(The following content is the manuscript of the video explanation. The original video was originally published on November 2, 2019 on Station B and Weibo account: Li Lixi. Original article, please indicate the original author for reprinting)
The "Terminator" series of movies are the feelings of many people.
What does the terminator in your mind look like?
In my eyes, "The Terminator" must have an absolutely solid and neat story framework, and even some logical loopholes are acceptable;
Have Schwarzenegger's strong body with ergonomic aesthetics, a hard jaw curve, and cool big sunglasses;
To have key character Sarah's muscular arms and stubborn lips that sag slightly;
There must be ruthless Terminators who kill without blinking; their savage tactics and neat appearance can give people both sensual tension and visual excitement at the same time.
There must be big special effects scenes that are very expensive at a glance, and super cool fighting scenes;
Finally, coupled with the cold metal feeling of the robot, it can promote a little worry and anxiety about artificial intelligence technology, and give it a corresponding sense of morality and depth when appropriate; don't use too much force, just click until it is complete.
Satisfying the above points is the orthodox "Terminator" movie in my memory.
Now, let's straighten out the plots of Terminator Parts 1 to 6 in turn:
The first "Terminator" was released in 1984. On an ordinary street, two naked men with great figures fell from the sky. One of them is a robot and the other is a normal human, both from 2029, all of them are looking for a girl named Sarah.
The background of the event is as follows:
Humans once developed a defense system called "Skynet". Skynet then developed self-awareness and decided to exterminate human beings. Therefore, one day in 1997, a nuclear war was launched, resulting in the death of 3 billion people on earth. The day the war started is known as "Judgment Day". From then on, the robot army led by Skynet began to dominate the world. Although human beings were seriously injured, they still formed a rebel army under the leadership of a man named John Connor, trying to overthrow the rule of robots.
One day in 2029, the robot camp decided to send Schwarzenegger, a Terminator model T-800, to travel back to 1984, trying to kill John's mother Sarah Connor before John was born, so as to avoid future troubles. . Therefore, the terminator is the name of the robot killer;
John's side also intends to send someone to travel back to protect his mother. So, a young man named Rhys Kyle volunteered and took on the task. The reason why Reese volunteered is because he had seen photos of Sarah when she was young, and he had long been secretly in love with this legendary woman he had never met.
As for why Schwarzenegger and Reese were naked when they arrived in 1984, the answer is very simple and crude, that is: when using the time-travel device, you just can't wear clothes...
After Reese found Sarah, he took her to avoid Schwarzenegger's pursuit (for the convenience of expression. T-800 will be referred to by Schwarzenegger's real name later), and also told all the cause and effect of the incident. Sarah. Sarah thought Reese was a big fool at first, full of nonsense. Later, after seeing Schwarzenegger with her own eyes, she realized that it turned out that robots occupying the world in the future are all true. Sarah also understood that she was destined to give birth to a son named John in the future, and train him to become a human leader.
While fleeing, Sarah also fell in love with Rhys and became pregnant with John - so, in fact, Rhys was John's father.
In the end, Reiss killed Schwarzenegger and sacrificed himself. This series of experiences also allowed Sarah to grow from a timid waitress to a strong woman. With her thoughts of Reese, she firmly marched towards her doomed life.
"Terminator" 1 takes clear emotional clues as the starting point, uses a neat narrative structure to introduce the story setting of time and space travel, and at the same time puts forward a healthy skepticism from an advanced perspective, suggesting that artificial intelligence potential threat.
Director Cameron and actor Schwarzenegger were both newcomers at the time of making the film. Because of the technical limitations of the 1980s, the robots in the film are made of models, which look a bit bulky and cartoonish, but very retro and "cute". Ultimately, the film grossed $78.3 million on a budget of $6.4 million. The film was also hailed as one of the best films of the 80s.
Then there was "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" released in 1991. In the film, Sarah was regarded as a child because she talked to her son John about the future robots will rule the world and John will become the leader of mankind. mentally ill shut up. John can only live with his adoptive parents.
Because the last plan to assassinate Sarah was unsuccessful, this time Skynet sent an upgraded version of the Terminator T-1000 to travel through time and space again to assassinate young John; the human camp also sent a team that was captured by itself and modified the program Schwarzenegger to protect John.
In this way, Schwarzenegger changed from a Terminator to a Guardian. In the process of protecting John, he even acted like a loyal friend and a reliable father; and Sarah also changed her previous image of America's sweetheart into a muscular Barbie. She escaped from the mental hospital, and along with Schwarzenegger and John, while avoiding the pursuit of T-1000, she found Dyson, who was developing the Skynet system, and persuaded him to immediately destroy all research and development results to prevent human beings future tragedy.
In the end, the prototype of Skynet was destroyed, Dyson was sacrificed, and the T-1000 was killed. Schwarzenegger has developed human emotions in his interactions with John and Sarah. He voluntarily destroyed his body in order to prevent his chips from causing trouble. After all, the reason why Dyson was able to develop the prototype system of Skynet before was basically restored by reverse engineering from the body wreckage of the T-800 Terminator who hunted down Sarah in 1984.
Therefore, if the Terminator did not travel back, there would be no Skynet technology, and without Skynet technology, there would be no such thing as a Terminator traveling through time and space. The time and space travel setting in "Terminator" has caused many problems such as "chicken and egg".
As for Reese in the first part, although there is no official role, he also appeared briefly once and met Sarah in a dream.
The reason why the second sequel was separated from the first by 9 years was due to copyright disputes and the difficulty of special effects technology. With a production budget of $102 million, Terminator 2 was the most expensive movie to make at the time. In the end, the film was critically acclaimed, winning Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.
It is worth mentioning that actress Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah, underwent 13 weeks of training for the filming and lost 5.4 kg. And Linda's twin sister also showed her face in the film.
Next was "Terminator 3" released in 2003. Through the efforts of everyone in the previous film, nuclear war did not break out and Judgment Day did not come. Ten years later, Sarah died prematurely from blood cancer, and John turned 22. John knows that history has been rewritten, and he should not be the leader of mankind as his mother Sarah said, but he is still afraid and confused about his own destiny, so he becomes passive, shunned, and lives an incognito life. Communication equipment is also not used at all.
As a result, Skynet could not locate John, so it replaced the assassination target with other high-level leaders of the future human resistance army, that is, John's wife Kate, and sent an upgraded version of the beautiful Terminator with a model of TX to cross Time to perform the assassination mission. At this time, in the future world, John has unfortunately been killed by Schwarzenegger's Terminator. Kate then captures Schwarzenegger and rewrites his program, sending him back through time to protect his past self and John.
In the current time period, John has not met Kate. But coincidentally, when the Terminator TX found Kate and was about to kill her, John was also present at the same time by accident; more coincidentally, after meeting John and Kate, they found out that they were still middle school classmates. Back then, I hid in the basement and secretly kissed~ In short, Schwarzenegger found and rescued John and Kate in time, and John and Kate also developed feelings during the escape.
At the same time, Schwarzenegger also confided more secrets to John:
It turns out that Sarah and John's efforts in the last film merely delayed Judgment Day. In the future timeline, Skynet was developed again, and the nuclear war broke out as usual, and it just happened to break out at 6:00 p.m. that day. Therefore, what I have to do now is to immediately send Kate and John to a safe area in Mexico to avoid the disaster of a nuclear war.
After learning this information, Kate refuses to seek refuge in Mexico, insisting on finding her father and asking him to shut down the Skynet system and prevent an imminent nuclear war. Because, Kate's father is the person in charge of the US military Skynet project.
But by the time John and Kate found Kate's father, Skynet had already developed a sense of autonomy, and the chances of shutting it down were slim to none. Kate's father was unfortunately killed by the Terminator TX who came after him. Before dying, he told John and Kate to hurry to a place called Crystal Peak, where Skynet's core control system was the last hope to destroy Skynet. However, when John and Kate arrived at Crystal Peak, they discovered that it was not the location of Skynet's core system at all, but a place of war refuge and military command. Kate's father lied just to keep them safe. As for Skynet, it can freely exist in every corner of the online world after it has produced its own consciousness, and it cannot be destroyed.
In the end, Schwarzenegger died with her in order to defeat the Terminator TX. John also mustered up his courage and called out his name to the communication device. He finally accepted his destiny and embarked on the road of becoming the leader of the human resistance.
"Terminator 3" was Schwarzenegger's last film before becoming governor of California. Sarah's role was originally arranged in the film, but was rejected by actor Linda herself on the grounds of "poor script".
Also, it's worth mentioning that Kristanna Loken, the actor who played Terminator TX, was selected from about 10,000 auditions, literally one in a million.
It was followed by Terminator 4 in 2009. The time background of the story is 2018, Kate is already pregnant with John's child, and John is gradually growing into a leader. He knows very well what will happen in the future. He knows that Schwarzenegger, the T-800 Terminator robot, is about to be born, and he also knows that he will send a man named Reese to travel back to 1984 to protect his mother Sarah, and This Reese is also his father. So, John has been looking for traces of Reese. And all this, Skynet seems to understand. Because, in the latest assassination list launched by Skynet, John is only ranked second, and the first is Reese.
However, the upper echelons of the rebel army were not aware of these circumstances, nor did they realize the importance of Reese. Coupled with various other reasons, more and more conflicts have arisen between John and the top management.
Rhys was on the run at this time, trying to find the Rebel headquarters and join it. By chance, Reese met a man named Marcus. This Marcus is a cyborg. In 2003, he voluntarily donated his body to a research institution while in prison, so he was rehabilitated. However, Marcus no longer remembers this past, and Reiss only thought that Marcus was an ordinary human, so he took him to the headquarters of the rebel army.
Unexpectedly, halfway, Reiss was captured by the robot. Marcus, who was alone, followed another female resistance soldier, Blair, who happened to meet, and continued to the resistance headquarters. As a result, he was accidentally injured while crossing the minefield, and everyone discovered from Marcus' wound that he turned out to be a cyborg.
John and Kate want to kill Marcus, but Blair, who already has feelings for Marcus, secretly lets him go. After John found Marcus fleeing, he quickly caught up with Marcus, but instead of killing him, he made a deal with him: if Marcus could use his cyborg identity to infiltrate Skynet's San Francisco location. Headquarters, and rescued the civilian prisoners such as Reese, and saved his life.
After Marcus entered the Skynet base, he knew his origins and also learned about Skynet's tricks to lure the enemy into depth. He refused to join Skynet's camp, and cooperated with John to destroy Skynet headquarters, and Reese was rescued safely. In order to save the dying John, Marcus voluntarily sacrificed himself and gave his heart. And John's resolutely protecting the safety of civilian prisoners in action also made him prestige in front of everyone.
Schwarzenegger himself did not appear in the film because he had already held the key position of governor. The T-800 that appeared in the film was replaced by Roland Kickinger, an actor who once served as a stand-in for Schwarzenegger, and was restored to Schwarzenegger's image through facial processing technology. .
As for the role of John, the director started trying to communicate with actor Christian Bale when he was filming The Dark Knight. Bell initially declined the invitation three times in a row, before reluctantly agreeing.
All in all, I really like the graphics and sound quality of Terminator 4. However, in the story, the dialogues of the characters are a little empty, and the characters are not full enough, which makes the whole movie pale and lacking in aura. It has a 33% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
As for "Terminator 5: Genesis", which was released in 2015, the creators have always emphasized that this film is not a sequel or a reboot, it is a reimagining of the "Terminator" series of stories.
From the plot point of view, "Terminator 5" inherits the story line of "Terminator 2". Middle-aged John has become a rebel leader. Similar to the plot of "Terminator 1", Skynet sent a Terminator model T-800 back to 1984 to assassinate John's mother Sarah; John's subordinate Reese also volunteered and took the initiative to protect Sarah .
However, at the moment when time travel opened, Reiss actually saw that John was suddenly attacked, and then he saw in his memory that his childhood self had been emphasizing to his current self: he had to get to San Francisco before 2017. to destroy Skynet.
Full of doubts and unease, Reese came to 1984 and was attacked by a Terminator model T-1000 played by Lee Byung Hun. At the critical moment, Sarah arrived with a Terminator Schwarzenegger who had become an old man, rescued Reese, and told him: The current 1984 is no longer the 1984 John thought they thought. Skynet actually sent a Terminator to assassinate him as early as when he was 9 years old. At that time, Schwarzenegger, who was also sent over, got himself down and raised himself, so this Schwarzenegger is own father. And the reason why he looks old is because the Terminator's skin is made of biochemical materials and will naturally age. As for the Terminator T-800 that came to 1984 at the same time as Reese, he was killed by himself and Schwarzenegger long ago.
Later, Sarah and Dad Schwarzenegger used sulfuric acid traps to kill the Terminator T-1000 played by Lee Byung Hun, and planned to use the time machine to travel back to 1997 to prevent the coming of Judgment Day. However, before the time travel, Reiss recalled the childhood memory that suddenly appeared, and insisted on persuading Sarah to travel with him to 2017. And Daddy Schwarzenegger will continue to stay in the current time period and wait until 2017 to join Sarah and Reese.
Unexpectedly, as soon as time traveled to 2017, Sarah and Reese met John, and Reese also learned the fact that he was actually John's father. Later, Sarah and Rhys also discovered that John had been transformed into a cyborg by Skynet. It turned out that at the moment when Reese traveled back to 1984, Skynet's people also kidnapped John, transformed his body, convinced him to work for Skynet, and sent him back to 2017 to ensure that the sky The birth of the net is not disturbed by anyone. This also means that John at this time is no longer a human leader, but a member of the Terminator.
In the face of this human betrayal, Reese, Sarah and Father Schwarzenegger teamed up to kill John, and Skynet was destroyed from then on. In the final duel, because of the influence of related equipment, Schwarzenegger was not only lucky to escape, but his body was unexpectedly transformed and upgraded.
Afterwards, Reese found his childhood self and conveyed to him the news that he would "rush to San Francisco to destroy Skynet by 2017". The final ending ended with a happy reunion.
This "Terminator" received the lowest score in the entire series, with a Rotten Tomatoes index of only 27%. In fact, "Terminator" 5 is sincere in some aspects, such as lines and scenes, and pays homage to the classic fragments in "Terminator" 1-2. However, the sudden change in the style of the story made it difficult for many loyal fans to accept. At the very least, the plot setting of John suddenly turning into a villain is, in the eyes of many, somewhat unconvincing.
In response to the surging negative reviews, Cameron, the director of the first two films of the "Terminator" series, publicly expressed his support for "Terminator" 5, but later, Cameron also admitted that he had praised him at the beginning. This movie is just because of Schwarzenegger's face.
Hmm... this can have...
In fact, I personally think that maybe the evaluation could be slightly better if I didn't see this movie as a "Terminator" series, but as another independent story.
Because, in my opinion, one of the biggest problems with Terminator 5 is that it wants to build a huge Terminator world too much, and this eager ambition has led to many time and space paradoxes in the plot, and also led to The film's handling of details is too sloppy. The "Terminator" that the audience wants to see does not need to be supported by a huge world view, does not need to be filled with a lot of complicated details, and does not need to be clever to highlight its own brilliance.
In contrast, the "Terminator 6" that is currently being released is really clear about what fans want to see from the "Terminator" series: that is, warm memories, moderate sensationalism, nostalgic familiarity sense, the symbolization of the logo, the familiar story frame that makes people feel safe, and the super cool visual effects. These, "Terminator 6" almost did. It played the emotional card very successfully.
"Terminator 6", ditching all the settings of "Terminator" 3-5, is a direct sequel to the first and second films. Therefore, John's mother Sarah did not die of blood cancer as in the third part, but lived a healthy life as a domineering grandma. And her son, John, did not escape the pursuit of Schwarzenegger, the Terminator, and was killed when he was only a teenager.
You might ask: In the second installment, wasn't the Skynet system destroyed? Why is there still a terminator?
The fact is that although Skynet was destroyed, in the future world, a "Legion" (Legion) artificial intelligence system similar in nature to Skynet was born. This system, like Skynet, will send Terminators back through In the past, kill future human leaders who are a threat to them.
The struggle between humans and machines seems to be inevitable no matter how to avoid it.
However, after completing the task of assassinating John, Schwarzenegger gradually developed human nature and completely integrated into human society. He also changed his name to "Carl" and started a family. For years, he had been secretly sending anonymous messages to Sarah, directing her to track the Terminator's movements. This time, Schwarzenegger's message leads Sarah to a girl named Dany. Sarah naturally took on the role of Dany's instructor. To Sarah, Dany was another version of John.
At the same time, the future human also sent an enhanced person named Grace to cross over. Together with Schwarzenegger and Sarah, she protected Dany against the Terminator Rev-9 sent by the Legion.
In the end, in order to defeat the Terminator, Schwarzenegger gave his life. His classic line, "I will be back" (I will be back), this time into "I won't be back" (I won't be back), painted a complete picture of his exit. period.
Terminator 6 ditches the clutter of all the Terminator titles of the past 28 years. It follows the tone of the 1984 version of "Terminator", with a neat structure and tight rhythm. While highlighting the retro feeling, it also incorporates Hollywood's current advanced special effects technology. The simultaneous appearance of characters from the old and new generations adds to the emotional shock.
Whether it's Cameron, Schwarzenegger, or Linda Hamilton, every veteran member has contributed the same proportion of sincerity to Terminator 6.
Although Cameron did not return to direct, he took on the role of producer. Many scenes in the film seem to be filled with his scent.
As for Schwarzenegger, his soft, meticulous, and contemplative performance infuses the film with a powerful sensibility despite his short appearance.
Perhaps, the too abundant humanity on the T-800 made him detached from the original image of the Terminator. However, when we saw Schwarzenegger's young face restored by CGI technology, the emotional shock we felt was already convincing enough.
The characters in the movie are getting old, and we who watch the movie have also grown up.
Like Schwarzenegger, Sarah's return brings the same weight of emotional shock. She is like a faith, a symbol, a strong mother who can give everyone the courage to fight in the despair of the end.
At the time, director Cameron had a relationship with actress Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah, and when they divorced, Cameron paid Linda $50 million. It was dubbed at the time "the most expensive divorce in history."
After deciding to make Terminator 6, Cameron said he sent Linda a lengthy email to convince her to return to the role of Sarah.
After receiving the invitation, Linda thought about it for 6 weeks. She hesitates just because she doesn't want to be said to be cooking cold rice and making quick money. In preparation for the shoot, Linda spent more than a year working out, getting in shape, and purposely dyeing her hair gray. During the filming process, Linda, like Schwarzenegger, further revised the script based on her understanding of the character.
Another point to mention briefly is the character of John. Many were not happy with John's hasty departure. After all, it is the "human leader" who has been talking about for so many years, and it seems that he should not leave so lightly.
Of course, different people will have different interpretations of this plot. Personally, I think it's okay, acceptable.
At present, "Terminator: Dark Fate" has a freshness rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the score is not too high. People who don't like it will also criticize it for lack of novelty and only selling feelings in an old-fashioned way.
However, for many "Terminator" fans, as long as the feelings are conveyed in place, "Terminator: Dark Fate" will be a blockbuster film in their hearts.
(The above content is the manuscript of the video explanation. The original video was originally published on November 2, 2019 on Station B and Weibo account: Li Lixi. Original article, please indicate the original author for reprinting)
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