wrtg stors ad

patg pctus Hs trst storytllg ld hm to a fuso of th


7/70

H E R M N A T R two in comic books Then he discovered the cinema and realised it waswhat he had been oong for Tat's hat a movie is It's a visua

medum wih a narrative itent' To put it another way, James Camerowas perfecty ualied to make owbudget caed T Tinto the most important and inuential of the 80s & he told aninterviwer from Fls d Flg ugust 1986) who questoned about the cyborg's destruction of the poce station: suppose i's antiauthoritaria. Why no? It's also visual, it's ynamic, it's the utmteextrapolation of conict, it's what maes thing exciig.'

Is this nough to mae a lm a cassic? Does he word even maesense in regard to a lm barely more than ten years od? the prefaceto hi edition of Shaespeares pays, r Johnson new what wasrequired to earn status of hat ind

The Poet, of whse works I have ndertaen the revision, may now

begin to assme the dignity of an ancient, and caim the priviege of

estabished fame and prescriptive veneration He has ong otived

his centry, the term commony fied as the test of iterary mritWhatever advantages he might once deive from persona asions,

oc cstoms or temporary opinions, have for many years ben

os nd very topic of merriment or motive of sorrow, which the

modes of artificia ife afforded him, now ony obscre the scenes

whic they once iminated The effects of favor and competition

are at an ed; the tradition of his friendships and his enmities has

peished; his works spport no opinion with argments, nor sppyny faction with invectives; they can neither indge vanity nor gratif

maignity, but are read withot any other reason than the desire of

peasre, and are therefore praised ony as peasre is obtained; yet,

ths nassisted by interst or paion, they have passed trogh

varitions of aste and changes of anners, and, as they devoved

from one generation to another, have received new honours at every

transission


8/70

I B F M O E R N C LA S S C S

Perhaps has earned simlar status by outliving its decade,if not its century his 18 lm was considered worthy of a sequel aera gap of no less than seven years As I write, in early 16 twelve years

aer its opening, you can still buy it on video. What greaterdemonstration of longevity could be required?

he methods by which critics nd commercial, unpretentious lmsworthy of serious attention, and accord them classic sttus, would inthemselves constitute something of a history o lm criticism e stagesof appreciation might go something like the foowing X is trash but ithas a vitalit which is lacking in more artistic lms; Xmay seem to be

trash to te snobbish but it actualy has serious themes and issues justlike an art l; Xis tras, so what's wrong wih trash, anyay? hyhould we be grown up al the time? Xis cmmercial, it's protable, it'senjoyable, what more o you want from a lm?

Pauline Kael's brilliant, and hugely inuential, 168 essay, rash,Art and the Movis' reprinted in g Sdy Fl gs9-9 eplored these ideas while deliberately tauntig the

moviegoers who like ms to be serious wors of art likelwU

or She was also trying to return to the eperience of the way we lookat movies ere is so much talk now about th art of the lm that wemay be n danger of forgetting that most of the movies we enjoy are notworks of at' inema, the most total and encompassing art form wehae', was a landscape we could walk into: he romance of mvies isnot just in those stories and those people on the screen but theadolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what

you'e seen You do meet them, of course, and you kow each other atonce because you talk less about good movies than about what you ovein bad movies'

And somehow, like a andscape, the movies wer just there, aresource that intelligent, independentminded people could e insearch of the occasional nugget that would show that Holywood was notentirely corrupt Kael's distrust of ashy technique was so deep roote

that it sometimes seemed like a distrust of y technique, as if the best


9/70

H R M N R lmmakers ad peromers wer Rousseauesue, istictual creatureswo produced momets of geius like hummigbirds iadvertely

catchig a subeam for a omet It was stll the debate betee pupad art; it was ust that Kael tipped the baac slightly toards pulpIf T T deserves to be caled a classic, the tis is

because the @m trasceds that largely sterile debate. Te mark of aserious SF movie used to be that at some poit a scietist would give aseech about the ture of umaity Lida amilt delvers a parodyof such a speec i T rinato James amero makes o bid fo thatsort of sigicace but he remais a semioticia of immese rsource.If oe suspects that Luis Buuel ight ave smiled at te @m, it is otbecaue of ay ideas the lm articulates ad ot ust because of thereferece t his U c dlu i te cyborgs operatio o is oweye but that he mght havebee ticke by the idea of amachie that rot If ndyarhol might have approved

of the it is ot becauseof ay eperimets ith formbut because of its castigcoup, humaisig his friedArold Schareegger admaking hi the biggest stari the world b turig hi

ito a iepressie robot.Ad Fritz ag might have gril approved of a tat sees topreach peace whe depictig a ture of bbesa strugge for suivalbetwee psychopathc machies a a tribe of etzschea humawarriors.

T remas as irreducible ad upalatable as t isviscerally eoyable. Oy oe a has bee able to tae ad civse itad that i his selfcosciously respectable seuel is J ames Camerohimself.

Above U /ou


10/70

B D R N CA S S C S B

Jams Camro ad hs coscrwrtr ad producr Gal A Hurdrst mt tr md twts wh thy wr both mployd by ogr

Corma Thy wr amog th last graduats of th w Wrld cturs

compay for Corma sold t ad movd o To Camro ad Hurd

as to othr asprg lmmakr from Fracs Coppola th 60s to Jo

Dat th 80s Corma ord a opportuty rtu for a

wllgss to accpt strct acal ad cratv costras thy would

hav th chac to work o movs a varty of apacts t was th

closst Hollywood had to a fuctog apprtcshp systm for

drctors a producrs

Hurd workd as a producto assstat o two rousg thrllrs

drctd by Lws Tagu ad wrtt by Joh Sayls T Lady Rd(1979) a orsh tal about th grlfrd of Joh Dllgr ad

Algato (980) about a gat allgator trrorsg a Amrca towTh sh co-produd wth Rogr Corma Sok Bt t ut (1981)

a trashy thckard work for wch th c ar-chas squcs wr smplysppd out of arlr Corma lms such as Eat My ut (976) adad T Auto (977; ts lm was o Howard's drctoral dbut)

Camro l Cot rcalld hs yougr slf as trstd photography ad dsrlatd spcal ffcts' ad h racd hs

z th at w World cturs wth v crdts o Batl Bod t Sta,a charactrst Corma proct trasposg T Magct Sv to

spac H d vrhg from spcal fcts to producto dsg to alttl bt of scod ut t postproducto work as a matt artst'

Th uc o f th Corma dustral procss o C amo ad

Hur was dcsv Th subjct mattr was rstrctd t o famlar grs

ad past lms wre raw matral to b magatvly pludrd Movs

had to b mad quckly ad ch aply yt thy dscovrd what could b

achvd wth th most lmtd of rsourc s Thr wr fw profssoal

barrs Evbody got volvd wth vrythg ad for Camro ts

was crucal ou s wth sm lmmakrs whr thy bg to dlgat


11/70

H E E R N A O R 3too much authority Theyre not n control of the nuances that gvetexture to a m like t let's sa where eey scen and every

shot has soe thoght behnd t. Pople get the smell of a movie that istoo glossy or too packaged. They tend to lke underdog movies.'

I her famous jeremad, Why Are Movies So Bad? or, Thembers, rst publshed the Nw Yk in June 1980 aulne Kaellamented the reslts o usig so many traied and unprotected rsttme drectors techncally ignorant, use to workng with actrs, illatease on a ove set. Th was never to be Cameron's problem. By thete he wet ot on his ow, he had a bas technical grasp f everyaspect of modern mmakng from operating the camera to the ostarcane detais of speca effects. He could write a script and he couldstoryboard a scene Wen he cae to make his own ms, he had a

Esc fm

Yo

owledge of eebdy's b tat gave h a ore than nina

atori e ud ann nro fr dsance ih te oegethat the ateria he had stoboare en if it as created by ernpeople in different places ould ltimatey cohere

n 181 Caern superise the spea eecs n on

Carpenter's Ec / w Yk Tis is set

a futur in hich NeYork City as becoe so squalid that has ben abandoned seale o


12/70

F I M O R N A S S C Sa ture ito a priso e the US presiets plae crashes itothe city urt Rusell is set i to extricate him he itia iea wascomelig a the grugy settig was efective but the story remaiecuriously uevelope

I the same year Camero irecte his first lm Panha II Thyng s a seuel i ame oly to the witty 978 origial by therecet Corma grauate Joe Dante It has far less i commo withCamers ater work tha ay of the films he ha previously worke oeve before it was heavily recut by the Itaia proucer partly to icluea sequce of halfake wome subathig o a yacht Camero

himself has only cmente that he woul have one anything that gavehim a chance to irect. It was an uiteresting a isignicat flmwhich othing or Camero except give hi the tite of iector

h 1: Th Fg Ks


13/70

H R M N A O R 5

ccording to ames Cameron, T T began as an image in hismnd of a robot waling out of a e Probably he was remembering thescene in Fritz Langs Mls in whch he robot imitation of aria isburned at the sae and the metal machine beneah is reealed is nosufcien merely o sa ha T T ees ith echoes of sind is buit out of hem

Cameon has been open abou he ciemaic memories ha feedinto hs or Soon aer he release of T T he old an

inerieer from /sq cober 1985) ' really abouthe nuences ta helped hape the sor te enre feelg ca betraced bac o some '50s sciece co ls and O episodes thing tha O had tha away presed suawas its use of th dep focusl loo of the 40s s nd heerman resionis mos of he 30 Paraels were spedlalleged ih a specc 964 episode of T O called Solder

wrien by Halan llisn whch Camero wa o o hae eenFurther comparisos ere ad durg hs nee h achneagainsmn sory also wn b llio Hae o u ad utScream whch begins i rds sa o he a te eg ofT T

The Cold Wr started and became World War Three and jst ket

oing. It became a big war, a very comle war, so they needed

comters to handle it They snk the first shafts and begn bildig

AM (Allied Mastercomter) ... and eveything was fine nti they

had honeycombed the entire lanet, adding tis element and tht

element. ... In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the hman race

.. With the innate loathing that all machines ad always held for the

weak, soft creatres who had bilt them, he had soght revenge

her resemblances ere also assered noer 1964 O


14/70

B M O D R S S I Sepisoe Demon with a lass an feature a timetravelling robotentruste wth the fate of the human race n a famous Sa Tek

episoe City on the Ee of orever, McCoy travels bac totwentiethcentury Earth an his arrival is reminiscent of Reeses in Themnao in a similar bac aley witnesse by a ownanout in aoorway But isnt this an example of a resemblance cause by practicalresponses to the same problem? The time traveler has to arrive a city,but if he appears in a busy street, there be istracting compicationsthat have nothing to o with the story The same coul be sai of otherresemblances Cameron certanly new Elison's wor, but his vision of a

future conict between man an the technology he hasreate goesbac to Prometheus More recently, the battle beeen machine aneople ha been ramatise in Kubric's D Sangee (1963 an

Mos

00 (1968 in John Carpenters Dak Sa (1974 an in numerousepisoes of Sa Tek The issue was conclue as murily as it haegun ter tortuous, acrimonious legal proceeings, a settlement was

reache with Ellison, the enactment of which has itself been a matter ofconstant ispute

n the aftermath of a suen success, ccuations of tis are


15/70

H R M N A O R 7rouie ot all of tem are ujustied Doroty Parker famously saidtat te oly ism' Holyood uderstood was plaiarism Studo lawes

prefer to use terms ke g usi te word i Frec akes iseem ore atistic, coicidece o ee frameted liteal siaty' fact te more eaples are produced aaist T T te lessdamai tey see ey eely demostate e deee to wichtese ideas fomed a ottoess pool of ateial aailale to aody

who culd d a use for the a ieious essay ideii te acetpes used i

Csbl eo co poted out i is oo F Fks tatwat Csblc ad doe ucosciousl oe ecet s ae doeit etee itereual awaeess He coiued:

It wod e seioticay ninteresting to ook for qotations of

archetypes in or in oe : the were conceived

within a mtasemiotic ctre, and what the semiotician can fid in

them is eacty what the directors pt there Spielberg and cas are

semioticay norished athors working for a ctre of instinctivesemioticians.

Like Spiele a Luca Caeo elos t a eeatio ofcieaticay literate dectos wo ae y coscious of at te aredoi Caeo ca daw o ati from U c dl weScwazeee sces tou is daaged eye to te slase moies

tat wer so commecaly successl i te early 0s ccusatios ofplaiaism are eside te poit Like a aists i al elds Cameoas cosideale sk i di ts tat ae wored fo ote peopleor oe iteestil tat v'wored for oter people ut ca wofo im

tpical eample s is oous det to Micael Cricto's eut Wsld 97 is is aout a ester teme pa we adults

ca o ad pla at owos sooti a oot wo loos e Yul Berad edd te loca woes e as i Ctos late ssc k


16/70

B M O D R N CLAS S C S- e exibis u on e guess e ero is pursued by e vengel

Brynner android Cameron drew on wo separae aspecs of e Cricons mos sriking visual coup was o sow us e worl ouge androids elecronic eyes an elecronic osaic a surprisinglyoucing effec wic enabled e audience o ideni briey wi ecreaure. Cameron borrowed e idea and enriced i in T Tand ade even subler use of in e seuel f e lesson of TT and Wwld was a o sare a caracers poin of view isnecessariy o ideni wi i and even feel soeig for i en one ofe logical eods o prevening any audience involvemen wi e

even more advanced cyborg a pursues Scwarzenegger is o deny usany paricipaion in is poin of vie By conras Caeron akes oredeaied use of e old erminaors poin of view and e s ospoignan momn is a ecnological effec afer e erminaor as sunkimself ino e va of molen meal a e cliax of T wesee is visual display crackle ollapse and fade o a do.

Camerons second use of e @m arose fro is recogniion of

ow an inially poen idea ad reained oddly unsaising. nWwld Cricon sowe lile ineres i e deails of ow eandroids mig plausibly work I was is abnegaion a siulaedCamerons iaginaion as e old l C I was ng f aninesrucible acine an endoskeleon design wic ad never been@ed as suc Wed ad ings ke Wwldwere Y Brynners facefalls off and eres a ransisor radio undernea wic is no visually

sising because you don feel a is ecais could ave beinside ovig ose facial feaures So i sared from e idea of doingis sor of deniive movie robo wa Ive always waned o see

Caeron as a repuaion as a direcor wo is preoccupied wiecnolgy bu is ecanical ski is accopanied y a m fans senseof wa e audience wans o be sow He dvoed scarcely any of isliied resources o e ime acine a e beginng of TT, becaue e rigly calculaed a e audince would accep

a as a given Bu since we are ld so uc abou e cyborgs


17/70

T H T R M A T R

capabilitis, and tn gt to s it in action, w want to b sown t

dtais of ow it wors

obvios inc of t psycopatic rdrr in on

Carpntrs ig sccss Hll 978 is antr xapl of

Carons crativ brrowing Carpntr a basd t ntir strctrof is on t progrss f an nstoppabl lr, ding all traditionsabot caractr and sspns as t ow cold cat ir

ad no psyclocal otivatio and was also, in so nxplaind way,

nonan, and apparnty ipssil to il As an astrac xpnt

in cinatic sspns it was intrsting, as a cnatic narrativ rts

soon bgan to diinis

A siir ida was sd or coplingy t folloing yar int for of t ltal cratr in dly Scotts Al wic slagtrs


18/70

I O D R N C LA S S I C S

the crew members of a saceshi one by one The hightone style ofKubricks 00 was alie to a Bicture lot featuring slattey

violence that was reviousy more associate with exloitation movies

In his rst unguare ays as a newly sccessful irector,ameron sinkle his inteiews with references to an extraorinaryrange of lms which were not just vague stylistic inuences, but ouresof etail o which he coul ra Cameron was an oen amirer of theioneering action irector alter Hill I ha The De min when I

was writing certain scnes in The Temnato Not that I was cribbing; Iha only seen the icture once an just ha a im meory of the kineticforwar energ An resumabl the carark interiors the ark,

esere urban exteriors an the car chases In ue course Hill himselfbecame an amirer of The Tenato an trie to interest Cameron in aversion of Spatacus set in sace Cameron was not intereste in thisresumably because he ha alreay use this as the insiration for thecharacter f John onnor, leaing the human slaves in a revol against

the macines Instea Cameron agree to write an irect the sequel toAen The De (1978) sulie the style of the moeay scenes, but

for the glimses of the future, Cameon ha to look elsewhere then when I was writing Tenato The Road "o came out an Isai "This is the next ste oboy in between ha come close

In The Road o ( 1 9 8 1 ; known in Australia an Britain as Madax George Miler create a brutal ostholocaust worl, atribalise societ almost reinustrial in everything excet its weaonryIt is sometimes forgotten that one o the innovations of Sta "s 1977)

was that its futuristic technology was rimy an battere George Milleran, in his wake James Cameron took this further giving the future theirt creaky look we assciate with ls set in the ast The or ar submarine in the war Cameron so amire, Das Boot ( 1 9 8 1 ) , isnt gleamingly soli but rattlin ricketty, leaking, irty TechNoir, thename of the nightclub in The Tenato was also aote as the nameof Cameron an Hurs rouction comany, an it has frequently beencite as a escrition o Camerons entire aesthetic atever role


19/70

Abv Th R W (k /)Blw Os

R M A O R


20/70

22 F I O R N C A C technolog plas in Camerons work, i t i s not the harbinger of a new,rational, efcient order. Like man of his generation, Cameron - ho

was born in 954

grew up watcng Star rekwith its clean surfaces, itshgienic technolog of phasers and transporter beas, and its jumpsuited crew embers. t was the suburban erican ktchen proectedinto the future B the time Cameron had begun to make ms, thefuture had failed. or the rst time in living memor, the standrd ofliving of the erican middle class was falng real terms there weresocial prolems that couldnt be solved, diseases that couldnt be curedand the future of hins to Come (936) no longer seemed convincingThe crew members of the ostromo in Alien are grubb, pale, unshaven,unt. The complain about their food and their wages

n lade Runner (92), also directed b idle Scott, the rainurban squalor of the future as aparentl been le to t orientals, thelatios ad to Harrison ord. Sctts inention of the ure was anawesome visual achevement, some compensation for te faues of thenarrative. f budgetar constrictions prevented James Cameron from

dwelling on the details of his invented future in the wa th Scot didwith long panning shots over turistic urban scenes, then the loss oflrical desin in favour of narrative tautness was el worth it Cameronma have been eclectic in his inspirations but he was never indulgenttowards hem Directors like Brian De Palma, oe Dante and ohnandis seem unable to resit an alusion or visual joke that comes ntotheir mind This can be fun but when ou are spottig a series of cameos

b lm directors in minor roles in LandissInto the Nih or spottingrefeences t Hitchcock lms (in man of De Palmas lms, ou canlose our nvolvement in the stor. Cameron remains full conscious of

whee hi material comes from without ever winkng at the cineastes inthe audience he erminaor is one of those lms (ohn Sturges aday at lak Rok is another which on a second viewing sems shortertan ou expected There ar no distractions, no padding, noindugence The nratives progres is as purposel as that of thecbor


21/70

N 3 Mk

] ams Camron is currntly a bnciary of th most lucrativproduction dal vr gin to a ovi dictor. Yt whatvr frdo h

is givn, whatvr powr h gos on to achiv, h nvr b abl torcaptur th crativ opportuniy h had whn h mad T T

H still had on foot in th rash, smallscal Corman world of

makng in which t dirctor cod had to do a bit of

vrthing r th opning of t lm, Cmron was conscious of th

bnts of this mthod of workng, vn as h abandond it for th

opportutis and constraints of largr udgts. H said to FlC intriwr:

was in sme ways an ltimate eperience for me I got to

conceive the idea, write the script have a dea made, storyboad h

major cenes, go abot creating those iages in casting and sets

and ocations, then film it and cmpare the finished shots to the

storyboard and see a satisfyingly similar typ e of image Fo me itwas a cean swep got to do evthing wanted to do

Tr was a inimum of actual intrrnc from th movi's

aymastrs at Orion, parly bcaus thr was rlativly litl mony a

stak. Thr ar only two rcordd crativ suggstions from t

nancirs. Th rst was t addition of a canin yborg to accompany

Rs, which Cmron turnd down. Th scond was a strnghni ofth lov inrst btwn Rs and Sarah, which amron gly

accptd. This rsultd in t l's on priod of rpos, in th scns

in whih th oupl shltr st undr th ridg and thn in th otl,

rmniscing, bandag, makng lov and manufacturing xplosivs.

lswhr, th ncssary xlaator dtais ar ly inorporatd into

th ction unlk in th squl, which is slowd down by a larg nm

of xpositor squs and lgthy dialogus).

Camron was both knwldgabl aout h possibiliti of


22/70

O E R N C A C specia effects and nancially limited in the number f them tha hecud use s he was frced t decide which were the nes hat reaymattered As Camern ater recaled in Films and Filmin Writinginaorwas reay the art f thrwing ut and winnwing dwn gingn the basis f certain assumptins abut the audiences educatin incience cin at culd he get away wth mitting? The time travelat the beginning was suggested nly by a few electric sparks thatpleasingly recall the primitive technlgy f ciencectin mvies inthe Flash Grdn traditin

What culd he get away with shwing nly n part? Fr much f

the lm the mechanic the cybrg are shwn in carely selecteddetail the detachable eye int which Schwarzenegger plungs hisscalpel the creaking levers inside his damaged frearm

What did the audience reay need t see? Camern husbanded hisspecial effects resurces fr just tw sequences wth a shrewd sense f

where they wuld be mst needed The rst is the battle in the LsAngeles f 2029 sen at the beginning and a few minutes later in

eeses memry t give the audience an initial and dely misleadingimpressin f technical pulence Even here the cmputer frces aresuggested with the utmst ecnmy and because f the limite budgetCamern ha t keep all these scenes brief and bliquely ptrayed

with cnsequent benets t the ms pace and structure The secndsequence was the appearance f the cybrg at the lms climax burneddwn t its endskeletn It emerges frm the ames and chases Reeseand Sarah int the factry

th these squences were created by Fantasy II spcial efectscmpany headed by Gene arren Jm. The secnd sequence invlvedcuttin between versin f the cybrg a fulscale mechanicalterminatr cnstructed by the famus secial efects man Stn instnin his shp and a stpmtin puppet built by Dug eswick at FantasyII The difculties invlved in the use f this mel were cnsiderableCaern insisted that the miniature had t be as detailed as the fu

scale versin but nancial limittins prevented the crew frm building


23/70

H E E R N A O R a smaler, more easily workable puppet s pppet is seen nine tiesin ll shot waking out of the re, moving down the corridor into te

factory, on the catwalk and then, in the ls single most technicalychaenging sequence, receiving Reeses blow with a metal pipe

Camero storyboarded these episodes, but he knew that hewouldn't be able to superise their production because of the pressureof time tan stons mode wasnt copleted unti ust beforeprincipa photography began and the puppet had to be constructed andlmed with aost o prelimnary testing Fortunately, Camerons

expertse extended also to a crucial understanding o what wasunrealistic to deand of his technical crew He wanted the cyborg'smetal structure to cnvince the audienc that it was capabe of what teaudience had seen chwarenegger doing, but it was videt that there

ames Cameron


24/70

2 O E R N C A C was n way that the stopmotion process could satisfactoriy imitateScwarzneggers distinctive gait So Schwarzenegges nal

apeaance on scree wsee m bdly nured by the tuck andiming away from it a lip that the model coud asily imitate theevent the aniation wa efective and its occasional erkiness could bexcused or even enoyed as a reminiscence of - even a homage to -Ray Harryhausens celebrated stopmoton animation @ms e Jasnand he Arnaus and ne Miin ars C

Cameron aso benetd from low audience expectations bon ofbitter experience of cheap F movies They didnt anticipate seeingmuch of how the cyborg actully worked in what was patently a lowbudget @m Having startled and rewarded his audience in heerminar, he would ever be granted the luxury of low expectationsagain n Camerons later lms the bugets would multiply drasticaly inconstantly escaating attempts to sartle the audience once more with themetamorphosing water creatures in he Ass, the mimetic polyalloycyborg TOOO in ermina the helicopters and Harrier Jump Jet in

re Lies But that pleasure of surprise - the audience's delightdreaisation that ust for once it wasnt going to be ripped of - couldnever uite be recptured


25/70

N 4 The Plot

God, a erson cold go craz thiking abot thisSarah Cr t hr tap rcrdr

Where does one start in sumarising the story of T?Numerous works of art make use of the idea of circuarity. Fgsk an the fourth chapter of Nabokov's T G both ish by

eding the reader back to their beginning The same is certainy true of

ms e d Ng paradoxica form of circuarity occurs in thePanet of the pes' sequence of movies Esc l As the origin of taing apes on Earth is expained by a tie travmacine bringing two of them Rdy McDowe and m Hunter) fromEarths ture

But this is positivey inear compared with the cumativedevepments in T T and Best perhaps to beginin te midde th Linda Hamitons voiceoer in the precreditsequence of the eqe

Three bilion hma lives ended on August 9, The survivors of

the nuclear fire clled te war Judgement Da The ived onl to

face a new nightmare the war against the machines

The couter which cntroled the mchines, Sknet, sent two

terminators back through time. Their missin, to stro he leder

of the hman resistance, John Connor, son. The first termnatrwas rogramed to strike at me in the ear before John ws

born t failed The second was set to strike at John himself, when e

was still a child. As befre, the resistance was able o send a lne

warrior, a rotector fr John t was just a question f which e of

them woud reach him first.

paradox in T Tis that the man sent back to potectSrah Conor actuay fathers her cd John Connor knew that he was


26/70

8 O R C A C sning his own fathr back in ti in orr that h hslf bconciv In eminato th paraos ultiply It rgs that th

sophsticat nw tchnolo which provok t nuclar war wasvlop fro th fragnts of th cyborg raning in th facto atth n of th rst l In einato th cyborg not rly savsJohn Connor but prvnts th war which was rsponsble for seninghi back an thwarts th technological evelopent which reslte nhiself bg invnt an then estroys hiself in orr to reoe thslightest possibility of hiself being create So by the en of

einato

th invntion of th coptr efnce syste, an hncth nuclar war, has bn forstall o th war with th coputrs will

vr tak plac So John Connors hroic laershp of th n against

the achns wil not b call fo So thre will be no nee to prevent

eo rs ad

hi bing born, an noteriator to o it even ifthre was a nee Sothere will be no nee to

sen Reese back toprotct the unborn JohnConnor So John Connor

wont be orn So inwch possble universehave we ene up? Itstech st, a Reese

saysBy the n of

einao th story isnot so uch circular as aspiral vashing up itsown ietic plyaloynaent Its noyably

baroqu coplications{probably uence by


27/70

N 129

the playul paradoxes of Robert Zemeckis's 185 time travel comedyBk o h Fuur in which for example Chuck Bery learns the riff ofohnny B oode by hearing it played by May McFly who learned it

rom istening to Chuck Bery) may obsure in retrospect the satisingformal neatness of the rst lm Reese has flen in love with arahsphotograph given to him by he and his) son and he has always

wondered what she was thinking about when it was taken n the nalmoments of te lm as Saah sits in a Mexicn gas station teing hertape recorder about the love she and Reese shared in their brief hourstogether a lttle boy taes a Polaroid photograph of her and sells it to

her for four doars We ee that it is Reeses phtograph Click hecircle of the story s complet Sarah drives off ito the impendingnuclear holocaut and the audiece walks out surprised and satise

This efciy of construction a cross beween Sr r and OHen may seem a mal thing but it was a witty variation on the linerchaseandki structure of An, Howen an even Bd unner.hen ames ameron came to mae rmnor, h had alreadyestablished hs creentals as a technician The surprise was tha he hadapplied his standards of craftsmanship to the story as wel as to thespecial effects I a Hoywood era in hich th min plot ist comes

when the vlaimonster gets up again aer the audence thnks it'sdead Cmeron actualy surprised the audience with some real plottwists n s interview with Fm Commn Cameron himself saw hisachievement in typicay technical terms: t was an underdog moviefrom a poductio standpoint eople com out f the teate feelig

that they got moe han they exected fom he markeig hatspositive wodofouth'


28/70

O R N C A S S S

5 Swrz

The rst tme Paulne Kel revewed a James amern m t waslin n August 986), she descrbed hm as the man who drected theSchwarzenegger m rminator, and wrote the scrpt fr Ramboirt lood Part before Stallone reshaped t

And of coure rminaor s nescapaby a Schwarzeneggerpcture t Schwarzenegger cture, the more tha any ther thatturned hm both to a cut and no a maor nteatona tar Asameron hmself admtted, the castng was crucal and altered th

meanng of the lm The orgnal plan had been to make, n ameronswords, a rtt streetlevel scncecton move that you ould buy asf t was rea happenng He magned the ternator as a moreanonymous, saturnne gure and the rst actor he had n mnd wasJrgen Prochnow, star of Da oot He was presumably ntendng a moredownatheel vern of the androdlader n lad Runr, played byutger Hauer Almost reacton to lad Runnr, makg a rtue once

mor f the budgetary lmtatons, inaorwould have been agrm, puntve scenccton tale, dened by eese's austrty, thefuture exstence of dervaton, pan and eternal conct mported backnto the 20th centry He mght have been somethng lke the TOOOmodel termnator (played by oert Patrck, Schwarzenegger'santagonst inator 2 when they certany weren't gon to cast anactor who would oblterate Schwarzeneger the way thatSchwrzenegger obterated poor Mchael Behn

inaor.Patrck s th cyborg as nerd, the cyborg as conformst compay ma,copared wth Schwarzeneer who s bzarrely rencarnated n thesequel as a mcrochp representatve of fronter dependence

nce Schwarzenegger was cast, the grm, realstc concpton ofthe story ws no longer teable n mrons words Wth Anld, the@m took on a largerthafe sheen I just found myself on the set dongthngs ddn't thnk would do cenes that were supposed to be

purely horrc that just couldnt be, because ow they were too


29/70

H N 3amboyant' Ths alteraton as not due to any nsght brought to therole by Scharzeneger hmself. Shred as he s, Scharzenegger's

analyss of hs on ork has generaly been resrcted to ts mportancefor hs longterm strategy n the ndustry. As he sad early n hs career nInteiew ctober 985) never thnk about money don't. dontlke that hole dea of beng nto money. ke to make good oneyonly because ts part of th game. You have to have a certn value olyood. heres the $5000 actor the $ lln actor, $5 mlnactor and so on. You have a certan value so ou try to put yourselfhgher and hher up nto ths category.

t has been sad that Scharzenegger as oered the part ofReese and oted for the part of the vllan order to broaen hs

range but ths may el ust be an attempt to gve a retrospectve

cwarzenegger


30/70

B O A S S Spupseuless wha a he ime mus have eemed like he suie pjecs Accdig igel Adews shewd bigaphy he sa chwaeegge appache he lm wih ile ehusiasmalkig a ied shly bee hig saed he eeed i assme shi mvie Im dig ake a cuple weeks

chwaeeges picipa ceaive ipu i he yeas his ealysuccess was pu me humu in his ms in de make hischaace me sympaheic hese esuled in he amus Aieinges emiisce a pbably ipie by - he wisecacks ihe James Bnd lms ea Cer and Rge Me Thus in

Predtor (chwaenegges bes m apa m e eintor) duinga gh seuence he hws a knie a a man pinning him a wdenps ick aud he says a ema which is eniely inapppiae he smbe chaace chwaenegge was playing bu eiely suied he pesa he was develping ermintor 2 is ull hese inges and

we ae eve aleed a hihe unevealed aspec cybg desigwhich pemis he develpme human chaaceisics and hece

alws chwaenegge emply sme his - y hen - ademakgimaces an awing ees and delive caeull hnedcachphses pblem Has a visa baby

chwaeegges mase seivenin and he managemen his w caee is in dub bu Camen new hw usechwaeegge his wn pupses Camen is au as a cnleak even i a pessin cn eaks ad chwaenegges nlyevealing memy making

e eintoris an accun Camens

diecin he scee when he emina has been blased ugh hewindws he Tech i club n he s Ageles sidewakCame sd e side camea and insuced him in eveymveme m peing his ees he mmen a which he shudaise himsel he gund as i he wee ahe an Winsnsspmi mdels

ame had caugh chwaeegge a he igh ime and seen

smehing i him eg ee nce ske wha had dawn him


31/70

H R N A O R cast a T owboy calle Clit Eastwoo in the leaing role of A Fisu

o Dolars : The stor is tol that when ichelanelo was aske what heha seen in one particular block of marble which he ha chosen amon

hunres of others, he replie that he sa Moses When they ask mewhat saw in Clint Eastwoo, replie that what I sa smply, was ablock of marble' James Cmeron ha ha the same sort of perceptionSchwarzenegger was wen he appeare The Teinao and hsareer had aleady passe through several stages n Bob afelsnsundervalue Say Hun 97 an eorge Bler and obert Fore'socumentay umpin o 977 he had emerged as a bodbder

with an unexpected cham and huour Conan he abaian 982 hadae h wel nown but at the prce o becomng the butt of te o arsbl cartoonsh ebdent of ohn us's protosaura posoph

C b


32/70

F O R N C A S S C SSchwarznegger was posed for a career ether n the straghtto

vdeo market that seems to have clamed actors lke Rutger Hauer and

Dolph ungren (oth more techncally accomplshed performers thanSchwarzenegger or n ohn Watersstyle campery or prhaps theEuropean muscleman epcs of the knd that made Steve eeves cultCaeron saw n ths apparently absurd overblown gure a pose andstllness that made aparent dsqualcatons such as hs accent and hnablty to act rrelevant

Schwarzeneggers termnator demands to be compared wth oneof the mythc creatons of the cnema ors Karloff s great perfomanceas Frankenstens onster n ames Whales m he onster nMary Sheleys nove was qute another thng a person more senstveand artculate than hs creator The orgnl castng for the lm was elaugos who coud only have been a small twsted manac ore le Igorthan the monster tself ut ugos turned the ole down because of tslack of dalogue and ors Karloff took t over n the face of t thelm monster wth ts metal bolts ts nhuman appearance ts crmnal

bran (solen from the wrong jar was a straghtforward object of horrorut Karloff huge and stately ent the role hs own gravty. Reachng forthe lght attemptng to ply th a young grl the creature became anembodent not erely of pathos but of noblty He dened the maeof rankenstens monster for ever and the name of ors Karloffbecame nd remaed one of the most faous n world cnema

There are other ponts of resemblance beteen Karlo and

Shwarzenegger oth were mmgrants who retaned ther foregnaccents (Karloff was an Englsh expubc scholboy oth achevedfae relatvely late (Karloff as 44 when he plyed the monstr for therst tme ot were physcally mposng though Karlo developed sphysque nt n te gym but n the labourng jobs he dd n the szeablegaps beeen roles durng the 2s ut the derences between thetwo are more nstructve about te Schwarzenegger phenomenon orsKaloff was an assumed name; Holyood was not ready for a star caled

Wlam Pratt nod Schwarzenegger became the most famous star n


33/70

R N O R 3 5te world, keeping a nae tat any of is fans couldn't spell or evepronounce. Yet it was Scwarzenegger wo gleefully becae anAmerican citizen and arried into te American royal faily, teKennedys Karlo aintained is Britis citizensp read isden andfro te id50 onwards atually lved in ngland leaving ony toappear in ls Above all te effect of Karloff's success in Frankensein

was to conne i to orror ls for ever How could an ator caedKarloff o anying else He paye te uy and u ancu adendess reclngs of Fraensteins onster and ten wit te delineof te orror gere in Hoyood e went werever te were ade

owever ceap ad sa H surived to benet fro te partia rialof te genre ad apeared in o oger oran ls (The aven andThe or in 962 bot featurig te oung ack Niolson). Tere

Bos alo


34/70

F I R N A S S Swas never the smaest possibility that Karlof could use his fame to gain

control over his lms or to extend his range into other genres as

chwarzenegger has done

Schwarzeneggers terminator who massacres a series of innocent

bystanders, seems an unlikely object of the audiences admiration let

alone sympathy. Excluing the lines of dialogue n which

Schwarzenegger is dubbed (such as when the terminator imitates Sarah

Connor ' s mther ve te telephone) he peaks seventy-four words of

dialogue and kills twentyseven people .

n the terminators rst appearance, the cyborg encounters three

punks (their leader is played by B Paxton, who later played one of themarines in Aen and rpeats what they say to him Nice night forwalk. . . . Nothing clean . . right. Then he adds Your clothes Give

them to me now. Camerons slightly o-key dialogue for the terminator

complements Schwarzeneggers pronunciaion, that idiosyncratic

miture of Austrian and southern Californian

Most of Schwarzeneggers long speeches take place in the gun

shop where he acquires his aroury fro the Coran repertory playerick Mler. My transcript of the dialogue in this scene is unlikely to be

accurate, but the word-count at least ust be about right The

terminator asks fr the twelve gauge autoloadr, the .45 longsliewith lasersighting' and the as-yet-to-beinvented phased plasma rie in

a fortyatt range' (Perhaps that 's what the cyborgs are wielding in the

rst scene of ermnator 2 The plasma rie being unaailable he settles

for the Uz nine millimetre' Asked which of the weapons he wants, hereplis, l . Then, when cautioned that he isn't aowed to take themwith him, he replies Wrong'

Knocking at the door of the rst Sarah C onnor, he says simply

Sarah Connor' before shooting her in the head Almost a of the rest of

his dialogue is delivere at the beginning of the celebrated police stat ion

seuece First he eliers his longest singl peech of the lm (though

he is not required to manae it in a sngle take) Im a friend of Sarah

Connor I was told that she' s here C an I see her please ' n being old


35/70

H N that ths is impossible he asks: here is she?' Before leavig he deliversthe lne that was to become the rst of his catchphases: 'll be back'

There is now almost half of the @ remaining minutes butScwarzenegger speaks ust ten more words Back in his lodging husethe termintors wounded esh is starting to deca and the lanordinquires from outside the door whether he has a dead cat in hs room:Schwarzenegger ripostes with the ms best line Fuck ou assoleer impersonating Srah onnors mother the terminatr cals tehot: Give me our address there he demands Fial whilecommandeering the lorr the immolation of whch will burn his esh

awa the terminator speaks his nal words of the to the codrver:Get out'

As for the kiings: the terminator kils the punk who draws a kife

n e n sop

on b plunging his st into the oung mans chest This is the rstblackl cic touch of the m and the rst hnt to the viewer tat thischaracter is not human The second vitim is the gun stor salesmanThe third victim is the rst Sarah onor shot through the had ust o

camera The fourt victim is the second Sarah onnor whose murder


36/70

s R N A S S Swe only hear about The fth victim is Matt , the boyfriend of arah' s

atmate, Giner, and the sixth is Ginger herself. Ginger s kiling is the

most bruta in the lm ( the terminator' s confusion of identity may have

been sggested by the similar mistake made by David Warner s ac the

Ripper in Nicholas Meyer s 1979 me er me) Victims seven andeight are bystanders in the Tech Noir club ctims nine to twentyve

are police ofcers (we are told in ermnator that seventeen polieofcers were killed if anything a suprisingly low gure) ne mark of

the bracing unentimentality if not brutality, of the lm is that by the

end of the l most audience members have probably forgotten tat

the terminator has kid not just the father of arah Connor's unbornchild, her bst friend and the policemen who promised to protect her

but also her mother he i s the wentysixth victim with Reese as the

twentysevnth and last And this is the character who according to

Cameron, had to be transformed into a hero in the sequel, because so

many young lmgoers admired him.

Cameron resists adding any humanising touches to the terminator

chwarzenegger himsef observed in Interew not entirely withapproval, that there was some indirect humour, but it wasn' t written for

that; that was just the reaction of people' The audience response to the

lm revealed that there was something intrinsicaly attractive and comic

about chwarzenegger, even in the grimmest of contexts The murder of

Ginger, just after her energetic sex with Matt, is thoroughly in the genre

of those s lasher movies in which sexualy active women are butchered

one by one as some sort of psychopathic puritan revenge, and if the

terminator had been played by rgen Prochnow, it would have been

indistinguishable from similar scenes in lms like Halloween or Henows Youre lone ut because it was Arnie audiences halfkew thatit was all n fun

Cameron claimed in m Comment that rion orginally thoughtthat the poster of Schwarzenegger with his chest bared might attract

women to the lm, but I don' t thnk anyone sees hi in a sexal way in

the lm They e him almost from the begining as this implacable,


37/70

H seess eionless ache in he o f a an which i s sca

becase hes a efec ale ge

Thee was oe han ha ne o fohn C aenes chcoedinnovaions i Hallowee was his ssaned se of he eadica acaea which old be saed o a caea oeao and cold obain

acking sos o f a smoohness and a obiiy ha had eiosly been

iossibl Caene saw ha his obile caea cod be sed o

convey he saking dee s oin of view and he esabished his

iediaely wih he vioso log oening sho of he l which a

caea owls ond a hose befoe sabbing a naked woan o ea

We hen c o he dee who ns o o be a sa bo s beeen he voyisic dee and he voyeisic cieagoe seed

in he dak was a falia enogh hee os obviosy in he ls o

fed Hichcock b in he hands of Caene i becae boh

oweflly insisen and cody eeen e i s no ch neven in an iesosible wa fo oviegoes o ideni wih a an who

saks yon gils and hen sabs he o deah

B as Caeon was he s o see he cove idenicaion ofhe adience wih e einao ely ws n He ealise fo he

beginning ha he l aowe he adience o have i boh ways They

wan Reese and aah o ge away b hey aso have he chance o oo

fo he bad gy ( he folowing qoaion incidenaly i s fe

deonsaion of he degee o whch Caeon does os o he ciics

wok o he)

heres a litle bit of the terminator in everbo I our rivate

fantas worl wed all like to be able to walk in an shoot sombo

we on't like, or to kick oor in instea of unloking it; to be

immune, an just to have our own wa ever minute he terinator

is the ultimate rue erson He oerates comletel outsie ll the

built-in soial constraints Its a ark cathartic fantas hats wh

eole ont cringe in terror from the terminator but go with im

he want t be him for that one moment But then when we go


38/70

B O R N A S S Sbac to Reese an Sara you get te oter se of t what t

wou be e to be on the receng en

is dark reedo as only possible bcause Cameron had still not

entirely escaped from Corman s unrespectable exploitation world The

terminator s activities are unhampered not only by human morality but

by diectorial notions of decorum or good taste nce the terinator

slaughters the two Sarah Connors wo come rst in the Los Ageles

phonebook and then Sarahs atmate by mistake we can sit back in the

pleasurable anticipation that he in t going to turn sentimental on us In

the Tech Noir he shots heedlessly into crowds and the glorious slapsticclimax is reached in the police station which he ras wit his car

shooting everybody on sight In einator 2 where this slaughter isrecalled we are piously informe tht those men had families but we

dint know that at the time, or want to know it

The sequel shows what happens when aes Cameron becoes

selfconscious in a diferent way, assues a civic anle and forgoes the

dark pleasure of being an exploitation director The reprogrammed,reformed terminator of einator 2 whose powrs are at te service offreedom, gives us none of that dak sense of release that we had in the

rst lm Instead this large man wih his acces to S arah Connors

secret cache o f weapns i s uncofortably close t o a survivalist with a

righteous sense of mision Admittedly there are a couple of grily

amusing murders comitted by the TOOO most notably the almost

casual ispatchig of ohn C onnor s stefather with a blade throuh thehead This gives the opportunity for the best camera movement in the

lm a tracking shot along the ar of the stepmother (whse shape the

TOOO has asumed as it becoes a blade penetrating rst the carton of

milk and then the stepfathers mouth The carton of milk is a sly

reference to the murder of the senator in e anurian Canddateshot by anoter dehumanised kille the baiwashed Laurence Harvey

throug a similr cartn causing him to bleed milk But with his

metaorphosing blades the n is too close to the psychopathickiler a lasher mvie for us to take much pleasure in it


39/70

H N 4 There is very little that could be described as a perforace i

Schwarzeeggers role as he teriator yet eperiece sows that thereis othig as ptet o the giat ciea scree as he bla face o to

which the audiece ca proect their fataies ad desires ofGarbo at the ed of Qun Chrisina at the prow of the ship faouslyistructed by oube Maoulia to epress othg to thi ofothig i the owledge hat the audiece would do that for herClarece Brow Garbos ost regula directr faously paid tribue toher ipassivity arbo had soethig behid the eyes that you coldtsee util you photographed it i closeup You could see thought f she

had to loo at oe perso wth ealousy ad aother wih love shedidt have to chge her epressio You could see it i her eyes as shelooed fro oe to the other

h rminaor Schwarzeegger too this eve further Not oydoes he lac epres is eyes as wel he eve slces oe of the upi order to reifore the poit To a degree tat eve aes Ceocold ot have aticipated Schwarzeegger deostrated that the

audiece graitates towards the character who has the aura of a hroad tat ipassivit is oe of the crucial attributes of the hero CryGrat was fous for watig to gie the lies i the breadadbutterepository scee that give the audiece essetial but odraaticiforatio to supportig actors wle he would do wht stars o best

which is to liste inaor spectacularly succeeded i ag rold

Schwarzeegger a star t spectacularly failed to ae stars of theostesible heros of the l Michael Bieh ad Lida Halto theiprobabe evet that we ecoutered Biehs eese i real life wewuld cosider hi to be a extraordiar hero He sacrices hiselfor iio to save a woa out of idealis but also eause he hasfalle i lo with her picture l Taio Mozrts Mai Fut) Hearrives i our world with othi ad ages to save Sah Coorwith the pitiful weaos available to hi a ore tha this to aae

her t her true sel But herois dest or li that o the bigscree t has bee ted befre that sice chwarzeeggers trator


40/70

\ B M O R N C A S S C Sis goig o expai o us who he is ad wha he s doig here ad how

he go here ad wha life is like i he fuure ad why he copuers

are ghig agais he huas, he Michae Bieh have o do i

ad ha leaves him wih a awful o of expaiig o do ere is

remarkaby lie diaogue he iriguig yserious eary scees of

T inator as Caero cevery keeps he audiece woderigabou who hese wo e are The higs suey ge garruous as

Reese has o expai o arah ha chwarzeegger is a cyborg, a mace

a eriaor, Cyberdye sysems ode oe zero oe Iraio ui

Udereah is a hyperaoy comba chassis Microprocessor coroed,

ly armoure Very ough Bu ouside i s ivig hua isue The 600series ha rubber ski asy o spo Ad so o

ce Reese i s uder deeio he rue Holywood hero woud

Reese csody

say compously sile, bu Reese sil has iforaio o iar o

he audiece e ufruae resu is ha we see h babbig away o

he pice ike a soie e he i asked abou how he ge back,he soicaly reples, Noboy oes back, obody ese goes hrough Is

jus hi ad me Bu eve his heris eaves us ucomforabe He


41/70

H E E R M N R 4 3ought to have a sidekick a Walter Brennan who can tel usaboutthat inematic heroes aren't meant to bleat about their own heroism

ey ust do it he reason that Humphrey Bogart can be so laconic andmodest in Casablana is that Claude ains Conrad Veidt ydneyreenstreet aul Henreid and amost everybody else keep informinghim about his own heroism and idealsm

And while eese is identing himself as a soldier from the 32ndunder arry and describing the enem a computer defence system butfor ACN by Cyberdyne systes and abou kynet and abouttime displacement equipment and eplani why it is too late for te

enemy to kohn Connor in ter own time te termato is stridinginto the poce sttion and ust saying: 'll be back'

Biehns very capaility as an actor in ovious contrast tochwarenegger is part of is problem and this was only compoundedby the scenes etended on the advice of the @m's producers n wiceese's relatioshi wt rah as emphaised eese tas of thebrutality of life in the future of the pain of travellig through time and

the love for arah that has brought him here o much pain' arahsays stroking hi Tese complicted emotions whih should make more sypathetic actually make im eem eak and neuroti ursunga woman acrs time which might seem impressie in a narrative oemor a noel appears on the big sceen more le the behaviour of astalker eese's ost imprssive achievement f all galvanising arahinto discovering and develoing her inner resources counts against him

as well he rst sign of arh's strengh when sh bandages eese'swound under the bridge is acceptbl he hro is permitted to benursed by the woman he loves Bu aer the nal car chase whe eesehas been badly wouned whn he collapses an is orderd to s feet byarah he is failing in his duty as a hero Worst of all an authetic acionmovie hero does not e an leave the heroine to fac the vilai aloehowever capable she may be Compare the clma of Teinaor 2 in

which the terminato minus an arm and uc of is head appears atthe crucial oment to blast the OOO nto te vat of molte metal


42/70

R N C A

ere is a substantia robem with this exanation I ermnaor Arnod charzenegger takes the Michae Biehn roe, whie Robe;tatrick taes te strong, sient chwarzenegger roe This time it's rnie

wo as to embark on the ong exaations about the metic oyaoy and wy the n can t just turn into a bomb and bow JohnConnor u en he must exain to inda amton about the detais

of Cberdines art in the deveoment of comuter technoogy

According to the attern demonstrated in the audiences resonse to the

rst m, viewers shoud have started rooting for Robert Patrick s

y didnt they?

Arnie was now a word fous star and had to be rotected, so heand C ameron made sure he wasnt upstaged he s ame kinds o f dry

technica exanation are mre acceptabe from the terminator because

he i s a computer and are actuay a sign of his imerurbabiity and

strength They can aso have a aconic owe of their own, suc as when

the terminator imittes John in a honeca to his fosterparents and then

reaces the receiver with the dry statement Your fosterarents are

de ad he rerogramed terminator s cever ortrayed as an idea

fathergure for John yet another insut to the defunct eese) and when

he rst saves te boy from the OO O, he doesn t just jum ut of the

way of the buets, h does what every father woud ie to do, henterose hi body, taing the other terintor 's buets in his own

bac And in cse we haen to have missed the oint Cameron ses

t out for us in the form of arah thoughts soken in a voiceover:

Watng Jn wt te mane t wa uddeny o ear Tetrmnator woud never to t woud nver eave m and t woud

never urt m never out at m or get drunk and t m or ay t

wa too uy to pend tme wt m t woud away e tere and t

woud d e to prtet m Of a t e woude fater w o ame and

went over te year t tng t mane wa te ony one wo

meaured up n an nane word t wa t e ane o e


43/70

H R M N A R e Reese ifors Sarah ha he erinaor ca be bargaed wih

can be resoed wih he souds e a whier B y conras when

he eriaor disassionay ifors Joh of he suerior caabiiies

of he TOOO he akes hisef sound ike a uderdog we wo cheer

Grea ains were evidey aken o ensure ha no isaced

syahy we he way of he TOOO ressing hi hroughou in auroied oice unifor akes hi see cowardy (he olice are a

bes haess onookers in a aes Caerons work) He is eiher

sro ad sien or is he given ayhi o say ha coud coceivaby

becoe a cachhrase sead h e is oy gve geekish diaogue ike Say, ha s a ice bike He s give feebe isos o re a we aways a

sig of ora inadequacy i he word of aes Caero he TOOO

So mc pan

Sara says


44/70

B ! O R C A I C could never become a cul hero, excep o oher geeks and salkers and

anorak warers

The main difference hough, beween Arnold Schwarzenegger andichael Biehn (le alone Rober Parick is ha Schwarzeneger is a sar

in a way ha Biehn could ever hope o be As he erminaor,

Schwarzenegger has ha qualiy ha Ronald Reagan had s Presden of

he Unied Saes on sae occasions ha occasional hin of he winke

in he eye he half smile, ha showed his own recogniion of he

imrobabiy of wha had happened, and ha he was enjoying i and

herefore e were free o enjoy i oo Michael Bieh's skied

performance gives us he feeling of he pain of being a hero, of selfsacrice, he fear of failure, of disaser Arnold Sc hwarzenegger makes

us feel he enjoymen of waching lm, of guns an explosions nd

iolence, all i he knowlede ha he doesn really mean i and ha h

lihs wil come up and we ca n all go home

Ye here are limis, even o charm of hi magniude The one

liners i minato are amusing, bu hey begin o all during is

excessive lngh ( more an half an hour longer han h inatond in laer lms, ie Last Ation Ho and Junior Schwarzeneggersselfdeprecaing hmor slackened he grip of he narraive he exen

ha boh lms los heir audience

h inator is Arnold Schwarzenegger' s grea cinemaicmomen In laer lms he displays he pracised ease of a poliician on

he cpaign rail, bu i is only here ha all his aribues, from he

slighly dislocaed oddness of his accen he chiseled physiognomyand he inaed physique, all work for he n h inator he didwha he could do his success in he role enabled him o devoe himself

o wha he can' do


45/70

H N 4 Defending

T is so visceray enoyabe an experience so dey craedso unexectedy satising in its resoution hat there is the temptatonto egitise this peasure by deonstrating that the m is good for youas e hat it is eay a serious work wth gronup ideas respectabethemes an a bsicay ibera poitica vision And here as esewhereCameron provides his audience ith the ateria to wrk on he putit speaking to Fl shorty aer the m's rst success

The rodce, Gale Hrd, and set ot to make a movie that wold

fnction on a coe of levels: as a lnear action iece that a 1 2ar

old wold thik was the most ictre hed ever seen, and as

science fiction that a 45earld Stanford English rof wold think

had some sor of socioolical significance between the lins

athogh obvios it doen't atemt to be that rimaril

hat mit this aginary iddeaged Stanford Engish professorsay about the m in th campus coee shop after the screening? hemight ont out that the m is a minist subversion of what had beena quntessetiay mae genre, and that Cameron ith his coaborator(and, brie ife) Gae Anne Hurd woud go on to re-inforc this in aseies of hihtec action pictures. e st enounter Sarah Connor asa downtrodden but goodhumoure waitress wth hr ise-cracking

coeague an atmate Ginger It's a standard compacent sitcomsetting a ts is foowed by a sries of other disaraging mages ofSara: she is the n-oving but basicay unreective party anima She isnot merey going out wth eptyheaded men who drive orshes thestand her u on Friday night She is a hepess victi of the temnatorsaved by uck and the repeated interention of her mae rescuer ut

then sh nds her hidden resources rst i nurturing Rse (Good eddresing' he compiments her) earning from about expsives anday beming the active partner and destroying te termiator hersef


46/70

F R N A S S SBetter still, she allows Reese to display his feminine, emotional, netrotic

side , deconstrcting the traditional model of icy heroism and

dismantling Michael Biehn' s c areer as a leadin man in the proces s.The perfect image of ma le hroism in the l m is a robot, and it is the

woman who srvives, trimhant, pregnant and alone

Cameron s redilection for strong women contied in his later

lms s seqel to Aien made the srength of Sigorney WeaversRipley the centre of the lm. er instict for srvival, and that o f the

little girl, Newt, exposes the spercialty of the miitay ethic lo hislms, Ains e Abyss einator 2 rue Lies featre weak, nerotic

men and strong womenThe Stanford professor might a d that e einator is also rad

in a iferent en se. t s antiestablishment, distrsting the traditional

paternalistic role of the police t is anticapitalist it is made lear that

the di sastros ncear annihation was the reslt of a colaboraion

between big government and ig bsiness nd the name given to the

defence system, Skynet, is an obvios reference to the Star Wars system

an the destbilising eects even of military proects that areostenibly

defensive. he lm is progn control. The terminator is able to arm

himself with an awesoe array of repower directly o the shelf,

provoking one of the scripts moments of dry hmor Th scene

exposes the absrdity of sch halfmeasres as the fteenday wait on

bying a handgn, when machinegns can be carried away imediately

Frthermore, the defender might add, the m eschews the sal

blind adorat ion for technology that is traitionaly at the heart of thescience ction genre n this story of a planet almost de stroyed by the

overweening power of its technological development, one of the

recrrent themes is the fallibility of technology at evey level The

ncler war began becase the defence neork becam conscios

(at 14 a m Eastern Time on 9 gst 1997) and began to deenditself n smaler ways, throghot the m we se that or machinesnever seem to work as they shold Phones are broken, and evn when

Sarah Connor gets throgh to the police she is pt on hold Te entire


47/70

T H E T E R M AT O R 9elephone sysem as a means of communcaon s presened as faa

corruped hen Ma rngs Gnger wh a cod obscene phoneca he

speaks o arah nsad a msake ha s ragcay repeaed when he

ermnaor aes arah s moher over he phone o arah n he

mo e arah s answerng machne s he vehcle rs for beg sood p

by her dae and he n for alerng he ermnaor ha arah C onnor s

sl ave and n hdng a he Tech or nghclub ven he phoebook

ecomes he ool of a murderer Gnger s personl sereo s parly

responsble for her deah prvens her from harng he ermnaor n

her aparen

ome eray professors mh even argue ha he i s aserous work of ar because of s relgous heme ohn Connor shars

hs nals wh ha oher redeer f manknd es Chrs and he

Te elepone

sysem s aal ly

corrped


48/70

S F I O R N C A S S C S is an obious allegorical conlation of the Natiity with the story ofEve and the serpent Reese is a version of the annuniatory angel who

pregnates Mary as well as informing her of the glad tidings heterminator is a Herod, slaughtering the S arah Connors instead of therst born, and he is also a Satan, who by atteptin to destroy huaniteersely bns aout its salvation the paradoxical story Milton tells inaradise Lost. So he erminator must be serious, ustn't it?

But e einator resists being made comfotable and reasurringIts politics are darker and ore ambguous than such wellintentionedbut isguided defences suggest s There is a tendency, especially viewed

fro a misleadig British context, to nterpret a ditrust of the polceand the mltary as necessarily left wing But in the United States there isa quite separate rightwing antiauthoritarian traditin, an individualiswhich sees alost all fors of scial oranisation and cotro polce,ary, federal government, tax collection, even printed oney ascreeping forms of communism which are neutering th e pioneering spiitthat buit erica This conviction can ove beyond poltical belief to

becoe a patological psychological condition, one that ichardHofstadter famously labelled the paranoid style in American poltics' inhis celebrated book of that nae e darkest expression of this wasseen in the klahoma City bobins, rst thought to be the work offoeign terrorists , then discoered to be the product of a rightwingsubculture whih considers itself to be at war wth the Aericangovernment on behalf of the true spirit of Ameica

The law enforceent ofcers in he rminator, as wel as theordinary peope they serve, have become weak and inapal ofdefending their wn way of lie, which is tself alienated and paraitcas with rah's latate, Ginger, who even liten to her pesoal tereoduring sx ) In te face o the nuclear threat and the calenge ftechnlogical hange, indivduals are relinqusing the reponibity orheir own future Cameron admitted to eng dismayed y inteiews

with igh school kids fter the T screening of the nuclear draa, heDay Aer, who aid that they now ccepted nuclear war a inevtale


49/70

H N n e te fact of nuclear war is trown awa, wit te

comlete understaning tat eole wll bu it ts jst art of te

fabric of t e stor On e ot er and, t tried to s t at take

resosibilit for our own life, and for te life of sciet T

terminator looks like deat, and if ou want to read into it, it's a

deat image Lnda Hamiltons caracter face tat image of deat,

or fate, and survives

All tat as resonnce, I oe, wit te dark remonitor

caracter f Reeses future-flasbacks, a call tem, and wit te

finl image of driving o into a storm t's fate vs will

Caeons fable of a disastous beakdown in society, a futueconict in which succes s depnd on e indiidual , bolsteedby yeas of tainin and a pesonal aou owes oe to suialisthan to sociali Saah Conno s defeat of the teinato is aietzschen assetion of supeoit She suie because se a ouhtfo he ight to ue unlike the othe aah Connos and te eneebled

police foce Fa fo eing a epesentatie of any ecognisable fo offeinis, Saah i s the ebodient of soethng sange and oepiitie, the woan defendng he hid, the tigess ghting to defend he cub, which is also the futue of anknd It could be agued thateen S aah C onno has een coupted by h life as a woking woanand a funs eeking sexual adentess She only ecoes a atc o teteinato whn she has been ipegnted y Rees e and plaed in

touch with a oe ancient fealeness nce she has becoe a othe and the pochoice lobby would psuably clai that she has becoea mote at te oent of concepon , she is able to ght

Pogun contol In the consciously ythic nal sequence, efoeSaah ie off on a oad to soehee tat i halBetlehe, halArageddon, we see he bight, sile hangun nestling on he lapgainst he ounded pegnan stoach, soft and had, ounded anpallic, nutue and kille, bou togeth in an iage that would b

appopiate fo a oait of the Madonna n he chapl a t theheautes of the National Re Asociation


50/70

B F M O D E R N C LAS S C Shese matters cold remain richly inchoate in he erminator bt

for the seqel where the bdget was so mch higher the politics had tobe mde clearly balanced and acceptable . aero was a Hollywodinsider by now and the once dark isses are brogt into the ligt andrbanely efsed and satiised Rather than buy his weapons from a gnshop the newly programmed terinator avails himself of Sarahonnors secret arms cache in te ispanicied soth of aliforniaEcellent the teinator comments on see ing th e ranks of machinegns This ight see dangerosly like a legitimisatin of crackpotsurvivalism but ameron permits s t o laugh at the ecessieness of it

all. Schwrzenegger picks up a ridiclosly large machinegun hatsdenitel yo coments little John onnor ater in the l te scriptitself aniously akes the feminist point that the Stanford professor

nda am on n

Terminator


51/70

H R A O R might hae inferred from te rst m, as Sarah Connor attacks a malescientist, and all males scientists, for creating the bomb and all thoseother technological horrors, when they are unabl to perform the truecreative act of making a baby The feminist point is made, t alsoundercut as we are shown that she is ranting and as her son calls on herto be more constructive Is it pro-feminist with a sense of humour? Is itexposing femiist cant? Whatever d that s the way it s meant to be

en 2 is a nice lm in which everybody is saved ncludingJesus as in a last-minute alteration to te story, the father lays down hislife so that the son doesnt ave to suffer after all But e en

retains ts uncomfortable darkness as unrelenting as te detahed armand torso of the smashed terminator, dragging itself after S arah ewant wa we like to be ligt and bright and civic-minded liken 2 so why is it that e en stays ith us? liamHazlitt eplored this unsettling issue in his great essay on Clnusrst published in 1 16 ) . or pey read cne:

The cause of he eole s deed u lle calulaed as a sujecfo e adms of heoc whc goes no aumen and

exlanaon u esens no mmedae o dsnc mags o h

mnd no ung fee uess o oge of vanag fo oe

me s enan d and ocean cdle n The language of

oe nauall falls n wh he language of owe The magnao

s an exaggeag nd exlusve facl aes fo one n o

add o anohe accumulaes c cusnes ogehe o gve hegeaes ossle effe o a fvoue oec he undesang s a

dvdng and measung facul udges of hngs no aodng o

h mmedae messon on e mnd acodng o he

elaon o one anohe Te one s a monoolsng facul whch

sees he eaes quan of ulmae good jusce and

ooon The one s an socacal he he a eulcan

facul. The ncle of er s a ve an-levellng ncle.

I ams a effec exss conas I adms of no medum.


52/70

F M O R N A S S SIt s er th ng b ecess It r ses aboe the ordnar standard of

suffrngs and crmes It presents a dazzlng appearance It shows

ts head turretted crowned and crested Its front s glt and bloodstaned Before t t carres ose and behnd t leaes tears It has

ts altars and ts vctms sacrfces human sacrfces Kngs prests

nobles are ts tranbearers trats and slaes ts executoners

arnage s ts daughter Poetr s rghtroal It puts the nd dul

for the speces the one aboe the nfnte man mght befre rght

A on huntng a flo of sheep or a herd of wld asses s a more

poetcal obect than the and we een tae part wth the lordl bast

ecause our ant or some other feelng maes us dspose t place

oursees n the stuaton of the strngest part We had rather be

the oppressor than the oppressed he loe of power n ursees

and th admraton of t n others are both natural to man the one

makes hm a trant the other a slae Wrong dressed out n prde

omp and crumstance hs more attrcton than abstract gh

en udy arland says goodbye to Bert Lahr at the end of eard of z she admits that she mises the ay he behaved when hewas terried he reprogrammed terminator of the sequel who doesn tl people and dies to save humanity may be seet , but an honestlmgoer preferred the hmicidal cyborg who mrdered woen andpolicemen. his apparent peersity of response is one of the darpleasures of lmgoing in which we resond to vitaity rather than

morality. t why we nice people eno watching immy agne slam agrapefruit into Mae lare' face in Puli ney a m that paradeditself as an indictment of gangsterism But whe the brilliane of MalcolmMcowell' s performance, and our emotional distancing from is victims,maes us enjoy the beating and rapings of A kork rane it is timeto start worrying But worring about hat? Stanley Kbrick? he wholeirresponsible potency of the cineatic image? rselve ?

As for th e lm' s religious allegory it sould be remebered thatohn onnor shares his initials with ames ameon as well as esushrist


53/70

T H T R M N A T

7 Watching

he st hou ofTe Te

ivies into twentyve scenes th theiaginay Stanfo pofesso eplae by a notional sttie viewe theeffect ght be soething like this

he Los geles 2029 caption is s een ove a esolate postholocaustlanscape an ausng enough visual oke e see soe yng shpsshooting ay guns isolate skiishes n a sequnce tha was noticienta iecte by aes Caeon he special eects ae

nothing stalin even fo 98, but wee lly cuious hee isa intouctoy text e ont usally pay uc attenti to theseclotte explanations of why ng ohn happes be on the thone owhy we ae i a galaxy long ago an fa aay bu the stteent thatthe wa wil be fought not in the futue bu ou pesent onghtis a supse

he ces. ee s nboy weve hea f except f that

Schwazenegge pesn who was n C e Bb Whats atenato

2 ac n he fuue no s the pesnt. A tc s ng gabage A ull fe secon an then soe ashes of elctcty A nae anstanng up A uclean Is ts a gay l? e look puposel anwalks foa to loo out acoss Los ngeles Now he encountes soepunks an eans the clothes A eat scene gsly an hlynny he suen exta violence akes us wone who ths an isee siting up now It s satng to look oo

3 A polce sen an alley anothe nake an Salle es hutsoking e they togethe e is chase by the polce along sallsteets By now weve guess se that the two en ae fo the tuewol we saw at the begning hat ae they up to? e gabs a ie

fo an unattene police ca his is poising ow ae the o en


54/70

F N A S S I Sgoing to meet p with each other He rip a page ot of the phonebookwith the name arah onnr

4 Linda Hmlton, with a Bmoie hairtye, on a motorcooter. Arrivingat a brger retarant, he cok in a Sarah onnor

5 h big man break nto a car, nchng the window ot ith had hi more ike t

6 Some rather tired tcomtye harament of S arah in the brger bar

She pi a drin over a ctomer and a boy ip an ice cram into erapron there a point to thi t eem itte econdrte

7 he big man enter a gn hop hi i another great cene a hecqire a prepoteoy arge armory What can he want all that foric Miler ine are nappy and there i the dden kiing at the end

8 he other man aw the barre off hi ingle rie What he p to

9 he big man ooking for a phonebook, tg another arge man awayfrom it withot even ooing at him rom offcreen Hey, man, yovegot a erio attitde probem We re tarting t enoy theSchwarzeneger cene He ooking for Sarah onnor

1 0 A car rive over a toy trc in a brban treet Schwarzeneggerapproache the front door of a hoe and ak for Sarah onnor I hereall going to kill thi ordinarylooking woan Ye

1 1 aking a break a t work, Sara i hn the item on the new

1. Reee i tean a car next to a contrcton ite lahforward to aatte with te Skynet craft Reee i one of the combatant heeqence i exciting, bta hi i no anitied view of ftre warfare


55/70

H R N A R 5 7Alost eveybody is klled He wakes up back at the bulding sit nddives way

3 Saah is in he apatent with he fiend Ginge getting ady to goout The sily joke about Matts dity phoneca to the wong woan Apooly acted oestate scene

4 u st view of the police detectives wo se slezy andicompetent We ae taen by supise by heaing about te seondSaah Conno mude This is getting exciting

5 ack to the apatet whee Saah has been stood up hy s tiaiead so ipotant? he heads ut to a movie on he own Sh s bingfollowed by eese

6 The plice again an d the pes Th e udes ollowe the listing inthe phonebook u Saah is next o the list Aent the polce oing to

potect he? They ove incapable even of ontacting he Th e plcechef is dnking bad cofee oking taking pills They phone eapatent but Ginge s n be d with Matt and they dont answe

Saah sees te news on T in a pizza estauant The phone doesntwok She walks out and notiing that she s bein olowed ucks intothe Tech Noi and Reese was st She phones the police the linesae busy

18 Anie is appoaching the apatent buildg Wee seen ou saeof slashe ovies and we know what going to hapen e gGinge Anie heas the answeing achine: its Saah giin awy helocation Thees going to be a showdown

1 Saah has nally ot though to the police hey tell he to stay

whee she is that she l be safe She uts the phone down and Aie


56/70

5 F E I\ S S Sarrives at the cub immeiatey excting gun batte cuminating ineese basting Arnie through the winow e gets up unhurt Is this justgoing to be another

aownripoff eese reaches his han out to

Sarah an says simpy ome wth me if you wat to ive eese anSarah escae own an aey Arnie umps on their car an punchesthroh the winscreen hey hrow him off an become invove in acar chase whie eese shouts out an expanation about the terminatorwho has puroine a poice car We now what sort of m were in nowter a chae in a carpa ees an Sarah are caught b the oc anthe termiator is nowhere to be seen

20 Were in the poice statin Are we safe for a whie ? S arah meets anabsur movie sychiatrist

2 The terminator i cimbing into his room His face is amage hishan parayse Bay injue he reaches for a scape an sces into hsarm We aren 't cheate we ge to see the puies an evers he han is

woring once more

22 eese i s interroate by the pychiatrist who ass the questionswe've been wanting to as about why he in't bring ray gus aong ana that stuff

3 The terminator turns his attention to his wrece eye e grabs the

scalpe to anicipatoy goans from the auience Is he realy going to?Are we going to see it? e is We are e punges it a the way in Werenot spare anyhi e puts on sungasses the manufacturer's nameon the frame is Gargoye) e pics up arge guns Hes not goingto storm the pice station, is he?

24 Bac to eese s interrogation which is being viewe on a vieo nowby the poice, Sarah an the psychiatrist eese says that the trmiator

wil n her Tat' wha he oes Nboy can stop him The etctive


57/70

H R A T R 5 9ies her down on his couch, covers her with his acket and tes her thatshe is safe er all, what could happen to her in a police stati?

The greatest scene in the m Te psychiatrist leaves the station andtakes us by surprise by pasing the terminaor wo is on his way in (example of Cameron' s ruthless sense of humour: the one character thatwe uld actively like to see get lsted, the psciatrist, escapes byue chance) Then the terminator elvers the cassic I' be back' lineThe long pause aer he has gone may remind us of the moens n Jwswhen we are aiting for someting terrible to happen hat s the

termintor going o do? he the car crashes throug Can this realy ehappenng He waners through the police station blasting polcmaater policeman In Cameron's wors recalng the to great set-pecesin ls d Flg:

Ah, the disc, the olice station and all that the clearl reflect a

wared childhood! Mabe it's becase I got a lot of eding ticket

when I was a kid it's m catharsis It 's not intended to makesome grand statement abot a lice state or whatever Bt it ma

relate to the idea of the termiator in all of s, and te fat that some

eole allow the machine to take over a little too mch and thats

what makes them boring breacrats or officios ittle olice

officers So when Arnold comes into the olice sation there's an

iron there that tikled e as I wrote it

It s a glorios slapstick equnce that makes you laugh euse ofts excess and aoyance an lack of she Ae we realy alowe toenjoy all tese cops gettg lo away Reese an S ara sneak out teback and escape n a stolen car The termator shoots at them ut teyget away The screen aes lowly to black an we slup our seats alittle Exatly an hour of te l has passe an t s our rs canc topause o breath


58/70

I O R A S I SEven a summary of these scenes gives a avour of the ms

momentum which s increased by suddeny dragging us foard more

quicky than we epect From the murder of the rst Sarah Connorstraght to Sarah watching the report of it on the news The poice

reacting to the wo S arah C onnor kiigs when we didn t know the

second one had occurred And Cameron gives us a start by impossiby

bu eectivey teescoping the time scheme of events as th terminator

catches up wth arah For eampe: he hears arah voice on the

teephone answering achine warning Ginger, saig she is at the Tech

oir and that se wi phone the poice a

Sean French - The Terminator

Documents

Transcript of Sean French - The Terminator