tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23638894473194656042024-03-15T18:10:10.970-07:00Downfall Of TerminatorBlog focusing on faults and bad writing and directing of Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines and Terminator: SalvationGothamStreetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650245408360085764noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363889447319465604.post-65361067965034472722016-03-31T13:47:00.002-07:002016-03-31T13:47:23.911-07:00The Design Changes on the Endoskeleton<div style="text-align: center;">
TERMINATOR 3 : RISE OF THE MACHINES</div>
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So where did the post Cameron sequels take the design? In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the digital endoskeleton from the opening had teeth that were actually going inside the skull, as if into gums, rather than being on the skull as it is with real human skulls. However, that questionable alteration was made by CG team only, the Winston skull retained the original look.</div>
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TERMINATOR SALVATION</div>
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Amazingly, the baby teeth had also made it into the reshaped CGI form in Terminator Salvation as well, while the prop skulls had the correct full size teeth</div>
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Salvation reshaped the endoskeleton , mainly its proportions. The CG endo is considerably beefed up and proportioned like a bodybuilder. The first reason is that they added a lot of new parts to the Terminator Salvation endoskeleton that didn't exist on previous endoskeletons. Some of the parts add bulk, while others fill in what would have been empty spaces in the endoskeleton chassis. With all that extra clutter, the endoskeleton looks more solid and less skeletal. On the Terminator Salvation endoskeleton, the inner sides of the upper arms have an additional support that doesn't exist on previous endoskeletons. The outer sides of the upper arms have curved structures that bulk out the arms. In the torso area, there are a lot more tubes than there used to be. At the shoulders, there are multiple tubes that run to them, and they connect to a part on the shoulder that doesn't exist on older endoskeletons. The second reason is that they changed the design of certain parts. The pelvis was narrowed compared to previous endoskeletons. The spinal column was also changed. In previous endoskeletons, the spinal column was tapered so that it was widest at the base. But in Terminator Salvation, the spinal column is tapered so that it was narrowest at the base. Those changes also help minimize any empty space within the confines of the chassis. </div>
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Together, those changes minimize empty space while simultaneously increasing bulk and visual complexity</div>
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There are also several changes made to the skullface. The teeth alter the design considerably, but there are several changes in the shape and design. The cheekbones have different shape, rounded as opposed to squar-y, there are no indentations on them, the nose is much narrower and so is the shape of the skull and designs on it, and the proportions and eye sockets differ as well. It also has lips, which explains the small teeth</div>
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TERMINATOR GENISYS</div>
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Terminator Genisys ignored and discarded not only the previous two stories, but their redesigns as well. For Terminator Genisys, the endoskeleton got an interesting body redesign which updated it to modern sci-fi style, to a more sleeker scifi look. Notably the chestplate resembles the Cyberdyne logo now, the arms are closer to the shape of human's, so is the spine and the pelvis area. The proportions reverted back to the original design.</div>
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The skull has minor alterations - the jaw is thinner and the actual skull is now, for the first time, symmetrical. The skullface also reverted back to the original design</div>
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Also, for the first time, the CG and puppet endos match perfectly</div>
GothamStreetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650245408360085764noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363889447319465604.post-27873344868857325392013-04-06T18:38:00.001-07:002013-04-24T09:14:22.386-07:00All That is Wrong with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines<div style="text-align: justify;">
When T3 was announced it was a shock.
Not a shock because a third part was being made even though it was made
clear in the last movie and in interviews throughout the years that the
story is finished, but because James Cameron wasn't involved. It was
like hearing about a new Star Wars movie without George Lucas. Even more so,
since Cameron had an even greater authorship over his creation than Lucas over Star Wars. He thought up the concept, wrote the scripts, directed the movies,
had his hand in special effects, cinematography, and even designed all
the machines in details, everything from endoskeleton to ground HKs. He
even storyboarded the first movie himself. Also, absence of Cameron meant absence of such Terminator staples as Adam Greenberg and Brad Fiedel, who were also crucial to the style and look of the Terminator movies.</div>
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Still,
myself and almost all the Terminator fans I know were completely opened
to the possibility, and after seeing first trailers we were all hyped
up that its gonna be a great movie, even without the universe's father.It was the movie I anticipated the most ever, as a hardcore Terminator fan since 1989. Carolco studio was reborn, and Vanja and Kassar were producing again, it
all seemed to be on the right track. We knew the first two movies were such well regarded classics because of their incredible attention to details (<a href="http://www.jamescamerononline.com/Terminator2.htm">http://www.jamescamerononline.com/Terminator2.htm</a>),
depth and artistry (<a href="http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T2Complexity.htm">http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T2Complexity.htm</a>) but we were really convinced it's gonna be right up there with the
originals. Then we went to see it...and boy, were we wrong. First of
all, the writers of the movie didn't even like Terminator movies and
admittedly took the job just for the money. In his own blog, John
Brancato describes The Terminator as "unpolegetically B" and T2 as "self
bloated mess" and says he and Ferris took the job because Ferris wanted
a new house. In the same blog he has a pesky attitude towards James
Cameron as well. Answering the question about the wrong age of John Connor
in T3, these writers simply commented "who cares". If someone's
wondering why writers of "Tank Girl" were hired in the first place ("The
Game" was credited to them but heavily rewritten), it's upon insistence
of Jonathan Mostow. Mostow isn't even familiar with basic concepts of the mythology,
since he admitted on the audio commentary that he has no clue why
terminators come naked! In-universe explanation aside, Cameron wrote it this way to convincingly explain why no one arrived with weapons. He didn't even know the widely known "name" of
the main character! It's virtually impossible for any terminator fan or even passive fan not to know that Arnold was a T-800</div>
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All that shows
in the movie. The
studio wanted to play it safe and copy T2 as close as possible (<a href="http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T3special.htm">http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T3special.htm</a>), which is fine, I welcomed the idea.
It's not only evident in the movie, but in the audio commentary Mostow
mentions T2 at least 10 times, and talks about trying to copy T2's
pacing etc But instead, the result was a bland, parodying mess that has
some faults, continuity problems and stupidity in every single scene. Let's begin</div>
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Lets
start with opening titles. The opening titles in the first 2 movies
were memorable sequences. Floating and shining steel letters in The
Terminator, which passed the screen while the eerie synthesized theme
was playing, and in T2 we had the inferno - nightmarish nuclear fire
devouring children's playground. In T3 we get...black screen and white
letters</div>
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John
Connor introduces himself. Minutes into the movie and we already get a
gigantic plothole/inconsistency. Ferris & Brancato have already
screwed up their first detail, by disregarding the fact that John was 10
years old in T2, not 13.<br />
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As
John tears down the highway on his
motorcycle, we see glimpses of whatever future T3 was trying to go for.
We see Nick Stahl dressed as an aging Nazi midget, hollering and waving
a weapon in the air--a stark contrast to the stoic John Connor from T2,
who was steeling himself for the most costly victory of his life. <br />
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Yeah! Halloween! Let's party!</div>
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Not to mention that the scene with adult Connor in T2 was a subtle visual introduction to the movie's theme, which is people becoming more machine like and vice versa. Connor scanned the field like a Terminator.<br />
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As
John Connor rallies his troops, he is standing next to a tattered
American flag. This element provides unnecessary nationalism, while
also trivializing the plight of humanity everywhere else on the globe.
In Cameron's movies, if you notice there are no American flags or
insignia, and the novelization mentions all men fighting as one nation.
Also, three billion human lives were said to be extinguished on
Judgement Day,
which is 10 times the population of the United States. This war isn't
about Los Angeles or the USA; it's about the survival of humans as a
species. As it is, the novelization and script for T2 established that
north of the equator, everybody dies. Most of the survivors would have
been from southern hemisphere countries, and that's confirmed in both
the novelization and the deleted future war scenes from the script. The
future war isn't about the "good ol' USA" saving the day yet again in
the vein of 'Independence Day'. If anything, it's the USA that
inadvertently created the mess in the first place, and it's up to
everyone else to avoid extermination and defeat the machines.
Considering how many Americans would have died during Judgement Day, as
well as the amount of time the war dragged on, it's safe to say that the
USA ceased to exist. There's little point in waving a flag that
represents a country most of the survivors weren't a part of.<br />
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America! F**k yeah!</div>
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As
we cut back to present day, we find out that he doesn't feel safe,
despite having helped to avert Judgement day way back in 1995. We also
find out that John Connor has amounted to nothing. This same person who
could hack ATM's at age 10 has settled for being an undocumented manual
laborer. And while nothing has been explicitly stated yet, observant
viewers might already notice that John Connor has picked a very bad
place to live. If he isn't sure Judgment Day won't happen, why stay in the freaking LA?! <br />
John Connor drops a beer bottle into the future,
and we see machines that bear little resemblance to the HK's seen in
the earlier films, and there's nothing going on. Units are flying
around or marching, but we don't see any actual fighting. We see some
Terminators fire their weapons, but we see no evidence of return fire.
Instead of a future filled with the brutal oppression of humans, we get
nothing but robots milling about. The Terminators look good,
but the anemic weapon sounds do them no favors, and why do these
Terminators have baby teeth?<br />
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And why is the war still going on in the first place? Something tells me
Brancato & Ferris missed that part about war being won as well...Even if they were unfamiliar with script or novelization, and even if logical deduction wasn't enough for them, Reese even stated in the movie that they had won and that at that point killing Connor in the future wouldn't matter. </div>
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And if Skynet is still holds a crushing momentum upon the human resistance
beyond 2029 in this altered universe, what's the point of sending T-X back
on the eve of 2004's Judgement Day to kill future human captains as much
as possible (including Connor and Brewster) in the first place ?</div>
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As we flash back to the present, we
see that John Connor really is living like a transient. Living off the
grid is one thing, but that doesn't mean he has to be homeless. Illegal immigrants are living off the grid and they have jobs, houses and lives.<br />
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Off the grid does not equal homeless bum</div>
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<br />
We then
see him "<span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2">running</span> from an
unwanted future" by driving at night on a winding highway with blind
turns at excessive speed, because getting into an accident or getting
pulled over by a police officer won't create a paper trail, right? John
Connor pays for his recklessness by crashing his motorcycle in an
attempt to avoid a deer. What is wrong with this John Connor? At age
10, he was handling a motorcycle far better than he is now. There's a
definite line between taking calculated risks and being reckless, and
John Connor definitely crossed that line somewhere between T2 and T3.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As John Connor lies injured on the ground, he sees
the deer that he almost hit. The deer provides some interesting
symbolism. Like Stahl's John Connor, the deer turns out to be a helpless,
docile animal that doesn't have enough sense to do anything when
disaster comes barreling down like a freight train. Only when it's too
late does the animal decide to take action--too little, too late.<br />
<br />
[T-X Arrival]<br />
<br />
Meanwhile,
it's a quiet night on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The camera pans
past a number of store fronts before settling on one in particular.
Since Mostow can't wait until the actual appearance of the T-X to annoy
us with its dialogue, the window of the store front actually has text
that says, "I LIKE this LOOK!" Great, now he have the mini origin story
of the first two lines of dialogue the T-X utters.<br />
An electrical
disturbance occurs, heralding the imminent arrival of the T-X. Unlike
the previous time displacement events, this one radiates a lot of heat
before the sphere appears, causing objects to melt or burn. This sphere
appears to push its way into present day, instead of annihilating or
displacing the matter occupying the area of the sphere. As the sphere
materializes, it appears with a tiled pattern etched into it, because a
sphere of pure energy is just too boring for Mostow. he missed the point of the black ball being a void.<br />
The T-X has only been in the present for seconds before making its first mistake. It appeared in a <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD1">store display</span> featuring women's clothing. After stepping out onto the sidewalk, it
passed another display of women's clothing. Yet the T-X disregards
them, choosing instead to walk around naked!!!!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Clothes AKA disguise is right around you dummy!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another thing is, how did T-X
travel in time without live elements? T-1000's arrival was done
offscreen to hide his nature, but it was confirmed that he arrived in a
flesh coccoon. Not only he appeared offscreen, but the flesh cocoon part is in the novelization and confirmed by T2's creative consultant. They decided not to show it not to reveal the character too soon and not to confuse the audience. hence his arrival was offscreen<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After a short
stroll, the T-X spots a potential victim, a lady wearing a sleek, red
naugahyde suit. As the woman returns to her car, the T-X moves in for
the kill. As it crosses the street toward the woman (legally, to my
surprise), the woman takes notice and expresses justifiable concern.
The same T-X that paid zero attention to the women's clothing in the
store displays obviously read the text on the glass, because it declares
to the woman, "I LIKE your CAR!". The T-X then reaches for her and
either rips off the woman's scarf, or her neck. Btw, Mostow actually resigned from shooting a scene which showed the
first signs of Skynet taking over when the woman tries to access ATM in
order to have more shots of the nude Loken....<br />
<br />
Moments later,
the T-X is seeing how fast it can accelerate through all the gears of
the stolen Lexus. The T-X takes the cellphone from the dead woman's
purse and uses it to dial into the LAUSD computer network. The T-X
makes noises to emulate the tones created by dial-up modems and
successfully logs in--never mind all the wind and traffic noise that
would interfere with the connection. The T-X rapidly downloads photos
and relevant data for several targets at a rate that is not possible
over dial-up. <br />
Now that the T-X has information on its targets,
it is free to start driving as crazy as possible. The T-X weaves in and
out of traffic, running red lights and driving on the wrong side of the
road while speeding. The T-X has absolutely no interest in maintaining
a low profile, constantly risking the attention of lots of police.
It's going to be very hard to get close to its targets if the T-X
attracts a large number of police cars and news helicopters. But of
course we later find out that the T-X is in a big hurry because it has
22 targets to kill in less than 24 hours. There are two major problems
with that. <br />
<br />
1: If Skynet really wanted all those targets
killed, why give the T-X so little time to accomplish its mission? It's
time travel, stupid! Send the T-X back days, weeks, months, maybe even
years earlier! Why make the mission of the T-X any harder than it
needs to be? <br />
<br />
2: All these "important" targets are in Los
Angeles, because of course, LA is the only place that anyone of
importance to the Resistance could possibly come from. So if all these
people are in LA, why is Skynet bothering at all? They are all in LA.
They are in LA on the day of a massive nuclear exchange. They are GOING
to DIE--no matter what the T-X does or doesn't do. <br />
There is no
way anyone in Los Angeles is going to survive a surprise nuclear
attack. But of course, by ridiculous plot contrivance, these people
would not only all survive a massive nuclear attack, but they would all
become John Connor's lieutenants. So of course they all have to die.
Good thing they all live in the same place, so that Skynet only has to
send one Terminator.<br />
Also, Later in this movie movie, Stahl says that one day hes gonna have
to send 850 back and all that...well, he wont. TX was sent to eliminate
the lieutenants. Well, since she did so in the movie, then they wont
exist in the future and there wont be a reason to sent TX after them</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anyway, the T-X unsurprisingly attracts the
attention of a police officer, and is pulled over. While waiting for
the police officer to approach the car, the T-X notices a Victoria's
Secret billboard and decides that it needs bigger breasts, inflating
them for the benefit of the three teenagers that haven't figured out how
to find porn on the internet. The police officer walks up to the car,
and wow! Those somewhat enlarged boobies made that police officer
forget all about the reckless driving and almost forget about the
speeding, too. As the officer stutters and stammers through the last
traffic stop of his career, the T-X notices the his gun. Of course, the
T-X can't take something unless it comments on the item first, so it
does: "I LIKE your GUN!" Like the first attempt at black humor, this
one pales in comparison to the "say, that's a nice bike" line from T2
that they're shamelessly trying (and failing) to emulate. Also, T-X has
been promoted as the first female villain, while T-1000 had been two
women in T2. And perhaps its a good timing place to mention how much of a
step back T-X is in comparison to the T-1000 when it comes to
infiltration units</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The natural evolution would be:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
skeleton with flesh - skeleton with liquid metal - liquid metal alone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
T-1000 could:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- fit through narrow openings</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- morph its human arms into solid metal tools (ANY kinds of tools) or bladed weapons, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- walk through metal bars</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- form additional limbs. Forming additional limbs is a huge advantage. You can hold 4 rifles instead of one. Or like in T2, he can both pilot the chopper and shoot and reload guns.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- flatten itself on the ground to hide or ambush targets. T-1000 can become a floor, wall, stool, big rock - just about anything and anybody</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- If blown up, it could reassemble</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- When physically damaged, its capable of reforming itself in seconds, closing up bullet holes and reattaching limbs</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
T-X couldnt do any of that. She was just another skeleton (even if with hardened chassis) but with appearance changing abilities which were also limited because she couldnt change sizes and could only disguise herself as another person of an equal size. Her solid form got in the way almost constantly and contributed not only to her failure (being trapped under the chopper) but to her death (she was grabbed and held. T-1000 was impossible to even be held or hit). Any of her damage is permanent. Ex:. she hits a truck and her cannon is broken and sparking. She rips her legs away, no more legs. T-850 breaks her hand, no hand working.<br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
She has extra weapons but they're ineffective and only a burden. Flamethrower can be acquired by T-1000 as well. All it really needs is a long range weapon. It isnt really any improvement. Even if it had handguns installed, its simply a difference of having them stuck to the body as oppose to carrying them. Aside from the supposed anti-terminator cannon, she had nothing that couldnt be easily acquired around. Grenade launcher would do the job. Overall, the best choice would be to have the plasma rifle which can easily take out terminators. Amazingly, an anti-terminator doesnt have that</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A warrior infiltrator is more than just explosions and firepower. And thats the whole point. T-1000 may not have weapons glued to him, but he can get them if necessary, and he doesnt necessarily need the firepower because of his silent stalker abilities and characteristics. All you need is to sneak up and cut someones throat without him noticing, or simply sneak up close enough to have a shot and shoot a pistol. Targets dead. Thats what infiltrations all about. All terminators need is a handgun or automatic weapon. An Infiltrator is suppose to get inside military base, sneak in and destroy it from the inside. Like Columbu Terminator did, like T-1000 infiltrated hospital. Blasting doors open alarms everyone and begins evacuation and mobilization of forces and alert. Sneaking in, opening doors quietly with keys or holes with crowbar gives it amazing advantage of not being spotted and beginning the slay quietly without anyone knowing until its too late. Thats what infiltration is about, and if he wont sneak in and alert the target, chances are the target will get a headsup or that he'll meet with resistance that will stop or slow him down. Theres a reason why our Delta Force sneaks in quietly at night and uses silencers to take out targets. Barge in shooting and driving tanks and you alert the target and give him time and advantage of getting ready or hide or run. Thats the mistake TX did many times. By shooting the patient at the clinic before IDing her, she alerted Kate and gave her a chance to hide and then escape. If shed walk in, cut patients throat and took her appearance, shed easily come to unsuspecting Kate and break her neck.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
T-1000 could not be spotted. He could be like commando in the jungle dressed as bushes. He can BE a bush. And then when soldier passes by he gets his throat slit so he wont utter a sound. No alarm risen, no backup, no warnings. Or he can flatten and become a ground, and then when few soldiers step on it he can form multiple spikes and impale em right there, all at once, no sound.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The way T-800 entered, he alarmed the whole station, Reese got lose, and because of the fight with cops and huge headsup, Reese and Sarah had time to escape knowing hes coming and hearing where he is. T-1000 could just copy Silberman, and come back to the station saying he forgot something.. Then go to Sarah, sit next to her and impale her</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
T-X also can't change sizes because of her solid form, only something of equal height. T-1000 cant change mass and weight because those are constant, but can change size. An example that Cameron mentioned is that he can become a kid with a backpack. The backpack or a belt with tools can be imitated by any extra mass. That way he can become ANYONE, not only a person of the exact same height. He could be a short fat guard, slimm and tall policeman or very tiny and skinny foster parent. TX is a solid endo with set height, she cant imitate someone shorter than her. T-1000 can become a little dog with slades, a kid with backpack, short woman, fat little guy or tall and slimm man</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Besides, she is the only villain in the series which was directly defeated by the hero. In other 2 movies, it was ONLY the situation of right time and right place that contributed to success. The T-800 was a crawling garbage after a hand to hand encounter with the T-1000 while T-850 defeated T-X. He was much stronger than she was because even using both hands she couldnt free herself from his grip. He defeated her with one hand, overpowered with just one hand.. And their hand to hand combat in the bathroom was very evened out.In the first movie, it just so happened that T-800 was under hydraulic press when Sarah was near the controls. In T2, T-100 left T-800 a crawling, armless junk after a hand to hand combat. T-800 couldn;t even land a punch cause T-1000's face absorbed and grabbed his hand. It was no contest. And if Sarah would not fire at him pushing him over the edge, the T-800s grenade would not push him far enough to drop him into the vat. It just so happened he was standing right by the edge with molten steel behind him. In T3, T-850 flat out kicks her ass. She would just continue pursuit after John but T-850 grabbed her (with one hand), pushed her back, delivered one liner (all that while she still couldnt get free while hes using ONE HAND), smiled and shoved a bomb in her mouth (which she couldnt pull away and fight him away with BOTH hands). It wasnt circumstances. He simply grabbed her interrupting her pursuit and kicked her ass with one hand. He even broke her hand!In the first two movies, the heroes did not directly defeat the villain. They happened to stand in the wrong place. In both first two movies, the protagonists are barely alive after encountering the villain. In T3, 850 defeats TX on his own, pulling her back, breaking her hand, shoving a bomb in her mouth and shooting a one liner with a smile<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Also, the fact that TX is an anti-terminator is utter ridiculous since one terminator killed her with one hand, and even earlier in single combat they were evened out like wrestling fighters. Not to mention none of her weapons could destroy a terminator, something a regular, field plasma rifle could easily do. But more about it later</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
[Bloomingdale's]<br />
<br />
Kate and her "fiancé" are attempting to create a wedding gift registry. Kate is quick to complain that the barcode scanner isn't working, even though she's not actually aiming the laser at the barcode. Scott, who seems to be having way too much fun shopping for wedding presents, either scans the barcode immediately and teases Kate about it, or he spends less than half a second attempting to scan the barcode before giving up and wondering what's wrong with the barcode scanner. Either way, Kate expresses her hatred of machines. Ooh, foreshadowing. Unfortunately, because of the way the scene plays out, it doesn't actually foreshadow the rise of Skynet. It just makes Kate look like she's incapable of doing what any minimum-wage store employee can do easily. <br />
<br />
As Scott gleefully works on creating the wedding gift registry, Kate receives a phone call from her father, General Brewster. We learn that her father was supposed to visit her and Scott this weekend, but is unable to do so because of computer problems. We also learn that Kate is having second thoughts about the wedding, which is perfectly understandable. Marrying a man who would rather have a husband than a wife is probably not the wisest idea in the world. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
What closet?</div>
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<br />
As Kate ponders her fate, General Brewster is briefed on the computer problems. There's a nasty virus infecting a massive number of computer systems, and the General's advisor is lobbying to use their advanced new AI system to eradicate the virus. But General Brewster has misgivings about activating Skynet and putting it in control of absolutely all military systems. As one of the few intelligent characters in the movie, General Brewster is right to be concerned, although one has to wonder why they have no way of isolating the secure military systems from Skynet while it does what it needs to on civilian and secondary military systems. <br />
<br />
[The Mojave Desert]<br />
<br />
Since people think the desert is always hot, a rattlesnake slinks by--even though it's cold enough that the main characters wear jackets throughout the entire movie. Also, rattlesnakes only rattle when threatened. They don't constantly rattle their tails because making a lot of noise makes it hard to catch a meal. Anyway, the rattlesnake is soon joined by a visitor. It's another Terminator, the T-850, which arrives in the same sort of sphere the T-X arrived in. The sphere is pretty much identical to the one the T-X arrived in and lingers too long.<br />
<br />
As the sphere disappears, the T-850 stands up, scans its surroundings, and crunches glass as it steps out of the divot created by the time travel sphere. The T-850 seems to be somewhat hesitant, as it takes small steps to exit the divot.<br />
<br />
[Animal Hospital]<br />
<br />
John Connor, who doesn't want to risk a paper trail, opts to be dropped off at an animal hospital, where he plans to break in to tend to his own wounds. Here, we see more evidence of just how far John Connor has fallen. He's already injured, yet opts to risk further injury by using his elbow to shatter a glass door, when the animal hospital was full of items he could have used to break the glass. Not only that, but his first priority was to obtain pain pills, rather than actually deal with his injuries. He grabs a bottle of Phenobarbital, and immediately starts popping pills.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
[The Mojave Desert]<br />
<br />
The T-850 has located a rather busy bar, the Desert Star. The T850 arrives at the entrance and encounters a bouncer perched on a stool by the front door. The bouncer is not the slightest bit surprised to see a completely naked man walk up. He acts as if he was expecting a nude man, and tells it that it's supposed to go around to the back. After scanning the man and deciding that his clothes weren't a match, the T-850 completely disregards the man, hitting the man forcefully with the door the T-850 enters the building--but not before aiming its head at the door prior to moving, as if head movements and walking cannot occur simultaneously.His moves are sudden and jerky, and he moves and walks more like Frankenstein and all the cliche robots and androids.<br />
What made the terminator character different and unique is that it didn't act like 50's robots and didnt walk like one. 850 was everything terminators in the first 2 movies weren't<br />
<br />
The T-850 enters the bar, and immediately discovers that it's Ladies' Night at the Desert Star. Undeterred, the T-850 begins scanning the patrons. We see the first sign of the T-850's stupidity here. As the T-850 is scanning the patrons, it encounters a large woman. The T-850 determines "INITIAL MATCH UNSUITABLE". That makes sense, so the T-850 disregards the woman, right?<br />
<br />
Wrong. The T-850 performs a more detailed scan of the woman, which includes a picture-in-picture display of the woman's breasts. After this more detailed scan, the T-850 determines that the fit probability is 0.29% and that the subject is "INAPPROPRIATE". No shit, Sherlock! The T-850 ends up sacrificing common sense for the sake of a lame gag. <br />
<br />
Suddenly, the T-850's head whips around, spotting what appears to be the only man in the entire bar. A gay stripper clad in designer leather is strutting on the stage, no doubt a worthy adversary to the T-850. The T-850 orders the man to take off his clothes. The man, who is busy trying to fulfill every gay stereotype on his checklist, says to the T-850, "Patience, honey," before tossing a glove at the T-850's face. After being briefly stunned by the bizarre display of over-the-top homosexuality, the T-850 steps onto the stage. The stripper becomes hostile, exclaiming to the T-850, "Whoa, bitch! Wait your turn!", and checks off a couple more entries on his gay checklist. The Terminator again demands the clothes, setting up the infamous "talk to the hand" gag. The stripper tells the T-850 to talk to the hand, and the T-850 is stupid enough to actually do so! It grabs the stripper's hand and speaks into it as if it were a microphone. Sadly, this is just the first of many times the T-850 takes things too literally. Where an earlier model would have remained silent, this one says dumb things. A male stripper tells him to talk to the hand, so he does?! When the Terminator in T2 is told that it "forgot to say 'please'," it didn't rephrase its request. It just started laying on the violence. The whole ladies' night event was over the top as well. The whole scenario seemed to be designed to make the T-850 look like a total dork. And the designer jacket that he's wearing looks like something Biff from Back To The Future II would wear<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The most retarded cyborg in movie history, the T-850</div>
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Having convinced the stripper to remove his clothes faster than originally intended, the T-850 exits the bar.The mocking of the character continuous, since his scan reveals that the stripper was wearing G strings. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
So now terminator wears strings...</div>
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Btw, the termovision is wrong. The vision of the Terminators from the first two movies really did look like a display of some digitized mechanical device, with slightly diffused vision and strong whiteouts. In here its exactly like human vision just in red<br />
As "Macho Man" plays in the background, the T-850 suddenly notices something in a jacket pocket. It pulls out an iconic pair of sunglasses and--WHOA!!! Wrong icon! The Terminator actually puts on the pair of Elton John sunglasses, and only after showing them off for the camera does it decide that they are not appropriate and crushes them. James Cameron had previously said that he didn't want to make jokes at a Terminator's expense. That rule obviously doesn't apply for Mostow with T3, as he wastes no time in making the T-850 as clueless as possible. It seems as if Mostow's intent was to make the T-850 seem as harmless as possible. Also, in Cameron's movies the sunglasses are an important story device in The Terminator and T2. In the first movie they meant to dehumanize T-800 more and more as the movie progresses and as he takes on more damage, becoming less and less human-like in appearance. In T2, the meaning of the sunglasses has an even deeper meaning and message. The sunglasses symbolizes his gradual transformation - he wears the sunglasses in the beginning when he is nothing more than a killer with a blank mind and looses them when he's starting his journey to become more human. T-800 looses glasses to reinforce beginning of humanization of the character from the hospital scene to the end of the film.</div>
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<br />
Despite the bar being populated almost entirely by women, and despite the movie taking place in California, the T-850 manages to find a redneck icon, a 4x4 pickup truck with a gun rack in the back window. There is no way a person could get away with driving on public roadways in California with a shotgun visible in the back window, and how many women looking to get drunk need to bring a shotgun with them? <br />
<br />
The T-850 breaks into the truck and disables the alarm. Despite having apparently no understanding of human behavior, the T-850 somehow knows a trick that was taught to an actual Terminator--not the T-850. The T-850 flips down the visor, apparently in search of keys. It doesn't find any, but it does find a wristwatch that it uses to confirm that it has arrived in the correct time period. Unlike the first two movies, where Kyle and the Terminators hotwire vehicles by breaking the ignition on the steering column, the T-850 reaches down somewhere in the middle of the console to hotwire the truck with one hand. Before it leaves, it puts on a pair of sunglasses found on the dash, completing the T2-ripoff look but designer style.<br />
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[Los Angeles]<br />
<br />
The T-X has managed to start driving a bit more conservatively, and pulls into a drive-through to take out its first target. It seems the T-X must have hacked a lot more than just the LAUSD computers, because it not only knows where its targets live and work, it magically knows what their work schedules are. The T-X pulls up to the drive through speaker, and says nothing more than "Jose Barrera?" This is a very stupid method of target acquisition for several reasons. One, there really shouldn't be any way for the T-X to be certain of Jose's presence at the restaurant tonight. Two, pulling into the drive-through to locate him minimized the chance that it will actually acquire him, since Jose could conceivably be working anywhere in the restaurant. Three, doing nothing more than phrasing the person's name in the form of a question greatly reduces the odds that anyone will volunteer information the T-X needs. Four, trying to kill the target through the drive-through window maximizes the difficulty of achieving a good kill. Going inside would have given the T-X plenty of opportunity to look at most of the staff, as well as maximizing the odds of figuring out a way to pull off a quick and sneaky kill. Lucky for the T-X, Jose Barrera is not only working tonight, but is actually manning the drive-through, and is so helpful that he confirms his identity without asking the voice on the other end any questions first. The T-X pulls up to the window, where Jose Barrera says absolutely nothing, because questions like, "Do I know you?" are just to difficult to think of when dealing with a stranger. Jose's confusion gives the T-X plenty of time to analyze Jose's face, read his nametag, and do a retina scan. Who is providing Skynet with biometric information on all these people?<br />
<br />
Anyway, the T-X has positively identified Jose, so it's time to kill him. The T-X is loaded with built-in weaponry, so naturally the prudent course of action is to pull out a pistol and make as much noise as possible, and then drive off without later changing appearance or vehicles. Why is it that a Terminator that can adopt any appearance it chooses and has an assortment of on-board weaponry decide that it must not take any advantage of its capabilities? If the T-1000 had been performing the same task, it would have gone inside, disguised itself as one of the staff, shanked the target when he was vulnerable, and hidden the corpse so it would not be immediately discovered. By the time anyone discovered the corpse, the T-1000 would have been well on its way to the next target. It's as if the T-X wants to be inconvenienced by the police. After shooting Jose multiple times and making quite the scene, the T-X drives off.<br />
<br />
[The Anderson Residence]<br />
<br />
The Anderson kids are at home getting drunk with their friends, proving themselves just as responsible and capable of leading a Resistance as Stahl's John Connor. To illustrate how drunk they are, their beer bash involves watching the local news (exposition about the supervirus! ) and playing with one of those stupid robot cats that most kids get as Christmas presents and are already tired of them before December 26th.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Yeah, that's how teenagers party...</div>
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Upon hearing a car pull up, William "Bill" Anderson fears that his mom is home, and rushes to intercept as he has everyone hide the beer. Of course, his mom probably wouldn't be suspicious at all of a house full of kids with alcohol on their breaths, because if there are no beer cans sitting around, the drunk kids couldn't have been drinking, right? Anyway, "Bill" runs to the door, and upon opening it discovers the T-X. The T-X apparently thinks it's at another restaurant, because again it rattles off only the names of its targets, as if it were ordering food items from a menu. Now, despite it being a post-9/11 world, it's nighttime, he's drinking underage, his friends are drinking underage, and he has no idea who this woman at the front door is, "Bill" decides to just tell the T-X not only who he is, but also where his sister can be found?! Come on! There are a lot of reasons for this kid to worry about being in trouble, so honesty is obviously not the order of the day. Maybe he should find out who this person is first, so he can get an idea of just how much trouble he might be about to get into.<br />
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As for the T-X, it's lucky that the shooting spree earlier didn't end up on the news so that the Andersons would have had a chance to hide more than just the beer. Also, why is the T-X even asking for William Anderson? He's standing right there. Whatever happened to all that retinal scan nonsense and downloaded photos? Since "Bill" has so helpfully signed his own death warrant, the T-X shoves him to the floor and starts shooting. Again, the T-X makes sure there are plenty of witnesses.<br />
<br />
[Kate and Scott's bedroom]<br />
<br />
Kate and Scott are awakened by Kate's phone as it vibrates to announce an incoming text message. Kate has to go to the animal hospital for an emergency, even though it's 4:30am. Why Kate would give customers her personal number is beyond me. For that matter, 24-hour animal hospitals do exist, so Kate really doesn't need to be on-call. Besides, if it's a real emergency, in the time it takes for the staff to get to the hospital it may already be too late, hence the benefit of animal hospitals that are staffed around the clock. But hey, why let details like that get in the way of the plot? Anyway, Kate gives Scott a couple of kisses on the neck, and his reaction proves that he still thinks girls are "yucky".</div>
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[Animal Hospital]<br />
<br />
The scene opens with John Connor just laying in the middle of the floor. Everything about the shot screams carelessness. The blood he didn't clean from his leg, the poorly applied bandage that is soaked with blood, the spilled container of scissors (how many pairs did he think he was going to need?!), the overturned bottle of hydrogen peroxide (he didn't need the whole bottle--he sure didn't use the stuff to clean up the blood), the unopened packaging, the bloody pieces of gauze and cotton, and the fact that he's PASSED OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR IN A PLACE HE BROKE INTO all conspire to show just how careless Stahl's John Connor really is. Could this guy really not find any more comfortable spot than the middle of the floor? Did he really need to make the signs of intrusion as obvious as possible? Did he really need to tend to his wound right then and there instead of taking what he needed and patch it up somewhere safer? Did he really need to break into an animal hospital and risk imprisonment and a paper trail for some supplies he could have paid cash for at a decent 24-hour store? This guy is just asking to get busted.<br />
<br />
Kate's arrival is announced by barking dogs, and John Connor just begins to realize that he's in trouble. Kate lets herself in and gets ready for the arrival of a patient. She notices an empty bottle on the ground (can't John Connor hide or throw ANYTHING away?) and recognizes it as a sign of junkies. Why did John Connor think he needed to take so many? Was he trying to take a fatal overdose? Anyway, Kate begins to call the police, and John Connor stumbles out of hiding to warn her against the idea. When Kate doesn't immediately comply, John pulls out a gun and tells her to put the phone down. Kate does, and that was pretty much the extent of John's plan. He's in trouble and he knows it. He needs to get out of there and he knows it. So instead of doing anything to get out there, such as order Kate to get on the ground or something, John attempts to justify his breaking and entering. Naturally, Kate isn't buying his excuse and points out that there was an emergency clinic not far away. John's not formulating any plans at this point (good thing you popped a couple hundred pills, huh John?), but Kate is. Kate tells John that he took an overdose of pills used for chemically neutering dogs. John Connor doesn't seem to buy it, but his guard is obviously down, so Kate tosses the heaviest empty bottle in the world to John so he can see for himself. As the bottle hits John Connor in the chest, he reacts as if it were a bowling ball. As he desperately tries to catch the empty bottle--THE SAME EMPTY BOTTLE HE DROPPED ON THE FLOOR EARLIER--Kate springs to action. She goes straight for his gun, pushes him away as she takes control of it, and shoots him twice. That's it folks, the movie is over. John Connor is dead.<br />
<br />
Wait a minute, no he's not. He's doubled over in pain, so Kate grabs him. John Connor does absolutely nothing to resist as Kate runs him out of the room, through a closed door, into a different room, and runs him into a Marmaduke-sized cage that she locks him inside. This isn't pro-wrestling, John. When someone is doing something to you that you don't like, you're supposed to resist immediately--not wait for her turn to end so you can start yours. But wait a minute! John Connor's supposed to be dead! Nope. It turns out that he somehow managed to find a paintball gun that looks like a real pistol. This is pretty incredible, since at the time nobody was making such a product. There is one company that does so now, but even then they only make a few models, and none of them look like the pistol John was holding. Realistic paintball guns are almost unheard of, so it's quite fortunate for Kate that she could somehow recognize John Connor's gun for what it was. A BB or airsoft gun would have been easier to accept, since both types are available in a multitude of realistic offerings. But there's another problem. Even if we take for granted that John Connor's just was exactly what the movie depicted it as, he's still taking another stupid risk. In California, committing certain crimes with a firearm results in a significantly extended prison sentence even if the firearm is just a replica. This means that if John Connor uses his paintball gun to rob someone and gets arrested, upon conviction he will have an extra 10 years added to his sentence for using a gun in the commission of the crime, even though it isn't a real gun. He also has the same risk of getting shot by police that he would if he had a real gun, but with no actual ability to defend himself. From John Connor's perspective, having a fake gun is worse than having a real gun. If he's not going to carry a real gun, he's better off not carrying one at all.<br />
John gets shoved by a veterinarian and the conversation starts.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Ass kicked by a female veterinarian</div>
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Getting back to John Connor, he spouts the classic "It isn't what you think!" Yeah, as if THAT line ever works. We're quickly learning that John Connor never knows what to say. Lucky for us, Kate's "emergency" is at the front door, so we don't have to hear the conversation carry any further. John Connor, demonstrating continuing confusion, suddenly acts as if he cares about his appearance, looking for something to wipe his hands on. I guess he doesn't want to get paint on the clothes that Kate already shot up with paint.<br />
<br />
Kate lets in the T-X's next victim, who will soon learn what a real emergency is. No time is wasted in making the character instantly annoying, so that nobody cares when she ends up bleeding on the floor. Meanwhile, Kate excuses herself so that she can start making stupid decisions, too. We'll pretend that Kate already called the police, even though I'm pretty sure she didn't--especially since she's not still on the phone with them. She goes back to check on John Connor, who has nothing to say. At this point, fast-talking is the only option he has, and he didn't even try. Instead, he just stares at Kate while she paces around the cage. The first thing she says is Mike Kripke's basement, which confuses John Connor even more. Finally, she kicks into exposition mode, where we learn that she knew John Connor and went to the same school as him. John Connor doesn't recognize her of course, and when Kate mentions "that thing" with his foster parents, he sees fit to mention that they were murdered. It's a good thing he did, because I'm sure the media forgot to mention that the Voights were dead when talking about them on the news. Then he says that he didn't do it. Well, that clears everything up, because no guilty person professes their innocence. Now Kate has no choice but to trust you, John. He's blowing a golden opportunity to explain that he's terrified of the return of the serial killer that tried to kill his mom, murdered a police station full of cops, and killed his foster parents in the effort to come after him. Yes, we know it didn't quite happen like that, but it's a great way to explain why he's trying to avoid a paper trail of any sort. If he manages to present himself as a person consumed by the fear of being hunted by a seemingly unstoppable killer who's never been brought to justice, Kate might actually find a way to feel sorry for him and maybe let him go instead of having him arrested. But no, he just sits there and gives Kate more reason to believe he's a junkie.<br />
<br />
The awkward reunion is interrupted by a crash. Kate decides to investigate, leaving John Connor alone in the cage. Kate soon finds out that she was not the first person to investigate the crash. As she approaches the main hallway, she hears gunshots and sees the cat lady fall to the floor. Kate wisely decides to run away. We see the T-X walk up to the cat lady and ask if she is Katherine Brewster. What's the point in asking AFTER firing multiple bullets through her lungs? The T-X then proves that not only was asking unnecessary, but that Skynet seems to have everyone's blood sample on file. The T-X moves in to sample cat lady's blood. In a bizarre move, the T-X dips a finger into the blood pooling on cat lady's chest, and then licks the blood-soaked finger as if to flirt with cat lady. What possible reason could there be for requiring samples to be tested by the tongue?! Disregarding the whole ick-factor of it, the tongue is in such a recessed location that it makes it difficult to sample anything. Plus, the tongue is just more of the liquid metal. If the liquid metal can process samples at all, then why not use liquid metal at the fingertip to do it?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Yeah, that makes sense...</div>
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Then, the T-X determines that cat lady is not Kate and petulantly announces that fact to every pending corpse in the room.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, John Connor recognizes the gun shots for what they were, and is desperately attempting to escape from the cage. Unfortunately, he is attempting to do so by jamming a multitool into the lock, which only works in movies. Lucky for John Connor, he's in one of those, too. <br />
<br />
Kate is hiding from the T-X and is desperately attempting to control her breathing. The T-X enters the silent room and manages to not hear Kate's heavy breathing. The T-X walks into the middle of the room and looks around a bit, as if trying to not find anyone. The T-X then starts scanning random items right in front of it, until it settles on a patch of bloody gauze on the floor. It's an animal hospital. Not only is bloody gauze not an odd thing to find at an animal hospital, but logic would dictate that any blood on it is probably from a cat or dog. Apparently, one of the targets the T-X has been assigned to kill was a German Shepherd, because for no apparent reason the T-X decides to sample the patch. When the T-X identifies it as John Connor's blood, the T-X goes into... orgasm?! What the hell? You'd think it was the T-X that just got licked, not the other way around. Does the T-X have an oddly-located G-spot that is stimulated by positive blood samples?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Orgasming robot</div>
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And damnit John! When Skynet holds a blood drive, you DO NOT take yourself and your entire damn army to donate blood samples to Skynet! Kate is about as freaked out at all this as the audience is, because now she has an irresistible urge to run, even though she knows the T-X has a gun, and even though she's going to be dangerously exposed for a few seconds. Kate manages to get out of the line of fire just before the T-X fires a couple of shots at her, and she rushes for what's left of the front door. She pushes through the completely intact door, avoiding the gaping hole where the broken door used to be. Strangely, most of the broken glass is missing as well as the door handle. The glass that remains in the door frame is not safety glass at all, and the pieces are of such an exaggerated jaggedness that it looks somewhat comical. Kate finds no amusement in that, and rushes for her truck. Kate actually seems to be thinking, as she already has her keys in hand as she dashes for the truck. As she fumbles for the correct key, there is evidence of remote on her key chain, so she may have had the presence of mind to unlock her vehicle remotely instead of leaving it unlocked.<br />
<br />
Kate fumbles with the keys, performs the classic "drop the ignition key" maneuver and reaches down to retrieve them. The T-X, not to be outdone, performs the classic "scary villain at the window" maneuver. To conclude the slasher movie moment, Kate screams at the top of her lungs. At this point Kate should already be dead, as the T-X should have shot her as soon as it had a clear shot. But the T-X seems to have disposed of its pistol, and despite attempting to kill her just seconds ago, now wants to interrogate her about John Connor. The T-X punches out the glass and rips the door off the truck, then grabs Kate and flings her across the parking lot. The T-X steps on Kate's neck and demands to know where John Connor went. Things are looking pretty dire for John and Kate.<br />
<br />
[Animal hospital parking lot]<br />
<br />
Kate's situation is looking grim, but "lucky" for her the T-850 had a plan. It actually arrived at the animal hospital hours ago. While there, the T-850 placed two small ramps (visible in the movie) near the curb so that it could return later to jump the truck dramatically over the chain barricade surrounding the parking lot, instead of turning ten feet sooner and taking the PARKING LOT ENTRANCE. But of course, it needed to jump the fence in order to minimize control of the truck and maximize the risk of injury or death to Kate. In some remarkably bad compositing, the front driver's side tire actually does come down on top of Kate's legs and runs her completely over instead of appearing behind her as it should have. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Ouch!</div>
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But even if one ignores the shoddy 3D work, the 4x4 truck depicted has a differential on both axles (the bulbous gearbox commonly found on the rear axle of rear-wheel-drive vehicles). This is a problem, because there is much less ground clearance directly under the differential than there is elsewhere on the axle. As it turns out, the T-850 had the truck perfectly centered to hit the T-X. Since the differential is usually in the center of the axle, and since the T-X was standing directly above Kate, this means the front differential was exactly where it needed to be to strike Kate. With the front end of the truck coming back down to the pavement, the compression on the tires would have allowed the differential to come down a bit lower, increasing the risk even more than if the T-850 had simply driven in the parking lot entrance.<br />
<br />
Anyway, both the T-X and Kate have time to hear and then see the truck coming. From the time it first noticed the truck, the T-X had a full three seconds to react, yet specifically chose not to move out of the way of the truck. Since the T-X doesn't know the meaning of the word 'dodge', the T-850 is able to crash squarely into the T-X, causing it to sprawl out on the truck hood with an expression of feline irritation. Kate rolls over to watch the mayhem unfold. As the truck continues on its collision course with the animal hospital, we see the car the T-X stole. The T-X must like exercise, because it parked the car as far away from the hospital entrance as possible. Not only that, but it parked at such an odd angle in the corner that there would be no quick way to drive away after the attack. But there was a good reason for the poor parking skills of the T-X. <br />
<br />
Gratuitous pyrotechnics! <br />
<br />
That's right. The remote parking space placed the stolen car right next to a large propane tank and a rack full of smaller propane cylinders, and the 45 degree angle of the car guaranteed that a glancing blow would knock the car right into the propane tank. As the T-850 drove the T-X right through a wall, it delivered just such a glancing blow to the stolen car. Despite the amazing durability of propane tanks and propane cylinders, the slight sideways movement of the car was enough to cause a massive--yet harmless--propane explosion. The only point of the explosion was to liberally sprinkle the scene with decorative fire. Conveniently, the massive fireball did zero damage to the large crane parked right next to all that propane.<br />
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As Kate trembles in shock at the over-the-top chaos, she witnesses the T-850 exit from the truck and walk toward her, shotgun in hand. As she struggles to get to her feet, the T-850 stops in front of her. Stealing one of the T-X's own lines, it asks, "Katherine Brewster?" Demonstrating a few more brain cells than the other targets on the list--or perhaps due to shock--Kate does not respond. But of course, the T-850 already knew that this was Kate Brewster. It only asked because the T-850 likes to hear itself talk. It grabs Kate and tosses her onto its shoulder. Instead of trying to twist her way out of a one-handed hold, Kate decides to throw a temper tantrum and limply pound on the back of the T-850 while demanding to be put down in the most shrill voice she can muster. She seems to have forgotten that the T-850 is carrying a shotgun and that it could quite easily "put her down" in the way that animal shelters routinely put animals down. <br />
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The Terminator tosses Kate into the back of her own pickup truck, and demands to know where John Connor is. Kate, revealing more intelligence than most of the characters in this movie, decides to bargain for her freedom. She agrees to reveal John Connor's whereabouts if the T-850 promises to release her. She tells the T-850 where to find John Connor, but instead of freeing her, the T-850 grabs a tire iron and just stands there for a moment. Kate points out that they had a deal, and like a stereotypical cartoon villain and as an homage to Commando, the T-850 says, "I lied." Any real Terminator in the same situation would have just locked Kate in the truck without comment, but not the mouthy T-850. After using the tire iron as a heavy duty twist-tie to lock Kate in the truck, the T-850 heads off to annoy John Connor.<br />
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As John Connor continues to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of lock picking, the T-X punches a fist out from cinder block rubble that improbably formed itself into a large, neat pile right on top of the T-X. The T-X is in no hurry, gently waving robotic fingers around as it slowly collects the liquid metal that has separated from the main body for no reason at all. John Connor finally figures out that he's not going to unlock a padlock with his multi-tool, so he just kicks the door open--even though the cage itself is built as tough as the padlock. What need is there for him to escape from the cage on his own, anyway? The T-850 is about to find him, and John being helpless in a cage would make more sense than being free to run, but freezing at the sight of the T-850. Anyway, as John Connor attempts to make his escape, he glances at the arm of the T-X, which is still taking form and gently waving about in the breeze. The T-X has been under the rubble for over a minute now. Is it drunk or something? Is it still coming down of the orgasm John Connor gave it with his big, manly DNA sample? <br />
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Ballet</div>
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John Connor rushes out into hallway. In the background, the pickup truck is now farther into the building than it was when the T-850 first got out of it. John Connor limps a few paces, and runs into his worst nightmare--a Terminator with basic psychology routines. Unlike the John Connor in T2 who could instantly recognize trouble and start running, John Connor just stands there while the Terminator strides toward him. The basic melodrama routines of the T-850 take effect, as it announces to John Connor that "it is time." John Connor is actually dumb enough ask if the T-850 is there to kill him. Yeah, sure John. Terminators always tell their victims when it's time to die, because shooting them in the face is just too subtle. If John Connor had any brains, he'd realize that he doesn't know what the T-1000's voice sounded like, because it didn't talk to people it was trying to kill. Instead of just answering John Connor's question, the T-850 immediately starts messing with John, postponing the response as long as possible while stepping right up to him to draw out as much fear as possible. Finally, the T-850 announces to John Connor that he must live, but suddenly grabs John Connor as if he got caught throwing rocks at cars. Meanwhile, after spending over two minutes buried under rubble, the T-X finally decides that it should get back to its mission, and emerges from the debris.<br />
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Bad John! Bad!</div>
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Outside, as John Connor starts asking important questions he'll forget to ask later, the T-850 shoves him into Kate's truck and tells him to leave. The T-850 stupidly decides to remain behind to fight the T-X, even though it knows the T-X is supposed to be far more advanced than the T-850 is. But hey, why bother sticking close John and Kate when it can risk failing its mission instead? How did it expect to find John Connor once he drove away? What did it expect to do to the T-X? Why was the crazy cat lady so elaborately dressed for a late-night veterinary emergency, with a long skirt, braided hair, earrings, but no car of her own? As the T-850 fails the first rule of being a bodyguard (have a body to guard), the T-X prepares to wow us with a weapon that has a slower rate-of-fire than the Death Star superlaser. While the T-850 fires at the T-X ineffectively, the right arm of the T-X undergoes a painfully slow transformation into its most powerful weapon--a plasma cannon capable of causing minor inconvenience to Terminators. Like the T-X, the T-850 doesn't have any basic dodge routines, so the T-X has no problems hitting the T-850 with the cannon. The impact sends the T-850 flying all the way across the parking lot and into a building. The shot also causes the sort of cartoon-styled electrical interference that acts like a temporary x-ray. <br />
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The T-850 is temporarily stunned, so the T-X converts the cannon back into a normal arm.<br />
As John Connor flees, emergency responders are seen travelling the opposite direction. They arrive at the scene of the explosion, and EMT's quickly locate the T-850. Discovering that the T-850 has no pulse, one of the EMT's attempts to move the T-850 while the other stands there doing nothing. The EMT is unable to move the T-850, because "this guy weighs a ton". Of course. Terminators need to blend in with humans, so naturally they should be built so heavy that they can shatter asphalt and concrete on impact, and react like a stone statue when manipulated by humans. Contrast this with T2, where a 10-year-old boy was able to help a Terminator to its feet.<br />
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Meanwhile, the T-X has done nothing except be completely ignored as a possible witness or suspect. None of the police can be bothered to notice that she's an exact match for the suspect of multiple murders earlier that night. Maybe thin, blond women wearing red naugahyde suits at night are a dime a dozen in LA. Now that there are a bunch of emergency vehicles available, the T-X decides not to steal any of them. Instead, the T-X starts to use a nano-injector gizmo to take control of the cars--even though cars are mechanically operated. They don't have a bunch of electronics to control the brakes, gas pedal, shifter, and steering wheel. Those cars would be stuck in park without steering control. And of those cars, only the police cars have any provision for seeing (the dash-mounted camera). Even in that case, they wouldn't be able to see anywhere except directly ahead, and the non-police vehicles wouldn't have the benefit of even that one camera. This doesn't stop the T-X from using magic to take them over anyway. Also, why didn't the T-X do this with the first car it stole? Having an automated car might have been useful during the encounter at the animal hospital or for dealing with some of the other targets on the hit list, and it allows the T-X to focus on tasks other than driving.<br />
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Another troubling question is if the T-X has the ability to take over machines, why has it been ignoring the T-850 this whole time? The T-X had plenty of time to reprogram or finish off the T-850 while waiting for emergency responders to arrive. But instead, it loitered around doing nothing, giving John Connor as much opportunity to escape as possible.<br />
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As John Connor looks for someone to rear-end, Kate calls 911 and reports her kidnapping, only to have the call disconnect due to network failure. Meanwhile, red naugahyde blends in so well that NOBODY is noticing the T-X casually strolling about the crime scene, poking her head into every vehicle at the scene. The T-X walks right past the wreckage of its stolen car and into an area with flaming debris, as nobody bothers to notice. It climbs into the slowest, least agile vehicle it can find--a Champion crane. What better vehicle for pursuit than a vehicle that could never hope to move fast enough to make up for John Connor's huge head-start? The T-X finally gets around to sending the emergency vehicles on their way, but refuses to leave until the T-850 is awake to witness the departure. Finally, the T-850 regains consciousness and snaps its eyes open. The completely incompetent EMT's recoil slightly and stand there stunned, instead of identifying themselves and/or asking questions to determine the extent of any potential injury. The T-850 gets up in time to see the T-X leave in the crane. Nobody in the parking lot seems to care about the leather-clad individual carrying a shotgun, especially not the motorcycle cop who is riding straight at him. The T-850 punishes the officer for his inattention by throwing him off his motorcycle and stealing it. Good thing the suspension can handle 2000-pound Terminators. The T-850 tears out of the parking lot to join the chase...<br />
<br />
[Streets of Los Angeles]<br />
<br />
John Connor is attempting to evade the T-X when he discovers that Kate is in the back of the pickup truck. Kate is understandably very angry about the situation and demands that John stop the truck. He's unwilling to do so, and after a brief argument he closes the window at the rear of the cab. In the two seconds it takes for him to do so, the red car far ahead of him has magically switched lanes, and now there's a Ford POS stopped in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. The traffic light up ahead is green, and there is plenty of empty road between the car and the intersection. There is absolutely no reason for the car to be there except to blow John Connor's sizable head start. <br />
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If John Connor had been paying more attention to driving, he probably would have been able to avoid this accident, but the other guy definitely shouldn't have been parked in the middle of the street. With inadequate time to swerve or stop, John Connor plows right into the stationary car. Meanwhile, the remote-controlled emergency vehicles are trying to catch up to John Connor.<br />
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The retard who had parked his Ford POS in the middle of the street for no reason whatsoever actually has the nerve to be pissed off at John Connor, as if the guy himself had no blame whatsoever. Oh, it's his company car. So the guy's a high-rolling business man cruising around in an older model Ford Taurus. If anything, the fact that it's a company car should make him less bothered than he is, because his personal car insurance should be unaffected, his personal car wasn't affected at all, and the company will almost definitely provide him with a replacement. Considering how little that car would be worth, you'd think the guy would almost be happy about needing a replacement. It's strange that the guy is far more concerned about a car he has no personal stake in than he is about any injury he may have sustained. <br />
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As crazy as the guy is getting over such a lousy car, it's understandable that John would try to get away. As he tries to restart the pickup truck, the guy orders him to get out of the truck. The guy doesn't seem to bright, as he doesn't instantly recognize John Connor's obvious attempt to flee the scene. John Connor attempts to use his poor communication skills to defuse the situation and acts like a complete p***y, but the angry man just yells at him to shut up. As soon as Kate realizes that there is someone else out there, she starts screaming for help. The angry guy hears Kate's screams for help, so he demands to know what's going on. But as soon as John Connor opens his mouth the angry guy screams at him to shut up. This guy is getting stupider by the second.<br />
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Great military leader</div>
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Meanwhile, the remote-controlled vehicles that couldn't possibly have known which way John Connor went, have magically located him. John Connor resumes his efforts to restart the pickup truck, as Angry Guy tries to flag down the "police". Realistically, John Connor should have had no hope of escape in that vehicle, since the front end damage should have wiped out the radiator and inflated the airbag, and the impact was hard enough that if the Toyota Tundra has an emergency fuel cutoff switch, it probably would have triggered. How convenient that the equipment that should be broken is working just fine, and the equipment that should be working is broken. <br />
<br />
Angry Guy is amazingly stupid and staggeringly irresponsible. He knew (or should have known) John Connor was trying to flee the scene, and that he had a hostage. Yet, Mr. "I'm going to rip your balls off" just let John Connor drive off with a hostage. There was no driver's side door and John Connor wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Also Connor demonstrated hes a little p***y. The guy could easily have pulled John Connor right out of the car. But no, I guess the life of a woman or his precious company car isn't worth the effort needed to restrain a fugitive. Angry Guy is so oblivious that he doesn't even notice that John is getting away until its too late to do anything about it. Angry Guy screams impotently at John Connor to get back there, but to the surprise of absolutely nobody, John Connor doesn't give the slightest shit about what Angry Guy wants. As The Man With No Balls watches John Connor making his escape, he keeps pretending that the world revolves around him, as if the police would be too stupid to figure out how to do their jobs without Mr. Neuter there to point at the bad guys. Even after all the emergency vehicles pass him by, he just stands in the middle of the road gazing at his precious $500 company car. Hasn't this brain-damaged individual ever heard of traffic? Unfortunately, T3 opts for another comic moment. Instead of moving eight feet to the left and turning the guy into genuine California Road Pizza, the T-X rams into his car instead. We see the guy cower as the car he tried to take as his wife is smashed by the crane.<br />
<br />
Now that the emergency vehicles have caught up with John Connor, it's time for bumper cars. They ram him repeatedly, causing the truck to spin around several times. Out of the multitude of impacts, there are at least three solid hits to the rear wheels of the truck. Despite all this, the truck does not flip over, veer off the road, or crash into anything. John Connor manages to regain control of the truck, even though the rear wheels should have been destroyed.<br />
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The Champion crane must be the first utility truck to ever feature an afterburner, because somehow the T-X has no problem catching up to vehicles with much higher top speeds. Is John Connor keeping the chase under 40mph to avoid a speeding ticket or something? That's still not slow enough for the T-850 however, who is still lagging behind and running lights and sirens in order to be as conspicuous as possible. Using a pointless tilt of its head, the T-X directs the police cars to box in John Connor, waiting until John Connor is boxed in before bothering to start the excruciatingly long warm-up sequence for its plasma cannon. Why didn't the T-X already have the cannon charged and ready to go? The T-X can automagically control vehicles, so using the plasma cannon shouldn't have interfered with its ability to drive. As it turns out, the only thing slower than the plasma cannon charging is the actual plasma projectile. Right after John Connor stomps on the brakes to break free of the police cars, he sees a tractor trailer carrying gas cylinders. Even though the T-X fires BEFORE John Connor begins to swerve, John Connor manages to maneuver completely around the tractor trailer before the projectile hits it. The same explosion that it powerful enough to cut through the thick steel girders of the trailer is also weak enough that most of the gas cylinders remain on the truck, only to be scattered when the T-X plows through the wreckage. The T-850 finally catches up to the crane, dodging around the tractor trailer wreckage the T-X created. The fire truck that has been lagging behind in the chase attempts to drive though the huge opening created by the crane, only to explode for no reason whatsoever. This is definitely not a case of the fire truck hitting anything, because the explosion occurs at the REAR of the truck, flipping the back end of the fire truck up and over the front end, causing it to land upside down. <br />
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Now, up to this point in the chase, the crane hook has been secured to the front bumper of the crane via a loop of steel cable. Even crashing through the tractor trailer wreckage failed to dislodge it. But the T-X has plans for the crane boom, so the hook is suddenly free of the loop. John Connor, deciding that he hasn't done enough to jeopardize his chances of escape, swerves onto a sidewalk. What a brilliant move! Aside from having nearly zero maneuvering room to avoid potential obstacles such as power poles, newspaper vending machines, signs, light poles, fire hydrants, sloped driveway entrances, utility boxes, traffic lights, and pedestrians, it's a great place to gain some extra speed! Sidewalks are so much better than open roads when driving that it's a wonder anyone bothers driving in the street. It obviously hasn't occurred to John Connor that if one of the police cars manages to get onto the sidewalk in front of him, he'll have no place to go, since the sidewalk he's on is lined with walls and fences on one side, and a sea of parked cars on the other side. <br />
<br />
Now that the T-X is aware of the presence of the T-850, it deploys the crane boom sideways in order to make it difficult for the T-850 to follow. Of course, doing so also means that the crane is going to move even slower, since the crane boom and outriggers will be hitting every single multi-ton obstacle in the way. It's a wonder that this crane could ever be used for construction, because the hook at the end of the boom has more destructive power than a wrecking ball. By merely touching a car, it can make it flip end over end and/or explode spectacularly. In at least one case, just having the tip of the hook graze the top of a car is enough to cause it to explode in a massive fireball. None of the destruction is enough to shake the T-850. Somewhere during this segment, one of the police cars just vanishes, never to be seen again. As for John Connor, having accomplished nothing by driving on the sidewalk, he returns to the street. All this time, the T-X could have been charging that stupid plasma cannon in order to shoot at John while he was stuck on the sidewalk, but instead decided to wait until after he was back on the street before even thinking of charging the cannon. All the T-X had to do was shoot at some parked cars in front of or right next to John Connor's truck, and he would have been trapped/dead. But that would end the movie pretty quickly, so of course the T-X gives the T-850 every opportunity to interfere. The T-850 decides to start shooting out the tires on the crane. It starts with the tires that are both the hardest to hit and the least likely to affect the handling of the vehicle. Even though the extended outriggers should make the shots impossible, the T-850 shoots at the middle tires on either side of the crane. Also, the T-850 shoots at tires on both sides, instead of focusing on one side to destabilize the crane. Rather than risk killing its primary target, the T-X decides to abort the plasma cannon shot and focus on dealing with the T-850. It swings the hook at the T-850, which has thoughtfully chosen the exact following distance necessary to make that possible. Rather than swerve, hit the brakes, or accelerate, the T-850 actually reaches out and hugs the hook, losing both the shotgun and the motorcycle in the process. Luckily for the T-850, the explosive hook doesn't work on Terminators, so the T-X has to settle for swinging the T-850 back and forth into various obstacles. The T-X swings the T-850 into the ambulance, doing nothing to the T-850, but overturning the ambulance and taking it out of the chase. Out of the four vehicles the T-X took control of, the T-X has inadvertently destroyed half of them so far. <br />
When the T-X is driving the crane and swinging the Terminator around, that is mechanically impossible. All mobile cranes are designed to run only when they are in neutral. The T-X would have burned out the hydraulic pump within seconds.
<br />
Meanwhile, John Connor has turned into a residential neighborhood. Rather than stick to the relatively empty street, he swerves onto the sidewalk again, where he now has to content with trees, parked cars, lawn furniture, low-traction surfaces, an assortment of random objects, and of course pedestrians. Multiple pedestrians dive for cover as the savior of humanity nearly runs them over to save his own skin. John Connor even rams a parked car, but of course Kate's Toyota Tundra has the optional 'god mode' package, which renders the entire drive train impervious to damage. SQUEAK!!! John Connor hits an inflatable playpen. It turns out that there were no children in it, but he'll never know that. The police car hits the playpen as well, knocking into the street with a resounding BOING!!! <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the T-850 is still hanging onto the crane hook. The T-X keeps ramming the T-850 into every obstacle it can find, instead of doing something crazy like shoot it with the plasma cannon that was supposedly built specifically for destroying Terminators. With the T-850 hanging off the hook, it's a can't-miss situation. If the T-850 lets go, it's out of the chase. If it doesn't let go, it's out of the chase. So of course, the T-X can't be bothered. The T-850 helplessly clings to the hook until the T-X spies an oncoming fire truck. Even though the occupants of the fire truck can't help but see the obstacle coming right at them, the driver can't be bothered to swerve. <br />
<br />
CLANG!!! Squeak, squeak. Looney Toons homage. The T-850 is plastered right into the front of the fire truck, leaving an empty hook on the crane. That's enough to elicit a Chesire Cat grin from the T-X. It's interesting that the explosive hook didn't hit the fire truck at all, even though the hook was low enough to destroy the fire truck the way it destroyed every other car so far.<br />
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Back inside the fire truck, a quartet of individuals trained for life-or-death situations can do nothing except stare dumbly at the guy clinging to the front of the fire truck. The T-850, looking like Wile E. Coyote after using an Acme product, disposes of the broken glasses sitting haphazardly on its face, and wastes time telling the firefighters that it will drive before actually grabbing the steering wheel and forcing the fire truck into a skid.<br />
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The same T-850 that could do nothing but hang onto the crane hook has already climbed in the window and is pushing the driver out the door. Having traveled the wrong direction for several seconds, the T-850 now has to catch up to the T-X using a fairly slow vehicle. That won't be a problem, because the fastest vehicles in this movie are the ones with the heaviest vehicle weight and the lowest top speeds.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, John Connor's evasive maneuvers were so poorly thought out that the T-X was actually able to intercept him. John Connor sees the wall explode right next to him, and swerves to avoid the crane. The crane instead takes out the last remaining police car. Out of four vehicles taken over by the T-X, three of them were destroyed by the T-X, with the fourth MIA. One would have expected the T-X to share positional data among all the vehicles to avoid this sort of situation, but then John Connor might have to work to survive.<br />
<br />
As the T-X charges up for a shot on the world's toughest pickup truck, it realizes that the T-850 has rejoined the chase. The T-850 rams the crane multiple times, much to the annoyance of the T-X. It decides to shoot at the fire truck, but before it can do so, the T-850 jumps over to the crane. The fire truck must have been carrying flammable water, as the fire truck explodes into a spectacular ball of flame. Unfortunately, there was a fatality. Instead of a Dalmation, this fire truck had a mountain lion as a mascot. It's final roar can be heard as the truck explodes.<br />
<br />
The basic etiquette routines of the T-850 kick in, as it says "excuse me" before using a fire axe as a hook to yank the T-X from the crane. The T-X is so heavy that upon impact it leaves a woman-shaped divot in the asphalt. The T-X then instantly rolls to the left and snags one of the outriggers on the crane. To signal the climax of the mind-numbing chase, some shrill music begins to play. The T-850 sees a manhole cover and releases the hook. Even though there's no way the explosive hook could drop fast enough to do it, it nevertheless manages to shatter the manhole cover, fall all the way down the shaft, and then get snagged so securely that the cable eventually starts ripping through asphalt, earth, and reinforced concrete. The T-850 makes its escape, kicking out the window and jumping onto the Tundra. The T-850 seems to have forgotten that Kate was still inside the pickup truck. Lucky for Kate, the shell of the Tundra had a thin layer of plot armor--just enough to prevent the T-850 from squashing her. What a weight too. None of the previous terminators even made a slight indent jumping on the hoods or trunks of the cars<br />
<br />
The T-X makes it back to the cab of the crane just in time to find out that it's about to crash. The cable goes tight, but instead of snapping, it causes the crane to pole vault into the air. The cab is driven right into the ground, with the T-X inside. <br />
<br />
The T-850 climbs into the cab of the pickup truck. As soon as John sees the T-850 he recoils in horror, before looking out the passenger window to survey the results of the crash. As the T-850 takes over driving duties, it makes an obvious human-like effort to settle into the seat, because of course Terminators need to be comfortable when driving. <br />
<br />
Despite the dozens of tons of steel involved, the T-X is not damaged at all, and easily extricates itself from the wreckage. But instead of grabbing another vehicle and continuing the pursuit, it watches angrily as it allows its targets to get away.<br />
<br />
[Streets of Los Angeles]<br />
<br />
Having finally escaped from the T-X, John Connor can relax--for about two seconds. Just as he's catching his breath, the T-850 whips its arm out, latches onto John Connor, yanks him toward it, and starts wrenching John's head around. After inspecting John Connor's head and left eyeball for several seconds, the T-850 shoves him back into his seat. At this point, we learn that the T-850 was checking John Connor for injury. <br />
<br />
Of course. <br />
<br />
If one is worried that someone is hurt, the best course of action is to wrench them around violently, grab their head and try to cause or aggravate a neck injury, and stare into one of John Connor's eyes as if it were some sort of status indicator. Naturally, the injury check overlooks the various injuries that John Connor actually has. Even the most incompetent med student knows that checking someone in such fashion could cause additional injury or death. We know Terminators aren't inherently bad doctors, as the Terminator in T2 stitched Sarah's cut in the garage while using only one hand. The T-800 never had to violently thrash people about to check them for injury. The T-850 is quite the medical downgrade.<br />
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It is ironic that the T-850 determines that John Connor exhibits no signs of brain trauma, since John Connor almost immediately displays the kind of confusion that could only be justified by a concussion or some other sort of brain injury. <br />
<br />
John Connor:<br />
Do you even remember me?<br />
<br />
Sarah Connor? Blowing up Cyberdyne?<br />
<br />
"Hasta la vista, baby." Ring any bells?<br />
<br />
What, do you come off an assembly line or something?<br />
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<br />
John Connor remembers those details, but he forgot that the T-800 was horribly smashed, barely saved John and his mother from the T-1000, and then was lowered into molten steel to protect everyone from a shitty sequel like this one? How could he possibly think it's the same damned Terminator? Clearly, there is some misdiagnosed brain trauma involved, making the T-850 just as much of a quack doctor as it is a quack psychologist. And getting back to John Connor, how could it not occur to him that these things come off an assembly line?! The one that tried to kill his mother looked just like the one sent to protect him ten years later! And it's a machine! Why wouldn't it be produced on an assembly line? Kyle even told Sarah that the machines were built in automated factories!<br />
<br />
Then there's the infamous "T-101" line. With the dedication to research exhibited by Ferris & Brancato, it would not surprise me if they couldn't get through a magazine article without someone to help them turn the pages.<br />
<br />
And on to the next lame skit. The T-850 again whips out its arm, startling John Connor. But the T-850 merely opens the window separating the cab of the pickup from the shell. The T-850 asks Kate if she has any injuries, which ironically the chatterbox Terminator felt was too much effort to do with John. And of course, the T-850 must respond to everything, so when told to drop dead, it announces that it is unable to comply. Didn't these people watch T2? Terminators don't respond to every single stupid thing said to them. And whatever happened to economy of motion? There's no benefit to all those sudden, brutish movements. They're inefficient, they're not human-like, and they look stupid. It's not as if Kate was going to die if the T-850 didn't get that door open NOW. Cameron spoke with Arnold in the Terminator documentary that his smooth movement had a purpose. Not only it looked shark like, but also conserved energy. Sudden jerky movements are not only reserved for cliche robots, but also burn more energy.<br />
<br />
And the T-850 says that it is taking John Connor to a safe location. That will be relevant later.<br />
<br />
[Desert highway between Palmdale and Victorville]<br />
<br />
As the T-850 drives John and Kate through the desert, Kate stomps incessantly on the wall. Amazingly, it doesn't occur to her that at least one of her kidnappers has previously demonstrated a willingness to kill people and had a shotgun, so she's not the least bit worried about annoying her captors. Apparently she thinks she's too likable to kill. John Connor finally has enough of Kate's pounding and tells the T-850 to drop her off at the next exit. The T-850 refuses, stating that Katherine Brewster must be protected. Kate thoughtfully stops pounding on the back wall of the cab so that the following exposition can be heard more clearly. It turns out that John Connor actually managed to hide successfully from Skynet, so Skynet had to settle for attacking John Connor's lieutenants, who all conveniently could be found living in Los Angeles just hours before the city gets wiped off the map by a nuclear-tipped eraser. Why is the T-X wasting time killing all these walking dead again?<br />
<br />
Continuing with the exposition, John Connor cannot accept that the war wasn't averted. He points out that they took out Cyberdyne over 10 years ago, placing T3 in or after 2005. The T-850 tells John Connor that Judgement Day was only postponed, and that it's inevitable. Amazingly John Connor doesn't seem to interested in finding out exactly how the war unfolds, when the new Judgement Day is, or why Judgement Day is supposed to be inevitable. The T-850 doesn't seem too eager to volunteer the details, yet more irony from such a talkative machine. Quite a lazy way to answer the biggest question as to how did the development continue if the crucial mind behind it is dead and made sure everything has been destroyed. he and a machine from the future were absolutely certain that would surely stop the development of Skynet. Even Dyson's death alone couldve done that<br />
<br />
Then we move onto the part where the writers realize their Terminators are unkillable with modern technology, so they come up with a bit of future technology that's conveniently exploitable for just that purpose. It's amazing that a machine that undoubtedly has a slew of internal sensors doesn't notice anything wrong with its fuel cell until it starts smoking. Equally amazing is the fact that the T-850 decided to wait until the fuel cell was about to go critical before even contemplating how to remove it. What if John Connor didn't have that multitool? They would have long since missed any opportunity to pick up the necessary supplies.<br />
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While the T-850 is talking about the T-X, it takes the opportunity to cut into itself to extract the damaged fuel cell. The T-850 must use T-600 parts as a cost-saving measure, as the chest was suspiciously rubbery and did not bleed at all. Based on the sound, I think the flesh is fastened to the T-850 with velcro. John Connor flinches somewhat at the sight of fake flesh and blood, quite a change from the young boy who had no problem poking a finger into bullet holes on a Terminator, assisting that same Terminator in stitching up a large gash on his mother's back, later applying emergency first aid to Sarah's bleeding leg wound, and witnessing a Terminator with shredded flesh. It's odd that John Connor is squeamish now, when he wasn't as a child.<br />
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As the T-850 talks about the T-X, it makes a big deal out of the T-X being designed for extreme combat. Um, isn't that what all Terminators are designed for? The bunker infiltrator T-800 in the original movie sure had no problems holding its own inside a base full of armed Resistance troops. How much tougher does a T-X really need to be?<br />
<br />
And don't look now--here comes the dramatic foreshadowing/comic irony. The T-850 tells John Connor that it is unlikely to find a way to destroy the T-X, while tinkering with the very items it will use to do so. Not to be outdone, John Connor reaches for inappropriate optimism "You'll find a way to destroy her", even though his entire life has been prophesized to be anything but a happy ending.<br />
<br />
"I'm an obsolete design." Finally, something the T-850 said that not only isn't stupid, but it's absolutely true. The T-850 seems to be the worst infiltrator design ever. Not only are its communication skills lacking compared to every other Terminator, but it wastes no time in receiving hard-to-conceal damage that reveals its true nature. <br />
<br />
We also learn that the T-X is an anti-Terminator Terminator, which is impressive since we've seen it's total inability to neutralize the stupidest Terminator ever built. Here it is just now having to deal with damage the T-X inflicted hours ago.<br />
Once again, moronic statements for the T-850, as when John claims, "you've gotta be shitting me," the T-850 responds with, "No, I am not shitting you." Couldn't the T-850 just shut up, or simply say, "negative"? Did this T-850 really think John Connor believed that he was being forcibly expelled from the T-850's ass? Are John and the T-850 competing in some sort of stupidity contest, because they sure seem to be preparing for starring roles in the next 'Dumb and Dumber' sequel.<br />
<br />
Then, we have the T-850 littering. I understand that the T-850 isn't the most environmentally-aware entity on the planet, but shouldn't an item as extremely powerful and unstable as a fuel cell get some sort of special handling, like maybe throwing the thing as far as inhumanly possible? That fuel cell has enough destructive power to lift the side of a mountain. Maybe a casual over-the-shoulder toss isn't the best way to get rid of something that can destroy a Terminator and its precious cargo. The Terminator should have thrown that fuel cell like it was trying to knock the moon out of orbit with it. At least toss it behind a hill or an embankment or something. In fact, the T-850 should have been specifically looking for a place to stop and remove the fuel cell, where it could easily throw the fuel cell behind some large, protective landmass. After the fuel cell explodes, the Terminator offers up a strong contender for understatement of the year. The fuel cells become unstable? Really? I had no idea that nuclear explosion had anything to do with the smoking fuel cell you just cut out of yourself!<br />
<br />
Chatterbox Terminator opens its mouth again, telling John, then Kate, to relax in an increasingly stern voice. Yep. Those psychology routines the T-850 was programmed with are really paying off when it comes to comforting people.<br />
<br />
[Gas station near Victorville, CA]<br />
<br />
After nearly blowing up the people it was programmed to protect, the T-850 pulls into an AM-PM gas station for fuel. John Connor is outside filling the truck with fuel, as the T-850 has gone inside the convenience store. As the camera cuts to inside the AM-PM, we see more evidence of computer problems. Meanwhile, the T-850 is using its nutrition subroutines to pick some of the absolute worst food to have in a desperate survival situation. Twinkies?! Mini donuts?! BUBBLE GUM?! The T-850 gets extra points for grabbing only one 20-ounce bottle of water, even though humans will die in days without water, versus weeks without food. <br />
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Of course, the T-850 does spot one vital necessity--gas station sunglasses.<br />
Now, the fact that John Connor is pumping gas at all proves that they clearly had money for gas, so the Terminator would have been better off using some of it to buy the junk food, instead of stealing it. Money is going to become worthless in a few hours, so there's no sense in hoarding it. As an alternative, the T-850 could have physically restrained the clerk. That would have served the dual benefit of preventing him from calling the police (at least for a while), as well as allowing the T-850 to steal a lot more food--and maybe a decent amount of water this time. It's also nice that the T-850 neglects to mention the impending nuclear attack to anyone. No sense in having John Connor help the T-850 prepare for the attack.<br />
<br />
Of course, we now have the other infamous "talk to the hand" scene. When the clerk confronts the T-850 regarding the snacks it is about to steal, the T-850 whips out its hand and uses the words of "wisdom" it learned from the gay stripper stereotype. Not only is it a ridiculously stupid scene at face value, but it doesn't even make sense. The T-850 didn't understand what it meant back at the bar, so how would it suddenly know what the phrase means? Did the T-850 really want the clerk to talk to its hand? Just when the scene couldn't get worse, it does. That dumb "funky man" song playing in the store suddenly comes to the forefront as the T-850 and its impolite hand walk out of the store. Oh, and bonus points for the clerk not noticing the hole blasted in the T-850's chest, or all the scars on the face and neck with bits of gleaming metal behind them. This big guy isn't nearly as odd as the utility outage that's ruining his entertainment options for the day.<br />
<br />
As the T-850 returns to the truck, Ferris & Brancato realized that they wanted a SWAT encounter later, but they hadn't done anything to justify one. So rather than do something logical like have Kate's cellphone start working again for a short time, they decide that the better way would be to have the T-850 open the back of the truck for no apparent reason so that Kate can leap out and make a scene. The T-850 even plays along, holding Kate in the air for a moment, so that she has plenty of time to scream, flail, and generally draw unwanted attention to John and the T-850. It's not like that hand-basket of junk food was too big to fit in the cab, and there was nothing stopping John Connor from sitting in the front of the truck. That scene was set up solely to give the gas station attendant an excuse to call the police from what is apparently the only working phone in the area.<br />
<br />
In a rare moment of intelligence, John Connor grasps the obvious trouble brewing, and recommends that they leave. But, as with everything else regarding John Connor in T3, it's too little, too late.<br />
<br />
[In the back of the pickup truck]<br />
<br />
John Connor sits in awkward silence with Kate in the back of the pickup truck. Finally, he breaks the silence by offering Kate jerky. Kate is not amused by this, and launches into a tirade about John being a delinquent. John Connor just sort of snickers at that, which just pisses Kate off more. His lame effort to explain everything to Kate is to knock on the side of the truck and have the Terminator tell Kate who John is. Needless to say, Kate doesn't buy the T-850's explanation at all. John's "and there you have it" expression doesn't help at all. Kate is even less impressed by John's explanation of what the T-850 is. The fact that he delivered that explanation with a smile undoubtedly didn't help any. <br />
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<br />
Way back in T2, when Miles Dyson had no idea what was going on, John Connor instantly knew what to do to get him to understand. A few seconds with a pocketknife and one robot arm later, Miles Dyson was an instant believer. So how is it now that John Connor can only babble vague nonsense? Why couldn't he knock on the cab and have the T-850 pull over to prove what it is? It would have been even easier with the T-850. Since the chest was already disfigured, all the T-850 had to do was lift its shirt and open the fuel cell compartment. That should have easily proved that the T-850 was a robot, at which point Kate might have been more willing to listen to John. But no, it's better to piss her off and make her as uncooperative as possible.<br />
<br />
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Just show her this!</div>
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<br />
When Kate harps some more on the kidnapping and demands to know what John wants, he finally starts to get serious, kind of. He starts to talk about his destiny, but he does so in such incredibly vague terms that there's no way Kate could possibly have any idea what he's talking about. John's response is:<br />
<br />
"The life you know, all the stuff that you take for granted, it's not going to last." <br />
<br />
Great way to defuse the situation John. Kate thinks she's being kidnapped, so of course the thing to do is say something ominous that makes it sound like he plans to bury Kate in the desert or something. No wonder she doesn't want to cooperate.<br />
<br />
Everything John Connor says in the back of that pickup truck reveals that he's just along for the ride, metaphorically as well as literally. The John Connor in T2 was quick to take command and make decisions. He didn't wait for the T-800 to do it all for him. John made the decision to warn Todd and Janelle. John made the decision to rescue his mother. John made the decision to try to save Miles Dyson. But now in T3 we have a John Connor who clearly is no longer leadership material. He's not making any useful decisions. Where the T2 John Connor would move, the T3 John Connor hesitates. Where the T2 John Connor would take charge, the T3 John Connor merely follows. Where the T2 John Connor was concerned about other people, the T3 John Connor doesn't even take his own dire situation seriously. The situation is enough of a joke to him that he doesn't make the slightest attempt to make Kate understand. Instead, he chooses a course of action guaranteed to increase her hostility toward him.<br />
And despite the fact that there's a new, stupid way to die somewhere out there looking for him, all he can think of is a make-out session?! And the fact that he remembers the event (barely) but not the details just makes him look like the typical asshole male, especially with the obvious amusement on his face and in his voice as he thinks about it. This John Connor is less mature than he was ten years ago.<br />
When Kate mentions that she only remembered the make-out session because the next day John Connor was in the news, he suddenly starts putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5. He starts hinting at some sort of destiny, which Kate mocks of course. But especially annoying is the part where John says that he and Kate hooked up the day before John Connor first met "him", referring to the T-850. Damnit John! It's NOT the same damned Terminator! How can you remember where everyone went to make out as kids, but you can't tell two Terminators apart, when one was melted down and the other wasn't?<br />
<br />
And why is the T-850 still driving around in that trashed pickup truck? Is it trying to draw attention to itself? After the Pescadero escape in T2, the Terminator acquired another vehicle, even though the security vehicle stolen from Pescadero was still perfectly drivable. The Terminator understood that driving around in a conspicuous vehicle that was known to be stolen is a bad idea, so it picked a less conspicuous vehicle. The T-850 obviously doesn't understand the idea of subtlety, since it keeps driving around in a pickup truck with a missing driver's side door, dents everywhere, and a slew of equipment violations. The T-850 could have stopped anywhere to switch vehicles, but then doing so would have made it harder for the T-X to catch up to them again.<br />
<br />
[Scott and Kate's apartment]<br />
<br />
Scott is asleep. He soon wakes up, thinking Kate has returned. Instead, he finds the T-X sitting on his bed. The T-X takes so long to analyze photos that it must sit down to do so. <br />
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The T-X literally twists around to face Scott, because girl Terminators are so limber. The camera cuts to a picture of Scott and Kate on the nightstand, as an assorment of "Scott is going to die" sound effects start playing. Scott screams at a pitch Kate couldn't have achieved even when she was 10 years old, and shortly thereafter his watery blood sprays across the photo.<br />
Either the T-X spent a lot of time at Kate and Scott's apartment, or the detectives were deaf, because when they come to Scott's apartment to ask questions, the T-X is still there, disguised as Scott of course. Finally he has become the girl he always wanted to be. What's bizarre is that these detectives ask if Kate is at the apartment, even though they soon reveal that something happened at the animal hospital, and that there was a possible kidnapping out near Victorville that might be related. MIGHT be related?! It's her freaking truck! She's missing from the animal hospital, and a woman of identical description was seen being thrown kicking and screaming into the back of her own pickup truck! Do they really think this is a coincidence?<br />
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In the creepiest tone fake Scott can muster, it says that it will help them find her. This is pretty stupid, as the detectives should have no reason to believe that "Scott" would know where to find Kate. And if he did, they'd do what they supposedly went there to do--interview him for any possible information that might help them crack the case. They'd either interview him right there at the apartment, or perhaps bring him to the police station. They're going to ask about any phone calls, history of trouble with people, what happened that morning... They're not going to drive around with Scott to look for Kate. Heck, considering the way police think, they're probably going to initially assume that Scott is a possible suspect.<br />
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And finally, there's a big critical piece of information mentioned in the dialogue exchange between the detectives and "Scott". The detectives mention that she was spotted at a gas station near Victorville. This means that the T-850's great plan to get John and Kate to safety involved going NORTH out of Los Angeles--not south, and then east to Victorville, basically making sure John and Kate would be surrounded by juicy nuclear targets just hours before the attack commences. Basically, they're hanging out in a desert that will be surrounded by radioactive graveyards. Great place for long-term survivability, there. This is stupid enough already, but it gets better after some more critical information is revealed a little later.<br />
<br />
[Cemetery]<br />
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The T-850 brings John and Kate to a cemetery, smashing the gate as it enters. For whatever reason this cemetery does not appear to be open to visitors. The T-850 orders John and Kate out of the truck, and forcibly escorts them into a mausoleum on the funeral grounds. I can understand why the T-850 might think it necessary to latch onto Kate, but is it really necessary to do the same to John? He's been cooperating so far, and isn't likely to bolt. Maybe the T-850 realizes that John Connor is so dumb that he must be forcibly guided toward the mausoleum, otherwise he wouldn't know where to go. That must be the case, because the T-850 lets go of Kate before it lets go of John. Once inside, the T-850 latches back onto John and Kate, and forcibly guides them through the mausoleum until they locate what they're looking for... Sarah's grave.<br />
The T-850 looks at John and pauses for over 20 seconds, allowing John plenty of time to absorb this surprising revelation in his life. We learn that John Connor hit the road the day his mother died, and that he had no idea where she was buried. This whole time the T-850 knew why they had gone there, but waited for John to ask why before acting. Rather than answer John's question directly, the T-850 decides to mess with John Connor. Without a word, the T-850 pushes John out of the way, punches right into Sarah's grave, and pulls out the coffin. John Connor is understandably horrified at this, and immediately makes a futile attempt to stop the desecration of the grave. Keeping John Connor away with one hand, the T-850 opens Sarah's casket to reveal...<br />
<br />
...a cache of weaponry completely filling the coffin. John Connor is surprisingly startled to see the cache of weaponry, far more surprised than Kate is. Now that the T-850 has freaked John out, it can start doing the chattering it wanted to do initially. We learn that Sarah Connor was cremated in Mexico, and her ashes were scattered in the sea by her friends. After having literally thousands of nightmares in which she was incinerated and blasted into ash by nuclear fire, it's only natural that she would make a conscious decision to have her body incinerated and reduced to ash by fire. <br />
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And of course, Sarah's friends stored the cache of weapons here at the cemetery in accordance with her will. There is a major problem with this. How does John Connor not know any of this? The weapons won't do Sarah any good, since they were put there after her death. Since they were put there in case of Judgement Day, it would have made sense for John Connor to know about them, since he's the one who's going to need them. It's not like he can't be trusted with that information. In T2 he knew about the weapons cache at the Salceda ranch, and obviously had great familiarity with firearms. There is no reason for him not to know about them since he learned about them since birth. Solely relying on the friends to tell him was a bad idea, as that information obviously didn't get to him before the new Judgement Day. He wouldn't be able to get to them after Judgement Day, since even if it wasn't hit directly by a nuke (it undoubtedly would have) the storage place would be completely inaccessible due to high levels of radioactive fallout in the entire region. It's surprising that the T-850 even knew to look for them here. Even if Sarah's friends survived Judgement Day and eventually found John, the cache would be so worthless as to not be worth mentioning. After all, even if somehow the cache survived, finding it among a city-sized pile of ruins would have been impossible. Even if they did end up mentioning it, it's not enough for John to know. Kate would have to be told as well, otherwise she wouldn't know to tell the T-850 about it.<br />
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Since Linda Hamilton realized that T3 was going to be a trainwreck and refused to be involved, Ferris & Brancato had to come up with a reason for her absence, and here it is. It turns out that Sarah ended up being diagnosed with leukemia while living in Baja. Despite being given six months to live, she hung onto life for three years, long enough to be sure Judgement Day wouldn't happen. Considering that Judgement Day was scheduled to happen less than three years after the events of T2, this means that John and Sarah moved to Baja immediately after the steel mill fight, and Sarah went to the doctor the next day. What's odd is that leukemia sufferers are said to easily become bruised, bleed excessively, or develop pinprick bleeds, due to a lack of blood platelets. Sarah sustained a lot of injuries in T2, but wasn't ending up with lots of bruises. And we saw more than enough proof that she wasn't a heavy bleeder. We even got a closeup of a nasty gash on her back that wasn't bleeding profusely. Sarah seemed way too healthy in T2 to have had leukemia, and I find it hard to believe that a case of leukemia so advanced that doctors were predicting her death in a matter of months, was somehow overlooked by doctors during her stay at Pescadero. <br />
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As John blathers on, he says he never really believed that Judgement Day had been averted? Really? John seemed quite convinced in the pickup truck, when he insisted that the T-850 shouldn't even exist. But if he really didn't believe it, why the hell was he living somewhere that was GUARANTEED to be nuked to oblivion in the event of nuclear war? Not only that, but it's the ONE place Skynet knows where to look for him. If he thought there was even the slightest chance of Skynet still rising to power, he should have moved anywhere EXCEPT Los Angeles. Stupid, stupid, stupid.<br />
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The whole while John Connor is talking, the T-850 is just fidgeting with the weaponry in the box. It just sort of picks up random items, then drops them back in the casket. The T-850 is acting without purpose here. It's just letting John ramble on, without bothering to do anything useful with the weapons they drove there to acquire. <br />
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John is determined to stay as clueless as possible. He says, "You know, you were about the closest thing to a father I ever had?" Oh, poor whiny John Connor. How is it that ten-year-old John Connor could cope with his screwed up childhood far better than "adult" John Connor can? And how many times do I have to say, IT'S NOT THE SAME DAMNED TERMINATOR!!! Does John Connor think the T-850 crawled out of the molten steel and hid from him for ten years?<br />
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Meanwhile, Kate has been formulating a plan. Since John and the T-850 have blown opportunity after opportunity to properly explain the situation to her, Kate is still treating this as a kidnapping. She makes a sudden grab for a Glock pistol. Although she has no way of knowing initially if the gun is loaded or not, to her credit Kate thinks to rack the slide first. The fact that it does not remain locked back upon cycling is a pretty good indicator that there were bullets in the magazine.<br />
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The T-850 is caught completely by surprise by Kate's action. It rises up and takes a surprisingly defensive posture, as if it's worried about being shot or something. This is a far cry from the Terminator in T2, which looked and acted absolutely fearless when staring down the muzzle of a shotgun. <br />
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The T-850 is also contradicting itself, since earlier in the movie it did nothing to avoid being shot by the T-X, which was using a much more powerful weapon (sort of). The T-850 hesitantly creeps up on Kate, even though it doesn't really have anything to fear from her. After a brief standoff, the T-850 makes a move for the gun, resulting in Kate firing before the T-850 can get the gun out of the way. First off, how did the T-850 manage to get shot? Average human reaction time is close to 1/4 second. An ordinary human would have had a pretty good chance to deflect Kate's pistol before she could shoot. A Terminator should have had an even easier time, thanks to superhuman reflexes. They worked great for the Terminator in T2, when it came to relieving the barkeep of his shotgun. Regardless, whether due to poor reflexes of its own, or a lucky twitch from Kate, the T-850 was unable to deflect the pistol without being shot.<br />
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Second, where's the bullet hole? Terminator flesh has never been particularly tough, so there should be an injury. While Kate stares in shock, the T-850 retrieves the bullet--from inside its own mouth! The T-850 works its tongue and jaw around until it pushes the bullet to its lips, then spits it out onto the floor. There is no way the bullet could have gone in without causing damage. Even if we assume it pushed its way through the lips, it still should have caused damage. It was moving at about Mach 1. There wouldn't have been time for the flesh to push out of the way without being damaged. And surely the teeth, tongue, and the inside of the T-850's mouth would have been damage. But no, everything is just fine. No bleeding lips, no broken teeth, no hole in the tongue, nothing. Why wasn't the rest of the T-850's flesh so damage resistant? <br />
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Even though it had no negative affect at all, the T-850 warns Kate: "Don't do dat". Finally Kate understands that the T-850 really isn't human--a conclusion she could have arrived at hours before if John and the T-850 weren't such idiots. They had plenty of opportunities to prove to Kate what was going on, and they blew all of them. If they had properly explained everything earlier, she might have been more cooperative, and they might have avoided the police encounter that will be happening in mere seconds.<br />
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Just as Kate is attempting to understand what just happened, teargas grenades come skittering down the hallway. The police call out to them on loudspeaker, ordering them to release their hostage. Now, from the moment the T-850 crashed through the gate, to the moment the teargas gets deployed, a little more than three minutes has elapsed. Almost all of that has happened in real-time, meaning that within three minutes, the police have to figure out that the suspects are at the cemetery, at least ten police cars and an ambulance converge on the cemetery without being spotted by anyone, the SWAT guys suit up, and everyone moves into position. There is no way that many police vehicles would have been clustered together and ready to respond simultaneously. They don't drive in big convoys looking for major criminal events. In T2, the police deployment was much more realistic. The heroes spent quite a bit of time at Cyberdyne, so there was plenty of time for police to arrive and prepare for a standoff.<br />
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As Kate runs out the building and is intercepted by members of the SWAT team, we find out that a number of the police are still moving into position. Initiating aggression without being 100% prepared was a very bad tactical move on the part of the police. What if the suspects respond violently? Many of the police officers were exposed, and because they were running to position, they were distracted and not looking the correct direction. The police should have waited until everyone was in position before confronting the suspects. <br />
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As the mausoleum fills with teargas, the T-850 loads an extended magazine into a Glock pistol, but waits for a moment before racking the slide. What good is that going to do? It's useless against the T-X, and against a SWAT encounter, it's equally useless. The T-850 is just wasting time again, fidgeting with weaponry while John Connor starts whining about his destiny again. John Connor tells the T-850 to leave him there, that John Connor is not who the T-850 wants, and that it is wasting its time. <br />
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Whining again...</div>
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The T-850 corrects John, spouting bullshit about John Connor leading the Resistance to victory, even though we later learn that in the future the war rages on after John Connor's death. John Connor's not buying it either, demanding to know why he's so significant. He obviously has long lost the natural leadership qualities that John Connor of T2 demonstrated. The T-850 has no good answer, resorting to pointing out the obvious: John Connor is John Connor. The guy we're told is John Connor continues to complain, stating that his mom fed him that bullshit from the cradle, and that he's not leadership material. Again, John Connor demonstrates a poor grasp of reality. Three Terminators have come back in time now to kill him. John Connor may not understand his importance, but can't he at least accept that the enemy considers him to be very dangerous? Instead of whining about his situation, maybe he should accept that he's in the middle of some very large events and that in time it will all make sense. Even if he doesn't want to accept that, he should realize that surrender is stupid. A police station full of cops couldn't protect his mom from a Terminator. If John Connor ends up in police custody, the T-X will kill him. The T-X isn't going to care whether or not John Connor refuses to accept his destiny. If anything, his denial will just make him an easier kill. But why should John care about logic when instead he can feel sorry for himself in the middle of a life-or-death situation? And of course, he claims he never was a leader, conveniently forgetting his role in the events of T2. As a child, he repeatedly risked his life to save people. Now, as an adult he can't even be relied upon to protect his own hide. Its like the character evolution works backwards for Stahl's Connor.<br />
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Somehow, John Connor has been able to complain and complain, even though the mausoleum has been filling with teargas for a while now. Remember in T2 where teargas actually worked on humans? Apparently heavy does of self-pity can completely neutralize the effects of a gas intended to interfere with vision and breathing. John Connor's whining ends up being too much even for the T-850. It walks up to him and pretends to be Darth Vader, holding John Connor in the air by his neck. Mercifully, this immediately ends the whiny streak. The T-850 tells John Connor that he is correct, and that John Connor is not the one he is looking for. Even though seconds ago John was trying to convince the T-850 of that very thing, he suddenly has the nerve to get offended by the T-850 agreeing with him. It's interesting to note that when restrained by the T-850, John Connor puts up almost no fight at all, in stark contrast to Kate, who fought back violently when in similar situations. <br />
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John Connor finally grows the slightest bit of backbone and says, "Fuck you, you fucking machine." Miraculously, the T-850 does not say that it is unable to comply. Either the T-850 is able to fuck itself somehow, or maybe the T-850 is learning just a bit. Instead, it drops John Connor, and expresses approval at John's brief defiant streak. John Connor realizes that the Terminator has been messing with his head, and expresses angry surprise at that revelation. It is here that we learn that the T-850 is programmed with basic psychology subroutines. Wow, could Skynet have any worse understanding of how the human mind works?<br />
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[Police car conveniently close to the cemetery]<br />
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Meanwhile, the T-X is driving around with the two detectives. The only detective with the ability to talk answers the phone, and we soon learn that Kate has been located at Greenlawn Cemetery off the 5 freeway. This means that the T-850 drove east to Victorville ONLY FOR GAS, before backtracking to the west. Come on! There's more than one gas station in the High Desert. Surely the T-850 could have found a gas station near the cemetery, instead of wasting more than two hours driving back and forth across the desert. As it turns out, there's a Greenlawn Mortuary and Cemetery in Bakersfield, CA. If that's where the T-850 went for weaponry, there's no way in hell they could get out of California before the nuclear strike begins. Even if the cemetery was further south, at the closest point I-5 is to the desert, getting to the U.S./Mexico border is still a drive of over three hours in perfect traffic, which will not be the case on a weekday afternoon. From Bakersfield, the drive to San Diego ends up being four hours in ideal traffic. Boy, has the T-850 screwed up royally. And what a stupid place to store those weapons.<br />
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Now that the T-X knows where its targets are, it decides to kill both detectives, punching the one who talks right through the chest. The T-X wiggles its bloody fingers after doing so, no doubt getting the same sexual pleasure it gets from licking blood samples. The mute detective suddenly learns to talk, sort of. About the only coherent thing he says while reaching for his gun is, "Oh my god!" The rest of it sounds like random nonsense, which abruptly ends when the T-X delivers a fatal hit to his head. Without removing its arm from the detective, the T-X grabs the steering wheel, instead of using the nanoinjector to take over the vehicle. Even though the talking detective is dying, he helpfully operates the gas and brake pedals for the T-X, enabling the T-X to go into a skid, spinning the car around so it can rapidly accelerate in the opposite direction.<br />
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[Greenlawn Cemetery]<br />
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Kate is recovering from the crisis at the cemetery. Despite having been exposed to the teargas for only a few seconds, she's reacting to the gas far worse than John did. Among the many people the police had prepared for instant deployment, it turns out that Dr. Silberman is one of them. Unlike in the first movie, where he met Sarah at the police station well after the police pursuit had ended, these days Dr. Silberman has nothing better to do than ride around with twitchy SWAT guys. Dr. Silberman's efforts to comfort Kate fail miserably, as he soon reveals that he is still traumatized by the events of T2. How ironic that for Dr. Silberman, memories of the events from T2 are more traumatizing than appearing in T3. How does this guy still have a job, if he's so consumed by the past that it interferes with his ability to do his job properly?<br />
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Meanwhile, the SWAT team begins to enter the mausoleum. Simultaneously, the T-850 smashes its way out a stained glass window at the side of the mausoleum, carrying a coffin and a belt-fed machinegun. The police, completely unprepared for this twist, barely react. A few police officers look the other direction, and a couple of them hesitantly wobble their weapons around. What kind of police are these that they can't even properly point their weapons at an obvious suspect? They should have instantly drawn a bead on him and been prepared to fire if necessary. <br />
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The SWAT leader, who drank everything Starbucks had to offer before reporting for duty, orders the T-850 to drop the weapon, hesitating before also ordering him to drop the coffin. When the T-850 fails to comply (wordlessly, amazingly enough), the SWAT leader orders the other officers to take the T-850 down. As he does this, he waves his bullhorn at the T-850 instead of speaking into it to relay the order, and he also ducks down. What the heck? He's hiding from his own firefight? <br />
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As the police open fire, they hit everything except the T-850. They hit the coffin repeatedly, grave markers, flowers, even grass. Despite the close range, many of the shots are missing by several feet. The T-850 allows the officers to fire for several seconds, since obviously they don't know how to shoot. In T2, the Terminator took lots of cosmetic damage in the Cyberdyne lobby, due to concentrated fire from the SWAT team. Here, the T-850 emerges virtually unscathed. Meanwhile, Dr. Silberman looks to see what the police are shooting at. Upon seeing the T-850 and realizing that he's in T3, he runs for his life. Kate realizes that's a good idea, and also attempts to flee from the movie.<br />
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Finally, the T-850 decides to start shooting. Lucky for the T-850, the shot that hit the ammo drum did absolutely no damage to it, so the T-850 is able to shamelessly ripoff the Cyberdyne minigun shootout without any ammo concerns. As the T-850 starts shooting, a lot of officers who left themselves dangerously exposed dive for cover, rolling melodramatically over car hoods to do so. The T-850 randomly sprays the police cars with bullets, hitting one in its Hollywood gas tank, which launches it into the air in a massive fireball. Somehow, the T-850 manages to fire more than 750 rounds out of an ammo drum that is not likely to hold more than 100 rounds. The T-850 fires for only about 10 seconds, so it shouldn't have fired more than 100 rounds regardless. <br />
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Having destroyed the police cars, the T-850 tosses the coffin in a Hearse, at which point we learn that John Connor was hidden inside. There are two problems with that. One, there is no reason whatsoever for making the coffin bulletproof. So many bullets hit the coffin that John Connor should have been dead. Two, the coffin was filled completely to the top with weapons. There was no room for him in the coffin! The T-850 ignores the police shooting at them as it hotwires the Hearse. John Connor also ignores the police, even though he's one stray bullet away from being killed. He just sits on top of the weapons, making no attempt to take cover. The same T-850 that can't be bothered to inform John of the impending nuclear strike informs him that they must reacquire Katherine Brewster. Amazingly, when John Connor demands to know why she's so important, the T-850 finally tells him. We learn that a veterinary assistant who's only connection with the military is her soon-to-be-dead father, somehow connects John Connor with remnants of the military, so he can learn to fight Skynet. How does that work? "Your dad was General Brewster? Well, clearly you were born with all sorts of military training then, even though you never joined the military." Right. Beyond that, one of the major points of John Connor being the savior of humanity, is that he's the one who figures out how to fight the machines and trains everyone else. If the military knows how to fight Skynet well enough that they're teaching John, what do they need him for?<br />
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The T-850 continues on by saying that John's children will eventually become important. This catches John Connor by surprise, which is only intensified when the T-850 reveals that Kate is John's wife. The T-850 picks this exact moment to stomp on the gas, because nothing screams "muscle car" like a Hearse. The sudden acceleration from a STATION WAGON knocks John off balance, an obvious and shameless effort to literally knock John on his ass as a result of this latest plot twist. Lucky for John the sudden acceleration doesn't cause him to fall out the back window. As the T-850 drives off, the police uniformly pepper the Hearse with bullets. Despite all efforts to the contrary, John Connor manages to survive the hail of bullets. <br />
<br />
[Elsewhere in the cemetery]<br />
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Kate is still running from the firefight. As she dodges around fake gravestones placed on top of the grass, she spots a lone police car. Miraculously, the T-X managed to make a 30-60 minute drive in less than five minutes. There was absolutely no reason for the detectives to be anywhere remotely near the cemetery, especially considering the way the detective described the location. Describing a location as being off the 5 freeway near the desert does not suggest a location only a few miles away. Kate runs to the police car, unaware that doing so is almost as stupid as hanging out with the T-850. The T-X gets out to greet Kate. Despite having plenty of time and opportunity to do so, the T-X never removed the detectives from the car, nor did it bother to acquire the guns they undoubtedly had. <br />
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Take the gun!</div>
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Kate starts recognizing that something is wrong, but the T-X isn't done being stupid. It starts to morph back to its default form RIGHT IN FRONT OF KATE! Why? Now Kate has no reason to continue approaching the T-X, and since the T-X was too stupid to relieve the detectives of their guns, it doesn't have any quick way of killing Kate. But then again, maybe it doesn't want to kill Kate. Maybe it's just going to step on her neck again and demand to know where John Connor went. If the T-X is trying to fail its mission, it's succeeding admirably, because by taking on its default form, the T-850 can recognize the T-X for what it is. <br />
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The dumbest move in the entire movie</div>
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Oh, the T-X is charging its weapon. It does want Kate dead. While the T-X is charging its weapon, the T-850 has time to stop the Hearse, push John Connor out of the way, fidget with some weapons, load the RPG, and then look for Kate. Based on John's uselessness, the "unique" behavior of the T-850, and the ridiculously long charge time for the plasma weapon, this is the only logical explanation for the timely presence of the RPG. The T-850 could have simply rammed the T-X, as it did before, but since there was no way to put Kate in unnecessary danger this time, the T-850 settled for the RPG. By the way, how did the T-850 find Kate? That's a pretty big cemetery, and Kate could have gone anywhere.<br />
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The T-850 pulls directly in front of Kate and tries to take her out with the backblast of the RPG. That fails to harm her, but the T-X decides not to dodge, allowing the rocket-propelled grenade to hit it in the shoulder. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Watch out for Kate...oh, too late</div>
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After careening through the air, the T-X crashes violently through a poorly rendered grave marker, shattering it. John Connor calls out to Kate, who is stunned by the ever-increasing weirdness she's been exposed to today. Kate finally snaps out of her daze and jumps in the Hearse. As the T-850 drives off, the T-X gets back up and starts running after them, putting away its plasma weapon instead of charging it for another attack. Since the T-X couldn't be bothered to nanocontrol the police car (how did it drive from the backseat without doing so?), it ultimately plays no part in the chase. Why didn't the T-X just run back to the car? Driving has to be faster than running, and the RPG blast should have knocked the T-X back in the direction of the police car, more or less. The T-850 takes notes from John Connor's playbook and decides to blow its lead. It crashes through a gate, and starts driving back toward the T-X.<br />
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As Kate questions the insanity she's just been exposed to, the T-850 starts explaining things it should have explained much earlier. Only now does it explain to Kate about the T-X and its capabilities.<br />
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Because the T-850 has doubled back, it has lost much of the speed advantage of being in a car. The T-X is able to jump off the embankment and land on top of the Hearse. Despite weighing a ton according to Mostow, the T-X doesn't completely crush the Hearse by landing on it. As the T-X cuts its way into the Hearse, Kate screams annoyingly. The T-850 does nothing at all until Kate screams at it to do so, then it starts swerving back and forth. John Connor struggles to grab a weapon out of the still-completely-full coffin. They obviously didn't remove weapons to make room for John in there. As the T-X peels open the roof, John grabs an AK sprays an entire magazine of ammo at the T-X, which of course has no effect whatsoever. The T-X has plenty of time to enter the Hearse through the hole in the roof, but instead spends several seconds just staring at John. The T-X wastes ten seconds not going after John Connor, only trying to reach into the Hearse right as the T-850 drives under a tractor trailer to knock the T-X off the Hearse with a loud clank. Having evaded the T-X, the T-850 lunges the Hearse down the embankment, bumping over a lot of rough terrain before finally skidding around on grass and emerging onto the road.<br />
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The Hearse is obviously not a Toyota Tundra, as it's now running much worse than the Toyota Tundra, which was subject to a lot more cartoon impacts. As Kate and John emerge from cover, the T-850 announces that they need a new vehicle. The stupidity of such a mind-bogglingly obvious statement is so much that John and Kate can only gaze at the T-850 with dumbfounded stares. Now why didn't the T-850 make a similar observation at the conclusion of the crane chase? The T-850 has some really weird ways of performing damage assessment.<br />
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[Back at the Xenadrine advertisement]<br />
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As the driver of the tractor trailer checks to see what happened, the T-X sits up with a nearly blank expression. After a moment, it inspects its plasma weapon, which was damaged somehow. The T-X skips over a huge assortment of weapons, many of which are described as guns, to select the IAD-CHemTech, which happens to be a flamethrower. The T-X tests it on a nearby tree, panicking the driver of the truck full of disreputable products enough that he runs away. Somehow it seems fitting that T3 would accept product placement for a product that turns out to be a scam.<br />
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[Somewhere north of Los Angeles]<br />
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The T-850 turns off a quiet two-lane road, and follows a dirt road that descends into a canyon. Wait a minute! Didn't the T-850 just say that they needed a new vehicle? So why has the T-850 picked the most desolate place it could find to search for one? The Hearse sounded terrible. If the vehicle broke down in the middle of nowhere, they'd all be screwed. What if a car didn't come along for hours? What if the first vehicle was a motorcycle or something equally unsuitable for all three of them and their weapons cache? And how many vehicles does the T-850 expect to find out in the wilderness? What, were there no cars in the frickin' city?! <br />
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Lucky for the T-850, Ferris & Brancato stuck a conveniently-located RV at a campsite at the end of the dirt road for the T-850 to find. Equally convenient is the fact that the campsite is completely abandoned, even though the people there left the RV unlocked and all sorts of items laying about. The T-850 brings the bullet-riddled Hearse to a stop and attempts to get out. Despite the fact that the only damage to the door consists of a number of bullet holes, the door falls off its hinges in typical cartoon style. Car door hinges are quite beefy, and aren't going to simply fall apart for no reason. The only way that could happen is if this movie was a cartoon. Oh, wait...<br />
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The T-850 and John get out of the car, while Kate grieves over the loss of her gay fiancee. The T-850 pulls the door handle on the RV with too much force, then peeks inside. John Connor attempts to reassure Kate that Scott's death was not her fault, with little success. The T-850 has moved a couple of weapons to the picnic table outside the RV, and is fidgeting with a grenade launcher. As the T-850 continues to act like an idiot pretending to know what it's doing, John Connor approaches to ask the T-850 a question. He asks if the T-850 is sure about him and Kate. The T-850 replies that his confusion is not rational, and that Kate is a healthy female of breeding age. We soon learn that the T-850's database does not encompass the dynamics of human-pair bonding. What a relief! Who knows what the T-850 might have said if it thought it understood human-pair bonding.<br />
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John and Kate: "Why did you turn down the lights?"<br />
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T-850: "Dim lighting increases the desire to mate." <br />
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Since the T-850 has no useless advice regarding human-pair bonding, the T-850 whips its head to the right, then turns to walk in the direction that its head is pointing. Is it really that hard to just walk away? The T-850 really must be an obsolete design if it can only operate one joint at a time. <br />
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Whip it! Whip it good</div>
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Despite having all day to ask the T-850 questions, only now does John demonstrate the slightest interest in finding out what's going on. We learn that the T-X has 22 targets on its hitlist, but the T-850 makes sure to only list people whose names have already appeared in the movie. As soon as the T-850 mentions General Brewster, it stops listing off targets so that Kate can freak out without interruption. As the T-850 delivers the bad news about Kate, it continues to pile weapons on the picnic table outside the RV. Shouldn't the T-850 be putting the weapons inside the RV?<br />
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Upon learning about General Brewster and his significance, John Connor starts blathering about destiny, telling the T-850 that if it had never come back when he was a kid, John Connor would have met General Brewster years ago. Never mind that if the Terminators had never come back, John Connor would never know the significance of Skynet, and General Brewster wouldn't have been talking about his top secret work to some punk kid. As John Connor puts together a convoluted timeline theory, the T-850 is still playing with weapons. It takes an unloaded HK UMP and kind of punches the air with it while pretending to shoot, as if the T-850 were a bad guy shooting a revolver in a bad 1970's-era movie. Just stop playing with the weapons and put them in the RV! Oh, by the way John, IT'S NOT THE SAME DAMNED TERMINATOR! STOP PRETENDING THAT IT'S THE SAME TERMINATOR FROM T2, BECAUSE IT'S NOT!<br />
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Meanwhile, John Connor is still blathering about destiny and General Brewster always having been the key to shutting down Skynet, never mind that Brewster obviously never shut Skynet down in any previous timeline. John Connor decides that they need to get to General Brewster before the T-X does. The T-850 refuses, saying that it cannot jeopardize its mission. Really? You're supposed to get John and Kate to safety, and you're driving back and forth across the desert north of Los Angeles, repeatedly putting John and Kate in mortal danger, and trying to get stranded in the middle of nowhere just hours before Judgement Day. It sounds like jeopardizing your mission is your Number One mission priority. John Connor tries to order the T-850 to save General Brewster, but the T-850 says that it is not programmed to follow John Connor's orders. This probably still won't be enough for John to realize it's a different Terminator.<br />
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Ferris & Brancato finally realized that they needed to get Kate freaked out over the war, so for absolutely no reason whatsoever, the T-850 finally decides to mention the nuclear war that it's been keeping secret all day. It was not a logical continuation of the previous dialogue, and the T-850 doesn't even say a complete sentence. It just speaks half a sentence and then trails off so that Kate can flip out over the prospect of nuclear war. Yet another detail John and the T-850 could have told Kate about much earlier if they actually cared about providing necessary information. John Connor insists that they can stop the war, but the T-850 tells him that there's insufficient time, as it continues stacking weapons on the picnic table outside the RV. Is it really too much trouble for the T-850 to take the coffin out of the Hearse and put it near or inside the RV? STOP STACKING WEAPONS ON THE TABLE, AND PUT THEM DIRECTLY INTO THE RV!<br />
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Finally, the T-850 decides to tell John and Kate about the new Judgement Day. It turns out the first nukes will be launched at 6:18pm, meaning that Judgment Day will be starting in less than three hours. This seems like kind of important information. How could the T-850 think that withholding this sort of information from John and Kate could possibly be a good idea? Plus, if Judgement Day starts in less than three hours, why did the T-850 ensure that it would take them more than three hours to get out of California and into Mexico, not counting inevitable bad traffic or driving a slow vehicle like a large RV? At this rate, it will be the T-850 that's responsible for the deaths of John and Kate, not the T-X. John insists on going to CRS, but the T-850 says that the Mojave area will be heavily irradiated, and that John and Kate won't survive. So why is the T-850 in no hurry to get out of the Mojave desert area? It just keeps placing weapons at the picnic table THAT SHOULD BE GOING DIRECTLY INTO THE RV! QUIT MAKING AN UNNECESSARY PILE OF WEAPONS ON THE TABLE AND PUT ALL THE WEAPONS DIRECTLY INTO THE RV, NOW! How could the T-X possibly fail against a Terminator this stupid? <br />
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John Connor expresses disgust at the idea of hiding in a hole and waiting for the bombs to fall. The T-850 replies that it is John's destiny, which is one annoying destiny reference too much for John Connor. He takes himself hostage by pointing a pistol at his own head. As soon as she receives her cue, Kate, who isn't looking at John at all, suddenly rotates her entire body toward John while keeping her hands at her sides and speaks her line. The T-850 moves hesitantly toward John Connor, but at least doesn't take a defensive stance. Proving its thorough ignorance of humans yet again, the T-850 claims that John Connor cannot self terminate. John Connor refutes the T-850's argument, calling it a goddamned robot in the process. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the T-850 feels compelled to correct John by calling itself a cybernetic organism, as if that mattered at all in a situation such as this. All this does is piss off John Connor some more, proving again that the T-850 knows absolutely nothing about human psychology. Couldn't the T-850 just shut up for one second instead of always saying the wrong thing? <br />
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John Connor tries to use himself as a bargaining chip to get the T-850 to take them to CRS, threatening to kill himself if the T-850 does not comply. The T-850 determines that John is probably bluffing, calculating an 83% probability that John Connor won't pull the trigger. Of course, a 17% of suicide is still awfully high, and the T-850 cannot afford to be wrong. But Kate accidentally defuses the situation by pleading to the T-850 to save her father. The T-850 looks toward Kate, and declares that they can get to CRS in one hour, depending on traffic conditions. Those estimates of traffic conditions had better be more accurate than what it's estimating for the drive to Mexico, or they're screwed. Strangely, despite getting the result they wanted, both John and Kate look rather confused. Maybe they're so used to the T-850 being obnoxiously uncooperative and useless, that they can't be sure it's the same Terminator.<br />
[In the RV on the way to CRS]<br />
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The T-850 is taking John and Kate to CRS. On the way, Kate decides to talk to the T-850 while John Connor is preparing explosives. We learn that Skynet has been taking over communications networks in preparation for its attack. Kate is finally aware of the war between humanity and the machines, and asks why the T-850 is on their side. It explains that it was captured and reprogrammed. Despite how annoying the T-850 has been up to this point, and despite realizing that the T-850 has no real vested interest in their lives, Kate feels compelled to thank it for its help. Rather than silently accept the gratitude, the T-850 determines it necessary to point out that it is required to follow Kate's commands, in the process implying that it wouldn't have taken Kate and John to CRS otherwise. This is another shining example of inconsistency. The order that Kate accidentally gave the T-850 was, "Please, please do what he says. You have to save my father." Yet, earlier Kate gave a similarly-worded order to the T-850, "Please, please, please, you have to let me go." So the T-850 only follows orders when it's convenient to the plot.<br />
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Yeah, so whose orders youre programmed to follow?</div>
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Amazingly enough, John Connor happened to be lucid enough at this point to have heard what the T-850 said. Surprised, he questions the T-850 about being programmed to follow Kate's commands. We learn a bit about Kate's role in the future, and Kate learns that she becomes John Connor's wife. Understandably, she's not thrilled at the process of being romantically involved with John Connor, calling him "a mess". John Connor gets defensive, so he points out the toll taken by the intense stress of not only knowing about the rise of Skynet, but also being expected to lead the survivors in the war against the machines.<br />
<br />
...wait a minute. He doesn't point that out at all. Instead of trying to impress upon Kate the incredible burden of being responsible for keeping humans from going extinct, he decides to point out that she's not exactly his type, either. John's going to win this war, but he can't think his way through trivial verbal battles such as this one?!<br />
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As the conversation continues, John Connor wants to know why he didn't send the T-850 back. For the first time ever, we see a Terminator explicitly attempt to hold back information. But for whatever reason, Kate is authorized to ask the same question, and we soon learn that John Connor was already dead by the time the T-850 is sent back. Why was this information supposed to be kept secret? Prior to this point the T-850 wasn't afraid to talk about future events. This Terminator and the one sent back in T2 both provided many details that could be detrimental to Skynet's efforts to win the war, so it can't be a restriction placed by Skynet. As proof, Kate is allowed to ask and receive the answer, so that pretty much rules out Skynet influence. At this point, it seems that this is a detail that the future Kate wanted to remain secret. Why? Does she secretly hate John Connor in the future and want to ensure that he dies in the next future as well? It doesn't make sense that Kate would want to keep John Connor's death secret.<br />
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And when John Connor expresses displeasure at having died in the future, the T-850 reminds him that humans inevitably die, because that's the kind of reassurance people need when they're risking their lives to save the future. It must be more of those quack psychology routines. Can't the T-850 just shut up instead of responding to statements that weren't meant to elicit a response?<br />
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John Connor decides that maybe he doesn't want to know how he dies, so respectfully, Kate violates his wishes and asks. The whole response from the T-850 was just stupid. We learn that the war has run well past 2029, and that the T-850 was selected due to the emotional attachment he felt toward that model, which aided the T-850's infiltration. Emotional attachment?! What emotional attachment? Let's rewind back to the animal hospital. John Connor is stunned with fear when he sees the T-850 walking toward him, and the very first thing John Connor says to the T-850 is: "You're here to kill me?" Then there's the end of the crane chase, where John Connor is shocked to see the T-850 pop out of nowhere to assume control of the truck. He's pushing as far away as he can get from the T-850, even though the T-850 has already said that John Connor must live. These are not the actions of someone who thinks that every Arnold-model Terminator is his best buddy.<br />
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But hey, let's take all this at face value. So the brooding, loner John Connor is suddenly needy and codependent in the future? A John Connor that's approaching 50 still needs a daddy figure?! What, did he want his kids to have a robot grandfather? Once again John Connor is depicted as being less mature as an adult than as a child, not to mention stupid. The leader of the Resistance can't tell the difference between a good Terminator and a bad Terminator?! The best troops in the Resistance can't detect a Terminator before it kills their leader?! A lot of stupidity and carelessness is required to get to the point where the T-850 could ever have a chance of killing John Connor. The future John Connor seems stupid enough that maybe he deserves to die.<br />
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And finally, look at how quickly the T-850 got on John's nerves. If it takes the T-850 more than two seconds to set up the opportunity to kill John Connor, it's going to annoy John so much in the meantime that he won't want the T-850 anywhere near him. Being a robot asshole isn't going to endear it to John Connor.<br />
<br />
There's also the stupidity that Kate apparently has the T-850 disabled and put into storage, all without causing any damage to it whatsoever. And only later does she have it reactivated for a time displacement mission. Also, how is it that in a future sufficiently different that the war goes on for at least another three years, Skynet still manages to develop time travel and send a Terminator through time, only to have the Resistance find a way to send a Terminator of their own back through time? What's the point of changing the future, if the same major plot points are railroaded into existence every time anyway?<br />
<br />
[CRS]<br />
<br />
Since so far Skynet's antics have only served to interrupt phone service and daytime soaps, it's time to escalate the threat that should have been building up throughout the movie. General Brewster is walking down the hallway with a trio of obnoxious advisers, who are have been saving up all sorts of bad news so they could dump it on him all at once, instead of briefing him in real-time. The advisor who has been doing most of the talking is particularly bad, as he's saved some of the worst news for last, waited until General Brewster asked about the missile silos and subs specifically, and even then was hesitant to share the info. You'd think losing contact with a nuclear arsenal might be the sort of thing military brass might want to know RIGHT NOW. As General Brewster comes to realize that the US is completely vulnerable to attack and ponders how this is even possible, one of the stupid new FK prototype thingies is being tested in an unrealistically super-sized, high-tech lab in the background, complete with gratuitous bottomless pits for additional sci-fi flavor.<br />
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General Brewster's thoughts are interrupted by one of the obnoxious advisors, who announces that the Chairman wants to speak with him. As he walks off, we get one more peek at the labs, which look like more like the inner bowels of the Death Star than a US research facility. The bottomless pits have mechanical devices that slide up and down for no reason whatsoever, and the FK thingy being tested is tracking a monitor that runs on rails in a circle that runs around the bottomless pit. What's the point in that? The horizontal only motion of the monitor means that it's not an adequate simulation of aerial combat, as it cannot simulate targets above or below the FK thingy. And why would they need a huge monitor anyway? For testing, they should have the prototype wired directly into a combat simulator. If they want to do "real" testing and not VR stuff, then they should have a proper target on an articulated boom, so that the prototype is tracking a proper target that can move in all directions. No matter what method they decide to use for testing, a translucent "holographic" monitor would be pointless. And to round out the overdone secret lab, they include a cameo of a videogame Terminator--the T-900. Or maybe it's just the male counterpart to the T-X, the T-Y. <br />
<br />
[The RV]<br />
<br />
John Connor is assuring Kate that they'll be able to stop the war and will be able to go their separate ways afterward. Never mind that the odds of getting into CRS successfully are pretty slim. This is the military we're talking about, so if anyone has the weaponry to kill a Terminator, it's the forces at CRS. But why let astronomical odds get in the way of a plan? <br />
<br />
Then we move on to more of the Mike Kripke nonsense. Kate confesses that John Connor was the first boy she ever kissed, which surprises John for whatever reason. Even if we pretend that John was 13 in T2, that's still kind of young to be having a developed romantic life. Kate was probably within a year of John Connor's age at the time, putting her somewhere from 12-14 years old. How many boys would she realistically have been involved in at this point? And of course, John was 10 in T2, making the whole Mike Kripke scenario quite a bit more improbable anyway. The memories bring back a smile, which leads to the worst example of quack psychology uttered by the T-850. "Your levity is good. It relieves tension and the fear of death." Yeah, great way to keep everyone from thinking about the consequences of failure. The T-850 might as well have said something like, "I'm glad you two are forgetting that you're probably going to die." It sure wouldn't have been any more tactless and stupid than what it actually said.<br />
<br />
[CRS]<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, back at CRS, the T-X has already arrived and is skulking about. Elsewhere in the facility, General Brewster gets coerced into initiating the end of the world. As Brewster nervously experiences his last few minutes of life, the T-X has found the storage area for the T-1's, which inexplicably are all stored fully loaded with ammunition. And why is there a glass barrier in the center of the storage area that minimizes useful space? Anyway, the T-X begins reprogramming the T-1's, and we go back to Brewster as he makes the last--and worst--decision of his career. Skynet is ready for deployment, so General Brewster slowly reaches out and presses the "Kill Us All Now" button. Shortly after the ignorant TeraFLOPS comment from one of the computer guys, the computer systems spontaneously fail, and the stupidity begins. In runs "Kate", much to General Brewster's surprise. Before she can say anything else, the T-850 uses an HK UMP to start dumping bullets into "Kate", who is really the T-X. Inexplicably, none of the bullet hits produce the telltale chrome blooms that have repeatedly given away the T-X earlier and later in the movie. <br />
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<br />
Even more inexplicably, getting shot several times forces the T-X to get knocked off its feet. Considering that the T-X previously shrugged off 12 gauge shotgun rounds and a full magazine of 7.62x39 rifle rounds, it's strange that suddenly the T-X is bowled over by a submachinegun firining .45ACP (or smaller) pistol rounds. Our hero, the T-850 has just saved General Brewster's life. Good job!<br />
<br />
The real Kate and John Connor run into the room, with Kate yelling at her dad to get away from the T-X. General Brewster decides it's a much better idea to remain confused, while everyone else decides that being in the same room with a leather-clad, machinegun-toting buffoon may be a potentially fatal idea. Meanwhile, the T-X reforms and takes aim at General Brewster. the T-850 is so pleased with itself at having saved General Brewster's life, it forgets that keeping General Brewster alive is an ongoing process. Since Kate didn't order the T-850 to save her father a second time, it just stands there, forcing Kate to resort to screaming at her dad again in a futile effort to save him. John Connor decides to emulate the T-850 and also decides to do nothing to save General Brewster. <br />
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Just waiting for her to finish, thats all</div>
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Then again, maybe he remembered how ineffective the AK was last time. Still stunned by the stupidity of the script, General Brewster does nothing, allowing the T-X to shoot him several times, but considerately avoids hitting any immediately lethal areas in order to allow him to help the protagonists before dying.<br />
<br />
Now that it's too late to save General Brewster, the T-850 decides to return to action, shooting the T-X several times with a grenade launcher. Surprisingly enough, none of the grenades explode at this short range. Ironically, whether by design or by accident, they ended up mimicking real-world behavior of grenades fired at close range, even though this movie seems to pride itself in avoiding realism. The T-X is knocked into a conveniently located vent that is as flimsy as it is gigantic, causing the T-X to be inconvenienced long enough for some character drama.<br />
<br />
General Brewster is dying, so naturally the T-850 decides that this would be the perfect time for a mood-breaking unfunny one-liner. <br />
<br />
We learn that Skynet has taken over and that in one hour Skynet will initiate the nuclear attack. Interestingly, this means that it took almost two hours to get to CRS. I don't know what sucked worse--traffic conditions, or the ability of the T-850 to estimate travel times. Perhaps the T-850 needed to stop in Victorville for more gas before driving to CRS.<br />
<br />
As the protagonists watch General Brewster bleed out, the T-1's go on their rampage of CRS. Despite having no hands whatsoever, the T-1's have no problems opening doors and operating elevators. And of course, every door was designed to be wide enough to accommodate a T-1. And there's glass everywhere to allow the T-1's a clear view of all potential targets.<br />
<br />
The protagonists decide to take General Brewster to his office so he can die. After barging through a door with no access control, they encounter two T-1's. The T-850 literally gets the drop on one of them, ripping its head off and then one of its miniguns. Meanwhile, the other T-1 waits for the T-850 to arm itself before beginning to shoot. Despite the fact that there is no mechanical trigger on the miniguns mounted to the T-1's, the T-850 manages to get the minigun to fire by sheer force of will. In the toe-to-toe gun battle that ensues, the T-1 manages to completely miss the T-850, despite being armed with two miniguns. The T-850 randomly sprays the T-1 with bullets until it gets a lucky hit on the head, which seems to be the only unarmored part of the T-1.<br />
<br />
With the T-1's dispatched, it's safe to enter General Brewster's office. Despite General Brewster being the highest ranking person at the facility, his office doors are wide open, so anyone can just waltz right in and start rifling through his stuff. The doors don't appear to have any locking mechanism whatsoever, so even if the doors were closed they would still be less secure than the average residential bathroom. Everyone enters General Brewster's completely unlocked office, and the T-850 immediately decides that there's no time to obey the laws of physics. The T-850 locates the only secure item in the room (the safe) and rips the door off by pulling its handle, even though safe handles are built fairly weak specifically to make sure that kind of thing can't happen. In the real world, the T-850 would have just ripped the handle off the safe, rendering it virtually impossible to open.<br />
<br />
John Connor obtains the codes. General Brewster, realizing that he doesn't want to live long enough to see any more stupid action sequences, gives his obligatory final words. He tells everyone that they have to get to Crystal Peak. The T-850 takes the initiative here, explaining that Crystal Peak is a hardened facility in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The T-850 conveniently "forgets" to mention that Crystal Peak is a fallout shelter. The T-850 continues on, explaining that it's 52 miles northeast of CRS, bearing 0.5 degrees. What's the point in putting a VIP fallout shelter in the middle of nowhere? The first rule of building a fallout shelter is that you have to be able to get to it. If you can't get to the fallout shelter, it doesn't matter how well-protected it is. Considering that nuclear missiles can have pretty short flight times, especially when launched from nuclear submarines, making the fallout shelter readily accessible is of paramount importance. This is evidenced by locations like the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, which is just six miles away from Camp David, or Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, which is 48 miles away from Washington, D.C. Both sites are close to the seat of government and have substantial above-ground operations, so they're always ready. Crystal Peak, on the other hand, is 3,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. and left completely deserted. One might argue that high-ranking people like the president may need a west coast refuge in the event of nuclear war, but sticking it in the middle of nowhere with obsolete equipment and no staff is still a bad idea. There's also that whole "bearing 0.5 degrees" nonsense spouted by the T-850. That's basically due north, not northeast.<br />
<br />
The T-850 sees an inbound threat and tells John and Kate to lay on the ground and remain in danger instead of running to safety. The T-850 ineffectually shoots at an approaching FK or whatever it's called. Undeterred, it shoots a missile into the room. The missile must have been loaded with Nerf foam, as it causes NO HARM WHATSOEVER to John and Kate, who are lying exposed on the floor, even though it explodes only six feet away from them! Arguably, the blast from the missile may have finished off General Brewster, but that's probably because he was so shocked at the insultingly bad movie physics that his brain went comatose.<br />
<br />
As they leave General Brewster's office, the T-X makes another appearance, setting the stage for an embarrassing showdown...<br />
<br />
When the T-850 first spots the T-X in the corridor, it stops suddenly, as if startled, instead of smoothly stopping like a machine with nerves literally made of steel. To draw out the drama of the scene, the T-X also stops momentarily, even though its primary targets are right in front of it.<br />
<br />
The T-850 proves its lack of situational awareness by attempting to shoot the T-X with an empty gun. And of course, the empty G36 makes a loud click when the T-850 attempts to shoot, never mind that the odds against the T-850 releasing the trigger after firing the last shot but before the hammer attempts to drop on an empty chamber, are astronomical.<br />
<br />
Looking for another weapon, the T-850 does another head turn before moving toward the nearest improvised weapon. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Whip!</div>
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<br />
The T-850 grabs a pressurized tank that is conveniently on display behind glass. The T-850 then uses the pressurized tank to... hit the T-X across the face?! The T-850 hits the T-X in the FACE (not the head) four times, with the fourth hit producing a gratuitous 360-degree head spin. Why was the T-850 hitting the T-X in the face? In T1, despite being near death, Kyle attacked the T-800 like he meant it, hitting it squarely in the head as if to knock it right off the T-800's shoulders. The T-850 clearly wasn't hitting the T-X squarely in the head, otherwise its head wouldn't not have pivoted the way it did.<br />
<br />
After the attack, both Terminators cock their heads gratuitously. The T-850 does so abruptly, seemingly to indicate (more) confusion. In response, the T-X does so as if to say, "Bring it on, bitch."<br />
<br />
Even though the prior four attacks did nothing to the T-X, the T-850 decides to again try the exact same attack to the head. This time, the T-X punches a hole right into the pressurized tank. Rather than rupture explosively due to the sudden catastrophic hull breach, gas vents out lamely, as if a valve on the tank had been opened to release the gas. <br />
<br />
The T-X performs a Rockettes kick, that improbably sends the T-850 flying. The T-850 needs to go on a diet just as much as the T-X does, because when it lands it not only shatters the tile, but the floor beneath the tile.<br />
<br />
The T-850 gets up and rushes to the T-X, which stands motionless in wait of a counterattack. <br />
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<br />
This sets the stage for the entire battle, where in a shameless ripoff of pro-wrestling, each combatant waits for the other to finish its attack before counterattacking. The T-850 grabs the T-X unopposed, and launches it right through a wall, where this battle goes straight to the shitter, and not just metaphorically.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, when the T-850 throws the T-X through the wall, the T-X does not shatter the floor tile, yet does so when the T-850 grabs the T-X by the face and slams it to the ground, and again when it stomps on the T-X's head. The T-X, apparently annoyed that the T-850 is taking too many turns, kicks it in the groin more or less, causing the T-850 to stagger backward. <br />
<br />
Now that it's the T-850's turn again, it somehow manages to rip a urinal off the wall without breaking it, and then promptly shatters it on the T-X, predictably damaging nothing except the urinal. It's amazing these massive hits cause no visible deformation to the liquid metal, even though little chunks of high-speed lead tend to do so. The T-850 really must have thought a urine stained chunk of porcelain would have taken out the T-X, because when the attack fails, the T-850 turns to stare at the useless chunk of toilet still in its hands. The T-850 acts out of turn again, slamming the T-X into more urinals. Meanwhile, the T-X assists by making sure the T-850 doesn't lose its grip. <br />
<br />
The T-X seems to be getting annoyed that the T-850 is hogging all the offensive time, so it pushes the T-850 aggressively. Despite flying through the air, the T-850 amazingly does not plow right through the wall, although it does damage it. As the T-X walks into the next part of the bathroom, we are given the opportunity to survey the damage, because nothing screams 'deadly, brutal fight" like a bathroom that looks like it was visited by vandals with sledgehammers.<br />
<br />
Inexplicably, rather than walk straight over to the T-850, the T-X takes a roundabout route that guarantees that it will lose visible contact. Oh, look! The T-X checks herself out in a mirror instead of keeping an eye out for it's target. Ha ha, that silly T-X is sooooooo vain. Don't forget to chuckle, folks. That's comedy gold right there, straight from the minds of the guys who brought you 'Catwoman' and 'Surrogates'.<br />
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<br />
Because the T-X is busy admiring its own machine lesbian beauty, the T-850 manages to surprise it, more or less. It attempts to give the T-X a swirlie, because the T-850 seems to think that toilet water is the only known weakness of the T-X. When the porcelain gods again fail to intervene on behalf of the T-850, it acts out of turn again, harmlessly shoving the T-X through several stalls, as the T-X patiently waits for the T-850 to finish.<br />
<br />
As soon as the T-850 reaches the far end, the T-X immediately takes her turn, forcing the T-850's face into a wall. The T-850, annoyed that its favorite pair of gas station sunglasses has been destroyed, scowls angrily at the T-850 and retaliates by throwing a temper tantrum that involved ineffectively knocking the T-X into more obstacles. At least the T-850 seems to have run out of toilets. <br />
<br />
The T-X takes her turn again, and grabs onto the T-850 in preparation for her attack. One hand takes hold of the T-850's groin, and the T-850 clearly expresses confusion over the funny feelings caused by being grabbed in its "no-no spot". One of the worst Wile E. Coyote moments immediately follows, as the T-X casually walks the T-850 through several walls. Amazingly, the walls positively explode as the T-X walks the T-850 through them, taking enough damage that the T-X can walk through the resulting holes with no difficulty. Meanwhile, since the T-850 has to wait for the T-X to finish its turn, it helps by putting its fists out for an improved battering ram effect.<br />
<br />
Finally, Mostow realizes that we need a break from all the bathroom humor, so we cut back to John and Kate, who conveniently have managed to avoid every machine patrol. Fortunately for John and Kate, the machines are hanging out in low visibility areas, instead of patrolling main corridors and exits.<br />
<br />
Considering that tiny intermission enough of a break, Mostow returns us to the WWE wrestling match already in progress. Inexplicably, the T-X and the T-850 fall into the next set. CRS must have been experimenting with artificial gravity for the wall of the bathroom to be the ceiling of a maintenance warehouse.<br />
<br />
During the brief intermission, the T-850 must have decided that it had affections for the T-X, since it hugs the T-X aggressively. It seems that the T-X did not intend to be intimate by touching the T-850's private parts, as it tries to fight off the T-850 by bonking it in the head three times. But then the T-X brings its arms, legs, and head around to return the embrace. Maybe the T-X really does have a crush on the T-850. But then it takes out its flamethrower and starts torching the T-850 in the face. Stop sending mixed messages, woman! Either you like the T-850 or you don't. Even the flamethrower is a mixed message. Is it a literally way of showing that it's hot for the T-850, or is it just dumb enough to think that roasting the side of the T-850's head is going to be of any use whatsoever? The T-850, enjoying this romantic interlude, uses a convenient live power cable to turn the encounter into an electrifying experience. This sends both Terminators into orgasm.<br />
<br />
But what's this? The T-X recovers first? Hey, she was faking it! The T-850 is still twitching from the climax of that battle when the T-X walks up. The T-X then stomps on the T-850's head, knocking right off its shoulders. Miraculously, this doesn't break any of the connecting cables, and equally amazing, none of the previous violence managed to unseat the T-850's quick-detach head.<br />
<br />
The T-X, doing its best mad scientist impression, gives the T-850 a case of VD--I mean it reprograms the T-850. But then leaves it there inert, with its head still detached. The T-X gets extra villain points for not finishing off its adversary when it's completely helpless to resist--especially when the last time the T-X failed to destroy a helpless T-850, it was able to recover and interfere with its plans.<br />
<br />
Now that the fight between the Terminators is over, we have no choice but to go back to John and Kate. As they near the particle accelerator, they encounter a FK or whatever it's called. It sure was nice to make sure that even flying units could maneuver through the building without being stymied by narrow corridors and doors it can't open. And why is is that all these FK thingies are fully fueled and fully armed? Just minutes ago in the movie they were still early enough in development that they were tethered to a large bundle of cabling that served as an umbilical. They shouldn't be ready for operational use.<br />
<br />
As the FK thingy spots John and Kate, it decides to use missiles instead of either of its guns. Apparently it wasted all its ammo on large crowds since missiles in this movie aren't known for their area of effect capabilities. It shoots at the targets with... dumb-fire missiles?! The missiles have no guidance systems whatsoever?! Good thing these are the world's slowest missiles, giving John and Kate plenty of time to hit the ground. Speaking of the ground, it's lucky for them the FK thingy didn't target the ground at their feet, or this would have been a really unpleasant encounter. The FK thingy demonstrates even more stupidity by not only performing a thermal scan only of the area it hit, but also by flying right over John and Kate. Stupidly, the FK thingy looks everywhere except the last known position of its targets! John and Kate freak out, as they watch the FK thingy do its best to look everywhere except at them. Finally it turns back towards them, and Kate realizes that John Connor is determined not to shoot at anything in CRS, no matter how much their lives are at stake.It always amazes me that during the mini HK attack all John does is just look with eyes and mouth open and covering his head like scooby doo, yet it was a newcomer to all this nightmare, an unexperienced veterinarian, not a guy who trained all his life and experienced all this before, who actually starts to think and does something and saves their butts. Really, John is more clueless, startled and helpless than a little baby<br />
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<br />
Kate grabs the AK, and starts firing at the FK thingy. Despite having at least six more missiles, the FK thingy decides to fly toward Kate to make itself an easier target, instead of filling the corridor with explosive projectiles. Kate gets a lucky hit on the FK thingy's explosive weak spot.<br />
<br />
As the characters catch their breath from the insipid encounter, John Connor reveals a bit of Oedipus Complex by reverently looking at Kate and revealing that she reminded him of his mother. Ewww.....<br />
<br />
[Particle accelerator]<br />
<br />
After Kate blows up a machine that has less brainpower than a 1st-generation Sidewinder missile, John and Kate enter the particle accelerator facility. How did they even get in here? Does nothing in this base sit behind a locked door? It's a government facility researching top-secret projects, yet their doors don't even have doorknobs. They both stop to stare at the CG background for a moment, and then Kate thinks to check the security monitors that were conveniently put in the particle accelerator control room instead of at a security checkpoint. Kate sees the T-X approaching on two monitors. Amusingly, the T-X is shown walking down two different hallways simultaneously. Kate warns John that the T-X is coming, which spurs John into action. He decides to rip off a move used by Kyle Reese in T1, and decides to fire up the particle accelerator, even though he has absolutely no idea what benefit that will provide, if any. In T1, Kyle was trying to get all the machines in the factory moving so that the Terminator couldn't readily detect his and Sarah's movements. A particle accelerator does not provide such a benefit. Regardless, John Connor is flipping switches, pushing buttons, and manipulating a Saitek videogame controller redressed as a power control, in order to waste as much time as possible. Even Kate doesn't understand what John's up to, as she tersely asks what he's doing. He at least has the decency to answer her, but then after making her wait while he blows their lead, he has the nerve to tell her to "Come on!" Hey, John! YOU are the one making her wait while you come up with reasons to make it easier for the T-X to kill you both--not the other way around. Don't act like she's holding you up.<br />
<br />
Despite being activated by a complete moron, somehow the particle accelerator manages to start powering up completely unattended, with no problems at all. Meanwhile, John and Kate have left the control room and are running toward the particle accelerator. The T-X barges into the control room in time to spot John and Kate entering the particle accelerator. This is a problem right here. Experiments conducted in particle accelerator are considered sufficiently hazardous that shielding is used, and personnel are prohibited from working inside the particle accelerator while it is active. So of course CRS designs theirs so that not only is there a massive access point that cannot be closed, that access point also faces the control room. I guess the researchers at CRS never heard of safety interlocks. <br />
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John and Kate jog down the particle accelerator, while the T-X sprints after them, quickly getting close enough to start blasting at them with its flamethrower. Lucky for John Connor, not only has the particle accelerator fully powered on, but the T-X seems to be made entirely of ferrous metal. In a laughable display of bad science, the ferromagnetic T-X stops and has time to malfunction before finally being pulled toward the powerful electromagnets. While the T-X is in the process of malfunctioning, John Connor's AK gets pulled toward the particle accelerator tube, instead of to one of the electromagnets. It's not like he was ever going to do anything useful with it anyway, so no big loss. Conveniently, none of the other metal items carried by either of the characters is pulled toward the electromagnets, notably the pistol he's carrying. Sure, Glocks have polymer frames, but they still have steel slides and barrels. Getting back to the T-X, why did it come into the particle accelerator without doing anything else first? All the T-X had to do was pull that videogame throttle back, and there would have been no danger. It's lucky for John that the T-X seems to be unaware of its own weaknesses.<br />
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Now that the T-X is stuck to the particle accelerator, John and Kate run as fast as they can to General Brewster's plane. Actually, no, they don't. They stand there and stare at the T-X as its liquid metal exterior slowly pulls toward the electromagnets. John stares at the T-X for a full ten seconds before declaring that "it's working". Wow, John. Are you really that dense that it takes you ten seconds to figure out that something is sticking to a magnet? And with nuclear war on the way, do you really have time to wait around to see if the villain can figure a way out of it's predicament so it can kill you? Don't forget that at this point, all the time in the world amounts to less than 60 minutes. So get your ass moving, and stop looking for ways to fail!<br />
<br />
Kate decides to try to end the movie 20 minutes early by ordering the T-X to "just die, you bitch!" The T-X is unable to comply, but unlike the T-850, it does not verbally share this fact with us, proving that the T-X really is more advanced than the obsolete T-850. After standing there for about 20 seconds, John Connor again tells Kate to "come on!", even though John is the one lagging behind. <br />
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John and Kate make their way out of the particle accelerator and onto the runway. Despite the heavy destruction outside, no machine patrols are present to see John and Kate run across a wide open tarmac. Meanwhile, the T-850 is just waking up. The T-850 sits up, grabs its poorly rendered head, and just mashes it right back onto its neck. Why would a Terminator need a quick detach head? There's little incentive to make a critical part easier to detach in combat, and one might have expected those sparks and broken wires to be a problem. But no, the T-850 reattaches its head so easily, that even the skin seals back up seamlessly. All the T-850 has do do is work its head around a bit as if it's breaking its own neck--only in reverse. As the T-850 gets back online, has a mild seizure of some sort, evidence by its head jittering about slightly. <br />
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The T-X is still stuck to the particle accelerator. Its liquid metal is continuing to slowly drip down the side of the particle accelerator, even though ferrous metal is going to stick to the first magnetic surface it comes in contact with--not dribble like syrup across the surface. Finally the T-X has had enough of being stuck to the side of the particle accelerator. In a convenient cheat, the T-X is able to deploy a saw from its left arm, even though that saw blade could not fit in the wrist of the T-X as depicted (even folded in half) and in fact the saw blade mechanism does not exist just moments before. <br />
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It cuts a slit into the particle accelerator tube, triggering the safety interlocks that did not exist moments before to shutdown the accelerator. Gas vents when the T-X breaches the side of the particle accelerator, even though the actual beam line requires a vacuum, and the cooling lines would have water running through them, not gas.<br />
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John and Kate make it to the hangar without being folded, spindled, or mutilated. Kate recognizes her father's plane, and out of nowhere we learn that Kate knows how to fly. Most movies have the sense to explain unlikely details like that early in the movie, so that the audience are prepared to accept it when the detail is invoked at a critical moment in the plot. A prime example of that is in T2, where John's hacking abilities are depicted early on at the ATM. By explaining it early on, the audience doesn't treat it as a blatant plot contrivance when he attempts something similar at Cyberdyne. But Ferris & Brancato love blatant plot contrivances, so Kate suddenly knows how to fly at the exact moment the plot requires it. Just another handy ability for characters who aren't inconvenienced at all by armed guards, alarms, and locked doors. <br />
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Just as John and Kate get to the airplane, John hears a door open. John stops to check, and sees the T-850 slowly approaching. Despite the constipated movements of the T-850, in the three seconds that passed between the sound of the door and actually seeing the T-850, it is already moved so far that there's no door visible anywhere near its current position. John and Kate were running most of the way, whereas the T-850 is walking like it's trying not to shit its pants. So how did the T-850 get to the hangar so quickly? The T-850 should have been so far behind that there would have been no hope of catching up to John and Kate.<br />
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The T-850 warns John to get away. Now. This is too subtle a hint for John, so he just stands there. Meanwhile, Kate is tired of John telling her to move, so she opens the passenger door of the plane and yells at John to get moving. Finally John understands and gets into the plane, but it's already too late. While Kate is trying to get the plane started, the T-850 finally makes it to the plane. Instead of using the brute force methods used by both Terminators throughout the movie, the T-850 considerately opens the door of the plane instead of ripping it off the hinges. It reaches in and yanks John out of the plane, throwing him across the hangar onto the floor. Instead of trying to figure out what's going on, John just starts pleading. "Please! You can't do this!"<br />
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As the T-850 does the Frankenstein toward John, it answers the question that John didn't ask, explaining that the T-X corrupted its systems. <br />
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Frankenstein!</div>
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While John decides to scoot backwards on his ass instead of standing up, Kate has the good sense to get the plane started, so that they can take off as soon as they get the chance. John tells the T-850 that it can't kill a human being, never mind that the T-850 is clearly in the process of attempting to prove otherwise. Kate, again forgetting how helpless she is against the T-850, jumps on its back. The T-850 responds by delivering an impact that should have broken a number of Kate's bones, but she instead goes flying across the hangar and hits a tool cabinet head-first.<br />
<br />
John finally gets to his feet, but remains way too close to the T-850. It explains that its CPU is intact, but that it cannot control its other functions. Two problems with this. One: Just seconds earlier we saw an error message that said "CPU - Damaged". That doesn't sound like 'intact' to me. Two: Why is every feature on the T-X so half-assed. If the T-X is supposed to be an "anti-Terminator" Terminator, why is it such a failure at that very role? It's weapon is woefully inadequate for destroying a T-850, and now we learn that it did not or cannot reprogram the T-850's CPU? Wouldn't reprogrammng Terminators be the whole point of that stupid nanoinjector? So why is the most important part in a Terminator the one the T-X can't reprogram? This "reprogramming" is so lame as to border on being completely useless. John Connor is trying to fast-talk his way out of being killed, but he keeps forgetting to get out of arm's reach. John Connor can be forgiven for not trying to distract the T-850 when he first encountered it, but at this point he should be taking advantage of the situation to draw the T-850 away from the plane, then make a mad dash for the plane once he knows Kate is ready to take off. <br />
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Predictably, John Connor's efforts to convince the T-850 not to kill him aren't working. This leads to some hammy acting out of Arnold, who puts too much emotion into his "Desire is irrelevant; I am a machine!" line. Idiot John Connor pays the price for being too dumb to stay at least six feet away from the T-850. He is hurled across the hanger onto the hood of a nearby vehicle. John just writhes in pain instead of making the slightest effort to get away. If he had been smart enough to stay away from the T-850, he wouldn't be hurting like that. The T-850 staggers over to John and grabs him by the neck. John Connor acts as if the T-850 has forgotten its mission parameters, even though it's clear even to John that the T-850 is trying to fight the reprogramming. As the T-850 wrestles with its own arm, John asks what the T-850's mission is. The T-850 responds as expected, and John Connor tells the T-850 that it is about to fail its mission. It's tempting to insult John for pointing out the obvious, but considering the T-850's spectacular failure to save General Brewster, it was probably necessary to remind the T-850 of seemingly obvious details.<br />
<br />
The T-850 pounds the hood next to John Connor's head, while continuing its cringe-worthy internal struggle. Now that his life is in immediate danger, John Connor is willing to invoke the destiny nonsense that he's been whining about the whole movie. "You know my destiny. I have to live." The T-850 displays increasingly erratic and panicky movements, like a cornered animal that's desperate for a way out. Instead of bashing in John Connor's head, the T-850 flings John out of the way and bashes in the vehicle's hood instead. What's that supposed to do? That comes off as an irrational emotional outburst, not a logical way to protect its target. After smashing the heck out of the vehicle, the T-850 bobbles about uncertainly, as if it was dizzy and having trouble maintaining balance. <br />
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Finally the T-850 shuts itself down. It's a good thing it didn't do that much sooner, or we would have missed out on all the melodrama.<br />
Consider this: In both T2 and T3, the Resistance reprogrammed Terminators flawlessly. After reprogramming, any potential Skynet influence was eradicated, and both Terminators were absolutely loyal to the Resistance. So why is it that Skynet can't achieve anywhere near that level of success? The T-X is a machine built by Skynet specifically to reprogram other machines built by Skynet. Yet, when the T-X reprograms the T-850, it is able to resist the effects and eventually overcome them. Shouldn't Skynet understand better than anyone else what it takes to reprogram a Terminator? There is absolutely no reason for the Resistance to be so much better at reprogramming Terminators than Skynet is. If Skynet builds a Terminator that's designed to reprogram other Terminators, it should have a 100% success rate when reprogramming Terminators. But of course, that would ruin some melodramatic moments, so Ferris & Brancato decided to make the nanoinjector as useless as John Connor.<br />
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How did that scene even manage to happen? In both T2 and T3, the Resistance reprogrammed Terminators flawlessly. After reprogramming, any potential Skynet influence was eradicated, and both Terminators were absolutely loyal to the Resistance. So why is it that Skynet can't achieve anywhere near that level of success? The T-X is a machine built by Skynet specifically to reprogram other machines built by Skynet. Yet, when the T-X reprograms the T-850, it is able to resist the effects and eventually overcome them. Shouldn't Skynet understand better than anyone else what it takes to reprogram a Terminator? There is absolutely no reason for the Resistance to be so much better at reprogramming Terminators than Skynet is. If Skynet builds a Terminator that's designed to reprogram other Terminators, it should have a 100% success rate when reprogramming Terminators. But of course, that would ruin the melodramatic moments we just witnessed, so Ferris & Brancato decided to make the nanoinjector as useless as John Connor.<br />
<br />
John finally gets up and checks on Kate. When asked, John explains that the T-850 shut itself down. This prompts a glance over at the T-850, which is either going to urinate on the car, or about to ram it doggy-style. John and Kate climb into the plane and taxi out onto the runway. It hasn't occurred to either of them that the machines could easily take out a slow-moving, unarmed civilian aircraft. As John and Kate attempt to take off, their plane is raked by minigun fire from the T-1's, and patrolling FK thingies launch missiles at the plane, destroying it and killing John and Kate.<br />
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Oh, wait. Ferris & Brancato wrote this, so all the machines decide to take a lunch break, allowing John and Kate to take off completely unopposed.<br />
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Having escaped a base full of angry robots, John and Kate are in a plane on their way to Crystal Peak. Kate asks what happens if they can't stop Skynet, but John assures her that they'll succeed. He completely fails to consider that maybe, just maybe, a plan that involves the two of them waltzing into a secured facility and blowing up Skynet might not have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding without a Terminator present to help. Did he really think they'd be greeted by the base commander who would escort them to the Skynet mainframe and show them were to place the explosives? <br />
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Kate and John locate CRS and prepare to land. Inexplicably, neither of them has considered the possibility that something might not be quite right about this place. There are no armed patrols, there are no major outbuildings, no signs of activity at all... <br />
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Meanwhile, back at CRS the T-850 comes back online, ultimately revealing another problem with the T-X programming. Its already limited utility becomes even less impressive if all it takes to clear the reprogramming is a reboot. <br />
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As Kate approaches for a landing, nobody contacts them on the radio. As they land, it becomes increasingly clear the place is deserted, yet neither John nor Kate seems to find anything odd about that.<br />
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When they barge in, the dusty, deserted nature of the place still isn't a warning sign, nor is the presence of jeeps, which were replaced by humvees decades ago. <br />
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And of course, great move there by John Connor. He decides to spray the hangar with bullets to see if any machines pop out to kill them. Whether there are humans or machines there, he's invited himself to get shot at either way. Also a great idea to be burning off dwindling quantities of ammo when he has no idea what he might be facing later.<br />
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After finding nothing, they run up to the blast door. John Connor's first instinct is to figure out whether or not it can be blasted open, forgetting that such a door might have a control mechanism, and also forgetting about the code book that General Brewster wanted them to have so desperately. Kate is the only one with the ability to grasp the obvious, as she notices the access control almost immediately, which was conveniently labeled 'access control'. Finally, it dawns on John Connor just what they're looking at, and he fumbles for the code book.<br />
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As they attempt to gain entrance, the T-X makes an entrance of its own. The T-X crashes right through the front of the hanger in a helicopter, gets out, and starts casually walking toward its primary targets. John retaliates by firing the Glock with unrealistic accuracy at the T-X, which after the CRS incident has decided to stop being affected by pistol bullets again. No attempt is made by the T-X to activate its on-board weapon and flame-broil John and Kate. For that matter, the T-X can't even be bothered to move quickly until...<br />
<br />
...a bigger helicopter crashes into the hangar, with far more spectacular visual effects, and far more annoying sound effects. It culminates with the weird mountain lion effect heard right before the helicopter comes to rest. As the helicopter crashes, it manages to overtake and run over the T-X, because the T-X couldn't be bothered to move sideways to avoid the helicopter. Meanwhile, the helicopter is causing every single combustible item in the hanger to burst into flames.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Jump to the side goddammit!</div>
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After the helicopter comes to a stop, out pops the T-850. Considering that Kate and John were making their final approach to Crystal Peak when the T-850 rebooted, the T-850 would have had to have broken the sound barrier to arrive at Crystal Peak when it did. Since the helicopter the T-850 arrived in has a similar top speed to the airplane Kate flew and the helicopter the T-X flew, the T-850 should have arrived 15 minutes late. Maybe John had Kate refuel the airplane at an airport outside of Victorville before heading to Crystal Peak.<br />
<br />
If the T-850 was trying to rescue John and Kate, why did it choose a method of entry that was virtually guaranteed to kill them? It had no idea where in the hangar they were. For all it knew, crashing like that could have flattened the two of them. Causing everything to burst into flames wasn't such a hot idea either. (Pardon the unintended ironic pun). Catching the two of them on fire wouldn't be very good for their health, and there's also the risk of severe heat exposure, oxygen deprivation, and smoke inhalation. It's ironic that the T-850 came closer to killing John and Kate than the T-X did. <br />
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And of course the T-850 announces with a smile, "I'm back." Oh, that's so clever, making a sly reference to movies that weren't disasters. <br />
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Why did the crash take out half of its face, including a good chunk of the endoskull, but none of that mouth that can't stay closed? Somehow the crash was severe enough to destroy massive amounts of the T-850's flesh exterior, yet minor enough to cause absolutely no functional damage whatsoever. Previous Terminators had suffered functional damage when involved in vehicular crashes, but the "obsolete" T-850 has no trouble surviving some pretty extreme accidents.<br />
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The characters don't notice any heat and smoke, but the blast door does, and decides to start closing, triggering alarms in the process. The T-850, demonstrating uncharacteristically quick thinking, runs and dives for the massive blast door in order to keep it open for Kate and John. I has no problems propping the massive blast door open with one elbow. The whole time it's propping open the door, it twitches violently as if it was a human using all its muscle strength, not a machine that it just using its metal arm to prop up the door. <br />
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As John and Kate casually "rush" to the blast door, we discover that the T-X wasn't destroyed by the helicopter (surprise, surprise). The same T-X that had no problems extricating itself from rubble and the smashed hulk of a multi-ton steel crane, suddenly is pinned by the junk knocked around by an aluminum helicopter. Even worse, it acts as if both legs are pinned, although we can see its entire right leg, and not only is there no evidence that it's pinned, there's no evidence that the T-X is using it as leverage to free the other leg. It's hard to believe that the legs of the T-X were so stuck that the only solution was to sever them at the knees. What about that stupid saw or something?<br />
<br />
Anyway, John Connor has already started crawling through the door as the T-X breaks free. Based on the HUD shot of the T-X, John Connor looks to be at least 20 feet away, if not more. As John Connor gets completely under the door, the first instinct of the T-X is to roar instead of crawl after John Connor or torch him with its flame thrower, which definitely has the range.<br />
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Once again, John Connor believe that whenever he has a sizable lead in a pursuit, he should blow it. He stops to thank the T-850. He blows three seconds just doing that and waiting for the T-850 to tell him to keep moving. In the few seconds wasted by John Connor, the T-X has crawled all the way across the hangar and grabbed him by the ankle. No wonder the T-X disconnected from the legs. It moves faster without legs than with them!<br />
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Now, rather than try to pull John Connor out, pummel him violently, chop him up with that circular saw, or incinerate him with the flamethrower, the T-X merely holds on for dear life. It doesn't even bother to grab him with its other hand!<br />
<br />
The T-850, using only one hand, manages to break the wrist of the T-X, forcing it to release its grip on John. IF THE T-850 CAN DAMAGE THE T-X THAT EASILY, WHY DIDN'T IT DO SO A LONG TIME AGO?! It could have done that at the animal hospital when the T-X was still pinned under rubble, it could have done that when it managed to get onto the crane, and it could have done that during the CRS pro-wrestling exhibition.<br />
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<br />
The T-X manages to break free, and attempts to crawl after John and Kate. The T-850 manages to restrain the T-X by grabbing some cables trailing from it. The T-850 clearly has the advantage here. All damage it has sustained is cosmetic, as opposed to the T-X, which is missing both legs and has a broken weapon arm. Clearly the T-850 can overpower the T-X at this point and rip it apart piece by piece. At this point, the T-X has already lost. The T-X is even doing annoying things like screaming, making futile efforts to crawl away without doing anything useful to actually free itself, and even use the liquid metal to reveal how mad it is. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Emotional robots</div>
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<br />
But, no. There's something missing...<br />
<br />
That's it! Unnecessary sacrifice!<br />
<br />
The T-850 decides that the only practical way of killing the T-X is to commit suicide. It removes its remaining power cell and shoves it into the mouth of the T-X. The T-X responds with a look of intense fear, as the fuel cell prepares to go critical. A gratuitous one-liner later, the fuel cell detonates. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Terminator villain completely owned for the first time</div>
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<br />
In the exterior shot, the main entry has magically repaired itself, right before being blown out again by the incredible explosion from the fuel cell. And there's that annoying mountain lion sound mixed into the explosion sound effect.<br />
<br />
While the T-850 may have sacrificed itself needlessly, there is a silver lining; we don't have to listen to any more inane babble from the T-850.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, John and Kate make their way into the facility, still not being the slighted bit concerned that the place seems to be abandoned and that everything looks so old. John Connor in his infinite wisdom, sets the timer on the explosives, even though he has no idea how long it will take to find the Skynet mainframe.<br />
<br />
Finally, they get into the facility, and it starts to dawn on John that this isn't what he expected. He limps around, marveling at how the only thing that's been maintained in are the lights and the presidential podium. Mostow couldn't decide whether or not the place should be abandoned or not, so he split the difference. Also, he decided that fallout shelters should resemble the lairs of Bond villains, instead of being sophisticated structures that incorporate seismic-shock dampeners. Rock formations are not going to be jutting from the walls and floors of a government-built VIP shelter.<br />
<br />
As John ponders why they were sent to Crystal Peak, he finally realizes what Kate had already figured out--that General Brewster and the T-850 were only trying to figure out how to get them to shelter. How is this guy supposed to lead a war when he's never the first person to come to a conclusion?<br />
<br />
And finally, as the nuclear strike begins, the radios come to life. John Connor, only seven seconds away from letting himself blow up, finally thinks to turn off the timer on the explosives. And his big act of leadership? He responds to someone on the radio. Nuclear war is beginning, yet the radio operator patiently waits for John Connor as he takes several seconds to formulate even the simplest replies. And as the movie switches to final voiceover, he just starts staring into space instead of responding to the person on the radio, despite being asked direct questions.<br />
<br />
In the final voiceover, we learn that Skynet was entirely software in cyberspace, and never was contained in any one mainframe. This Skynet ends up starting a war that results in most of the infrastructure that it existed on. So Skynet's first act is to give itself a massive case of electronic brain damage. <br />
<br />
As the voiceover drags on, John Connor blathers about destiny and how the T-850 tried to tell them that there was no way to stop Skynet. Too bad that's total BS. The T-850 never once tried to explain that Skynet was already too big to contain. If the T-850 had told John in the first place that Skynet was a massive virus, maybe John Connor would have been more willing to head for safety instead of committing to a suicide mission with no hope of success. <br />
<br />
And finally, we learn that the T-850 taught John to never stop fighting. Never mind that during the entire movie, the goal of the T-850 was to take John and Kate somewhere to hide. Its mission wasn't even to help save the other lieutenants from death. And when it came to its primary mission to protect John and Kate, it was woefully incompetent. Also, the T-850 kept trying to enforce that 'destiny' nonsense. The T-850 wasn't trying to teach John Connor never to stop fighting. It was the exact opposite. The T-850 was trying to get John Connor to stop fighting his destiny and just go with the flow. This included the T-850 trying to resist John's plan to rescue General Brewster and shut down Skynet. Since when does giving up on over 3 billion people and accepting nuclear war translate into a message of "never stop fighting"?<br />
<br />
Mostow has said in commentary that ending the movie with nuclear war is the only ending that could have worked, and he's right. John was such a failure throughout the movie that any ending that resulted in him succeeding at something wouldn't have made sense--not that anything else in T3 was particularly logical.<br />
<br />
Even the ending turned out to be a disappointment--but wait! Judgement Day happened! Isn't that a good thing? The next movie is going to be based on the future war, right? We'll get to see some awesome fighting in the future, right? At one point I thought so. Then I realized that Ferris & Brancato would probably be dictating what the future war would be like. But hey, how bad could that be, right? Two words.<br />
<br />
Terminator Salvation<br />
<br />
Also, the ending placed Terminator movies in a fictional world. Before, they were set in a real world - it could've all really happen (the events presented in the first two movies). It was extremely clever for Cameron to "UN-date" the movies that would be dated in 1997 or 2029. Like it did happen, but it was prevented, that's why you cant make the joke like "Ha, I don't see any robots walking round annihilating human race". But when the bombs fell in T3, the Terminator universe wasn't set in real environment anymore, but in a fictional sci-fi world and became a pure fantasy with no link or reference point with the real world.<br />
<br />
<br />
And just to summarize the amount of humor in all three movies<br />
<br />
Comedic scenes in The Terminator<br />
-The boyfriend reciting his dirty lines over the phone to 2 women after accidentally talking to Sarah.<br />
-Traxler asks for a cigarette when he already has one in his hand.<br />
-.Traxler and Vukovich trade barbs about his appearance before seeing reporters.<br />
- Vukovich story about this guy and his Afghan as they interrogate Reese through the glass.<br />
- You got a dead cat in there?" and response.<br />
-"God daamn" black guy noticing armed T-800<br />
<br />
Comedic scenes in T2<br />
-Blink and youd miss it: Arnold scans the bikers beard.<br />
- Dr Silberman's sarcastic comment to the hospital cameras: "Model citizen."<br />
- You got a quarter?<br />
- Silberman dropping the needle cap from mouth after seeing T-1000.<br />
- Arnold grabbing John into the garage before the shutters.<br />
- Arnold examining the baby. Humor based on there being little to no children left in the future hes from, therefore discovering it for the first time. Its funny, and its smartly foreboding at the same time.<br />
- "Here, hold this". Hes gassing a man during this by removing his mask.<br />
-."You hurt?" Battle damaged terminator closeup simultaneously.<br />
- Bumper sticker that reads "Praise the lord" as they race off in that small pickup. 12. "I need a vacation". This was Arnold's idea. This spontaneous joke style will become prevalent in T3.<br />
<br />
Comedic Scenes in T3<br />
In many peoples opinion, the new level this film reached was returning many familiar sequences of the first 2 films, with a humorous spin on them, thus turning the humor onto entire scenes of the classic films, which can be seen as too far. Entire characters in the film felt more like a dig at the saga.<br />
- Chest enlargement<br />
- "I like your gun"<br />
The cartoonishly happy strip club with gay stripper. The entire sequence can be seen as a send up of the bar from T2:<br />
- Scanning the womans bra and a gigantic font reading inappropriate.<br />
- Over the top Cartoonish acting by all beside Arnold.<br />
- Glove slaps face.<br />
- Funky glasses<br />
- "I lied"<br />
- "This guy weighs a ton"<br />
- The over the top angry guy who got hit from behind. This routine had to be on purpose. Regardless it was funny. His car gets smashed after, completing the skit.<br />
- Knocking the kiddy pool and its toys into the street with the boing sound. <br />
- Arnold knocking a bums cart of cans down.<br />
- The squeak of the crane hook after the firetruck slaps Arnold with a doink.<br />
- The look of Arnold and the firemen after he hits their windshield. "Ill drive".<br />
Inside the car routine:<br />
-Arnold grabbing John and essentially fondling his face for a while as he makes funny faces.<br />
-Drop dead and I am unable to comply.<br />
-Relax!<br />
- Yet another comedy routine. Arnold grabbing junk food and slapping them into the basket and "talk to the hand". The resulting "funky man" music (???)<br />
- Back in the car, more fun with the slot to the front cabin.<br />
- "Dont do that"<br />
- When the mausoleum is gassed. Arnolds body language as he drops John. "Better"<br />
- Dr Silberman returns merely to flex his comic skills. His speech about imagining things is called deadpan humor. We are supposed to laugh as we realize he has been traumatized as well. When he sees Arnold, he LITERALLY runs for the hills in a funny manner! I laughed so hard at this scene it was sick. Not<br />
- Arnold and his trusty coffin. The SWAT even blatantly makes a suggestion about how ludicrous it is, hesitating comedically before telling him to drop it. Its a roast of Arnolds "bringer of death" role as the terminator in all of the films.<br />
- "Shes your wife" and how Arnold immediately punches the gas as John stares at him in disbelief.<br />
- "We need a new vehicle", and the horrified expressions of John and Kate as they whiz by the camera. Another gold moment in comedy.Not<br />
- The door falling off of the hearse as Arnold gets out.<br />
- Arnold and Nicks routine on breeding. Arns humorous body language says it all here. Its a skit. Theres always 1 serious guy and 1 goofball. Much like those old Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin shows.<br />
- "Youre a mess." "Youre not exactly my type either." and Kates delivery/John's facial reaction.<br />
- "Your levity is good. It relieves tension, and the fear of death." <br />
- Hoisting Arnold by the crotch as a battering ram like a bugs bunny cartoon. Complete with exaggerated leather crinkle sound and a kung fu whoosh as she swings him.<br />
<br />
Arnold is basically sending the franchise a goodbye tribute, with less acting simply as a bodyguard and more of Arnolds sense of humor prevalent. If he stated anything with this performance it was "I am the terminator, and I own this franchise. Im so comfortable with the role now i can goof around because everyone knows its me anyway." <br />
<br />
Silberman became a complete joke of a character here as well. Hes a wreck of a man pretending to be an upright doctor.<br />
<br />
DVDactive - Also, there is far too much goofiness involving Arnold’s terminator.Terminator 3 frequently uses the terminator as ludicrous comic relief when none is needed. <br />
http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/terminator-3-rise-of-the-machines.html <br />
<br />
movie-gazette.comSome of the attempts at comic relief don't sit particularly comfortably with the overall tone <br />
http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/365 <br />
<br />
www.currentfilm.comArnold is hilarious in his sort of goofy, say-whatever-he's-thinking way <br />
Arnold is hilarious in his sort of goofy, say-whatever-he's-thinking way<br />
<br />
moviecitygeek.com <br />
The well-worn title hero/villain has become a comfortable old shoe for Schwarzenegger and he slyly slips in humor and human frailties where none should exist <br />
http://www.moviecitygeek.com/reviews/t3.html <br />
<br />
About.com-"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." With a different director, a different actor playing the role of John Connor, and a lot more humor <br />
http://movies.about.com/library/weekly/aa070103a.htm <br />
<br />
WGTV8 - The humor is very funny, but it almost begins to fell campy after a while and its just one of those elements that draws away from the moody atmosphere.</div>
GothamStreetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650245408360085764noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363889447319465604.post-78568089039530147942013-03-31T22:23:00.000-07:002014-05-07T11:36:04.570-07:00All That is Wrong with Terminator: Salvation<div style="text-align: justify;">
McG was rather clear that he wanted to stay away from T3 and honor the first two movies, yet somehow he managed to come up with an even less Terminatoresque movie than the previous one was. Its like another sequel for Nemesis or Cyborg. Maybe its good, because its easier to disassociate it with the Terminator franchise. They even changed the signature font and Carolco's gone from the picture, with Vanja and Kassar only serving as executive producers since they sold the rights. The movie sure doesnt feel or look like anything related to a Terminator movie and its portrayal of the world and machines (which it personified). While TS fixes problems that T3 had, like the correct T-800 name, no goofiness and parodying humor, it creates many new ones.<br />
What Brancato and Ferris delivered this time was so awful that it took numerous writers to make something off of it, and even such great writers as Jonathan Nolan couldn't fix this mess, but at least they got rid of the stupid mutants, terminator-hybrids golf fields and the idiotic twist of Connor becoming a Terminator. A lot of those pathetic ideas from B&F were first used in the kiddie comic books of the 80s, were we had human-cyborg hybrids, Terminator town and Skynet Zordon-style changing appearances<br />
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The Intro</div>
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Is not bad in itself aside from the fact that it's nothing but a straight up homage to the intro of the first movie. The music throughout sounds like something that would easily fit a Marvel superhero movie.</div>
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The crucifix imagery is over the top and too much on the nose. While a number of lethal injection tables have separate "arms" that the condemned inmate's arms are strapped to, they almost never stick straight out like that, and so far I can't find any that are designed to stand the inmate vertically for the viewing gallery. All things considered, this is a debatable flaw, but considering the way the rest of the movie goes, the imagery doesn't feel appropriate.<br />
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It's so profound and subtle. let's make sure all the 13 year olds get it</div>
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They also got a bit too creative with their lethal injection system. The way they're using it, over ten feet of tubing would be needed for the injections, greatly complicating the effort needed to get the chemicals into Marcus' body. And they seem to be using too many chemicals. I'd be tempted to write that off as a special requirement for prepping the body for donation to Cyberdyne, but the system they're using is wall-mounted, so it's definitely not something brought in by Cyberdyne for the purpose.<br />
<br />
There's no reason why they couldn't just use the computer font used in the first two movies<br />
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-----<br />
Assault on Skynet R&D Facility<br />
-----<br />
The very first shot shows the camera view of a missile streaking toward its target, which turns out to be a dish at the Skynet R&D facility. Annoyingly, the missile actually gets hit by a sentry turret, yet manages to continue its flight and hit its target. The VLA at the location doesn't even make sense for Skynet to have, as an array of dishes like that is intended for deep space observation and would be useless in the effort to exterminate humanity. And there's definitely nothing like that in California.<br />
<br />
Let's talk about shots of A-10's and helicopters. What happened to the desperate plight of humanity? The Resistance seems to be kicking ass? Wasn't Connor suppose to turn things around...for better??? The original movies, even the third one, made it clear that the machines rule the world, and people are like scavenger guerrilla army, like cockroaches hiding in the cracks of the ground, attacking from hideouts and between the ruins.<br />
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"We were <i>this </i>close to going out forever. But there was one man.He brought us back from the brink". Really??? He turned the tides alright..</div>
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He sure did.....</div>
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Also stupid is having helicopters dropping off troops right in the middle of a bombing run. Talk about trying to cause friendly-fire incidents!<br />
As we listen to General Olsen explaining why they're there, we see the first sign of recklessness from John Connor. He just tosses his rope into the pit and jumps in without the slightest pause, despite not having any idea what's waiting. Only after he jumps in does he decide to pause and light a flare. We see that he's in some gigantic pit that would have been right at home in the Matrix. He then continues to descend into the pit with no backup whatsoever.<br />
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Great way to check if there are traps or army of machines in there</div>
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<br />
He waits for his backup off-screen, as the next scene has other Resistance members right behind him. They're tromping around in what seem to be some sort of sewers.<br />
For some odd reason the sewers actually seem to be flooded corridors full of cabling. It's not clear why they should be encountering this in the first place.<br />
<br />
--Director's Cut Scene<br />
A T-1 pops up out of waist-high water, even though it shouldn't have been able to crouch that low, and Resistance members probably would have tripped over it. And it doesn't make sense to have an underwater elevator just for it. Despite having the advantage of surprise, it doesn't shoot at all, even though we see the miniguns spinning. John Connor's team spends a few seconds shooting at it, and it lamely sinks back into the pocket dimension from whence it came.<br />
<br />
They emerge from the water and waste explosives on a door that doesn't seem to have a lock. Even assuming the door did need to be breached, they enter at too slow a rate, and we also see that the facility makes less and less sense. What possible reason could there be for having the human research section connected directly to a sewer?<br />
<br />
As John Connor and his team skulks along, John notices something and tosses a flare. Ultimately, we find out there are caged jammed full of human prisoners. For whatever reason, the prisoners all pretended to be extras in a zombie movie, instead of begging and pleading for help.<br />
John Connor just stares at the prisoners the whole time. General Olsen makes it into the facility, and John Connor still has done nothing to liberate the prisoners. Inexplicably, nice, shiny computers are in the same room, facing the crowded cells. The facility just keeps making less and less sense. The only thing John Connor does to interact with the prisoners is to nod at one of them, an elderly woman. What was the point in that?<br />
John Connor hears mention of a new Terminator and decides to see what's going on.<br />
We learn that Skynet is developing the T-800, although in the original movies its a relatively new thing in 2029 (first appearing in '27), but that could be explained by the changed future. Based on dialogue from one of the Resistance fighters, we see the first bit of evidence that he had already been telling people about the future. Didn't he learn a thing from his mother about not blabbing about prophecies and the future and possibly being branded a lunatic? Anyway, General Olsen interrupts John Connor and it is General Olsen who makes the decision to release the prisoners. Based on events soon to come, we learn that John Connor's inaction denied the prisoners any hope of escape.<br />
General Olsen orders John Connor to go topside to determine why there's no response from the surface. John Connor can barely be bothered to notice his commands.<br />
Once John reaches the surface, he hears a radio message from General Olsen demanding him to get the other troops to respond. All John Connor says is that something is wrong, and doesn't elaborate. One would expect him to maybe mention the dead bodies and the fact that the topside forces were clearly ambushed. Speaking of an ambush, after the rather successful assault on a facility surrounded by open desert, how the hell did the machines manage to sneak up on the above-ground forces, much less kill them so quickly that nobody had an opportunity to radio for help?<br />
<br />
When Olsen radios again for topside to respond, John Connor just ignores him. John Connor's next radio message isn't to respond to General Olsen, but to chase after a Transporter. What in the world does John Connor expect to do to a Transporter with a helicopter, especially considering that Transporters are known to carry Harvesters and HK's, as we see later in the film? He tries to tell a helicopter pilot to chase the Transporter, but it turns out the pilot has been killed. Conveniently for John, the pilot unbuckled its seatbelt before being killed, so there was no difficulty in commandeering the helicopter, making the pursuit even more absurd. With John Connor acting as pilot, the helicopter is effectively unarmed now. But that doesn't stop John Connor from recklessly charging into action without backup. And of course, John Connor still can't be bothered to warn everyone below about what happened to the topside troops.<br />
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Ok, so the plan is, get to the little helicopter and destroy two HKs, transporters and a harvester...</div>
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<br />
John Connor gets out of the crashed helicopter and sees the aftermath of the explosion that killed his team. As he reflects on his stupidity in allowing them all to die without warning them of a major problem...<br />
He's attacked by half a T-600. Somehow, the T-600 managed to drag itself right up to John Connor without him noticing, stand up to almost John Connor's height--without any legs, and inexplicably throw John Connor aside instead of trying to kill him. During the battle, the T-600 throws him again instead of trying to cause any real damage, forcing John to crawl to the nearest weapon--a helicopter-mouned M-60. As he attempts to do so, the T-600 manages to tear off a boot that should have been tightly laced to John Connor's foot. John Connor gets to the M-60 and opens fire, causing the T-600's head to act like a bobble-head doll right before finally being destroyed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Right after killing the T-600, John falls onto his back and rests for a moment. For whatever reason, it hasn't occurred to him that there might be other threats in the area. How does he know this is the only machine he should worry about?<br />
Finally, John Connor gets up to respond to the radio, and makes it a point to complete the radio conversation in three words</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
-HERE!!!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
-CONNOR!!!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
-ONE!!!<br />
<br />
Despite being in almost the same exact spot as the Resistance fighters who died in the attack, Marcus emerges from the pit hours later with not so much as a scratch, although he does look like he fell into an outhouse. In what is probably the one regrettable scene for Sam Worthington in this movie, he acts almost as if he's about to transform into the Incredible Hulk.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
En route to Resistance Command<br />
-----<br />
McG made pretty much every mistake that could be made during the trip to the command submarine. Weather conditions are terrible, with very low visibility caused by heavy rain and large waves on the ocean surface. Despite this, the pilot is flying just above sea level. He seems to be trying very hard to crash the plane. Also, what the hell is he doing flying over the ocean in the first place? The Skynet R&D facility was land-based, and John Connor's base is land-based, both in California, so there's absolutely no reason to be flying over water. Maybe John Connor already told him where to go, right? Nope. That's established in the next scene.<br />
The pilot asks John Connor if they're to return to base. He's asking that just now? They've been flying for possibly hundreds of miles and the pilot is just now asking what the destination is? Why didn't John Connor say something a long time ago? On top of that, when John Connor finally does tell him to go to Command, the pilot simply accepts and reroutes. Why does the pilot have such critical information? Resistance Command isn't likely to announce its location except on a need-to-know basis. It's not as if a submarine can be visited on a whim, anyway. Even worse, the pilot doesn't immediately call Resistance Command to ask permission for a rendezvous. It's not likely that Resistance Command is going to welcome unannounced visitors. Also, it's real smart of the pilot to turn his head away from the windshield to look at John Connor when talking to him while flying in such hazardous conditions. On the checklist for reckless flying, this pilot hasn't missed a single step. Granted, he has a co-pilot, but if the co-pilot is expecting the pilot to be in control, it could already be too late by the time something bad happens at such a low altitude.<br />
<br />
The pilot finally requests permission to drop John Connor off, which has been denied. Stupidly, the pilot waits until he's right above the submarine before asking permission. The pilot says that Command doesn't want to give up its position. Too bad a radar-trackable aircraft decided to fly way out in the middle of the ocean and hover in one spot for no apparent reason. This is exactly why Command wouldn't want to give out its location to every random yahoo with a red armband. Lucky for the Resistance, Skynet isn't using any form of tracking at the moment.<br />
John Connor asks if the submarine is down there. The pilot refuses to provide a definitive answer to that question, so John Connor stupidly assumes that it is down there. He orders the pilot to open the ramp and to tell Command to prepare to receive John Connor. John Connor makes absolutely no effort whatsoever to improve his odds of survival. He jumps while wearing full combat gear, including his rifle! And then he falls around 100 feet before hitting the water. Weighted down with gear, John Connor would have a hell of a time staying afloat in calm waters--let alone on rough seas that look to have 50-foot waves. And all that's assuming he didn't get severely injured the moment he hit the water at high speed while wearing heavy, loosely-attached gear. By rights John Connor should have been dead several times over due to that stunt.<br />
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Frogman</div>
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Resistance Command Headquarters<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Magically, the divers managed to get John into the submarine without him drowning in the process. It's lucky for him that a merciless commander like Ashdown decided to be a good Samaritan on a night when it's raining cats and dogs--and retarded Resistance fighters. As Ashdown addresses John Connor, he sarcastically refers to him as "prophesied leader of the Resistance". Why is John Connor this stupid? Ranting and raving about the future didn't help his mother any, so why is he making the same mistake when he's seen the consequences of doing so?<br />
John Connor uses the deaths of his men as justification for getting more information out of Ashdown, conveniently forgetting that he was the one who blew the opportunity to warn his men of impending doom.<br />
Losenko starts talking about the information they uncovered, and we learn that there's a hidden signal that can be used to directly control the machines. The signal can conceivably be exploited to shut the machines down. John Connor demands to be given the chance to test the shutdown signal. At Losenko's recommendation, Ashdown allows John Connor the opportunity...<br />
...and gives the order to have John Connor prepared for lockout. Did they forget about the incredibly bad storm conditions outside? There's no way he's getting back in the Osprey, and with waves that nasty, a ship is not going to be able to rendezvous with the submarine either. About the only way John Connor is getting off that sub tonight is if they sail to shore and rendezvous with a waiting aircraft. Command sure is being accommodating of the loose cannon they have on their hands.<br />
<br />
Ashdown announces the attack will commence in four days. Once he leaves the room, Losenko gives John Connor the relevant information and they have a brief conversation. For no apparent reason, John Connor asks why the attack will be in four days. Then again, everything he does seems to be done spur-of-the-moment, so scheduling an attack must be a foreign concept to him. <br />
We learn that a kill list was intercepted from Skynet, and that everyone that was in that command room will be dead by the end of the week and that John Connor is #2 on the list. What possible reason could Skynet possibly have for transmitting a kill list? Isn't it enough that Skynet knows? The machines don't need a ranked kill list with estimated dates of execution. Isn't it a given that high-ranking targets would be an ongoing priority for Skynet? Considering that Skynet doesn't need to distribute such a list, Resistance Command should have been instantly suspicious.<br />
John Connor asks who is #1 on the list, and we learn that it is Kyle Reese. This is pure stupidity on the part of the writers. If Skynet knows about Kyle, any subsequent time travel is doomed to suffer from serious logic problems, because now Skynet has another critical person in the past that it can target.<br />
Amazingly, John Connor gets back that same night, and we see that his base is a heavily illuminated facility with large numbers of aircraft out in the open. What ever happened to humanity being on the brink? How can they afford to have a large, easy-to-spot base? And why is there a smoke flare burning on the runway for no apparent reason? Is that the only means they have for designating parking spots?<br />
<br />
John Connor stumbles into the base, and hours after the fact decides to start being shell-shocked over the day's events. In his head he hears the ghostly voice of a leader who was actually capable of giving orders and delegating tasks. <br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
The intent behind having John Connor listening to the tapes was a nice touch but it sounds like Linda Hamilton phoned-in her performance. The tone of her voice is off, and unfortunately, the message is an obvious retcon of the message recorded in the first movie. The scene is necessary for expository purposes, but it feels forced. This is another reason why I think having having Skynet know about Kyle was a mistake. It forces the movie to explain why he's important to people who haven't met him yet. If Kyle had been just another soldier of no special significance to Skynet, his story could have been left out. For people familiar with the previous movies, no explanation is necessary, and for those who are not familiar with the previous movies, sending back Kyle at the end could be something of a plot twist. In addition to all that, if the writers would have done just a little research they would find out from deleted scene and script of T2 that T-1000 found John's tapes and belongings while searching his room and took them with him for detective work, thanks to which he eventually tracked down Salceda ranch.<br />
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Listening to the tapes..</div>
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...that the T-1000 confiscated from his house and took with him</div>
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I'm also not impressed with any of the conversation between John and Kate regarding Kyle Reese. As with the cassette recording, it's forced exposition, and his dialogue at the end makes it sound as if he just figured something out that should have been patently obvious.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Marcus in the ruins of Los Angeles<br />
-----<br />
Marcus walks south into Los Angeles, and sees a shadowy figure in the distance. He shouts to the figure, which we soon learn is a T-600.<br />
This T-600 is by far the worst shot I've ever seen in a movie. Shots are randomly spraying everywhere, which is essentially impossible for a minigun, and the T-600 is hitting so much dirt that it is obscuring its view of the target. I also can't believe that Marcus just stood there. It was almost four seconds before Kyle tackled him, and Marcus didn't even try to move. After spraying hundreds of rounds to little effect, Kyle ensnares the T-600. Fortunately for Marcus, he happened to stand in exactly the right spot so that Kyle could rescue him and have ready access to the trigger for the snare.<br />
As they run into the factory, we see more of the T-600's terrible shooting. It's hard to feel that the characters are in real danger when it seems as if the bullets aren't really intended for them.<br />
<br />
The T-600 gets to the collapsed entrance and... shoots at it with a grenade launcher?! The T-600 had a grenade launcher and it never used it on Marcus or Kyle?! That would have been very useful when they were hiding behind the forklift or when they were running for the building entrance. Anyway, Kyle has Star cut the rope holding up the railcar bogie, which crushes the T-600. I'm not too thrilled about the boobytraps, and I have to wonder where they found a railcar bogie, let alone figure out how to hoist it to where they had it.<br />
<br />
For someone who probably suspected that Marcus had robbed or killed a Resistance fighter, Kyle seems awfully indulgent of Marcus' odd questions and is being a little too helpful. Kyle doesn't even ask Marcus how come he doesn't know what year it is or what Skynet is. Odd..<br />
<br />
The HK comes in much lower than it should have. It should have come in higher, forcing the characters to take cover inside the building and then zip through nearby ruined structures to lose the HK. It's a missed opportunity for some additional action.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Resistance base, testing the signal<br />
-----<br />
After Marcus, Kyle, and Star avoid being detected by a Hunter Killer, we cut to John's base, where we see a Hydrobot for the first time. Hydrobots. It doesn't make sense for Skynet to waste its time with aquatic machines, considering that humans are generally land-based. Also, this Hydrobot is fighting way too hard. Sure, it's a machine designed to kill humans, but it's acting more like a wild animal fighting for its life. It also bothers me that humans can restrain it in the first place, considering what we see them do later. Furthermore, why hasn't the Hydrobot already been restrained? With the way that thing bucks, I can't imagine them capturing it, destroying its transmitter, and hauling it all the way back to base with it bucking like a bronco. If anything, I would have expected them to disable a few of them and use the remains to build one functional Hydrobot that can be restrained before they power it back on. The hydrobots are an homage of sort to Silverfish machines from T2 which were designed but ultimately didn't make the film for budgetary reasons. However, the Silverfish were small machines whose purpose was to enter smaller cracks or holes that other machines couldn't, where people would hide and explode.<br />
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Hydrobots! They growl and bite!...Jesus...</div>
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Cameron's Silverfish: crawl into any space and explode ensuring multiple casualties</div>
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<br />
Also, there's something inherently annoying about "turning up" the signal. There's generally not a whole lot of incentive for deliberately broadcasting at low power, and there definitely is no incentive for broadcasting at such a low power that a unit less than 10 feet away does not receive the signal. In fact, when we see the tech turn up the power, she actually turns a frequency tuning knob...<br />
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This looks extremely smart...</div>
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<br />
Another thing is how neat and clean everyone is. Everyone has new and shiny laptops, expensive glasses and clean clothes, as oppose to ragged and worn out survivors and fighters from the original movies. In T2, even in the main base everyone wore dirty clothes and worked in crumbled facility.It seems the problems of living in a post-apocalyptic world isn't much of a problem for the humans in general course of things. In Cameron's movies the future is played for all its worth as a terrible third world place almost, the kids hunting the rat, the oppressive doomy atmosphere, the wreckage all over the place, and yet the future is depicted as brightly lit with almost designer like casual clothes for the characters in T:S with none of the oppression that was portrayed in the first two movies. Another thing is that when Connor surfaced, things supposedly turned better. Well, look at the clean and sterile world of T:S and then on the nightmarish 2029. T:S makes it look like its the other way around<br />
It's hard to believe that McG forgot to fill the movie with Terminators, and it's also pretty bad that the Resistance was more aggressive than the machines.<br />
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That must be a hellish future</div>
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Good that John turned things around...<br />
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Some amusing technical errors: Not only does the USB drive disappear after the tech plugs it in, but the port it plugs into disappears as well. Also, when the tech turns the power up, the camera moves over to look at an oscilloscope, which disappears from all later shots.<br />
It is very irresponsible and dumb of the tech to turn the signal off without at least warning everyone to get ready. And I think John Connor should be a little bit more careful when hanging around the business end of a Hydrobot.<br />
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Kyle's hideout<br />
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We immediately hear Kyle say that going out at night is riskier than travel by day, which directly contradicts what Kyle said in the first film. If there's a reason for the difference, it should have been explained. The infrared capability doesn't cut it, because Kyle even acknowledged that risk in the original film when stating that people can move around at night.<br />
Also, Kyle's hideout seems awfully exposed to both the elements and potential detection by aerial units.<br />
There are some missed opportunities for exposition about Kyle's family, but then again with Ferris & Brancato maybe this is a blessing in disguise. I don't care for the idea of Los Angeles being almost completely abandoned. I'm ok with all the humans being gone, but it should be due to a large machine presence. The idea of just Kyle and Star "resisting" the machines is pretty laughable.<br />
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Griffith Observatory<br />
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Marcus attempts to get a Jeep running. If there are any cars that would definitely have been destroyed in a nuclear attack, the cars at Griffith Observatory are the ones. It's not that Griffith Observatory would be a nuclear target, but rather that nuclear warheads are used as airburst weapons in order to maximize damage. Considering the bombardment Los Angeles would receive in a nuclear attack, there's no way those cars would be protected from the blast effects. Amazingly, these cars even have hefty charges in their batteries, despite sitting around for a decade. I'd rather have seen Marcus have to get a manual transmission vehicle working, then have to do a rolling start to get it running.<br />
We're beginning to see Star's role as the Swiss Army Girl, pulling out useful items the moment they're needed.<br />
As Kyle motions to Star, we see that she freezes up. Immediately afterward, an Aerostat is spotted. Great, she's a Terminator detector, and she doesn't even have to see them to detect them.<br />
Kyle continues his trend of identifying every machine type they encounter, but the real problem is that when everyone piles into the Jeep, it is Kyle who drives. Very bad idea, since as he will soon point out, he doesn't know how to drive. He does a lot better than I think he should have considering his inexperience, the extremely rough terrain, and fact that they're in a pursuit.<br />
We also learn that the Aerostat heard the music. It's hard to believe that these things don't seem to notice movement or other sounds too well, but they sure detect music just fine. With the characters exposed on a top of a hill, they should have been easy to spot by airborne units without having to rely on loud music. The Aerostats are another type of machines that are riffs of other machines that weren't that widely known in Cameron's universe, in this instance, they're based on Mini Hunters from T2 3D. But here again is the difference between the two - one is practical, the other one is not. Aersotat isn't much good if he can only hear silent music, and all it can do is follow it's target, while Minihunters were actually also equipped with plasma cannons.<br />
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Aerostat - it growls and looks at you!</div>
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Cameron's Mini-Hunter: Follows you wherever you go and blasts you open with plasma cannons</div>
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The idea is to make machines logical and functional. Sure, the main characters cant be killed, but then write the sequence in such way that it wont allow them to get killed, as oppose to making the machines illogical useless mess </div>
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The Aerostat catches up to the Jeep, identifies Kyle, and uploads the information to Skynet. Kyle has Marcus take the wheel and starts kicking at the Aerostat. For someone who's never driven before, he sure has no problem stunt driving. As the Aerostat departs, Marcus looks for something to throw at it. Star pulls her Swiss Army Girl act again and produces a tire iron.<br />
Marcus throws the tire iron with enough force and accuracy to disable the Aerostat. Since he's part-Terminator, this superhuman feat can be forgiven.<br />
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Resistance base<br />
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The increased machine activity is noticed, which is odd since we've only seen one HK and Aerostats would have a tiny radar signature in the rare occasions they fly high enough to be picked up by radar. <br />
We learn that two A-10's are in the air, apparently on patrol. This seems like a waste of resources, not to mention a bad idea when we see how easily a small number of HK's can down two A-10's.<br />
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Increased machine activity! Harvester and two HKs LOL</div>
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7-11<br />
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The characters stop at a ruined 7-11 in search of fuel.<br />
The characters completely ignore some telltale signs of life, such as the penned goats we see during the Harvester attack. Just as Kyle notices a bottle of milk and realizes that people are present, they all jump out and hold Kyle, Star, and Marcus at gunpoint. I'm not too impressed with the costumes, particularly the slinky dress that one woman is wearing. One guy seems to have no trouble shaving part of his head and braiding the hair that remains....<br />
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They arrived from a rap music video to the future...</div>
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During the confrontation, Kyle doesn't help the situation by repeating what Marcus said to him before: "You point that gun at somebody, you'd better be ready to pull the trigger." Great thing to say when you are outmanned and outgunned.<br />
An elderly woman comes out and insists that Marcus and Kyle can't leave until Star has had something to eat. The man who was acting as leader prior to the woman's entrance gets very angry with the woman for giving away some of their resources.<br />
Before the conflict can get any more interesting, Star's Terminator detector goes off... Five seconds afterward a Harvester is reaching into the building. How the hell does a six-story-tall robot riding on a massive VTOL aircraft with four jet engines manage to sneak up on a gas station?<br />
<br />
The Harvester is a marvel of inefficiency. It's method of capture is almost guaranteed to maim or kill just about anyone it grabs, and it's awfully convenient that it knew exactly where to punch through the roof to grab people. The secondary "T-Rex" arms look to be nearly useless, and even if they do work, that only allows the Harvester to capture up to four people before having to deposit them in a Transporter, giving everyone else ample opportunity to run and hide. Furthermore, by making the Harvester a single, large unit, people can more easily avoid capture by splitting up. A Harvester can only go in one direction at a time, so scattering will reduce its effectiveness significantly. Strangely, with that huge cannon, the Harvester seems much better at killing humans than capturing them. A squad of T-600's would have been a much stealthier and cost-effective means of capturing humans, as they can surround a facility and group together or split up as necessary to deal with an evolving situation.<br />
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Transformers attack!</div>
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Kyle wisely points out that they can' just run from the Harvester and expect to live. Marcus agrees and tries to come up with a plan. He rams a trailer full of fuel into the Harvester, knocking it over. Amazingly, despite falling onto the trailer, the Harvester does very little damage to it. Kyle tries to ignite the fuel by shooting the trailer with his shotgun, gratuitously yelling "Go, go, go!" even though that's what Marcus was already doing. Shooting the trailer fails to ignite the fuel, causing Marcus to hit the brakes and try to figure out what to do next.<br />
Star to the rescue! Swiss Army Girl has produced a flare and is patiently waiting for Marcus to notice.<br />
Marcus uses the flare to light the gasoline, engulfing the Harvester in an improbably large fireball. Kyle cheers at their success, and they race down the highway, only to see a plasma shot streak past them.<br />
The Harvester decides to shoot at them while engulfed in flame, ensuring a rather severe miss. When it steps out of the fire, instead of shooting at the truck again, it puts its cannon away! No sense in killing the protagonists, of course. Even worse, it sends two Mototerminators out, which Kyle dutifully refers to by their name. Another impractical unit by Skynet that as we will soon see are indeed susceptible to being knocked over. They also are not remotely suited for off-road use, so Marcus considerately stays on paved roads as much as possible.<br />
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As Marcus drives, the Mototerminators quickly catch up and...<br />
...don't shoot?! In fact, they spend most of the chase not shooting.<br />
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Kyle disables one Mototerminator by knocking an oil can off the truck and shooting it, causing an oil slick that destabilizes the Mototerminator, causing it to lose control and slam into the side of a ruined bus. One down, one to go...<br />
Just as Kyle is wondering where the other Mototerminator is, it comes flying off an overpass and lands in front of them. There's no room for it to accelerate up there and it would have taken more effort to get up there than to just follow the tow truck. Even better, despite the Mototerminator coming from behind, the concrete manages to get ahead of the tow truck, but then slow down quickly enough that the tow truck can hit the rubble and shatter the windshield. We even see the rubble approach from the wrong direction.<br />
Now that the Mototerminator is in front of them, it fires for the first time, and shoots at the most heavily armored part of the truck, which of course does no damage. Meanwhile, a third Mototerminator mysteriously arrives and shoots from the rear<br />
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Having narrowly escaped death, Kyle uses a conveniently-located grenade launcher to get off a conveniently accurate shot at the Mototerminator in front of them. The mysterious third Mototerminator shoots at the tow truck accounting for the third and final plasma shot fired by Mototerminators during the chase. That's it. Three. Why are Mototerminators even armed if they're not going to bother using their weapons most of the time?<br />
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While dramatic, having the HK overtake them and turn around was pointless. The HK could have easily shot the bridge without having to pass over them and turn around. But of course, if it had done something sensible like that, then the Mototerminator being dragged couldn't have been launched up an overturned car acting as a convenient ramp, only to wrap itself around one engine of the HK, which allows the HK to pull the truck enough that Kyle and Star fall out into the waiting arms of a Harvester on a Transporter Insultingly bad movie physics and contrived situations at their finest, folks.<br />
The HK waits entirely too long before shooting the tow truck, giving Marcus ample time to jump. He does so and manages to land on the Transporter, which has decided to descend into the canyon instead of increasing altitude and accelerating to cruising speed.<br />
Marcus attempts to free Kyle and Star, even though there's nowhere they could go even if they got out. The Harvester grabs Marcus and pins him down. Two A-10's arrive on scene and destroy the HK escort, then shoot at the Harvester, causing it to lose its grip on Marcus. The Transporter detaches an HK that was stowed on the underside, and the HK pursues the A-10's.<br />
In a brief shot of Connor's base, he announces that the machines have never come that deep before. That's odd, because Kyle seems awfully familiar with many Terminator models. How is it that the machine presence in Los Angeles doesn't seem to be worth noting, but movement farther north is suddenly the deepest the machines have come?<br />
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The A-10's are aware of the HK, but instead of splitting up to maximize the chance of getting a shot at the HK, they stay together, allowing the HK an easy shot with no fear of return fire. One A-10 is destroyed, and John Connor utters the cringe-worthy, "Evasive maneuvers, now!" Duh! You think? And then Blair's idea of evasive maneuvers consists of emulating the Trench Run from Star Wars. Staying in a narrow canyon with nowhere to go is not a great way to avoid getting shot. John Connor offers more armchair piloting, and finally Blair is forced to eject, but not before having turned around and headed back for Marcus so that the wreckage of her A-10 can almost hit him. It's amazing just how much real-time tracking John's base is capable of, considering that most of the dogfight was in a canyon and thus out of radar range. And finally, while I'm not a big stickler for accuracy when depicting locations in a movie, where the hell would one find a deep canyon in southern California, much less one with a long bridge over it? If they wanted something like that so bad, they should have chosen a different setting for the movie.<br />
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Having dealt with both A-10's, the Transporter and its remaining escort make way for Skynet Central. Meanwhile, back at the base, John resolves to test the signal out in the field.<br />
Minor quibble, actually. Kate announces that the Transporter is heading northwest, bearing 289 toward San Francisco. For that to be the case, the fight would have to have taken place hundreds of miles north of Los Angeles--somewhat north of Fresno, actually. Not a big detail, but it's an inconsistency nonetheless.<br />
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Marcus meets Blair<br />
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After washing ashore, Marcus stumbles across Blair, who is hanging from an electrical tower by her parachute. Blair wastes a surprising amount of time hanging horizontally before Marcus walks up. As Marcus approaches, Blair hits one of the parachute releases and she falls to a vertical position. Rather than attempt to toggle the other release, she asks Marcus to grab her knife, which she says is in her left boot. <br />
I'm not sure why she couldn't be bothered to swing over to the tower for some better footing, but I guess it makes more sense to fall 12 feet while holding a knife over one's own head. Good thing she took that helmet off.Marcus and Blair talk, and it is revealed that Marcus wants to follow the Transporter, which Blair points out is a bad idea.<br />
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Blair also demonstrates a lack of observation skills, as she fails to notice the Resistance armband that Kyle got so worked up over. She's so prepared to accept Marcus as a stranger that it doesn't occur to her to wonder why Marcus seems so clueless for a Resistance fighter. Wearing a Resistance armband, one might already expect him to be familiar with the base and the activities of the machines.<br />
Also, Blair looks like a supermodel, with sleek and shiny hair and pearl white teeth. What a hellish future that must be<br />
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Really good John turned things around. Who needs supermodels with pearl teeth</div>
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When you can have anorexic, dirty and haggard fighters</div>
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Racetrack ruins<br />
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Marcus and Blair arrive at an abandoned racetrack, and because it's a post-apocalyptic movie, there are multiple fires burning for no reason whatsoever. I suppose it's meant to establish that post-apocalyptic atmosphere, but come on! It's raining like crazy, and nothing is on fire except dirt! Just show us wet ruins! We don't need to believe that crazed pyromaniacs run around setting dirt on fire.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Blair spots some shelter, and both she and Marcus take cover. Blair asks Marcus to find something that can burn. Might I suggest flaming freaking dirt? After questioning Blair about her injury, Marcus ignores the flaming dirt to find a more realistic combustible material. Naturally, he looks inside a race car?! Too bad Star isn't here to hand him a Presto Log or some firewood. <br />
Here we briefly return to director's cut territory, for the infamous topless scene, a fine study in how to compose a thoroughly awkward scene. Anyway, Blair steps back outside to take advantage of the natural shower going on, and decides that the only way to clean her wound is to get naked from the waist up. $50 says that in the script, this scene is written in McG's handwriting. Anyway, the moment Blair brings her hands to her breasts, it occurs to her that she's supposed to be self-conscious or something. She looks around to find Marcus, who is STILL rooting around in the race car for firewood! Did this guy land on his head when he fell off the Transporter? Anyway, Blair pulls this kinda sorta self-conscious stunt for 25 seconds straight. She waits until Marcus notices, then slowly turns to face directly at him, cupping her breasts with her hands the whole time. It takes several seconds for Marcus to notice what's going on. As she first turns, he wonders what the hell she's doing.<br />
When Marcus fails to take the bait, Blair turns back around, and Marcus decides to get as far away from her as possible for as long as possible.<br />
Later, it has stopped raining, and Marcus is still MIA. He's been gone long enough that a few rats decide it's safe to come out of the woodwork. They confront Blair and are clearly looking for a good time at her expense. Blair attempts to resist, but three of them are too much for her to handle. Unfortunately for them, they forgot that noise is, well, noisy. All of a sudden, Marcus ruins his firewood by smashing it into one thug's back.<br />
<br />
The bad guy Marcus attacks is unfazed, despite being hit with a board hard enough to splinter it. The guy then tries to stab Marcus with the HANDLE of a screwdriver! The whole time, screwdriver guy holds it so that Marcus can easily grab it and run it straight into his shoulder.<br />
The shotgun guy gets involved and Marcus is alternating between two thugs, but oddly the shotgun guy does not try to use his shotgun yet. Also, both of this guy's testicles must have popped, because he sure took his sweet time getting involved.<br />
Screwdriver guy pulls the screwdriver out of his shoulder and this time thinks to hold the correct end. Stupidly, he uses the arm that was stabbed in the shoulder to hold it<br />
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Now there's no danger of a friendly fire incident, so rather than chamber another shell and take advantage of a clear shot, the guy decides to enter melee combat, because obviously that's Marcus' weakness.<br />
Instead of getting involved sooner, the leader guy waits until both his buddies are down before jumping back into the fight with a pole.<br />
<br />
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Later that evening<br />
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Magically, the rain is all gone, and Marcus must have found a glove compartment loaded with wood somewhere, because now there's dry dirt and a roaring fire. After dealing with cold, wet rain, the characters naturally decide to sit at least 15 feet away from the fire. Blair's announces that she's a little cold. Of course you are! You're sitting fifteen feet away from the fire! When trying to warm up, it helps to be in the same time zone as the heat source. That was of course another try to get some action from Marcus. Damn, that supermodel chick sure is horny for strangers. Didn't Kyle hint there wasn't even time for getting naughty, at least among fighters? He didn't even think of women as anything else than soldiers at first<br />
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Valley of Death, not to be confused with Death Valley<br />
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As the scene starts, the day-for-night shooting is looking way too obvious, and gets worse as the scene progresses. <br />
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Night? Lol</div>
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Blatant exposition alert! Despite the fact that they've been there probably for a good 20 minutes at least, Barnes waits until the camera starts rolling to announce, "This is it. Skynet's valley of death. We've never been this deep before." Is this information John Connor--who is leading this expedition--doesn't already know? But John Connor is not about to be outdone. "We gotta be sure the signal works in their territory, on the bigger machines." Well, duh! Isn't this exactly why the two of you planned this stupid hike? A title card announcing all this would have been less insulting than watching these guys play tag-team narrating.<br />
John Connor blows up a pile of cars that's stacked in the middle of nowhere for no particular reason. Or maybe they brought the pile of cars with them. Either way, when John Connor detonates the car pile, neither Connor nor Barnes bothers to prep a weapon, even though they specifically intend to get the attention of the machines. John Connor in particular just leaves the rocket launcher laying right on the ground.<br />
HK's must be really dense if they'll investigate a pile of junked cars that explode out in the middle of nowhere, but don't bother to look around to figure out what made them blow up. It's only when Barnes activates the radio that the HK notices them.<br />
The whole point in the shutdown signal is to shutdown the machines. So if the machine can hear it well enough to get a fix on it, it should be hearing it well enough to shutdown. But of course, that's not how movies work. We soon learn that Barnes isn't broadcasting at max power, since John Connor tells Barnes to turn it up. Why is this necessary? Don't they want these things to be effective? Quietly broadcasting the signal isn't going to do much good. Crank the signal in the first place, and skip the contrived drama!<br />
More stupidity from both the HK and from the humans. Skynet blows another chance to identify and kill John Connor. It could have killed John Connor, then let Barnes "disable" it with the shutdown signal, allowing it to kill John Connor and to continue it's plan to destroy the Resistance leadership. But we'll pretend Skynet had no way of identifying John Connor. That's where the stupidity of John and Barnes come in. They're sitting in plain sight, make no attempt to move as the unit gets close, and don't grab their weapons. Didn't it occur to them at all that something could go wrong. As far as they know the signal worked, but the HK still came close to killing them when it lost power and crashed.<br />
Barnes' next line must be the reason Common had very few lines. The line is delivered as poorly as it was written.<br />
As John Connor and Barnes evacuate, Barnes uselessly announces that Ashdown is on the radio, as if John Connor couldn't just listen for him on his own radio. John Connor tells Ashdown that the signal works, and Ashdown announces that the attack commences tomorrow. When John Connor asks about the extraction plan for the prisoners, Ashdown replies that there is no extraction plan. John Connor tries to argue, but Ashdown terminates the conversation.<br />
Somehow John Connor magically knows that Ashdown has terminated the conversation and attempts to reestablish contact three times in such rapid succession that Ashdown wouldn't have been able to get a word in edgewise even if he had still been holding the mike. What John Connor should have done is continue to argue on behalf of the prisoners, only to realize once there's no response that Ashdown is no longer on the line. That would have made John Connor seem much less impotent than his rapid attempts to get permission to talk made him out to be.<br />
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Prisoners arrive at Skynet Central<br />
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The Transporter carrying Kyle and Star arrives at Skynet Central. People are apparently so eager to march to their doom that they're literally tripping over each other to get out of the Transporter.<br />
As everyone exits the Transporter, we see a rubber-skinned T-600 on a catwalk. Why is the rubber skin reserved for a prison sentry that doesn't need it. The T-600 patrolling the ruins would have had more use for camouflage than a guard at Skynet Central.<br />
Anyway, the prisoners are being forced down the line by a moving, spiked barrier, and one of the more annoying survivors panics and attempts to escape. He tries to climb out of the pen, only to be mowed down by a T-600, with its incredible 3% accuracy rate. At least there's a bit of consistency, as it seems every single T-600 produces wide, random spreads when firing.<br />
The set is ridiculous. Why the spontaneous flamethrowers and the theatrical red light?<br />
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The Minefield<br />
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As Blair and Marcus approach the Resistance base, they approach the minefield. <br />
Again, Blair doesn't find it the slightest bit odd that a Resistance fighter is completely unfamiliar with Resistance markings or the presence of the minefield.<br />
After Blair reassures Marcus, they walk through the minefield. Marcus gets a little too close to a mine, and BOOM!!! I also have to wonder what point there is to these mines if they can't actually damage a machine. Only Marcus' flesh was damaged. Skynet makes its front-line battle machines out of materials that small-caliber rifle rounds can penetrate, but its low-key infiltrator is built to be virtually invincible? Does Skynet do everything backward? Perhaps the mines are meant to be noisemakers.<br />
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<br />
After the mine sends Marcus airborne without causing any visible damage, we have an amazingly fast cut to him being carried through the base in rather sorry shape. He's placed on a stretcher, and Kate prepares to administer medical treatment.<br />
When Kate's shock turns to hatred, she all too calmly summons Barnes to deal with the problem. What ever happened to screaming, "Terminator!" and madly dashing for cover and weaponry? Even worse, Barnes whacks Marcus in the face with the butt of his gun. What the hell is that supposed to do to a Terminator?! Do they really expect to be able to knock one silly? This is about the stupidest reaction to dealing with a Terminator I can think of. And the stupidity doesn't end there. Whacking Marcus in the face actually succeeds in knocking him cold, despite the incredible events he handles before and after this scene without losing consciousness, like falling hundreds of feet, getting caught by explosions, and getting whacked into an I-beam with enough force to cause it to buckle.<br />
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Missile Silo, interrogating Marcus<br />
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When Marcus regains consciousness, John and Kate are standing before Marcus, discussing Marcus. Kate rattles of some gratuitous tech specs, and then John Connor starts asking questions.<br />
"Who built you?" What?! Did John Connor really ask this? Not only is there the inherent stupidity of asking a question that will not receive an honest answer, but does he honestly expect Marcus to be the product of anything other than Skynet?<br />
"You think you're human?" Where is this line of questioning going? The answer is irrelevant either way. If John Connor is going to interrogate the thing to figure out their infiltration techniques or something, he should get straight to the point, instead of asking questions that reveal that he already knows Marcus is a machine.<br />
Marcus is awfully indulgent of these stupid questions, but I'll forgive him, since he was just subjected to an explosion and some questionable plot elements.<br />
When John Connor moves forward to free Marcus' head, he looks way too entranced. He should be acting a lot more cautious, and certainly a lot more lucid.<br />
What a stupid way to restrain a Terminator! It seems that John Connor has forgotten just how strong Terminators can be. He's not the slightest bit concerned that the Terminator might be able to pull its hands right out of those chains. You'd think they'd want to chain/strap him down more securely like they did with the Hydrobot. I don't even want to think about how long it would have taken to restrain Marcus like that. If they wanted to chain up Marcus, they should have wrapped chains all the way around him and his arms. That would have been better than all the effort needed to drag him to an old axle, chain him to it, and then hoist him out over the pit.<br />
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LOL. Road Warrior all the way</div>
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"Where were you manufactured?" This question isn't quite as stupid, but again, does he really expect an honest answer? He's interrogating a Terminator, not a person! (As far as he knows, anyway.) I guess he's way too used to Terminators that are more than willing to provide answers to every question thrown their way.<br />
Marcus realizes that he recognizes John Connor's voice, and the conversation starts to make sense for a moment. Finally, John Connor asks a useful question.<br />
John Connor gets in a Terminator's face, and starts saying some stupid things. He explicitly states the full names of both of his parents to a Terminator! How stupid is that? Aren't these the kinds of details he might want to keep secret? Is John Connor *trying* to lose the war?<br />
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Don't tell him! Don't tell him! Ah sh*t</div>
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And then Marcus gets really stupid. Does he really think the young kid he met is somehow John Connor's father? His reaction just gives John Connor the perfect reason to believe that Marcus is indeed a Terminator.<br />
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Resistance Base<br />
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Blair is awfully stupid. Marcus is obviously a machine, and there's really only one source for something like Marcus. A real Terminator might very well have done the things Marcus did, for the reasons claimed by John and Kate. With that Resistance coat, a person could logically assume that he killed a Resistance fighter to get it. If they really wanted Blair's actions to make sense, they really needed to show Marcus doing things a Terminator would never have done. The only reason Blair's actions are even remotely acceptable to the audience is because it was already established at the beginning of the movie that Marcus was human. He mightve been shielding her from gunfire just so she can help him get away. Dialogue throughout the movie even confirms it, so we have no reason to assume that "Marcus" is a machine patterned after a death-row inmate.<br />
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Skynet Central<br />
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Prisoners are lined up for processing, while various machines watch. Again, the gratuitous use of flame jets and spark showers. There's no reason for them to be there, except to make up for the lack of anything bad actually happening to the humans.<br />
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Yeah! Rock of Ages!</div>
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<br />
Kyle looks around, and spots a metal bar that he conceals in his sleeve. Then he's identified by the machines, and brutally yanked out of line like a prize in a crane game machine.<br />
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Missile Silo<br />
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Barnes is guarding a Terminator. Alone. With a pistol. Loaded with hollow-points. About the only way Barnes could have been any less equipped to handle Marcus is if he had been unarmed and sleeping.<br />
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Just...no words</div>
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<br />
Unaccustomed to machines that show some semblance of personality, Barnes takes the loss of his brother out on Marcus. I could have done without the "NOOOOOoooooo.......!!!!" that Marcus cries out in response.<br />
Blair enters the room, and we discover that the door is unlocked! I guess they didn't want anything to get in the Terminator's way if it escaped and decided to go on a rampage.<br />
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<br />
Blair tells Barnes that John Connor wants to see him. In a surprising display of intelligence, Blair borrows Barnes' gun and shoots at Marcus to establish her negative opinion of him. Barnes takes the bait, and leaves to find out what John Connor wants.<br />
Barnes walked off without his pistol! He just lets Blair hold on to his pistol while he leaves the room. Maybe it's a realization of just how useless the pistol would be.<br />
As others mentioned, when Blair releases Marcus, she causes a great deal of noise that nobody notices, despite Barnes having been gone for only a few seconds. And if nobody's going to notice gunfire or hundreds of pounds of metal slamming into the base of the silo, what was Barnes going to do to get help? He sure wasn't going to call John Connor on his radio.<br />
Not only did Blair make a careless amount of noise, but she seems to have no concern about what kind of pain Marcus might be experiencing. She knows significant parts of Marcus are human, and that he seems to be really good at appearing to be in pain. For someone who is trying to rescue Marcus, she seems all too willing to torture him and risk causing harm to him. Not only that, but dropping him to the bottom of the silo only complicates efforts to escape.<br />
Blair gets to the bottom of the silo and prepares to torch through Marcus' restraints.<br />
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John Connor's Quarters<br />
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John Connor is listening to tapes of his mother, looking for passages that might explain a machine like Marcus. After listening to the tapes from his mother, he concludes that there's nothing about machines with organs. He acts as if this is a major problem, even though realistically the T-800's would have needed organs in order to keep the tissue alive.<br />
We see that John Connor really believes Marcus about Kyle's whereabouts. Why would John Connor believe anything a machine has to say, especially if he has reason to believe that a machine would do anything possible to get him killed? Marcus could just as easily have been lying, and in fact, Kyle did not actually need to be present at Skynet Central in order to lure John Connor to Skynet Central.<br />
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Missile Silo<br />
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Blair and Marcus react to the sudden activation of the alarm. To get out of the missile silo, Blair places her blowtorch in the center of one of the gratings of the blast pit, then shoots the blowtorch to blow up the vent grating. Turning on the gas valve for the blowtorch was annoying, but is nothing compared to the following points. Those gratings were designed to withstand the intense thrust from ICBM's. There's no way the gas content of that tiny blowtorch is going to dislodge the vent. Second, if there's any destructive potential there, she's awfully close to the blast. And having had the opportunity in the past to shoot propane canisters with tracer ammunition, I can conclusively state that shooting a container full of pressurized flammable gas does not result in an impressive explosion. A container that size could produce a nice fireball, but there's very little destructive potential.<br />
Barnes & Co. rush into the silo and naturally assume that descending into a dead end is the only logical place for Marcus and Blair to have gone. Blair has already crawled into the vent, but inexplicably Marcus does not dive in after her. He uses a PERFORATED GRATING to absorb gunfire from above, even though bullets can go through holes, Blair is already to relative safety, and Marcus has already learned that he's impervious to gunfire. And if he jumped into the vent in the first place, he wouldn't need a bullet shield.<br />
<br />
<br />
Hey, look! Barnes magically got his gun back!<br />
Instead of shooting the RPG at Marcus to start with, the Resistance fighter with the RPG hands it to Marcus. Barnes wastes time flipping up the sights, even though the shot he makes wouldn't have required them. He wastes more time answering the other Resistance fighter's question before bothering to shoot, giving Marcus and Blair more time to get to safety.<br />
The RPG round misses of course, and instead of producing a proper explosion, it produces annoying gouts of flame. And what's with ventilation fans in the blast pit of a missile silo? Tons of rocket exhaust can can circulate plenty well on its own, and probably would do a real number to those fans.<br />
Marcus and Blair manage to climb up the vent system to get back to the surface, where they end up back in the minefield.<br />
The Resistance is making a hell of a lot of noise. Flares for illumination, explosives, spotlights, and an incredible cacophony of gunfire ensure that nobody within 100 miles is going to miss the light show.<br />
<br />
At one point, Marcus and Blair stop right in the open and talk for a moment, even though they're in line-of-sight of some Resistance fighters.<br />
The sudden switch from Marcus and Blair running for their lives to Blair acting as a decoy is questionable at best. Where did they find time to establish this ploy? And with all the smoke and dust, how does the Resistance even know there's anyone there?<br />
<br />
After crashing in the aftermath of a jump, Marcus decides to ditch the motorcycle even though it survived the first crash just fine. There better have been something wrong with the motorcycle at that point, because being on foot is not ideal. There's a dramatic moment where Marcus sees that Blair has been captured. Oddly enough, Blair seems to be paying more attention to what's going on than Scott Bakula and his buddy there.<br />
<br />
As Marcus flees, John Connor demonstrates that he's not much better as a door gunner than as a pilot. At least he scores some hits though.<br />
John Connor initiates a massive napalm strike, and misses! How did he miss? He saw Marcus when he fell.<br />
They decide to check the river. Two pilots, one gunner, zero brains. They go into a near-ground level hover right over a river chock-full of Hydrobots! Of course, I'm sure they didn't know there were Hydrobots in the river, even though this is probably exactly where the Resistance acquired the Hydrobot used for testing the shutdown signal earlier. They have to know that hovering just above the water is stupid, but they do it anyway. And what good is a flare going to do for searching a river. Did the gunner really expect to find Marcus in that exact spot? They could spend hours searching like that and come up empty. And then the gunner drops the flare into the water, as if that's going to help at all.<br />
Stupidity is punished here, as 2/3's of the crew get what they deserve. The gunner has his face eaten by a leaping Hydrobot as he falls into the water. Two more Hydrobots attack the helicopter.<br />
<br />
How did the hydrobot that went through the cockpit glass fail to grab John Connor?! And on top of that, if Hydrobots are powerful enough to bore their way right through a metal fuselage and instrument panel, how is it possible for anyone to wrestle them?<br />
Somehow the helicopter loses hydraulic power, even though the Hydrobots never went anywhere near the hydraulic system, which would have been back with the engine, not up front in the instrument panel. We'll just assume that somehow the Hydrobots took out the flight controls or something.<br />
The other pilot pays the price for stupidity, as a Hydrobot drags him under after the crash. John Connor climbs on top of the sinking helicopter where the Hydrobots leave him alone for the most part. They could approach from anywhere, but instead of attacking him from all directions, they keep their distance and wait for him to jump into the water. When John Connor finally does so, the Hydrobots insist on approaching along the surface of the water, giving John Connor the best chance possible to shoot them as they approach.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
He won't see us if we'll stay close to the surface!</div>
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<br />
John Connor tries his best to fend off the Hydrobots, but just as one is about to pounce him he is saved by Marcus?! John Connor just had a whole army attempt to kill Marcus. John Connor treated Marcus like dirt, and was a complete asshole to him. Marcus should have been running for his life. Why did he A: stop to see what was going on with John Connor, and B: try to save him? Considering the reason Marcus was on death row and what he did to the thugs at the racetrack, why would he have any patience for someone with the means and motivation to kill him? I think Marcus was completely justified in leaving John Connor to fend for himself. He should have been far enough away anyway that he wouldn't have been able to witness the fight with the Hydrobots.<br />
<br />
With the Hydrobots neutralized, Marcus and John have the opportunity for some tense conversation. <br />
There are plenty of bad lines of dialogue. Again Marcus seems to think that the Kyle Reese in Skynet is the same one John Connor calls father.<br />
Aside from that, Marcus makes a reasonable offer, claiming he can get John Connor into Skynet Central but John Connor is stupid for not insisting that Marcus gets Kyle out of Skynet Central instead. Having Marcus rescue Kyle involves a lot less personal risk, since that way there's no risk of John Connor walking into a trap. Instead, John Connor decides he can run a one-man rescue operation by relying on a machine he just admitted he doesn't trust. How could he possibly think that letting one of Skynet's machines get him into Skynet Central is going to be a good idea? If this is the best the Resistance has to offer, humanity is screwed.<br />
<br />
I'm not to impressed with the CG used on Marcus. They went too far to make sure it wasn't too bloody looking, it doesn't look like actual damage so much as two photos blended together.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Bad photoshop alert!</div>
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<br />
John Connor agrees to the deal and tosses Marcus a portable computer to contact him with. Good thing it's waterproof, despite being a consumer-grade piece of hardware.<br />
As John Connor's parting comment to Marcus, he suddenly advances on him and yells, "What are you?" Marcus, genuinely confused by John Connor's erratic nature, says that he doesn't know, then swims away. It's a very strange way to end the encounter, and it feels like a remnant of something else. One might argue that it's some sort of ploy to conceal that John Connor just made a deal with a machine, but that's outweighed by the idiocy of attracting attention to Marcus.<br />
Fortunately for Marcus, nobody noticed John's outburst, and the Resistance troops take John at his word when he says Marcus is gone.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Blair's cell<br />
-----<br />
John gets back to base and decides to "interrogate" Blair. He asks her why she did it and when she responds with, "I saw a man, not a machine," that's good enough for him. We also learn that the Resistance isn't as careless with human prisoners as with the machines.<br />
-----<br />
Resistance hangar<br />
-----<br />
John's forces are preparing for the attack. Ashdown calls Connor for a readiness check. <br />
Why do they have a massive comm station right in the middle of the hangar, where it can get in the way of everyone else and maximize the potential trip hazards? Good move too, having all the monitors facing the door, to maximize glare from the light outside. At least put everything against a wall or something.<br />
All that US equipment. There are flags from various countries draped from the ceiling, but otherwise no evidence of the international cooperation touted by McG, and of course no trace of the no-country-all-men-united approach from the original two movies.<br />
<br />
When Ashdown ask if John Connor's men are ready, he replies that nobody is ready and then attempts to have Ashdown abort the attack. When that doesn't work, he asks for a delay. He announces that he has an opportunity to rescue the prisoners. Ashdown refuses, of course. At this point, John reports that Skynet has Kyle Reese.<br />
John Connor starts to babble about Kyle being the key to the past and the future. He ought to know by now that stuff like that just makes him sound like a crackpot.<br />
<br />
Ashdown knows a looney when he hears one, and relieves John Connor of his command. Barnes and the comm operator pretend they didn't hear anything. John Connor goes elsewhere to deliver a radio address.<br />
As John Connor delivers his address, we see people who either are not equipped to fight in a war, or who are so many time zones away that they could not possibly participate in the attack on Skynet Central. This scene would have been a lot better if we had seen people who were actually in a position to participate in the assault have second thoughts, particularly if they were people who could make the decision to attack or hold back.<br />
Connor starts babbling about his mother and her predictions. The worst part of it is that he mentions his mother's full name on the radio. John Connor seems determined to make sure Skynet knows who to target once it develops time displacement. Is he trying to get his mother killed?<br />
<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Highway<br />
-----<br />
Are the machines really so attuned to music that yelling, gunfire, movement, or other forms of attracting attention just aren't adequate? A portable boombox isn't all that loud--certainly not enough to attract a machine a quarter-mile away.<br />
John Connor doesn't start preparing his trap until after alerting the Mototerminator. You'd think he'd want to be prepared before getting a machine's attention.<br />
How did the Mototerminator not see the rope? I could understand if it couldn't stop in time, but it didn't react at all.<br />
We've seen four Mototerminators get disabled in the movie with little difficulty. We've also seen that Mototerminators have plasma weapons. SO WHY DOESN'T THE RESISTANCE HAVE PLASMA WEAPONS SALVAGED FROM MOTOTERMINATORS? Wouldn't those be somewhat useful weapons to have, considering the durability of some of the machines?<br />
<br />
John Connor runs to the downed Mototerminator, which miraculously is undamaged, despite a high-speed collision. After seeing the kinds of crashes Mototerminators can survive, why are T-600's so weak?<br />
To reprogram the Mototerminator, John Connor plugs his pocket computer into an honest-to-God USB Type-B port! It's the exact type of port a person would find on the back of a USB printer! And there's an RCA jack right next to it! I bet the Mototerminator runs on Windows Vista and can record your favorite TV shows.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Hilarious!</div>
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<br />
A brand new category for John Connor prying out the optics of a Mototerminator for no apparent reason. This will turn BAD later, of course.<br />
Connor races for Skynet Central on a motorcycle that was never intended to accommodate a human rider.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Skynet Perimeter: North Gate<br />
-----<br />
Marcus makes his way to Skynet Central with amazing speed, considering he was on foot last time we saw him. With some trepidation, he emerges from cover and makes his presence known to a security turret. <br />
It takes an annoyingly long time for the turret to identify Marcus, and it appears to rely on identifying him by scanning him. I think it would have been better if the machines had already identified his identity and position via network link as soon as he got within range and just ignored him.<br />
<br />
<br />
Marcus charges up the barrier and begins to enter Skynet Central.<br />
Meanwhile, John has arrived and is riding a Mototerminator onto the ruins of the Golden Gate bridge. Considering the extensive damage and the steep drop, it doesn't seem like the best place for John Connor to drive.<br />
<br />
Marcus continues to infiltrate Skynet Central.<br />
More gratuitous flames and sparks with no reason behind them. And seeing modern day construction vehicles driving around is quite jarring. It doesn't feel like a Skynet stronghold at all. If it were a Michael Bay movie, at least I could have suspected that the bulldozer and scraper were Constructicons.<br />
Getting back to John Connor, we see just how badly damaged the Golden Gate Bridge is. He would have had to have risked his life several times just to climb to the point where we see him. Is this really the best place to be? He's dangerously exposed on a structurally unsound bridge. I wonder if Marcus was this crazy? Good thing for him none of the HK's buzzing around can be bothered to look his way.<br />
<br />
Marcus is inside Skynet Central, where we see the first of many remnants of the hybrid plot. Bright human-compatible facilities, with consoles and large monitors fill the room, and the computer has already identified Marcus.<br />
Marcus places his hand just above a convenient hand-print on the console, causing a surreal light show, and initiating some sort of link with Skynet. Either Marcus has to plug in or he doesn't. Taking a "mystical" approach doesn't help anything. The scene could easily have been made to work by having Skynet initiate a connection without Marcus having to pull off some pseudo-biometric nonsense.<br />
We see Marcus disable Skynet's defenses, which would be ok if it was just a ploy to fool John Connor, but later we learn it's not!<br />
Marcus transmits Kyle's location to John Connor, who now has to figure out how to get off the bridge without killing himself. Afterward, he starts looking up information relevant to his past.<br />
Marcus finally encounters information about Judgement Day, and then blacks out.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, John Connor has infiltrated the base, and is skulking around. He finds a Transporter and prepares to reprogram it. Conveniently, like with the Mototerminator, electronics are easier to access on Skynet's machines than they are on modern electronic devices. John Connor doesn't even need a screwdriver! John Connor performs some weird voodoo involving the guts of the Mototerminator from earlier, and opens the doors to the Transporter. As the doors are opening, John Connor notices something to his left and casually gets up to step inside the Transporter.<br />
We see what is quite possibly the most retarded T-600 in the entire movie! The patrolling T-600 fails to notice the ramps open on the Transporter, fails to notice John Connor standing there, fails to notice him step into the Transporter, and fails to notice the wiring dangling from an open access panel! What's worse is that the T-600 was maybe 10 feet away when John Connor ducked into the Transporter, and the way John Connor went in, he wouldn't have been hidden from the T-600! Forrest Gump would have made a more credible Terminator than these machines! Let me guess--cocky ol' Skynet wants to save the fun for the CG nightmare coming up later. If all the machines are this stupid, it's no wonder Skynet loses.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Nothing wrong here, move along!</div>
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<br />
-----<br />
Resistance Command<br />
-----<br />
We learn that the submarine is broadcasting the shutdown signal at full strength. Not only should that not be possible while submerged, but there's no reason for them to do so. They shouldn't be involved in the attack at all!<br />
We learn that the other Resistance outposts have decided to listen to John Connor and are standing down, much to Ashdown's annoyance.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
Skynet Central<br />
-----<br />
John Connor rappels into a prison block, and prepares to free the prisoners.<br />
He uses the Mototerminator optic salvaged from before to pass some sort of retinal scan! That is stupid on so many levels. Not only are there lots of better ways for machines to identify each other, but why would a Mototerminator ever be granted access to a cell block?! How would it even get its optic that high up? The whole point of access control is to control access. If every random machine can go wherever--even machines that are physically incapable of getting there--then there's no point in access control. I'll love to see a Mototerminator try to use that touch screen interface John Connor uses to unlock the cells.<br />
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<br />
It sure doesnt feel or look like anything related to a Terminator movie and its portrayal of the world and machines (which it personified) is as far from Cameron's world as possible. Gone are alien , dark techno pyramids and terminators who are just hardware, corridors with no lights, door knowbs or any human features, replaced with Office buildings and machines who perfectly understand human beings and even act like them<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
That's machines' neat office!</div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
What happened to the darkened, sleek steel, monumental pyramids without any human features</div>
From T2 script<br />
<i>INT. CORRIDOR</i><i><br /></i><i><br /></i><i>This place was designed by machines for machines. The</i><i><br /></i><i>architecture is alien, without aesthetics, without even</i><i><br /></i><i>such human basics as doorknobs and lights.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>CONNOR (V.O.)</i><i><br /></i><i> This place is one of Skynet's toys.</i><i><br /></i><i> A machine built by machines.It is</i><i><br /></i><i> like nothing which has ever existed</i><i><br /></i><i> before</i><i>. Before today, no human had</i><i><br /></i><i> seen this place</i><br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Screenshots from James Cameron's T2 3D)</span></div>
<br />
The fact that John Connor is able to unlock the cells is dumb. John Connor is already inside the trap. Just throw the machines at him right now. Don't allow him to cause a whole bunch of havoc. After all, Skynet was trying to bait the Resistance into attacking. Shouldn't there be a gigantic army of machines ready to kill John Connor and anyone else who approaches the base?<br />
<br />
Oh, no! Talking monitors! The only thing worse than having Skynet talk to people is having Skynet talk to people with the attitude exhibited by Serena's image. The unique and great thing about the first two movies were that machines were actually machines in every meaning of this word. All other cyborg movies depicted them as just artificial people. With personalities. Cameron's vision of Skynet was just a power core, a being which did not understand human feelings and simply calculated, wasn't malicious or greedy. It was a system that wrongly calculated that the biggest threat for men are the men themselves, so they needed to be eradicated. It became self aware, so it wanted to "survive" and continue it's programming. It was never some artificial, cocky and bitchy computer person who gained feelings<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Skynet finally revealed!</div>
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Thank god it can't be the emotionless core that was presented by Cameron</div>
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We get some obligatory exposition explaining what Marcus is, as if that wasn't clear six months before the movie released. We also get a brief graphic of a Skynet Control Chip so that Marcus' act of defiance makes sense later. And we also see some clips from Marcus' POV that make it clear that Skynet knows plenty about John Connor and Kyle Reese. How smart to show Marcus how is he controlled and where his chip is located.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, John Connor is still looking for Kyle Reese, who is still locked in his cell. He encounters Star, whose sole purpose in this scene is to rack up a few more seconds of screen time. She doesn't do anything except run when John Connor tells her to.<br />
Cutting back to Marcus, we get more exposition that reveals the shutdown signal was a trap. We see that Skynet is going after Resistance Command, which according to Skynet is west of the state of Washingon and south of Alaska. With more annoying attitude, "Serena" essentially claims that humans are gullible and that the war will end tonight--just with a different outcome than what the humans planned.<br />
<br />
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Pacific Ocean, either hundreds of miles west of Washington, or just off the coast of San Francisco, California<br />
-----<br />
An HK is streaking toward the command submarine that is foolishly broadcasting the signal despite being nowhere near the combat area. As Ashdown tries to get the assault on Skynet back on track, the radar system the submarine shouldn't be able to use picks up an HK heading for their position. Losenko figures out a bit too late that they screwed themselves over. The HK waits for Losenko to explain what they did wrong, then blasts the submarine from above<br />
Back at Skynet Central, "Serena" just won't shut up. Not only is she maintaining her annoying attitude, but she adds a liberal dose of cockiness to the mix. Not only does she call Marcus the perfect infiltrator, conveniently ignoring some serious drawbacks like the ones about to manifest themselves, but she has the nerve to talk as if John Connor is already dead when he is very much alive. If this Skynet knows so much about the past, why doesn't it seem to know that John Connor and his mother are frickin' hard to kill?<br />
<br />
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Skynet Central<br />
-----<br />
John Connor is still searching for Kyle Reese.<br />
How does John's little computer manage to pull off real-time tracking? Did Skynet offer a line of USB GPS receivers that John could plug into his Sony VAIO to use Skynet's satellite network? Did the Resistance make their own ultra-sensitive receivers that overcome the limitations of the real-world GPS system? Is a GPS system even functioning post-Judgement Day? It's amazing that Skynet has no defense against consumer-grade electronics developed at the turn of the millennium. I suppose we'll just assume that Skynet provided the technology to the Resistance to make sure John Connor gets where he's supposed to.<br />
John slowly approaches the cell that Kyle is supposed to be in and cautiously peers into the window. He makes no effort to open the door or check out the large status panel which actually shows who's inside!.<br />
<br />
He's inside a Skynet base and time is ticking away. Why is he wasting all this time when the cell block is almost deserted now? Does he think Skynet isn't going to notice a mob of fleeing prisoners and wonder what's going on? Shouldn't he be in a hurry to check the cell and either open it or move on?<br />
As John Connor dumbly stares at a hulking silhouette standing in the smoke, the Terminator shares its favorite knock-knock joke with John Connor. As it turns out, the punch-line involves an actual punch, and John Connor transforms into a cardboard cutout in time to get flattened by a door.<br />
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<br />
Amusingly, the crude effects don't stop there, as it turns out the "metal" door was made out of wood. We actually see the door splinter apart in two shots. From the cell emerges the contents of Skynet's trap...a lone, naked T-800?! Did Skynet really think just one completely unarmed Terminator would be enough to take out a hardened Resistance fighter? Where's the army of machines? Where's the poison gas? Where the "blow up the entire stupid base to be sure he's dead"? Skynet might as well have left Kyle Reese in that cell for him.<br />
Look at that. John Connor was just bowled over by what should have been a metal door moving at high velocity, but he's just fine and capable of firing back immediately. Since they can't make John Connor smart, they have to make up for it by making him bullet-proof.<br />
Connor unloads thirty rounds of ammunition into an unimpressive CG rendering, to little effect.<br />
At such close range against a stationary target, is it really too much for John Connor to shoot the Terminator in the head? I guess if he did that we couldn't marvel at the lackluster CG face that looks less like Arnold than the prop heads built for previous movies. Instead of trying to damage the Terminator, John Connor decides to unload all his ammo into what may be the most heavily armored part of a Terminator.<br />
Hi's rifle has an underslung shotgun mounted to it. So why is he reaching for a magazine stupidly placed on his arm instead of shooting the Terminator with the shotgun? Being on a "stealth" mission, he shouldn't have had cause to shoot at anything prior to this point, so the shotgun should be fully loaded.<br />
<br />
After an awkward cut in which the Terminator suddenly appears on the opposite side of John Connor, who has flipped over onto his knees, the Terminator prepares to land a killing blow...but instead of doing so, the Terminator just throws John Connor through the air! Has Skynet forgotten to tell the Terminator that this is an absolutely critical target that should be dealt with quickly and decisively?<br />
Connor is thrown into the corner of a rack of server hardware, which collapses inward from the impact, even though there should be a heavy duty mounting rail at each corner of the rack. John Connor should have been critically injured from such an impact, but instead he gets right back up.<br />
<br />
And what happened to John Connor's rifle? He had no problems retaining possession of it when slammed by the door, since it was on a sling. But suddenly when he's about to be thrown he doesn't have it anymore. Amusingly, after he hits the server rack, we see that he has the shotgun attachment in his hand (not to be confused with the grenade launcher), but not the rifle it was attached to.<br />
John Connor discards the shotgun attachment, and swings his grenade launcher at the Terminator's face.<br />
The Terminator again grabs John Connor and randomly launches him through the air. I'm ok with Terminators throwing people, but only when it's effective. The Terminator in the original threw Matt around, but threw him directly into nearby obstacles, and it took only four throws to kill him. This Terminator could slam John Connor into any number of nearby obstacles, but instead throws him into as much empty space as possible. Not to mention that in the original, he wanted to first kill matt with a killer blow in the head that punched through the pillow<br />
<br />
John Connor hits a wall upside-down, then lands on his head, but still has no problems recovering.<br />
We cut to Kyle in his cell. Nobody has released him, but a T-600 approaches and opens his cell...<br />
Moving on to Marcus, "Serena" is still talking to Marcus, trying to convince him to accept his place among the machines.<br />
Why was Skynet in such a hurry to reactivate Marcus? Wouldn't it have made a lot more sense to wait until John Connor and Kyle Reese were already dead? And why is Skynet trying to recruit Marcus, anyway? Just because he's responsible for the deaths of a few people doesn't mean he's going to jump at the chance to turn against all of humanity. Most murderers don't hate all of humanity. And in case Skynet has forgotten, Marcus actually liked Kyle and Star enough to try to rescue them. Plus, he got along with Blair just fine. Stupid, stupid Skynet. One would expect a machine entity that hated humanity enough to try to nuke it out of existence might not be particularly interested in forming alliances with humans and giving them enhanced abilities.<br />
In defiance of Skynet, Marcus decides to engage in some masochism. He rips a control chip out of the back of his head. What a stupid place for a control chip. It makes it susceptible to damage from external impact.<br />
On the other hand, who cares if it gets damaged when it seems to be entirely useless? Marcus had a vague urge to go north, but that's it. Otherwise, everything he did appeared to be more the result of free will than any effort to fulfill some sort of programming. It was incredible luck--not programming--that led to his encounters with Kyle Reese and John Connor. And the chip apparently had no real-time communication capability. If the chip could control Marcus at all, he probably wouldn't have had the desire to remove it, let alone the ability to rip it out.<br />
"Serena" of course is not happy with Marcus' actions. The expression on "Serena's" face, the twitchy shaking of the head, and more attitude reinforce the fallacy of giving Skynet any sort of "personality". It's pretty bad when GlaDOS from Portal can be taken more seriously as a malevolent entity than "Serena".<br />
Gratuitous shot of "Serena" being "destroyed". While Marcus destroying the monitor displaying "Serena" made sense, the execution of the scene was terrible. "Serena" turns to line up perfectly with the camera and does the gratuitous red-eye glare right before the screen is shattered. The fact that "Serena" appears to be facing the audience also has the effect of breaking the fourth wall.<br />
<br />
<br />
Marcus begins to search for John Connor.but he can't do so in dorky hospital clothes. He wastes valuable seconds scavenging another outfit off another dead Resistance fighter.<br />
<br />
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John Connor's base<br />
-----<br />
With the assault on Skynet postponed/canceled, nobody has anything better to do than loiter on the tarmac outside the base. A truck drives up with a message for Barnes and Kate.<br />
Why is it that the most important people at the base don't bother to carry radios with them?<br />
It's amazing that John Connor's radio works all the way from Skynet Central. Nobody should have been able to receive his call for help. Not only that, but Skynet's plan was to lure the Resistance into an attack. John Connor is making sure everyone walks into a trap.<br />
<br />
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Skynet Central<br />
-----<br />
There's a prison break in progress, so why does Skynet pick this particular time to start running experiments on Kyle Reese? For that matter, if he's such a high-priority target, why has Skynet blown half-a-million opportunities to kill him? This is Skynet's last chance to kill Kyle Reese right now. He's pinned to a table by the T-600 and is pretty much helpless at this point. But no, it's better to give Kyle Reese a CAT scan than to kill him.<br />
<br />
The T-600 has been ignoring everyone else running around in a panic, so why is it that Star is suddenly more important to deal with than Kyle? And even stupider, Star was already in front of the T-600. There was no reason for the Terminator to let go of Kyle Reese, let alone turn away from him, but that's exactly what it does. At least Kyle Reese knows an opportunity when he sees one. He wastes no time taking advantage of the opening and doing what little he can to the T-600.<br />
<br />
Amusingly, the accuracy of this T-600 isn't any worse now than the one from before, but at least there's an excuse for this one missing wildly.<br />
John Connor starts moving toward the sound of gunfire as he attempts to evade the T-800 that is in no hurry to find him or kill him. He turns a corner and happens to stick a grenade launcher in Kyle's face.<br />
Connor sees two scared humans, and he keeps pointing a weapon at them that will turn them into pink mist if he gets too trigger-happy. With a T-800 on his tail, and evidence of a T-600 somewhere ahead, maybe holding a grenade launcher on two children isn't the best tactical decision.<br />
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<br />
John Connor finds out that he just located Kyle Reese, and even then he's in no hurry to move the grenade launcher away from him. The T-600 starts shooting again now that the dramatic reveal is over. <br />
Kyle hears the shooting and immediately attempts to flee. Kyle is arguably the smartest person in this movie, since he has the good sense to react to danger.<br />
Connor lets himself go into a trance again, and almost doesn't react in time to grab Kyle. John tries to avoid the T-600 that is shooting at everything except him.and fails miserably. Somehow he catches a random shot in the back of his left shoulder, which he visibly reacts to. There's even a bullet hole in his clothing. But John Connor really is bullet-proof, because instead of recoiling in pain or losing the use of his left arm, he just turns around aims in the direction of the T-600.<br />
Meanwhile, the T-800 walks up to the T-600 that is still shooting as if it drank a six-pack of beer first. The T-800 walks up, impossibly rips the top half of the T-600 from the lower half, and simply discard it. The T-800 doesn't bother to throw the chunk of Terminator at John Connor and it doesn't bother to pick up the minigun!!! It just drops the torso and allows John Connor to shoot it with the grenade launcher.<br />
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<br />
The Terminator doesn't react appropriately to the shots, particularly the second shot. It's recovery pose is completely unnatural.<br />
Recognizing the futility of continuing to shoot at the Terminator, John whirls around and shoots a hole in the was as an avenue of escape. I can't say I'm too impressed with John Connor's tactical skills if he lets himself get painted so far into a corner that the only way out is to blow a hole in a wall and leap into the unknown...<br />
<br />
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Terminator factory<br />
-----<br />
Nobody bothers to look before jumping into the hole, which is too bad, because they're in for a rough landing. Two stunt-doubles and a dummy land on a large, painful looking rack of Terminator skulls. At least I hope Star was portrayed by a dummy in that scene. If not, whoever that was landed face-first on a skull and wasn't moving.<br />
<br />
<br />
The factory is too gimmicky, inefficient, and nonsensical. The large, horizontal rack of skulls was cheesy to my eye. It looked more like a store display rack than a supply of parts queued for assembly. The claw getting confused and almost picking up John's head annoyed me, as well as it just randomly picking up a skull instead of working in an orderly fashion. Despite just having seen completed skulls that weren't attached to a body yet, we then see a shot where an incomplete skull is already attached to a body and one eye is installed. Apparently there are two separate stations for eye installations, as one eye was already installed when it moved to the eye installer machine. We also see jaws attached to incomplete skulls that are already on bodies. The characters skulk around checking out the factory as it operates, but unless one pays careful attention, it just looks like robot arms randomly waving around a stationary line. It feels more like a Terminator storage closet than an assembly line cranking out an army of death machines. We already saw a great example of what a Terminator assembly line could be with the T2 teaser trailer. That idea should have been expanded on instead of making this lethargic assembly line that looks inactive.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Take your pick. Car factory...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTB7Ewp6Altc9VUrnM1jmgAiDAHwd-yCrigkYw82kfFqvzxj7VevImGNXQy75kK2P2lbUq9H3Zw32EVWpn63Gd3LjiMWgWJFqmjhMzFMM3jBfevcrBc0IfH-VK5Us3pjmCnetLVBaO2Kgo/s1600/Terminator+Salvation+(4088).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTB7Ewp6Altc9VUrnM1jmgAiDAHwd-yCrigkYw82kfFqvzxj7VevImGNXQy75kK2P2lbUq9H3Zw32EVWpn63Gd3LjiMWgWJFqmjhMzFMM3jBfevcrBc0IfH-VK5Us3pjmCnetLVBaO2Kgo/s320/Terminator+Salvation+(4088).jpg" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
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Or futuristic, darkened scifi assembly</div>
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<br />
As the characters gape at all the partially assembled machines, none of them are worried about the Terminator that was trying to kill them just seconds ago. Even worse, the Terminator didn't jump in the hole after them. Was it afraid of getting hurt or something?<br />
<br />
Star sees the Terminator fuel cells and attempts to grab one, thinking someone might need her to make one materialize later. John Connor stops her, reminding her the object needed was a detonator, not a fuel cell. He goes on to explain what the fuel cells are for and their destructive potential. Suddenly, the elevator comes down and Kyle grabs John's grenade launcher. John Connor uses the shotgun attachment from his rifle. I'd love to see him fire that thing without a pistol grip. He's holding it in one hand by the magazine, with his other hand on the trigger. Unfortunately, he never gets a chance to fire it, as the elevator is empty. The T-800 appears behind everyone, and rushes John Connor.<br />
T-800 doesn't bother to grab him or do anything that would really ruin his day. The CG endoskeleton had numerous unnecessary redesigns of the endo from the first two movies. The original endos were modelled and built AFTER Winston shop took a mold of Arnold's body so they can construct a skeleton that would actually fit in his body. The CG endo has much larger proportion, much wider shoulders etc, and it would never fit inside a human body of Arnold. <br />
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Bodybuilding endoskeleton?</div>
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Also, instead of full teeth of the original movies, we yet again get a set of short baby teeth like in T3. T:S missed the idea of infrared as well. The vision of the Terminators from the first two movies really did look like a display of some digitized mechanical device, with slightly diffused vision and strong whiteouts. In here like in T3, its exactly like human vision just in red<br />
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There was no reason for John to take out the detonator in the first place, and he put it away before the T-800 hit him. Yet we see the detonator skitter away for no reason but to give Swiss Army Girl one more opportunity to be useful.Kyle comes out of a roll and shoots the T-800.<br />
The previous grenade hits had virtually no effect on the T-800. But now this last hit inexplicably launches the T-800 at least 50 feet. Once again the needs of the story triumph over logic and consistency.<br />
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Star sees the remote and knows what she must do...<br />
Everyone runs to the relative safety of the elevator, and are about to escape when John realizes that he hasn't wired the fuel cells to explode. He abandons Kyle and Star to go back to rig the explosives.<br />
Connor has called Resistance forces to come to his aid--the same forces that were prepared to bomb Skynet Central. Why does he need to put himself at incredible risk to destroy the place when he has an army of troops on the way that can do the job? It's even worse when one considers that he abandons his father in a facility theoretically full of killer machines. I thought he wanted Kyle to live.<br />
The dialogue exchange between Kyle and John is painful. Kyle's lines are generally ok, but John's are just terrible. And the conversation ends with more name dropping. This movie was chock-full of contrived excuses for the full names of various characters to be revealed to other characters.<br />
Kyle has been spending the whole movie yelling out the names of various machines, but somehow he can't tell John Connor that there's a Terminator behind him.<br />
John Connor sees the Throwinator and actually tries to engage in melee combat, conveniently forgetting how useless that was just minutes ago.<br />
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The Throwinator punches John Connor, sending him well over 20 feet. It also relieves John Connor of his grenade launcher at the same time.<br />
Throwinator blows a golden opportunity to shoot John Connor with his own grenade launcher. It also blows an opportunity to crush the grenade launcher and render it inoperable. Instead it throws it aside so John Connor can retrieve it later.<br />
Connor is still moving sluggishly thanks to being punched by the Terminator. It accommodates John Connor's temporary injury by moving as slowly as possible.<br />
As the Throwinator slowly moves towards John Connor, he manages to fire two shots from his shotgun attachment without hurting himself. Strangely, after two shots he's already reloading, even though those magazines should hold five rounds. The Terminator throws a punch at John Connor that misses, then John Connor smacks the Terminator in the head. Instead of throwing John Connor into one of the many sources of fire in the factory, it throws him onto a surface that won't kill him. Then it picks him up and pins him to the wall by his neck. Instead of crushing John Connor's windpipe or snapping his neck, the Terminator waits for the sudden arrival of Marcus, so that he can save John from the T-800.<br />
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Marcus tackles the T-800 and begins grappling with it to keep it away from John Connor. John Connor runs back to the fuel cells and starts wrapping det-cord around them. Now that Marcus is around, suddenly the T-800 is interested in actually trying to get at John Connor. Since Marcus won't let him, the Terminator starts using real attacks, the kind that would have killed John Connor. The Terminator's attacks aren't working too well on Marcus, so it detects his heart and lands a punch timed to cause Marcus' heart to stop.<br />
If the Terminator can do this, why didn't it do so to John Connor?!!!!<br />
It's funny that the Terminator puts more effort into killing low-priority targets than into killing high-priority targets.<br />
With Marcus dealth with, the Terminator goes hunting for John Connor.<br />
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Outside Skynet Central<br />
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The Resistance arrives, and one of the helicopters lands at the Skynet Central.<br />
How is it even possible for the Resistance to get in the perimeter? Wasn't the whole point of Skynet's plan to lure the Resistance into an attack and blow them all to smithereens when the machines suddenly do not respond to the shutdown signal? Shouldn't there be a whole mess of machines specifically waiting and looking for a fight? Shouldn't the sentry turrets be back online? There were HK's flying around Skynet Central in earlier scenes. Where are they now? What about the T-1's and T-600's patrolling the base? Why aren't Harvesters jumping off of Transporters and going King Kong on the Resistance aircraft? We see no actual attempts by the machines to fight the Resistance invasion. The only sign of battle is the gunner of one helicopter shooting in the vicinity of the landing zone. Could Skynet's "ambush" be any stupider?<br />
I finally found the scene where Barnes wears his sunglasses. He wears them on the nighttime invasion of Skynet. Smart idea there, Barnes. A Terminator may be able to get away with wearing tinted lenses in low-light conditions, but that's pretty stupid for a human to do.<br />
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Inside Skynet Central<br />
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John Connor sees that Marcus is not moving, and he then sees his grenade launcher. Despite all the injury inflicted in the last ten minutes, John Connor is moving around just fine. Suddenly, he hears Kyle's voice.<br />
Having walked into an ambush, John Connor whips out his pistol and ineffectively shoots the T-800 several times. Needless to say, the pistol is completely ineffective. To get away from the Terminator, John Connor throws himself over the ledge.<br />
Connor has been punched, thrown long distances into solid objects, choked--even shot. But all of that pales in comparison to deliberately tumbling over a railing. John Connor manages to do what the Terminator has failed to do the whole fight. He's crippled himself so badly he can't walk.<br />
Despite jumping over the same railing that John Connor went over, the Terminator lands several steps away from John Connor.<br />
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As the Terminator walks toward John Connor, he recovers his grenade launcher and shoots at a container full of molten metal. A large volume of molten metal spills onto the Terminator, completely enveloping it.<br />
Amazingly, without being able to walk, John Connor manages to be far enough away from the Terminator that none of the molten metal flows to him. It's all the more amazing since, as mentioned before, the Terminator should have landed right on top of him when it went over the railing.<br />
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As John Connor pushes away from the molten metal, he draws his pistol, which magically returned to his holster, even though it was in his hand when he went over the railing. The Terminator gets back up, covered in molten metal. I didn't expect the molten metal to completely melt the Terminator, but I did expect some damage. That's an incredible amount of heat to dump on a machine, and not everything in a Terminator is going to be made out of heat-resistant material. Being engulfed in molten metal is going to result in a far more massive transfer of heat than being subjected to an ordinary fire.<br />
Oh, look. A source of liquid nitrogen or some other really cold substance. How convenient. The Terminator is now even closer than it was when John Connor dumped molten metal on it, yet somehow crippled John Connor manages to avoid freezing himself.<br />
As the Terminator cools off, it finds it increasingly difficult to move toward John Connor.<br />
With the limited movement it has left, the Terminator decides to give John Connor a cool scar, that involves pulling its hand away from John Connor's face. It could have done just about anything else, like poke his eyes out, shove the glowing arm into his face, grab him by the neck, or even fall on top of him. Not great attacks, but considering that much of the Terminator was very hot, all of those attacks would have been debilitating to some degree.<br />
Having narrowly avoided death by the T-800, John Connor attempts to revive Marcus. Elbowing him in the chest isn't working, so he pulls some power lines out of a machine and attempt to pull off improvised defibrillation. Meanwhile, the Terminator isn't quite out for the count...<br />
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Amazingly, despite being encased in solid metal, somehow the Terminator is able to break its way out. The colder metal gets, the harder it becomes, so if the Terminator was being overwhelmed by the metal when it was still red-hot, it's not going to fare any better against metal at room temperature. And if the Terminator is so powerful that it can crunch its way out of solid metal, why couldn't it do any useful damage to John Connor?<br />
John Connor manages to revive Marcus, but his victory is short-lived. The Terminator shoves a metal bar right through the center of John's chest. Marcus instantly reacts, snapping off part of the bar and using it to snap the Terminator's head off. Why couldn't Marcus do something like this earlier when he had that same bar?<br />
Marcus turns to look back at John Connor, who's obviously dying. With several broken bones, a punctured lung, and significant damage to his circulatory system, he has minutes to live, at best.<br />
Once Marcus starts hauling him out of the base, John Connor stops dying. Sure, John Connor should survive, but due to his incredible abilities, not because of an arbitrary plot device.<br />
Swiss Army Girl to the rescue! John Connor never recovered the detonator, but that's ok because Star has it and they all piled into the same helicopter.<br />
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Star hands the detonator to John who detonates the explosives while the helicopter is still right over Skynet Central! Is he trying to blow himself up? Miraculously, the helicopter is not affected by the nuclear blast caused by nuclear fuel cells.<br />
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Temporary field hospital in the middle of the desert<br />
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A field hospital has been hastily put together to tend to John's injury.<br />
More lame camouflage efforts. Most of the netting is used to serve as shelter for the hospital, not to conceal the helicopters, which are parked in plain sight in broad daylight.<br />
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They can't get John Connor back to base, but they can sit in the middle of the desert for over 12 hours? I though John's wounds were critical.<br />
Wow, John Connor's scar sure is healing up nicely. Not bad for a gigantic gash that was ripped in his face only hours ago. No stitches, no bandages, nothing. not to mention its a different scar that that of the original Connor, who surely got his scar in a deadly combat, not by stupidly lying on the floor and getting scratched by a hot finger.<br />
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Thank god it's not the same Connor. He doesn't have the same scar</div>
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Marcus decides to donate his heart to a guy who tried to kill him last night. It just gets worse from there. Nobody bothers to address the potential for incompatibility or the fact that Marcus' heart has been through hell. Even if we assume that his body was entirely regenerated after his heart had been subjected to an explosion, river water, and an assortment of other contaminants, it was still subjected to a heart-stopping blow and was electrocuted by John Connor. Even if we assume that nothing is wrong with his heart and that there are no compatibility problems to worry about, they do this transplant in the middle of the desert, with no protection from wind and dust. As they undergo the procedure, we can even see the camouflage netting in the background. It's amazing that they were able to bring everything necessary for an organ transplant out to the middle of the desert, including a heart-lung machine, which is a bulky piece of medical equipment, and enough blood of John Connor's blood type. If the characters did nothing but pray for a miracle and all of a sudden John Connor was healed, that would have been less insulting than a successful organ transplant under such hostile conditions. And if John Connor could hold out for over 12 hours, why didn't they just take him back to base and perform the surgery there? That would have been less insulting than fixing him up in the middle of the desert.<br />
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As the movie draws to a close and the helicopters fly into the sunset, John Connor delivers an uninspired speech announcing that Skynet is far from defeated, but that they'll continue to fight until Skynet is destroyed.<br />
Skynet ended up learning all sorts of information about John and Kyle's whereabouts throughout the movie. If Skynet develops time travel in this timeline, John and Kyle are in serious trouble because now Skynet knows exactly where to look for them. The only hope the Resistance has now is if Skynet remains as stupid as it has been throughout Terminator Salvation.<br />
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<br />GothamStreetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650245408360085764noreply@blogger.com12