No Termination
By Jonathan Cyfer
Terminate: coming to an end or capable of ending -Merriam-Webster Dictionary
25 years have elapsed between the dawning of Skynet in the original Terminator film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as everyone's favorite T-101 and Terminator Salvation starring Christian Bale as the once and future Messiah John Connor. The first three films revolved around a series of beings (one human and the rest terminators) being sent back in time to prevent John Connor from becoming the leader of the human resistance in the 21st century and destroying Skynet. Of course, Skynet's plan never worked. Even though Reese (in the original film) states that only he and the terminator were sent to the past before the time machine was destroyed, somehow, other time machines kept turning up and Skynet kept developing more advanced prototypes to send back in time to try and off Connor. After Reese bought the farm in the first film, the best the resistance could do was keep recycling Schwarzenegger to fight against the odds and save Connor and the future.
After the third film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), I thought the franchise had come to a quiet end. At that point, Arnold was 56 years old, and getting a little long in the tooth to play a super-muscular, kick-ass killing machine from the future (he was 37 when the first film was released). "Rise of the Machines" wasn't that great of a film (a problem with sequels) and anyway, it wasn't written and directed by James Cameron. To quote Sarah from the first film as applied to the franchise, "You're terminated, f*cker!"
But she was wrong and so was I.
Every time Sarah thought the terminator was gone forever, another one (or two) was sent back in time to stir up problems. Just when we thought the Terminator franchise was over, out pops “Terminator Salvation”.
It wasn't a great film, but it was watchable, and Christian Bale always adds a great deal of intensity to any role he plays (as well as the intensity of his off camera behavior). Initially, I was disappointed that the fourth film didn't bring us full circle, with John sending Kyle Reese back into the past to save his mother but then, there's more money to be squeezed from the old, metal skeleton of the terminators, yet. Proof of that is in the announcement of Terminator 5, scheduled for a 2012 release (assuming the Mayans aren't right). Like Star Wars, years after the first trilogy came and went, a second trilogy is launched. Like Star Wars, the first film of the second trilogy was nothing to write home about, but the Terminator story is compelling enough to keep us coming back to see what happens next (though in my case, I couldn't generate enough interest until the film was released on DVD)
Time travel scenarios, especially when used repeatedly, have a tendency to get muddy fast. In the first film, Reese said only he and the T-101 came through. The time machine was then supposed to be smashed (Reese couldn't have witnessed this because he had already been sent back in time). No more visitors from the future. But the first film, made on a limited budget and probably expected to be a one-shot wonder, became a cult classic, so enough money was drummed up for the sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). If you've seen all the films and were paying attention, you probably noticed that dates for events subtly changed. By the time of the third film, the war should already have happened. John's age and date of birth also kept changing. We can (or at least I can) assume that, with each time travel event, the two entities from the future changed something in the past resulting a shifting of events in the timeline. The one thing that could never be changed though is Judgment Day. The war was going to happen. The war will always happen. So much for "The future's not set...we have no fate but what we make." The only future that's not set is how many sequels there will be in the franchise, how much money there is to make, and how well or poorly the films will be received.
My personal opinion is that Terminator 2 was the best of the lot, but I have a soft spot for the original Terminator. It was the only film where Schwarzenegger plays the bad guy. It had limited production values. It was based on two of my favorite Harlan Ellison stories: Jonny Quest series, also from the 1960s. The plots were repetitive, people from India really can't do magic, but it was and is a lot of fun to watch.
One thing about nostalgia and a franchise with a foundation in classic science fiction is that it's tough to terminate once you get it going. What might help “Terminator 5” and any other sequels escape the so-so performance of the 2009 film is returning to some of the basics I previously mentioned. The Terminator story is a story about time travel. Maybe whoever is responsible for the fifth film should take a small trip into the past, this time by reading some older sci-fi and viewing a few classic films and TV series, and re-discovering what made the Terminator so attractive in the first place. Hint: It wasn't just special effects and "name" actors.
Afterword: I omitted The Sarah Connor Chronicles for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I've never watched a single episode, which makes it hard to review. Also, from reading the summary of the series, it takes the tenuous history of the future and stirs it up in a blender, probably screwing up whatever continuity that may be left in the films. We have a story in a loop that needs closing. The fifth and sixth films need to do that with the rise of John Connor, the journey of Kyle Reese, and the final termination of Skynet.
If you can hear this, you are the resistance.
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