T'd Up: Part 2

[Brasil]

My movie mode has been running overdrive lately, lol.

[center][u]T'd Up[/u]
[size=1]Part 2[/size][/center]

Okay, so for the past week, I've been discussing the Terminator series with a classmate of mine here at Rutgers. He's the main movie reviewer of our school paper, and we've decided to have a little public debate about the series. He feels that T3 was impossible, given the events of T2. I would post his initial article, but I'd have to type it up, unless I can convince him to email me a copy, lol. Here's my reply at least. It's a good one. If you copy and paste it into Word, double space it, you've got a research paper, no lie. 4 pages single spaced, 8 pages double. Oh yeah, DUFFMAN!

[quote]Jason, I feel that you are missing key points of discussion in your T3 article.

It seems that your major argument that T3 was impossible is based on T2?s ?theme? of ?No Fate but we make for ourselves.? Let?s examine that.

The No Fate ideal is brought to us by humans. Humans are known to have clouded judgment, true? We are subject to emotion and raw passion that influences our behavior and beliefs. Surely, you do not argue against that? It is foolish to assume that humans are not driven by instinct, and it is equally unwise to believe that characters are not driven by instinct; that they are not driven by a desire to comfort themselves.

We do that ourselves. When we are met with an unpleasant situation, we tell ourselves what we want to hear in order to cope with traumatic experience. I believe the term is cognitive dissonance, where we deny what we are told because it directly conflicts with what we want or want to believe.

When we keep cognitive dissonance in mind, Sarah?s narration becomes less reliable. She is telling us what she thinks, not what is. It becomes more a window into the human condition than a window into reality.

?The future, always so clear to me, has become like a black highway at night. We were in uncharted territory now?making up history as we went along.?

This is said on their way to blow up the main campus of Cyberdyne. Jason, considering what kind of company Cyberdyne is?technology/computer development?would destroying their main research facility and Dyson?s office have the total effect of preventing Judgment Day?

If my question is unreasonable, then, when you are writing a very important paper, do you save it only in one folder on your computer; or do you keep a floppy disk or ZIP disk handy to periodically back-up your paper on a remote storage device? I know I do, and I should hope you would, as well. Because, say for instance, that your computer crashes or there is a power failure. You would be in trouble if the only copy of your very important research paper were stored on your hard drive, correct?

Now, apply that to Terminator and Cyberdyne. Cyberdyne was developing far more important equipment than a collegiate research paper. They were involved in chip production, software research, and their security was extremely tight on their main campus. Considering they had password-protected doors, silent alarms that prevented access to the deeper core of their building and research labs, I think it is very safe to say that they had off-site data back-ups. Do you disagree? It is simply logical. Cyberdyne is portrayed as the villain of the series, but they are not portrayed as stupid. Destroying the main campus of Cyberdyne would not prevent Judgment Day; it would delay it. The setback suffered from the loss of that primary research data would be a few years, which T3 adheres to quite well.

Interestingly, Cyberdyne can be viewed as the main ?character? of the series. Every action of the humans revolves around Cyberdyne, and considering that Cyberdyne is responsible for Terminators, we can determine fairly accurately, that machines dictate Fate.

When you spoke of Sarah destroying the T-800, you missed a key point. She does not kill it. The hydraulic press does. You may argue that Sarah pressed the button, but what if the hydraulic press had malfunctioned? Sarah would have been quite dead, and a paradox would occur. This is an example of machines dictating Fate, not humans. Also, the finale of T1 did take place in Cyberdyne. The hydraulic press is Cyberdyne equipment. If you wish to argue that the deleted scenes in T1 are the only evidence of that, T2 makes it very clear. Cyberdyne has the arm and chip of the first Terminator. That would not be the case if the robotics lab had belonged to a different company. Cyberdyne factors very heavily into the series, more than you care to admit, it seems.

Your emphasis on human independence, primarily the incapacitation point, is questionable. While, yes, John was able to avoid the T-1000, he was unable to escape it. He would have been crushed had it not been for the T-800, a machine. Again, machine dictating Fate.

?It?s up to John and Sarah to save themselves.?

I wonder what scene this came from, because John and Sarah are never able to save themselves. I can only suppose that you are referring to the steel mill in T2. But keep in mind, that they can only avoid the T-1000. When Sarah tries to destroy it, she fails and is about to be killed. She survives only by the T-800. Again, machine dictating Fate.

Sarah is short one shell. Keep that in mind, as well. Had she not dropped that one shell previously, she would have been able to destroy the T-1000 independently of mechanical influence. Had she not dropped that one shell, a human would have dictated Fate. True? Also, why do you think she drops that shell? Panic, a human emotion; a human influence. You place such a heavy emphasis on humans dictating Fate, but you fail to take this very important?and very subtle?detail into account.

The T-1000 is only stopped by the T-800. This may all seem coincidence, but for the Terminator series and its heavy emphasis on Fate, chalking it up to coincidence is unwise.

?T2 concludes with Judgment Day prevented, humanity saved, and Sarah looking forward to an uncertain future. One could argue that this uncertainty leaves room for Judgment Day to happen. But they?d be missing the point.?

One could argue that you are missing the point, Jason. I realize you are a film elitist (I didn?t use the ?S? word, heh), but you are letting your devotions to art cloud your judgment.

While a primary factor of T3?s creation was ?all about the Benjamins,? it closely adheres to the principles and philosophy of T1 and T2.

See, throughout the Trilogy, the Terminator isn't just a symbol of death; it's a universal symbol of Fate itself. While death is certainly a component of Fate, it's not the only component. Life encompasses death; it encompasses emotion; it encompasses love, sadness, fear, sickness, dread. Our Fate...is Life.

The message of the Terminator series is not to meet your death, or to fight it; the point of the series is to understand Fate and live life to the fullest.

The dialogue and values in T3 are not as terrible as you imply. When John is relating his mother's post-T2 years, he says, ?She told me that every day after this one is a gift.? Sarah made John know that. She made him understand that.

That understanding came out of working with Fate. That understanding came out of understanding Fate, and realizing how to adapt?not fight. Sarah knew this because she didn't insist on staying in her...naive, innocent bubble world of her waitress days in T1. Her Fate came to her, and she learned to accept it.

The series is by no means about concerning oneself with something that cannot be, not at all. The series is about acknowledging reality. The reality of life is to live. To be concerned with the unattainable is morbid and unhealthy.

Cameron knows this. Just looking at him speaking of Terminator, you can see this wise knowledge in his eyes, in his expressions, in his mannerisms. He is no Buddha, but he is very in tune with what is.

He's lost a bit of that over the years, I think. I mean, it was incredibly pretentious of him to yell ?I'm the king of the world!? at accepting awards for Titanic. But, even then, he knows what life is about: to live. He is not concerned with death, not at all. He knows it's coming, sure, but he's not letting it rule his life.

And that is the precise message of the Terminator series: Live.

I quote Naomi Hunter from Metal Gear Solid 1, "You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate, to be ruled by your genes. Human beings can choose the kind of life that they want to live. What's important is that you choose life... and then live!"

Naomi is telling us to not let Fate control us, meaning, don't treat Fate like some cruel, heartless monster. "Chained." Don't think of Fate as a prison. Embrace it, understand it, work with it, and live.

I?m not sure if you?re aware of Cameron's inspiration for the original. He was suffering from a very unpleasant illness in the Mediterranean area. While he was bed-ridden, he had a nightmare of just one shot: the T-800 rising out of the fire in T1. That nightmare was brought about by his intense feeling of loneliness as he laid there with no-one around. He mentions this in the interviews about T1.

I would further hypothesize that Cameron is the Terminator in the films. Think about it. The Terminator is something that instills fear and dread and a very large sense of isolation. It is the epitome of Fate. We are all going to be ill, sick, lonely, etc, at some point in our lives. Cameron was using the Terminator as an allegorical figure. Terminators are coming. We are all going to experience extreme amounts of pain sometime. We are all going to have to face Fate.

Now, here we have John Connor, who will lead the remnants of civilization to victory after a nuclear holocaust. That is his destiny. That is his Fate. And what is directly linked with his destiny? Terminators. So, John's Fate is a Terminator. Sarah Connor's Fate is a Terminator. Kyle Reese's Fate is a Terminator.

And what do the humans do? Try to fight their Fate; try to create their own desired Fate. But how can one prevent sorrow, sadness, fear, loneliness, death, sickness, etc? Simply, we can't. Cameron knows this. He understands that he could not have prevented his illness. It was a destined happening. He accepted it and grew from it. He didn't fight it, but he did work around it.

That is why he did not use the alternate ending to T2, the ending in which Judgment Day is prevented. Sorrow cannot be prevented. We can only work with it.

I think the reason that you are so unwilling to appreciate what T3 is, is because you are not aware of the meanings behind the series.

Your article is vague, and does not touch on the core fundamentals of the series. You are steadfast in outright bashing T3, based upon a superficial review. Jason, I know you are better than this. I believe that if you decide to fully uncover the series, you will find that T3 fits very well, both with the philosophy and plot. The message is the same all throughout the Trilogy. If I could fault T3 at all, it is only in delivery. Even then, the Terminator series has always been about masking profound messages about humanity in a fun action/adventure/sci-fi shell. T3 just goes over the top with the action, but examine it more closely, and you?ll be rewarded with the messages.[/quote]

[amibasuki]

[FONT=arial]that was certainly a good read. I wasn't too impressed with the third Terminator movie, but at least now I know there was [i]some[/i] point in making it. I dunno. it has a good underrunning message, but the 'delivery', like it was said, wasn't that great, I guess. just seemed like it was the previous two Terminator movies repeating themselves, except I felt like it was lacking in something this time around. maybe if James Cameron had directed this one as well, it would've turned out better, lol. [/FONT]