But “T2’s” highpoint, far and away, is the T1000, the evil robot played by Robert Patrick. Made of liquid metal, he can assume the shape of any person or any inanimate object of comparable size. In his natural state, he’s a faceless, silver man, like mercury when he’s fluid, or like aluminum foil when he’s damaged. His recuperative abilities are bad news for the humans. The science is hokum, but who cares? Some of the early computer effects can look a bit cartoonish, but only if you look closely. Most of them are still as breathtaking as the day “T2” hit theaters. All those effects would be nothing if not for Patrick’s unnervingly sterile performance: compact, tidy, expressionless, with hair that never moves. That he spends most of the movie disguised as a limitlessly patient and polite cop just makes him creepier. And funnier.
The concerns of the “Terminator” movies are timeless: do our machines serve us or do we serve them? Are we better off controlled by mechanisms which only understand self-preservation? Uncontrollable consumption was a big fear in the ‘80s and, in many ways, the free market is the ultimate machine designed by man, now taking on a personality of its own, with self-preservation on its mind and indifferent to our needs. Do we own our things, or do our things own us? Do we work for a living, or do we live simply to work? (Watching the documentary “The Corporation” also hammers this home: the concept of the corporation is like something out of “I, Robot,” in which a set of rules designed to help humankind contains a world-wasting logic flaw.) As befits a B-movie, “The Terminator’s” approach is simple: machines bad, people good.
The time and depth allotted to “Terminator 2” allow both people and machines to be good and bad. Sarah comes to see John’s synthetic guardian as the perfect father: always responsible, always patient, never tired, never bored. He will always be there for John. John’s foster parents are boors and the scientist who creates the evil machines (Joe Morton, playing the William Hurt role) is a workaholic who has to be dragged by his wife into spending time with his kids. It’s a subversive little circle: the scientist won’t spend time with his offspring because he’s busy making a machine that will, ultimately, raise children for him.
The other advantage “Terminator 2” has over “The Terminator” is its sense of humor. Arnold Schwarzenegger has always been aware of how silly his image is. In his most recognizable role, he has fun speaking monotonously and seldom changing expression. In “The Terminator” he’s more of a movie monster than a computer, but the second time around he gets laughs out of being a little boy’s pet killing machine. Linda Hamilton, not an enormously talented actress, throws herself into being Sarah Connor, first freaked out and defenseless, then eventually determined and ruthless. With “The Terminator” and “Aliens,” James Cameron specializes in strong, proactive roles for women.
The “Terminator” movies also provide a tidy pro-life parable. The Terminator’s victims are scheduled for “termination,” and Sarah Connor ends the first movie as the ideal candidate for an abortion: unwed, unemployed, carrying a gun, and pregnant with a guy who isn’t just deadbeat, but dead. On top of this, she has guarantees that the child’s life will be amazingly difficult and, when we see him as a troubled teen, an off-screen voice is practically saying “it would be better if he had never been born.” But “The Terminator” proposes that predicting whether or not someone’s life is worth living, or what kind of impact he’ll have on the world, before he’s even born, is a fool’s errand.
I first saw “The Terminator” when I was, I dunno, eight or nine, and I didn’t really enjoy it. I found it too ruthless and bleak. I also had the same complaint as I still have about “The Matrix” movies: why take such an involving premise involving time travel and man’s relationship to his machines and then have everyone turn on each other with machine guns? But I’ve had years to get over this and accept the movies for what they are. As for the third “Terminator” movie, let’s just not talk about it.
Finished Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
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