THE
TERMINATOR
THE
TERMINATOR BY RYAN MACEACHERN
THE TERMINATOR
PAST JOURNEY p12 ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER p14 “NICE NIGHT FOR A WALK.” p18 SPARE A THOUGHT FOR LANCE HENRIKSEN p22 JAMES CAMERON p24 “THE UZI 9MM” p26 JOURNEY 2 p28 HOW WASHINGTON D.C.S GUN BAN LEAD TO A CRIME WAVE IN THE 80’S p32 “PROBABLY ON PCP, BROKE EVERY BONE IN HIS HAND” p38 PCP ADDICTION STATISTICS p42 L.A. RIOTS p45
CO PRESENT TERMINATOR SALVATION p56 JAMES CAMERON p62 AVATAR OVERTAKES TITANIC AS TOP GROSSING FILM EVER p64 JOURNEY 3 p66 ARNOLD RETURNS p72 WHAT’S YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE? p80 NORTH KOREA BRANDS US ENEMY OF THE STATE p100
006
ONTENTS FUTURE JOURNEY 4 p108 LONE GUNMEN KILLS NORWAYS FUTURE LEADERS p110 TIME TRAVEL THEORY p118 HARLAN ELLISON p124 CAMPAIGNERS CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL BAN ON “KILLER BOTS” p136
PENTAGON DEVELOPING AUTONOMOUS HUMANOID “PERFORM EVACUATION OPERATIONS” p140
ROBOTS
TO
007
PAS
ST
IN THE YEAR OF DARKNESS, THE RULERS OF THIS PLANET DEVISED THE ULTIMATE PLAN. THEY WOULD RESHAPE THE FUTURE BY CHANGING THE PAST. THE PLAN REQUIRED SOMETHING THAT FELT NO PITY. NO PAIN. NO FEAR. SOMETHING UNSTOPPABLE.
JOURNEY
The idea for The Terminator came to Cameron while he lay sick in a bed in Rome during postproduction on his first feature, Piranha II. “I came up with the entire plotline all on one wallop,” Cameron recalled, “pretty much as it was later filmed, though it took many months of fine-tuning to work out the characters and everything else in detail.” An aspiring comic book artist as a kid, Cameron acknowledged that he “work(s) visually first, even as a writer. This whole film evolved out of the central images of the robot emerging from the fire.”
“THE FILM EVOLVED OUT OF THE CENTRAL IMAGE OF THE ROBOT EMERGING FROM THE FIRE” Drawing further from the other major film influences in his life, the German impressionist films of the 1930s and film noir of the 1940s, Cameron soon produced a 45-page treatment of The Terminator. He gave it to co-writer/producer Gale Ann Hurd, another disciple of Roger Corman’s crash-course school of filmmaking, who immediately fell for the story and helped Cameron to get it made. But he needed a star. Someone to fill the mighty shoes of the Terminator.
013
THE TERMINATOR
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a life unlike many other individuals. Born in Thal, Austria, in 1947, Schwarzenegger always dreamed of moving to the United States. In Austria, he was extremely athletic and participated in a number of sports. Schwarzenegger’s father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a policeman, but he chose to pursue a career in bodybuilding due to his immense strength. Bodybuilding became a major motivation in Schwarzenegger’s decision to emigrate. When Schwarzenegger moved to the United States at the age of 21, he could barely speak a word of English. To help remedy this problem, Schwarzenegger took English classes from Santa Monica College in California. Schwarzenegger knew that he would never become known as a famous bodybuilder without having a strong command of English.
014
Schwarzenegger had his interest sparked in bodybuilding from a young age and began a training routine when he reached his teens. When he first arrived from Austria, Schwarzenegger began weight training at a Los Angeles gym. Schwarzenegger had a desire to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world; something, which he felt, was possible. In order to achieve this, capturing the Mr. Olympia title was a necessary requirement. After losing to a three-time champion on his first attempt in 1969, Schwarzenegger won the title the next year. This Mr. Olympia title became the first of many that helped establish Schwarzenegger as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time.
Training at Gold’s Gym, 1974
015
THE TERMINATOR
EXT. PLAYGROUND - NIGHT
3
A beer bottle SMASHES on the ground.
PULL BACK
to include its ex-owner and his two compatriots, YOUTH GANG MEMBERS, lounging on the jungle gym of a deserted playground.
They sport nondescript
PUNK REGALIA...torn T-shirts, fatigue pants, combat boots or high-top sneakers, leather
SECOND PUNK
jackets.
Washday tomorrow, huh?
The leader notices something and sits up.
Terminator eyes them without expression,
Nothing clean, right?
unhurried. LEADER
Reptilian.
(pointing) Hey, hey...what’s wrong with this picture?
TERMINATOR Nothing clean.
Right.
Seen past the lounging toughs, Terminator walks into a pool of streetlight, striding purposefully
LEADER
toward them.
This guy’s a couple bricks short.
They slide from their perches and drop easily to
Terminator turn to the second punk, ignoring the
the ground like liquid shadows.
others.
LEADER
TERMINATOR
Nice night for a walk, eh?
Your clothes.
Terminator stops in front of them.
The punks exchange glances, dismayed.
TERMINATOR
TERMINATOR
(without inflection)
(coldly)
Nice night for a walk.
Now.
They surround him, all swagger and malicious
SECOND PUNK
good humor.
(bracing)
Give them to me.
Fuck you, asshole.
018
Without warning Terminator hammer-punches him in the temple, flinging him with a CLANG into the jungle gym. He drops to the ground in a still heap. The leader whips out his SWITCHBLADE and slashes in one motion.
Terminator catches the knife-
wielder’s wrist in an inhuman grip. He punches the leader with piledriver force just below the breastbone. ANGLE - PAVEMENT, as the knife clatters down. The punk’s combat boots are on tiptoe, barely touching the ground. ANGLE - TWO SHOT, Terminator and the leader close together. The punk’s eyes are wide, his veins distended with an agonizing pressure.
Terminator jerks
his fist back with a WET SOUND and the other drops OUT OF FRAME. The last tough is stumbling away, gaping with terror.
He backs into a chainlink fence, turns
to run along it, finds he is in a corner. Terminator takes a step toward him, his gaze ominous. The punk begins shakily stripping off his clothes. Thunder peals overhead.
019
THE TERMINATOR
SPARE A THOUGHT FOR LANCE HENRIKSEN Once Cameron had sweated out that dream of the endo-skeleton rising from the fiery inferno and had fleshed it out into a full script, he’d always imagined his title character as an anonymous killing machine, a wiry Everyman who could blend into a crowd. Not very Arnold Schwarzenegger, but very Lance Henriksen. Cameron had earmarked Henriksen after working with him on Piranha II (after briefly considering OJ Simpson, who, producer Gale Anne Hurd said, “was athletic and had a kind face, the sort of face you wouldn’t associate with a machine built to kill...” - ahem) and the actor indulged in a little bit of extra-curricular acting in order to help Cameron get the film financed. “I went into Hemdale [the prospective financial backers] decked out like the Terminator,” Henriksen recalls. “I put gold foil from a Vantage cigarette package in my teeth and waxed my hair back. Jim had put fake cuts on my head. I wore a ripped-up punk rock t-shirt, a leather jacket and boots up to my knees. It was a really exciting look. I was a scary person to be in a room with. I kicked the door open when I got there and the poor secretary just about swallowed her typewriter. I headed in to see the producer. I sat in the room with him and I wouldn’t talk to him. I just kept looking at him. After a few minutes of that he was ready to jump out the window!” John Daly, Hemdale’s big chief, was sold. Teaming up with Orion and HBO, Cameron and his producer wife Gale Anne Hurd had their movie. That dream was now about to become widescreen reality.
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THE TERMINATOR
JAMES CAMERON Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada,
(1981), and consulted on the design of Android
in 1954, he grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, with
(1982).
his only brother Mike. He attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls, Ontario. In
Cameron was hired as the special effects director
1971, his family moved to Brea, California, when
for the sequel to Piranha, entitled Piranha II:
Cameron was 17 years old.
The Spawning in 1981. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative
After seeing the original Star Wars film in
differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis,
1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to
who then gave Cameron his first job as overall
enter the film industry. When Cameron read Syd
director. The interior scenes were filmed in
Field’s book Screenplay, it occurred to him that
Italy while the underwater sequences were shot
integrating science and art was possible, and he
at Grand Cayman Island.
wrote a ten-minute science fiction script with two friends, entitled Xenogenesis. They raised
The movie was to be produced in Jamaica. On
money and rented camera, lenses, film stock, and
location, production slowed due to numerous
studio, and shot it in 35mm. To understand how
problems and adverse weather. James Cameron was
to operate the camera, they dismantled it and
fired after failing to get a close up of Carole
spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to
Davis in her opening scene. Ovidio ordered
figure out how to get it running.
Cameron to do the close-up the next day before
Xenogenesis was the first film Cameron made,
he started on that day’s shooting. Cameron
He was the director, writer, producer, and
spent the entire day sailing around the resort
production designer. He then became a production
to reproduce the lighting but still failed to
assistant on a film called Rock and Roll High
get the close-up. After he was fired, Ovidio
School, uncredited in 1979. While continuing
invited Cameron to stay on location and assist
to educate himself in filmmaking techniques,
in the shooting. Once in Rome, Ovidio took over
Cameron started working as a miniature-model
the editing when Cameron was stricken with food
maker at Roger Corman Studios. Making rapidly
poisoning. During his illness, he had a nightmare
produced, low-budget productions taught Cameron
about an invincible robot hitman sent from the
to work efficiently and effectively. He soon
future to kill him
found employment as an art director in the scifi movie Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981), acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror
024
THE TERMINATOR
29
INT. PAWN SHOP - DAY
29
(setting
it out)
You know your weapons, buddy. TIGHT ON GLASS COUNTERTOP as an AR-180 ASSAULT RIFLE WITH SCOPE is laid beside a number of
Terminator examines each in turn, working the
other guns: a COLT K-MODEL .45 ACP, a SMITH AND
actions with curt, precise movements.
WESSON .38 FOUR-INCH. CLERK TERMINATOR (V.O.)
(continuing)
...the Remington 1100 Autoloader...
Any one of them’s ideal for home defense. Which’ll it be?
WIDE as the CLERK, who looks like a sick lizard, pallid and paunchy, takes the rifle from a wall
TERMINATOR
rack.
All.
He lays it beside the arsenal of perfectly
legal anti-human artillery already on the glass counter.
The clerk digs deep and finds a scrap of a smile.
Terminator scans expressionlessly for additional selections.
CLERK Maybe I’ll close early.
CLERK Anything else?
He turns around, fumbling in a drawer for the registration papers. Terminator picks up a box
TERMINATOR
of shotgun shells.
A phased plasma pulse-laser in the forty watt range...
CLERK There’ll be a fifteen day wait on the handguns,
CLERK
but you can take the rifles today if you...
(annoyed) Just what you see, pal.
He turns. Seeing Terminator loading shells into the
He indicates the display case and wall racks
shotgun.
with a minimal gesture. CLERK TERMINATOR
(continuing)
The Uzi 9 millimeter.
Hey...you can’t...
CLERK
TERMINATOR Wrong. He raises the barrel and pulls the trigger. gun THUNDERS.
026
The
027
Originally, the character of the Terminator was not written as a muscleman; he was written as a bland, faceless guy who could fit into any crowd. And originally, Schwarzenegger was supposed to portray Kyle Reese, the film’s world-saving hero, not the unstoppable murderous robot sent from the future. It was over a lunch with Schwarzenegger that Cameron realised the hulking man sitting across from him must play the Terminator. “You are a machine,” Schwarzenegger recalls Cameron saying, as the director tried to sell him the part of
'
“YOU RE THE SYMBOL OF POWER, LIKE A FINE-TUNED MACHINE.”
the villain. “You’re the symbol of power, like a fine-tuned machine. And I think people will
It didn’t take ling for Arnold to agree with
totally believe that you are a Terminator.”
Cameron: “As soon as I read the script, I knew I
But Schwarzenegger was not totally convinced:
wanted to play the Terminator. It’s a completely
“No. No. This is not what I’m here for.” So
different kind of character.”
Cameron made a hefty promise and an ambitious prediction: “I will make you look like you’ve
Cameron’s prediction came true: Arnold’s
never looked before, and I think that the part
performance did put him on the map as a bona
itself will have more impact for you in your
fide box office star. And the role, which
career than the other character would have.
perfectly suited Schwarzenegger, finally allowed
Because the other character is just another
him to flex a new set of muscles... his acting
hero. But this one, you’ll be a very memorable
ones! With previous appearances in such movies
cyborg villain and a human machine.”
as the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron, Bob Rafelson’s Staying Hungry, and Conan, The Barbarian, Schwarzenegger was becoming known for his likeable charisma. But these roles focused mainly on his physique. Cameron was interested in more than just Arnold’s biceps: “I was particularly fascinated by Arnold’s face,” he said. “He looked like a human bulldozer in this part, and we never show his body or use him as a muscleman except in the opening scene.”
028
JOURNEY Schwarzenegger was happy to be viewed in a new light: “I don’t like to fall into a category... doing the same things all the time,” he said. “I thought it would be quite challenging to play the villain for a change; a robot, a killing machine, a very intense sort of role.” And challenging it was for Arnold, who put in a lot of work to train for the role. “It was basically the idea of locking into this robot behavior; this cols, no-emotion behavior”, he said. The actor, who would have to handle numerous guns in the film, spent a month-and-ahalf prior to filming working with gun expert Mitch Kalter to perfect his performance. With Kalter’s guidance, Arnold learned “how to take the gun apart and put it together quickly, how to look professional when he did it and not to have to look down when he put the magazine in.” And according to Soldier of Fortune magazine, Arnold’s handling of weapons in that film is “entirely plausible”. Cameron lauded Schwarzenegger’s performance: he “did phenomenally well; he has a magnificent ability to concentrate and create the character practically seamlessly; he never stepped out of the role. Once he became the Terminator, he was the single-minded, strong-willed, forward-moving character that he was written to be.”
029
HOW WASH D.C S LED TO A CR IN THE
'
HINGTON S GUN BAN RIME WAVE E by Daniel Greenfield
THE TERMINATOR
If there’s any place in America where everything must go smoothly, it’s Washington D.C., the city that runs the country. And that’s true of gun control, which went as smoothly in Washington D.C. as it has everywhere else. The formula is simple. Ban guns. Encourage criminals. As a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who enforced firearms and ammunition cases while a severe local gun ban was still in effect, I am skeptical of the benefits that many imagine will result from additional gun-control efforts. I dislike guns, but I believe that a nationwide firearms crackdown would place an undue burden on law enforcement and endanger civil liberties while potentially increasing crime. The D.C. gun ban, enacted in 1976, prohibited anyone other than law-enforcement officers from carrying a firearm in the city. Residents were even barred from keeping guns in their homes for self-defense. Some in Washington who owned firearms before the ban were allowed to keep them as long as the weapons were disassembled or trigger-locked at all times. According to the law, trigger locks could not be removed for self-defense even if the owner was being robbed at gunpoint. The only way anyone could legally possess a firearm in the District without a trigger lock was to obtain written permission from the D.C. police. The granting of such permission was rare. The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454.
034
THE FORMULA IS SIMPLE. BAN GUNS. ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS. 035
THE TERMINATOR
159
INT. TRAXLER’S OFFICE - NIGHT
159
TIGHT ON VIDEO MONITOR showing Reese in the Interrogation Room. REESE (recorded) ...It’s just him and me.
REESE (recorded/controlling his hostility)
CUT WIDE
You go naked.
Something about the field
generated by a living organism. revealing Sarah, Silberman, Traxler and Vukovich
Nothing dead
will go.
watching a monitor sitting amid incredible paperwork clutter on a desk top.
SILBERMAN (recorded)
SILBERMAN
Why?
(recorded) Why didn’t you bring any weapons?
REESE
Something more advanced. Don’t you have ray guns?
(recorded) I didn’t build the fucking thing.
Vukovich, standing in the back, grins and nudges Silberman, who nods appreciatively.
SILBERMAN (recorded)
TIGHT ON REESE’S RECORDED IMAGE
Okay.
Okay.
But this...
(consults his notes) glares at Silberman.
cyborg...if it’s metal --
ON SARAH
REESE (recorded)
as Silberman’s voice is heard.
Surrounded by living tissue.
SILBERMAN
SILBERMAN
(recorded)
(recorded)
Show me a piece of future technology.
Of course.
038
and won’t feel it for hours.
There was this guy
once that... C.U. - REESE, ON SCREEN Traxler cuts him off with a gesture and sits C.U. - SARAH
beside Sarah on the bench.
staring at the screen.
TRAXLER Why don’t you just stretch out here and get some
SARAH
sleep.
(turning)
here from Redlands.
It’ll take your mom a good hour to get
So Reese is crazy. SARAH I can’t sleep.
SILBERMAN In technical terminology, he’s a loon.
TRAXLER SARAH
Go ahead.
But--
this building.
Traxler hands her something that looks like
SARAH
umpire’s padding.
Okay.
VUKOVICH
She lays her head on a wadded-up blanket as
Sarah, this is body armor. Our TAC guys wear
everyone leaves the office.
it.
It’ll stop a 12 gauge round.
You’re safe.
There’re thirty cops in
This other
individual must’ve had one under his coat. Sarah wants to believe him.
God help her if
he’s wrong. SARAH But what about him punching through the windshield? VUKOVICH (shrugs) Probably on PCP, broke every bone in his hand
039
THE TERMINATOR
CHARACTERISTICS OF
VICTIMS OF PCP-RELATED DEATHS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY.
The characteristics of the 104 persons who died in Los Angeles County in 1980 where PCP use was involved, have been studied. A majority of these victims were Black (73%), males (85%), in their twenties (20-29 (58%)), and the victim of a homicide (52%). In only 14% of these cases was there a fatal overdose of PCP alone or in combination with other drugs. Data on 80 PCP-related deaths, occurring in a 12-month period in 1977-1978, were obtained from the files of the Los Angeles County Coroner. Of these deaths, 44 cases were evaluated by means of the psychological autopsy procedure. This procedure involves abstracting data from available records of the decedent and interviewing persons having personal or professional knowledge of the decedent’s life history. Findings indicate that the decedents tended to be young minority persons with markedly disturbed personal and family backgrounds. Prior to their deaths, they had used PCP extensively and had a long history of polydrug use. Considerable psychosocial maladjustment was evident prior to their deaths, with crises and significant losses often occurring within 3 months of death.
042
THE FREQUENCY OF DEATHS
RESULTING FROM THE USE OF DRUGS AND CHEMICALS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY.
A study of the frequency of deaths resulting from the use of drugs and chemicals in Los Angeles County in the period 1947--1980 indicated that there was a substantial increase in the number of such deaths in 1968/69. This trend continued until 1976/77 when the number of deaths decreased, and the declining trend continued until 1979/80. An additional study in the period 1974--1981, based on the analyses of 35 drugs in biological samples taken in autopsies, showed that those drugs were more often present in overdose cases of death than in drug-related cases of death where drugs were not directly responsible fo the occurrence of death. Ethanol and phencyclidine were, however, more frequently found in drugrelated cases of death.
043
THE TERMINATOR
L.A.
RIOTS A brief account of the six days of rioting which set Los Angeles aflame following the acquittal of four police officers who were filmed beating black motorist Rodney King. “There’s a difference between frustration with the law and direct assaults upon our legal system.” - George Bush Snr., May 3rd, 1992. The first rocks started to fly as the four LAPD officers who beat Rodney King and the jury who acquitted them were leaving the courtroom in suburban Simi Valley. Subsequent to the acquittal, on the afternoon of April 29th 1992, thousands of people began pouring into the streets of Los Angeles. In a few hours rioting spread across the LA metropolitan area. Conditions rapidly approached the level of civil war. The police withdrew from the main areas of fighting, ceding the streets to the insurgent poor. Systematic burnings of capitalist enterprises commenced. More than 5,500 buildings burned. People shot at cops on the street and at media and police helicopters. Seventeen government buildings were destroyed. The Los Angeles Times was attacked and looted. A vast canopy of smoke from the buildings covered the LA Basin. Flights out of LA airport were cancelled and incoming flights had to be diverted due to the smoke and sniper fire. The rioting was the single most violent episode of social unrest in the US in the twentieth century, far outstripping the urban revolts of the 1960s both in sheer destructiveness and in the fact that the riots were a multiracial revolt of the poor. In the initial phase of the LA riots, the police were rapidly overwhelmed and retreated, and the military did not appear until the rioting had abated. The New York Times noted:
047
THE TERMINATOR
“Some areas took on the atmosphere of a street party as black, white, Hispanic and Asian residents mingled to share in a carnival of looting. As the greatly outnumbered police looked on, people of all ages (and genders), some carrying small children, wandered in and out of supermarkets with shopping bags and armloads
Following the lead of events in the nation’s
of shoes, liquor, radios, groceries, wigs, auto
cultural capital, mass spontaneous rioting
parts, gumball machines and guns”.
spread to several dozen cities across the US.
The 30,000 square foot military enlistment centre
In San Francisco more than a hundred stores were
for all nine counties of Southern California
looted and rich areas were attacked. One of the
was burned to the ground on the first night.
large posh hotels had its windows smashed by a
The state portrayed the rioting as an episode
gang of youths chanting “The Rich Must Die”.
of indiscriminate mayhem where rioters attacked
Protesters marched o¬nto the Interstate Freeway,
each other like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
causing a massive tailback affecting several
While most media coverage and subsequent
hundred thousand car commuters. In San Jose,
histories have focussed on a few negative events,
students looted and attacked police cruisers.
such as the horrific beating of truck driver
Police were shot at in Tampa, Florida, and in
Reginald Denny, in fact crimes against people,
Las Vegas, armed rioters burned a state parole
such as rape and drive-by shootings, virtually
and probation office. Armed confrontations
disappeared as previously atomised working
between the police and locals continued in Las
people of different colours and ethnicities came
Vegas for the next 18 days. In Seattle a burning
together in mass collective violence, proletarian
police car was pushed into police ranks and
shopping [looting] and a potlatch of destruction.
there was loads of looting, smashing and burning
There were far fewer rapes and muggings during
in downtown Seattle. Similar events happened all
the period than there are in LA under the normal
over the US.
rule of law. on a conservative estimate, more
On May 2nd, 5,000 LAPD, 1,000 Sheriff’s
than 100,000 rebel poor in the greater LA area
Deputies, 950 County Marshals and 2,300 Highway
have now collectively experienced, in arson,
Patrol cops, accompanied by 9,975 National
looting and violence against the police, the
Guard troops, 3,500 Army troops and Marines with
intelligent use of violence as a political
armoured vehicles and 1,000 Federal Marshals,
weapon. The number of participants in the
FBI agents and Border Patrol SWAT teams moved in
uprising is well into the six-figure range.
to restore order and guard the shopping malls.
We know this because there were around 11,000
Hundreds were wounded. Most of the people killed
arrests (5,000 black, 5,500 Latino, 600 white)
in the uprising were killed in the repression of
and the vast majority of participants got away
the revolt. After much fighting and the largest
scot-free.
mass arrest in US history the LA 92 insurrection came to a close.
048
PRES
SENT
THE MACHINES ROSE FROM THE ASHES OF THE NUCLEAR FIRE. THEIR WAR TO EXTERMINATE MANKIND HAD RAGED ON FOR DECADES. BUT THE FINAL BATTLE WILL NOT BE FOUGHT IN THE FUTURE, IT WOULD BE FOUGHT IN OUR PRESENT...TONIGHT
THE TERMINATOR
TERMINATOR SALVATION
mom. Connor and his comrades discover what they think is a kryptonite-type weapon which will win the war: a signal transmitter that appears to immobilise the robots. They certainly need all the help they can get. Because Connor has chanced upon evidence that the machines have developed an all-new, humanlooking super-duper, so-unstoppable-it-makesprevious-Terminators-look-stoppable Terminator. Where, oh where, can this chilling prototype
With much buzzing, beeping and whirring, the
be? Meanwhile, a mysterious warrior hoves into
Terminator franchise comes to an absolute
view, insinuating himself into the resistance
creative standstill, or even goes clankingly
fighters’ ranks: one Marcus Wright, played by
into reverse, with this fantastically dull
the Australian actor Sam Worthington. But as
fourth episode. Look closely in the battle scenes
we have already seen this same character in
and you can see one of the red-eye Terminator
the pre-credit sequence on death row, pledging
robots yawning, leaning over to another robot
his body to science, it isn’t hard to guess his
and mouthing the words: “I actually voted for
tragically conflicted secret. Inevitably, we are
Stavros Flatley.”
to be reintroduced to that self-defeating concept
It is set in that post-nuclear future of smoky
already rolled out in T2: the “nice” Terminator,
wreckage, CGI ruination, battered bridges
the Terminator we’re sort of supposed to be
and buggered buildings prophesied in James
rooting for.
Cameron’s original 1984 film. The star is
Fundamentally, Connor and Wright utterly cancel
notorious crosspatch Christian Bale, playing
each other out; all the crash-bang action is
John Connor, the freedom fighter battling robot-
entirely uninvolving, looking frankly less
machine tyranny. Connor, you will recall, is
exciting than the chase scene at the beginning
the resistance hero whom the machines tried to
of Walt Disney’s Bolt. There’s nothing to compare
wipe out by sending California’s future governor
with the magnificent showdown between Arnie and
Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to whack his
Linda Hamilton at the end of the first movie,
056
and the only woman on view here is Bryce Dallas Howard, playing Connor’s winsomely pregnant partner who is at all times wringing wet. If the contest was about who can be the dullest, Bale would win hands down. His belligerent, resentful facial expression is that of a stunned ox, or a vexed moose, or a rhino that thinks it’s overheard someone calling its mum a slag. All the world has now heard the famous onset meltdown that Bale had while making this film, weirdly maintaining his American accent while raging at director of photography Shane Hurlbut for messing with the lights while Bale was trying to do a scene. (Almost as many will have heard his apology, phoned into an LA radio station, expressing concern that anyone would have thought less of Hurlbut, and emphasising that he is in fact an outstanding professional.) Perhaps the tantrum should be released as a bonus feature with the DVD - or perhaps it is rather that the film should be the bonus feature, and Bale’s super-strop the main event. It is certainly more exciting and more deeply felt than anything in the fictional action. The terminators themselves, once so scary, are now starting to resemble a chorus line of grumpy C3POs. And despite being notionally formidable warriors, they have an unfortunate eccentricity,
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THE TERMINATOR
which is to prove convenient for the narrative. If you can get close enough to stab them in the back of the neck, they go limp and floppy for a good few minutes! What a very unfortunate design flaw for these Terminators. Why didn’t the “machines”, those implacable foes of humanity, think to stick a metal plate on the back of their necks? And the other thing is, for the third time, he’s beck. The original Terminator comes very briefly out of retirement, digitally created to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger as he was 25 years ago, in his primped, pumped pomp. Oddly, this obviously unreal Arnie doesn’t look as excitingly and creepily unreal as the actual, real, non-CGI Schwarzenegger did all those years ago. Nothing and no one in this film looks as gloriously mad as he did in 1984, and no one is capable of the droll, subversive hints of humour that helped to make the film and its star such a smash. Famously, Schwarzenegger’s later switch from movies to politics was so quick that he was fully installed as governor of California just as the DVD edition of Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines hit the stores. Well, now that his career in public office is beginning to tank, who knows if the de facto leader of Hollywood’s Austrian-American community won’t be back for T5? After all, Sly Stallone returned for another Rocky and another Rambo. Perhaps Arnie will feel the need to stick in the old red contact lenses for another sentimental outing. Perhaps this can be all about the problems that a Terminator faces in his autumnal years: the slowing up, the grandchildren, the bittersweet visits to the prostate clinic. It couldn’t be worse than this.
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THE TERMINATOR
JAMES CAMERON
When it was released in 1984, The Terminator
Titanic, of course, went on to become the
established Arnold Schwarzenegger as a huge
highest-grossing movie of all time. It won
star, and James Cameron, onetime truck driver,
11 Oscars, including best picture and best
suddenly became a top-tier director.
director. Cameron could now make any film he wanted. So what did he do?
Over the next 10 years, Cameron helmed a series of daring films, including Aliens, The Abyss,
He disappeared.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and True Lies. Generating $1.1 billion in worldwide box office
Cameron would not release another Hollywood
revenue, they gave Cameron the kind of clout
film for 12 years. He made a few underwater
he needed to revisit his dream of making an
documentaries and did some producing, but he
interstellar epic. So in 1995, he wrote an
was largely out of the public eye. For most of
82-page treatment about a paralyzed soldier’s
that time, he rarely mentioned Avatar and said
virtual quest on a faraway planet after Earth
little about his directing plans.
becomes a bleak wasteland. The alien world, called Pandora, is populated by the Na’vi,
But now, finally, he’s back. On December 18,
fierce 10-foot-tall blue humanoids with catlike
Avatar arrives in theaters. This time, Cameron,
faces and reptilian tails. Pandora’s atmosphere
who turned 55 this year, didn’t need to build
is so toxic to humans that scientists grow
half an ocean liner on the Mexican coast as he
genetically engineered versions of the Na’vi,
did with Titanic, so why did it take one of the
so-called avatars that can be linked to a
most powerful men in Hollywood so long to come
human’s consciousness, allowing complete remote
out with a single film? In part, the answer is
control of the creature’s body. Cameron thought
that it’s not easy to out-Lucas George Lucas.
that this project — titled Avatar — could be
Cameron needed to invent a suite of moviemaking
his next blockbuster. That is, the one after he
technologies, push theaters nationwide to
finished a little adventure-romance about a ship
retool, and imagine every detail of an alien
that hits an iceberg.
world.
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THE TERMINATOR
AVATAR OVERTAKES TITANIC AS TOPGROSSING FILM EVER
If the same rules are applied to Avatar, then the movie actually ranks at number 26. Avatar - Cameron’s latest epic - won two Golden Globes last week, and is expected to garner an Oscar nomination next month. Earlier this month, it became the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£619m) in ticket sales around the world, and took over second place from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Avatar’s worldwide takings in just six weeks
It has proved a worldwide sensation, dominating
stand at $1.859bn (£1.15bn), versus Titanic’s
the box office from North America to China and
$1.843bn (£1.14bn).
Russia.
The figures are not adjusted for inflation or
The science-fiction adventure, about a disabled
the higher cost of Avatar’s 3D film tickets.
marine who infiltrates a race of giant blue
Director James Cameron holds the remarkable
aliens, mixes live action with digitally-created
distinction of directing both the world’s top
performances.
grossing movies.
It was reportedly the most expensive film ever
Titanic, which starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo
made, with a budget of at least $300m (£185m).
DiCaprio, set a new box office record during its release in 1997-1998. It also won Cameron an Oscar for best director. The biggest movie of all time in North America - adjusted for inflation - continues to be Gone with the Wind in 1939. The movie, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, took ticket sales of almost $1.5 billion (£929m), according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.
064
021
JOURNEY While the film gave birth to the tech-noir genre, The Terminator also established James Cameron as “a filmmaking force to contend with” (The Hollywood Reporter). It has also had such a lasting impact, including direct references in over fifty other films that it stands out as “one of the most important films in the 1980s” (Esquire). A low-budget film laden with ahead-of-itstime special effects, The Terminator required a dedicated and creative team of artists to achieve the look and energy for which the ambitious director was striving. And with foresight, ingenuity, experimentation and bold decision-making, the Oscar-calibre visual team, including cinematographer Adam Greenberg and special effects supervisor Gene Warren, Jr, made it happen. •
To give the Terminator even more of an imposing and ominous presence, Greenberg shot him from low angles. “He’s big to begin with,” Greenberg said, “but doing all those low angles makes him look like a monster”
•
To go along with the foreboding elements of the story, Greenberg aimed for “a cool look, lots of dark shadows, strong black light... a very hard, strong, contrasting look.” And he “accomplished most of what he set out to do by lighting and mood, rather than by using a lot of elaborate equipment the film couldn’t afford.”
•
The film contains many high-speed car chases in which the cars appear to be travelling at 90 miles an hour. In reality, however, the cars never went faster than 40 mph. “What I did,” Greenberg revealed, “was have lights mounted on cars accompanying us.” These cars would ride along next to the vehicles being filmed, shining their fast-moving lights onto the action, “giving the illusion of an extra 25-30 m.p.h.”
067
•
There were many different effects techniques
of a war-torn land-to-come, were supplied
employed to create the film’s futuristic
by a team of talented visual artists led by
atmosphere. Computer effects, which gave a
Gene Warren, Jr.
view of the world from the perspective of the Terminator; stop-motion animation, which animated the machines of the future; and miniature photography, which gave a glimpse
•
Hand-held cameras captured much of the desired rapid pacing of the film. According to Greenberg, “shooting hand-held gives an energy to a scene you can’t get any other way.”
068
THE TERMINATOR
ARNOLD RETURNS Back in the 90s, if you said Arnold
It’s not surprising but it sure is pleasing to
Schwarzenegger was going to enter politics, you’d
hear from Arnold himself, that he’s ready to jump
be considered a fool, and an unfunny one at
back in the action and start looking at scripts
that. A decade later he become the Governor of
officially. We had heard previously that this
California.
was the case and we eagerly await news on what
Politics aside, the worst part about about
projects he attaches himself to.
Schwarzenegger’s change in career aspirations
Could one of his first roles be a bigger part in
was that he was taken out of the film industry
Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables 2? Could it
for a full seven years and we’ve sincerely
be a return to one of his previously established
missed him during that time. Fortunately for
franchises like True Lies 2 should James Cameron
us, and moviegoers around the world, Arnold
find time in his schedule work again with him? Or
Schwarzenegger is ready to make his return to
will we see him in something brand new?
acting!
Whatever film Arnold returns with, I hope it’s in
On his own Twitter account, only an hour ago,
the action genre. After such a long absence, his
Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted the following
return to a starring role would cause an absolute
message:
media frenzy and he could sell such a movie
“Exciting news. My friends at CAA have been
easily on his own.
asking me for 7 years when they can take offers seriously. Gave them the green light today.”
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THE THING THAT WON T DIE, IN THE NIGHTMARE THAT WON T END.
' '
'
WHAT S YOU W NIGHTM
UR WORST MARE?
I asked friends and family to share their worst nightmares with me to help explore people’s fears. I set up an anonymous online comment
box, where they could confess and shared it via twitter & facebook.
“
I FELT LIKE I WAS BEING
WOKE UP IT ACTUALLY
HANDS AROUND MY NEC
BEING SHOT AND WHEN
THERE WAS A WOUND TH
WAS BY FAR THE SCAR
G CHOKED, AND WHEN I
Y FELT LIKE THERE WERE
CK. OTHER TIMES I WAS
N I WOKE UP IT FELT LIKE
HERE, BUT THE CHOKING
RIEST.
“ '
I M A KID, AND I GET LOST A FINE UNTIL A STRANGE OLD COU LOST, AND WANT TO HELP FIN THEY RE GOING TO TAKE ME HO HIDING IN AN UNFINISHED STOR OPAQUE PLASTIC SHEETING. I C THEY COME IN LOOKING FOR M UNTIL THEY FINALLY FIND ME, G
'
' '
AFTER-HOURS IN A MALL. I M UPLE START ASKING ME IF I M ND MY PARENTS. THEY DECIDE OME. THEN I RUN. I FIND MYSELF RE - WITH WOOD FRAMING AND CAN SEE THEIR SILHOUETTES AS ME. I SCURRY AROUND, FEARFUL GRAB ME - THEN I WAKE UP.
“
I DREAMED MY DAD SE WAS FURIOUS AND DISG THEN I KILLED MYSELF. TH AND OVER, IN MY HEAD, MAKE ME WHOLE AND WE THE DREAM RE-SET ITSE
EXUALLY ABUSED ME. I GUSTED. SO I KILLED HIM. HEN I KEPT SAYING OVER , “PLEASE GO BACK AND ELL AGAIN. “ AFTER A BIT SELF TO THE BEGINNING.
“'
IN A MAZE, TRYING TO EV SEE THEIR FEET. I PRAY T DON T KNOW. I AM COUNT TOO HARD FOR THEM TO MY BREATHING AND TRY I ALWAYS WAKE BEFORE
VADE TWO PEOPLE. I CAN THEY CAN T SEE ME, BUT I TING ON THE MAZE BEING O GET TO ME. I SUPRESS Y TO RUN VERY QUIETLY. E I GET CAUGHT.
'
“
RECURRING NIGHTMAR FALLING OUT, THEY CAN OR THEY FALL OUT BUT OF THE TOOTH FROM THE TASTE AND BITS OF SIN
RES INVOLVE MY TEETH N BE EASILY PULLED OUT I CAN FEEL EVERY PART E SHARP EDGES, BLOODY NEWY GUM ATTACHED.
THE TERMINATOR
NORTH KOREA
BRANDS US ENEMY OF THE STATE
North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ji Jae-Ryong, remained defiant. “Currently, enemy powers such
A North Korean ambassador has attacked the US as
as the United States are exerting unprecedented
his country rebuffed fresh calls from its only
military and political suppression on our
ally China to give up its nuclear programme.
country,” he said.
As the sun set on Pyongyaang after a day of
“But we have unswervingly demonstrated the power
peaceful festivities celebrating the 101st
of a nuclear state and a military power, and
anniversary of the birth of its founding father
firmly maintained peace and stability on the
Kim Il Sung, the threat of a missile launch
peninsula, and even in Northeast Asia and the
remained high.
whole world.
Ji Jae-ryong looks at photo albums on display at
North Koreans bow to statues of their former
an exhibition in Beijing
leaders
In Seoul, South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwan-
“And that is because we embrace comrade [North
jin told a parliamentary committee that North
Korea leader] Kim Jong-Un as the top leader of
Korea still appeared poised to launch a missile
our party and military.”
from its east coast, although he declined to disclose the source of his information.
There had been fears North Korea might use the national holiday to demonstrate its military
US Secretary of State John Kerry warned North
capability.
Korea not to conduct a missile test, saying it would be provocation that would “raise people’s
Tens of thousands of people had gathered in the
temperatures” and further isolate the country.
capital Pyongyang to celebrate the unveiling of new statues of Kim Il Sung and the son who
He said the US was “prepared to reach out” but Pyongyang must first bring down tensions and honour previous agreements.
100
succeeded him, Kim Jong-Il.
North Korea has made a habit of linking high-profile military tests with key dates in its calendar. Kim’s grandson, Kim Jong-Un, had started the day with a visit to the Pyongyang mausoleum, where his grandfather’s body lies embalmed, to pay “high tribute in humblest reverence”, the official Korean Central News Agency said. He also visited the embalmed body of his father, who died in December 2011. The Korean peninsula has been in a state of heightened military tension since the North carried out its third nuclear test in February. Incensed by fresh UN sanctions and joint South Korea-US military exercises, Pyongyang has spent weeks issuing blistering threats of missile strikes and nuclear war.
021
FUTU
URE
JOURNEY
CHECK PLEASE One afternoon during a break from shooting, Schwarzenegger walked into a downtown eatery to grab some lunch... and people gasped in horror at the sight of him! He was still in costume and make-up; an artificial layer of his face was carved away revealing teeth, metallic jawbones and a bulging eyeball amid seared patches of fake flesh. “It’s more challenging to play a robot than a human,” Arnold said. It’s also harder to get seated at restaurants!
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THE TERMINATOR
LONE GUNMAN KILLS NORWAYS FUTURE LEADERS
Norwegian judges have jailed the mass killer
right ideologue in 1982, the “lone wolf” tactic
Anders Behring Breivik after declaring him sane,
has remained a signature of far-right violence
yet his extremist ideology and shocking violence
for three decades - one whereby the “terrorist
continue to raise questions.
cycle” of preparation and execution is undertaken
His murder of 77 unsuspecting people on 22 July
single-handedly.
last year was the worst outrage for Norway since
Since Breivik’s killing spree, “lone wolf”
World War II.
attacks by right-wing extremists have continued:
It was also the worst far-right attack in Europe
from a targeted killing of Senegalese traders by
since Italy’s Bologna railway station bombing of
a CasaPound activist in Florence last December
1980, which killed 85 and wounded hundreds.
to the “hate rock” shooting rampage at a Sikh
Breivik’s calculated acts of political violence
Temple earlier this month by a neo-Nazi singer,
took months, even years, of intricate planning.
Wade Michael Page.
After bombing the Oslo government district he
Last week in the Czech Republic, police arrested
went on a shooting spree at a Labour Party youth
a 29-year-old man stockpiling explosives and
camp on Utoeya Island. It was the deadliest mass
weapons, claiming to be directly inspired by
shooting by a gunman in peacetime.
Breivik.
In a country as famously tolerant, integrated
“Lone wolf” terrorism represents a tiny - if
and wealthy as Norway, what could have motivated
less detectable - fraction of terrorist attacks.
such mass murder?
It remains difficult to accomplish - that is why
His method was that of a “lone wolf” right-wing
Breivik’s “manifesto”, comprising some three-
terrorist. But he also saw himself as part of
quarters of a million words, is so dangerous.
an international crusade, a Nordic warrior who
Beyond the incitement to hatred and violence,
could inspire others.
Breivik’s 2083: A Declaration of European
Breivik posed with self-styled military honours
Independence provides a do-it-yourself guide for
in an image on the internet
“lone wolf” terrorism, ranging from a daily bomb-
First dubbed “leaderless resistance” by a radical
making diary to instructions on how to source materials - both logistical and material - from the dark corners of the internet. The manifesto supersedes all previous terrorist manuals and concludes, allegedly at 12.51 on the day of Breivik’s attacks: “If you want something done, then do it yourself.” He did so, chillingly and with cold
110
determination. And his manifesto, sent to thousands of fellow far-right “patriots” in the hours before his attacks, is patently intended to inspire copycats. Breivik killed 69 people and wounded dozens more in his Utoeya shooting frenzy Breivik wants his murders on 22 July 2011 to be considered a form of “terrorist PR” for his manifesto and accompanying online film. He claims the “Knights Templar” clenched fist salute “symbolises strength, honour and defiance against the Marxist tyrants of Europe”. From demonising rhetoric to terrorist instruction manual, Breivik’s manifesto is a call to arms for right-wing extremists that, in work on similar failed plots in the UK, I have elsewhere dubbed “broadband terrorism”. The date 2083 refers to the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s death, and the 400th of the Battle of Vienna, when a Christian army halted the Ottoman Empire’s northward advance in Europe. Breivik’s subtitle is lifted from a 2007 essay by fellow Norwegian blogger “Fjordman”. Extensive citations - often plagiarised - also refer to other anti-Muslim ideologues and groups, from the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and Steven YaxleyLennon’s English Defence League to the likes of Jihadwatch and Stop the Islamisation of Nations (SION). In this sense, Breivik’s Islamophobic references are less harbingers than reformulated, stock canards that have been trundling around the farand radical-right for more than a generation.
THE TERMINATOR
determination. And his manifesto, sent to thousands of fellow farright “patriots” in the hours before his attacks, is patently intended to inspire copycats. Breivik killed 69 people and wounded dozens more in his Utoeya shooting frenzy Breivik wants his murders on 22 July 2011 to be considered a form of “terrorist PR” for his manifesto and accompanying online film. He claims the “Knights Templar” clenched fist salute “symbolises strength, honour and defiance against the Marxist tyrants of Europe”. From demonising rhetoric to terrorist instruction manual, Breivik’s manifesto is a call to arms for right-wing extremists that, in work on similar failed plots in the UK, I have elsewhere dubbed “broadband terrorism”. The date 2083 refers to the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s death, and the 400th of the Battle of Vienna, when a Christian army halted the Ottoman Empire’s northward advance in Europe. Breivik’s subtitle is lifted from a 2007 essay by fellow Norwegian blogger “Fjordman”. Extensive citations - often plagiarised - also refer to other anti-Muslim ideologues and groups, from the Dutch politician
112
“
HE KILLED CHILLINGL WITH CO DETERMI
Geert Wilders and Steven YaxleyLennon’s English Defence League to the likes of Jihadwatch and Stop the Islamisation of Nations (SION).
D SO GLY AND OLD INATION.
In this sense, Breivik’s Islamophobic references are less harbingers than reformulated, stock canards that have been trundling around the farand radical-right for more than a generation. Religious overtones Literally hundreds of references to Breivik’s main enemy, “Cultural Marxism”, derive from the Christian Right in the US, while its allegedly anti-Judeo-Christian offspring, “multiculturalism” - for which, read “Islamification of Europe” - appears more than 1,100 times across Breivik’s 1,513-page manifesto. These and other terms are used to demonise European Muslims on wellnetworked internet sites; theirs is the language of civilisational war, not democratic politics. His activities, of course, were not limited to online hate. He was a duespaying member of Norway’s populist right-wing Progress party for some five years until 2004. During that time he seems to have visited Bradford in northern England shortly after riots there in 2001, which further convinced him of the allegedly evil and “genocidal” nature
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“
THE TERMINATOR
of multiculturalism. The online multi-player game World of Warcraft also became a big part of his life - sometimes he played it for as many as 16 hours a day. Players adopt fantasy roles and fight battles to earn rewards. By 2009, Breivik was using Facebook to communicate with members of the recently formed street movement the English Defence League, and later claimed to have hundreds of EDL Facebook friends. By 2010, Breivik was apparently in contact with at least some of the EDL leadership, and attended at least one demonstration that year. He also visited London to welcome fellow “counter-jihadist” Geert Wilders. While very different, these networks continue to agree that - again citing 2083 - “multiculturalism is an anti-European hate ideology”. Breivik offers a clear instance of “Christianism” - the use of travestied Christian doctrines for the advancement of violent and revolutionary views. That is no reason for anyone to demonise more than a billion worshippers of Jesus Christ. By the same token, Islamism remains a political perversion of a Muslim faith shared by a billion souls.
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THE TERMINATOR
TIME TRAVEL THEORY The Einstein-Rosen Bridge
In Fiction: In Carl Sagan’s novel/movie, Contact, Eleanor Arroway is whisked through long conduits that bridge the enormous distances between points in space, and a similar thing seems to happen in everything from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Lost in Space (the movie) demonstrated the concept when the crew of the Jupiter 2 arrived after a rescue team, that was in turn sent after the ship. Even Gene Roddenberry presented this in his original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.” Captain Christopher Pike gives the helmsman an order for “time-warp factor,” and not just “warp-factor” as in the later Kirk-era and beyond. Perhaps he took it out to avoid confusion in storytelling. Fact Check: Traveling through these conduits, you’re essentially traveling forward in time at a rate which would be the ratio between the length of the wormhole and the actual distance in real space. Let’s say you wanted to go through a bridge to a star a mere five light years distant. When you look at the star from Earth, the photons that are reaching your eyes left the star five years ago, so you are seeing the star as it was five years ago. If your wormhole to this star is a mere mile long in your relative space, you could traverse it in seconds. When you arrive at the star, you would see it as it would exist five years in the future, relative to Earth time.
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THE TERMINATOR
TRAVEL BY SELF HYPNOSIS In Fiction: This theory was probed two different ways by the same piece of fiction (sort of). It was explored by the movie Somewhere in Time, based on Richard Matheson’s novel, Bid Time Return. The novel gave protagonist Richard Collier a brain tumor, so the slant was that his time travel was a hallucination. The movie creators apparently wanted to make this a true science fiction story like in Jack Finney’s novel, Time and Again, so they added a mysterious pocket watch that Christopher Reeves as Richard (pictured) can use to hypnotize himself, and not by giving him brain cancer. The premise of time travel by self-hypnosis was also explored in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Where No One Has Gone Before.” The Episode has the Enterprise, guided by a strange alien from Tau Alpha-C, warping to unknown universes, times and beyond. In the episode Wesley Crusher looks at the settings being entered into the ship’s warp drive by the alien and says that his inputs made him think that “space, time and thought are not the separate things we believe them to be.” Fact Check: If particles such as photons exhibit wave like tendencies, and — according to quantum theory — those patterns can be interfered with by particles in another quantum universe — could brain waves, as well? Hey, it worked on TV!
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HARLAN ELLISON
Harlan Ellison has written many, many science fiction stories. Born in 1934, the Cleveland
By every account of his childhood ever given,
native reportedly published 100 short stories
James Cameron was a voracious reader of
within the first year of his first professional
science fiction growing up. He described his
job, and has over 1,000 stories credited to him
science fiction consumption as “tonnage” and,
by Wikipedia. He has written so many stories that
in interview after interview, he rattles off
his official website’s bibliography has to be
the names of the science fiction writers from
indexed and filtered by a variety of criteria.
the 1960’s and 1970’s almost like they’re old friends: Bradbury, Clarke, Asimov, and on
Harlan Ellison has also filed many, many
and on. In a 1999 interview, he listed Harlan
lawsuits. In 2006, he sued Fantographics,
Ellison as one of these favorite authors: “In
a publisher of comic books and alternative
the latter years of high school I got into the
culture-themed books because he claimed several
newer guys of that time, Harlan Ellison, Larry
anecdotes about him in one of their books were
Niven, people like that. It was a steady diet of
defamatory. In 2009, he sued Paramount, the
science fiction.”
owners of Star Trek, for failure to pay him royalties for an episode of the original series,
Since James Cameron writes and produces science
which he wrote that aired in 1967. He also sued
fiction movies, and since Harlan Ellison has
the Writers Guild of America (the screenwriters’
written so many science fiction stories, there
union) for failure to adequately protect him.
was bound to be some overlap between the events
In 2000, he sued a small website for posting the
and ideas of their respective stories.
text of four of his stories but, more notably, also sued America Online and several other
So, it’s not any surprise at all that, in 1984,
telecommunications companies for failing to
Harlan Ellison threatened to sue James Cameron
detect and remove the presence of his stories.
for plagiarizing his works. Ellison’s complaint was never formally filed as a lawsuit, so all the negotiations and the settlement were done entirely out of court. It’s important to note that James Cameron has hardly spoken of the settlement and there appears to be no record of any other parties
124
from the defense (The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd, the film’s financiers, etc.) making public comments. Because of this, literally all known details of the complaint and the settlement are told entirely from Harlan Ellison’s point of view. So, all accounts of the incident are told with a bias – unintentional or not – toward Ellison’s side. Cameron commented on the issue at the 1991 T2 Convention: “For legal reasons I’m not suppose to comment on that (the addition of acknowledgement credits) but it was a real bum deal, I had nothing to do with it and I disagree with it.” Ellison says the incident started like this: “Before Terminator came out I began to hear from people, ‘Gee, there’s this script they’re going to shoot that reads an awful lot like your script for Soldier.’” The ‘Soldier’ script that Ellison is referencing is one of two teleplays he wrote for the anthology TV series, The Outer Limits. The second script he wrote for that series was called Demon with a Glass Hand. Ellison continues, “Now Soldier had been available on videocassette for many years. Demon with a Glass Hand had won all the awards but Soldier was right there in popularity.” In addition to those casual warnings of similarities from unnamed persons, Ellison also was told by a friend of his,Tracy Torme, that, while visiting the set for The Terminator, he had asked Cameron where he got the story idea. According to Ellison’s account of Torme’s statement, Cameron replied, “Oh, I ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories.”
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THE TERMINATOR
Ellison says that he contacted Hemdale when the movie was still in production and asked to see a copy of the script and was surprised when they refused. The final clue that he might have a case for plagiarism came when Ellison wasn’t invited to the press screening for The Terminator. He said, “Now, I get invitations to everything and anything, but for some reason, I never got an invitation to the screening of The Terminator.” According to the science fiction news program Prisoners of Gravity, Ellison was able to sneak into the screening by posing as film critic Leonard Maltin’s assistant. Upon first seeing The Terminator, Ellison said, “It was not my desire to find a similarity. I was sitting in there thinking, ‘Please don’t let it be.’ But if you took the first three minutes of my Soldier episode and the first three minutes of The Terminator, they are not only similar but exact. By the time I left the theater, I knew I had a case against someone who plagiarized my work.” So, Ellison and his attorneys then contacted Hemdale (the financiers of The Terminator) and Orion (the movie’s distributor) to discuss a payment or settlement, with the obvious threat of a lawsuit in case none was offered. And soon after this initial contact, Ellison’s complaint received even more support. “About a week after my attorney contacted Hemdale, I got a call from the editor of Starlog magazine. .... It turned out Cameron had given an interview to Starlog and, after I began inquiring at Hemdale, [The Terminator producer Gale Anne] Hurd sent Starlog a legal demand to see the interview.” According to Ellison, Gale Anne Hurd then modified Starlog’s article on The Terminator. She omitted a quote from Cameron in the article that read, “‘Oh, I took a couple of Outer Limits segments.’” The reason that the Starlog editor had contacted Ellison was to provide him with the original version of the article, the one without Gale Anne Hurd’s editing. Said Ellison, “At this point we went
130
to Hemdale and to Orion and we said, ‘I’m afraid
the contract if I did not speak of any of this.”
we got him with the smoking gun. Now do you want
But according to Marc Shapiro, the amount he
to do something about this or do you want us to
received was actually $400,000. Finally, Harlan
whip your ass in open court? We’d be perfectly
Ellison was to receive credit on all subsequent
happy to do it either way.’” Between the account
copies of The Terminator.
of Tracy Torme and the Starlog interview, the attorneys for Hemdale and Orion quickly realized
Now let’s take a look at the actual similarities
that they wanted no part of a lawsuit, by
between The Terminator and Soldier.
Ellison’s accounts. “They took one look at this shit and their attorneys said, ‘Settle.’”
(It’s important to note that, contrary to many claims at internet science fiction and movie
According to celebrity biographer and tabloid
sites, Demon with a Glass Hand absolutely was
writer Marc Shapiro, Hemdale was actually willing
not one of the stories they were alleging that
to go to court if Cameron himself wanted to.
was plagiarized by The Terminator. Indeed,
However, if they did go to court at Cameron’s
aside from the fact that Demon with a Glass
behest and they lost, they would have then turned
Hand and The Terminator both has protagonists
right around and sued Cameron (presumably for
who travel backward in time, there are no
fraud). So Cameron ultimately acquiesced. In the
substantive similarities worth noting. Also,
one quote from him attributed to the matter, he
in the interview with Prisoners of Gravity,
was reported to have said, “What it came down to
Harlan Ellison specifically states that Soldier,
was that I could risk getting completely wiped
and not Demon with a Glass Hand, was the only
out or I could wave it off and let this guy get
story plagiarized. So any claims that Demon
his f------ credit.”
with a Glass Hand was a direct source for The Terminator are bogus and any evidence used to
There are two separate (and very divergent)
compare them are the result of critics grasping
accounts of the monetary settlement. Ellison
for similarity straws.)
told the TV show Prisoners of Gravity, “And they settled with a substantial amount of money, not
First, let’s take a look at the basic story
the kind of money I’d have gotten if I went to
for The Terminator. Here is the quick synopsis
court. It was, uh, 65 or 75 thousand dollars
offered by IMDB.com: “A human-looking, apparently
with an additional five thousand to be paid to
unstoppable cyborg is sent from the future to
be after a period of time that was stipulated in
kill Sarah Connor; Kyle Reese is sent to stop it.”
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Note that none of the primary plot elements used
Here are the actual, substantial similarities
in that synopsis are parallel to Harlan Ellison’s
between the two stories, broken down item by
soldier. Not the cyborg, not the assassination
item. As Harlan Ellison himself said, they’re
mission, and not the saviour.
all contained within the earliest shots:
Now, let’s take a look at the basic story for Soldier. Here is the quick synopsis offered by Wikipedia (IMDB.com doesn’t offer one): “Eighteen hundred years in the future, two foot soldiers clash on a battlefield. A random energy weapon strikes both and they are hurled into a time vortex. While one soldier is trapped in the matrix of time, the other, Qarlo Clobregnny, materializes on a city street in the year 1964. Qarlo is soon captured and interrogated by Tom Kagan, a philologist, and his origin is discovered. Qarlo has been trained for one purpose, fighting, and that is all he knows. Progress is made in “taming” him; eventually Qarlo comes to live with the Kagan family. But the time eddy holding the enemy soldier slowly weakens. Finally he materializes fully and tracks Qarlo to the Kagan home. In a final hand-to-hand battle, Qarlo sacrifices his life to kill the enemy and save the Kagan family.” In that entire synopsis, merely one sentence parallels The Terminator: “Qarlo Clobregnny, materializes on a city street in the year 1964.” That’s it. By Harlan Ellison’s own admission, the similarities between the two stories are in the very beginning. Again, here’s what he said, “But if you took the first three minutes of ‘The Terminator’, they are not only similar but exact.” “The first three minutes.” Ellison flat out denied taking anything from any other episodes on his own website: “Terminator” was not stolen from “Demon with a Glass Hand,” it was a rip off of my OTHER Outer Limits script, “Soldier.”
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CAMPAIGNERS CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL BAN ON “KILLER ROBOTS” over who lives and dies in war would be an A pre-emptive ban is needed to halt the
unacceptable application of technology, and would
production of weapons capable of attacking
pose a fundamental challenge to international
targets without any human intervention, a new
human rights and humanitarian laws.
campaign has urged.
Estimates vary over how long it could be before
Jody Williams, from the Campaign to Stop Killer
such weapons are available, but the group says
Robots, says such weapons, which do not yet
a new treaty is needed to pre-emptively outlaw
exist, would be regarded as “repulsive”.
their development, production and use.
But some scientists argue existing laws are
Campaign leader Ms Williams, who won a Nobel
sufficient to regulate their use, should they
Peace Prize in 1997 for her work in bringing
become a reality.
about a ban on anti-personnel landmines, said:
The UK government has said it has no plans to
“As people learn about our campaign, they will
develop such technology.
flock to it.
Weapons with a degree of autonomy, including
“The public conscience is horrified to learn
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - commonly known
about this possible advance in weapons systems.
as drones - are already widely used on the
People don’t want killer robots out there.
battlefield.
“Normal human beings find it repulsive.”
Such weapons are described as “human-in-the-loop”
But some experts have questioned the need for a
systems because they can only select targets and
ban, arguing instead for an open debate about the
deliver lethal force with a human command.
legal and ethical implications of such weapons.
But organisers of the Campaign to Stop Killer
Roboticist Professor Ronald Arkin, from the
Robots - a global effort being launched on
Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, said:
Tuesday - say advances in robotic technology
“The most important thing from my point of view
mean it is only a matter of time before fully
is that we do not rush these systems into the
autonomous “human-out-of-the-loop” systems -
battlefield.
capable of firing on their own - are developed.
“A moratorium as opposed to ban - where we say,
They argue that giving machines the power
‘we’re not going to do this until we can do it right’ - makes far more sense to me than simply crying out, ‘ban the killer robots’. “Why should we do that now?” Recent statements by UK and US governments suggest a reluctance to take human beings fully “out-of-the-loop” in warfare.
136
In March, Lord Astor of Hever - the UK’s parliamentary under secretary of state for defence - said the Ministry of Defence “currently has no intention of developing systems that operate without human intervention”. And a directive issued by the US Department of Defense in November 2012 stated that all weapons with a degree of autonomy “shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force”.
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PENTAGON DEVELOPING AUTONOMOUS HUMANOID ROBOTS TO “PERFORM EVACUATION OPERATIONS”
The Department of Defense has awarded a lucrative contract to an engineering and robotics design company to develop and build humanoid robots
The Pentagon also envisions that the robots will
that can act intelligently without supervision.
be able to use basic and diverse “tools”.
Boston Dynamics Inc. has been contracted by
“The primary technical goal of the DRC is to
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
develop ground robots capable of executing
(DARPA), the agency responsible for the
complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-
development of new technologies for use by the
engineered environments. Competitors in the DRC
military, in a deal worth $10.9 million.
are expected to focus on robots that can use
The DoD announced Tuesday that “The robotic
standard tools and equipment commonly available
platforms will be humanoid, consisting of two
in human environments, ranging from hand tools
legs, a torso, two arms with hands, a sensor
to vehicles, with an emphasis on adaptability to
head and on board computing.”
tools with diverse specifications.” reads the
DARPA’s website says that the robots will help
original brief.
“conduct humanitarian, disaster relief and
The robots are set to be completed by Aug. 9,
related operations.”
2014, according to the contract.
“The plan identifies requirements to extend aid
Boston Dynamics has enjoyed a long working
to victims of natural or man-made disasters and
relationship with DARPA, during which time it has
conduct evacuation operations.” reads the brief,
developed the rather frightening BigDog. This
first released in April as part of DARPA’s
hydraulic quadruped robot can carry up to 340lb
‘Robotics Challenge’.
load, meaning it can be effectively weaponised,
The robots will operate with “supervised
and recovers its balance even after sliding on
autonomy”, according to DARPA, and will be able
ice and snow.
to act intelligently by themselves, making their
The company has also developed the CHEETAH-
own decisions if and when direct supervision is
Fastest Legged Robot, a four-footed robot that
not possible.
gallops at 18 mph: The company also developed RiSE, a robot that climbs vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences, using feet with micro-claws to climb on textured surfaces:
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While the Pentagon says the robots are for “humanitarian” missions, one cannot avoid thinking of the propensity to adapt this kind of military style technology for other more aggressive purposes. Indeed, the Pentagon has, in the past, issued a request to contractors to develop teams of robots that can search for, detect and track “non-cooperative” humans in “pursuit/evasion scenarios”. Issued in 2008, the request, called for a “MultiRobot Pursuit System” to be operated by one person. The proposal described the need to “…develop a software/hardware suit that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a noncooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject, while minimizing the chances of missing the subject. If the operator is an active member of the search team, the software should minimize the chance that the operator may encounter the subject.”
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It is seemingly important to the Pentagon that the operator should not have to come into contact with the person being chased down by the machines. The description continues: “The software should maintain awareness of lineof-sight, as well as communication and sensor limits. It will be necessary to determine an appropriate sensor suite that can reliably detect human presence and is suitable for implementation on small robotic platforms.” Paul Marks at The New Scientist pointed out such proposals are somewhat concerning, because they inevitably will be adapted for domestic purposes such as crowd control. “…how long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed?” Marks asks. Marks interviewed Steve Wright, an expert on police and military technologies, from Leeds Metropolitan University, who commented: “The giveaway here is the phrase ‘a noncooperative human subject’. What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed. We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed.”
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“
WHO TO WHEN T WHERE THEM.
O KILL. TO KILL. TO KILL
Indeed, noted as PHASE III on the Pentagon proposal was the desire to have the robots developed to “intelligently and autonomously search”. Top robotics expert, Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, has previously warned that the world may be sleepwalking into a potentially lethal technocracy and has called for safeguards on such technology to be put into place. In 2008, Professor Sharkey told listeners of the Alex Jones show: “If you have an autonomous robot then it’s going to make decisions who to kill, when to kill and where to kill them. The scary thing is that the reason this has to happen is because of mission complexity and also so that when there’s a problem with communications you can send a robot in with no communication and it will decide who to kill, and that is really worrying to me.” The professor also warned that such autonomous weapons could easily be used in the future by law enforcement officials in cites, pointing out that South Korean authorities are already planning to have a fully armed autonomous robot police force in their cities.
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