Why Terminator is ridiculous

[Mr. Peabody]

Other threads and Howard_Casto's remarks resonate like a tide, so here's another one.

I'll pick the beginning of one scene to illustrate why Terminator is ridiculous: at the beginning of Reece's interrogation they start from behind him, his laser scan almost center screen. How can they explain that? They don't. They ignore it.

Here's a more involved but realistic scenario: John and company know the future, let alone going back in time, is un-thinkable to the folks of the 80s. They would make a cover story. The killer is some lunatic. Reece is some guy who's motivated to help. He does. The cop Terminator knocked out and took his car can corroborate the lunatic dude exists and give his description. Reece is not arrested, but is sitting there with all of them brainstorming.

But the 80s was about the lone hero and conspiracy stuff. The above wouldn't do. Of course, the premise of Terminator is ridiculous. After even a ten or twenty warhead exchange, the world is toast - for centuries. No need to bother after that. Not to mention that someone in the field recently said that AI would just cause our blood to sour or the like as bio-tech will soon be within us.

[Nephasth]

You shut your whore mouth!

[Mike A]

If you rip Conan, I will find you.

[Malenko]

But the 80s was about the lone hero and conspiracy stuff.

So Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese were the same person?

[pbj]

I liked Terminator Genisys. Fight me.

[wp34]

I liked Terminator Genisys. Fight me.

Same--although not enough to fight over.  I liked Terminator 3 as well.

[opt2not]

[wp34]

Hey that's Sara Conner from the Terminator TV show...which I also liked.   

[opt2not]

Hey that's Sara Conner from the Terminator TV show...which I also liked.   

Yeah me too. It was actually ramping up well before it got canceled.

[thomas_surles]

I liked Terminator Genisys. Fight me.

Same--although not enough to fight over.  I liked Terminator 3 as well.

I liked salvation. I liked them all.(even the Sarah connor chronicles)

[pbj]

I've never been able to finish Salvation. I've probably tried 20 times. Its so damn boring. And I own all the movies.

 

There's an alternate cut of T3 that eliminates all the slapstick. I liked it better, my wife didn't.

 

[Zebidee]

Nah, it all really happened. Or did it?

You see, we would have invented usable quantum computers decades ago, except dudes like Kyle Reece and Michael J Fox and HG Wells and even those Time-Tunnnel guys from that 70s TV Show keep coming back from the future and blowing everything up, killing smart/cool scientists like Miles Dyson and Clara (but she didn't really die) and rescuing mad people from asylums etc.

[Nephasth]

I liked Terminator Genisys. Fight me.

I ---smurfing--- loved Genisys.

[fallacy]

Anything involving time travel is going to be stupid because time travel to the past is not believable. Time travel is not believable because just breathing the air would cause a paradox, everything would cause a paradox preventing from you traveling to the past at that exact time would not happen, and you making that change could not happen.

Only somewhat good time traveling was an anime called Steins Gate. They use a machine to send small messages in the past, the world than just instantly changes to reflect that. The only dumb part is the main character can remember everything from the first world for no reason where everyone else just exist in the new world.

[wp34]

When Genisys came out we watched I,II and III with the kids and then went and saw Genisys in the theater.  I was so pleasantly surprised how much they loved I and especially II.  Terminator II really holds up well.

[pbj]

I ---smurfing--- loved Genisys.

My man.

When Genisys came out we watched I,II and III with the kids and then went and saw Genisys in the theater..

My man.

[Howard_Casto]

I really liked Genesys except for the ending.  I need a dotted line on a highway at night, not a Snow White happily ever after.  Hell I liked parts of Salvation.  The Terminator is a great franchise. 

[pbj]

I feel like I have stumbled onto this weird enclave on the internet where people have actually seen and enjoyed Genisys.  There are apparently half a dozen of us.

[yotsuya]

I’ve only seen the first movie. Ever.

[Mr. Peabody]

You shut your whore mouth!

@Howard_Casto: see?

I ---smurfing--- loved Genisys.

Whoa.

So Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese were the same person?

Thematically, as one transitions to the other. And then John Connor: one man....taught us to fight.... More poignantly Sarah is the Virgin Marry.

I’ve only seen the first movie. Ever.

Why?



As a techno-thriller, T2 holds up.


@Mike A: I will look for you. I will find you. And....we know what happens then. Fantasy can be harder to depose. Conan, the movie, does not trip my meter. Harry Potter trips my meter, but it does represent the youth of this century....


@fallacy: Arrival was plausible. Probably any of the TZ and Outer Limits time travel stories are plausible. Just because Hawking says 'paradox' doesn't mean it's so. As for Steinsgate, check out Timescape (1980). Dean Koontz' Lightning was plausible as well.

[Titchgamer]

I feel like I have stumbled onto this weird enclave on the internet where people have actually seen and enjoyed Genisys.  There are apparently half a dozen of us.

I really liked Genisys.

However Salvation and T3 sucked Arnie nuts IMO.

[Zebidee]

Terminator I and especially II really kicked arse.

Term III with the wimpy junkie kid John Connor and the control freak chick Claire, the female terminator were all pretty meh, poorly implemented/directed crap acting etc etc. I kept wanting 13yo John back rather than that dweeb.

Salvation and Genysis I quite liked, both of them. I enjoyed the Sarah Connor chronicles too, it just lacked enough ultraviolence to keep me interested but I watched it anyway. Then it got canned

I "made" older teenage daughter watch Term I & II with me a couple of years ago, she enjoyed it all. Classics.

[DaOld Man]

Blasphemer!! 

I liked all the Terminator movies and the Sarah Conner Chronicles. (Summer Glau was a big plus).

My least liked one however was probably T3. I dont think they could have found a more sissy character for John Conner in this movie. He whined and was not the macho guy that would later lead the world, unless he got some kind of nut implant to make him tough.
But at least the disappointment was offset by the very sexy female terminator. 

[thomas_surles]

Anything involving time travel is going to be stupid because time travel to the past is not believable. Time travel is not believable because just breathing the air would cause a paradox, everything would cause a paradox preventing from you traveling to the past at that exact time would not happen, and you making that change could not happen.

Only somewhat good time traveling was an anime called Steins Gate. They use a machine to send small messages in the past, the world than just instantly changes to reflect that. The only dumb part is the main character can remember everything from the first world for no reason where everyone else just exist in the new world.

I watched a movie about traveling in time in a hot tub. I enjoyed it even after the 10th time. It doesn't have to be believable. Only entertaining.

[wp34]

My least liked one however was probably T3. I dont think they could have found a more sissy character for John Conner in this movie. He whined and was not the macho guy that would later lead the world, unless he got some kind of nut implant to make him tough.
But at least the disappointment was offset by the very sexy female terminator. 

I agree with you about the dude playing John Conner.  He was the weakest point of T3.  I thought they did some crazy fun stuff (the crane chase for example) and Arnold was good in it.  The kicker for me was that they had the balls to actually have the bombs go off.  After the first two movies I didn't see that coming.  It is the 4th best Terminator movie to be sure but I still liked it.

I’ve only seen the first movie. Ever.

How did you miss T2 in the 90's?  It was everywhere.  Seriously give it a watch it is a classic.

[jdbailey1206]

If you rip Conan, I will find you.

I'll drive to get us there.

[yotsuya]

My least liked one however was probably T3. I dont think they could have found a more sissy character for John Conner in this movie. He whined and was not the macho guy that would later lead the world, unless he got some kind of nut implant to make him tough.
But at least the disappointment was offset by the very sexy female terminator. 

I agree with you about the dude playing John Conner.  He was the weakest point of T3.  I thought they did some crazy fun stuff (the crane chase for example) and Arnold was good in it.  The kicker for me was that they had the balls to actually have the bombs go off.  After the first two movies I didn't see that coming.  It is the 4th best Terminator movie to be sure but I still liked it.

I’ve only seen the first movie. Ever.

How did you miss T2 in the 90's?  It was everywhere.  Seriously give it a watch it is a classic.

91-95 was kind of a blur for me.

[nitrogen_widget]

Hey at least the time travel stuff was handled better in terminator than it was in Time Cop.

[schmerzkaufen]

Some lesser known medium budget time travel-themed movies aren't bad, I recommend Looper and Source Code (the latter's more like a techno Groundhog Day tho)

[pbj]

My wife's a huge fan of time travel movies, probably dreaming of an alternate future where she never met me, so I've seen every single one of them.  I think I can recite the entire script of the Back to the Future trilogy from memory at this point.

Source Code was an interesting one, but he did kinda take over someone else's life and manipulate a woman into loving him at the end.

[Howard_Casto]

T3 had some issues, but the main problem with it is that it had the "Home Alone" syndrome of being the same damn movie as T2, only with different locations and one minor plot change. 


I honestly don't get the hate for salvation.  It was refreshingly completely different from the other films, which is exactly what the franchise needed at the time.  Mind you it wasn't great, but it was pretty good imho... probably better than 3.  Genesys took time travel issues to their logical conclusion with the timeline becoming increasingly convoluted with more and more abborations and I love it for that. 


btw I have no frikkin clue what peabody is doing calling me out when he started this thread and I don't even know what he is referring to.  Can somebody please get his medication to him?!?

[Malenko]

For me the biggest problem of T3 was casting (Nick Stahl AND Claire Danes). Sarah Connor being dead felt like a cop out. And when the TX was driving the cars via taking over their computers with nanites (or whatevs) ...... wouldn't work. Steering isn't controlled by the ECU of a car, and the pedals wouldn't go to the floor either.

Hopefully the next Terminator that recons T3 will fix a buncha dumb ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

[fallacy]

I watched a movie about traveling in time in a hot tub. I enjoyed it even after the 10th time. It doesn't have to be believable. Only entertaining.

Yes! Hot Tub time machine is one of my favorite comedies, I can quote every line from it. And no a good comedy does not need to make sense, never has never will.


Reason T1 and T2 work is because it was not focused on the time travel. Killer robot from the future awesome, now that same killer robot is now the good guy and has to fight an even stronger robot you won me over at hello. Where do you go from there though? Try to redo the same thing like in T3 adding only a little bit or take it further and try to address the future time travel which can only end up as a mess.

[Osirus23]

For me the biggest problem of T3 was casting (Nick Stahl AND Claire Danes). Sarah Connor being dead felt like a cop out. And when the TX was driving the cars via taking over their computers with nanites (or whatevs) ...... wouldn't work. Steering isn't controlled by the ECU of a car, and the pedals wouldn't go to the floor either.

Hopefully the next Terminator that recons T3 will fix a buncha dumb ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

I agree. Unfortunately by then Edward Furlong was a trainwreck and Linda Hamilton didn't want anything to do with the series. That doesn't explain why the movie was so damn cartoony though. The TX never felt menacing at all. The first time I saw T2 I thought the T-1000 was the most frightening villain in a movie ever. It felt completely unstoppable. TX just felt like a joke.

[Ian]

You know what really irritates me about the Terminator franchise?

They hired Arnold to be the Terminator. Cool. They explain that the Terminator T-800 series or whatever is an infiltration unit. A terminator surrounded by organic materials to make him appear human. Bad breath, sweat, etc... you wont know he is a T-800 until it is too late. That is why they used dogs to sniff out the Terminators infiltration units. These guys could be anyone! We get treated with a flashback in the original movie of one of these infiltration units getting into the bunker. The dogs are barking and he pull out this crazy lazer machine gun thing and just starts wasting people. The actor who played that terminator is Arnold's long time body builder friend Franco.

So far so good. Very cool....

Now every single Terminator sequel, the T-800 series of terminators are all ARNOLD? There is that one scene in Salvation when there are like 30 Arnolds being built? How the hell is that an infiltration unit? Instead of dogs just hang some posters. Hey this guy is a Terminator. Dont let him in.

I hate it... it drives me crazy because I loved the first one because of the Story. I loved the second one because of the Story and the Action and Arnold was great in it. Why do we have to keep bringing Arnold along in these movies? I would think these movies are great on their own.... ugh

 

[Nephasth]

For me the biggest problem of T3 was casting (Nick Stahl AND Claire Danes). Sarah Connor being dead felt like a cop out. And when the TX was driving the cars via taking over their computers with nanites (or whatevs) ...... wouldn't work. Steering isn't controlled by the ECU of a car, and the pedals wouldn't go to the floor either.

Hopefully the next Terminator that recons T3 will fix a buncha dumb ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

Um... My Corolla's steering is fly-by-wire. No direct linkage from the steering wheel to the gear box... 

[pbj]

Yes, the T800 units are all Arnold. Did you how primitive his understanding of humans was? And how all the newer models look different? Almost as if the robots eventually figured out they were revealing themselves by using the same skin... I mean this is basically the whole reason for the T1000....

[Malenko]

Um... My Corolla's steering is fly-by-wire. No direct linkage from the steering wheel to the gear box... 

Is your Corolla 15 years old? Semantics, fine. None of the cars in the movie have the capability to be steered by the ECU. Steering wheels connect to the steering shaft that connects to the pinion gear. You turn the wheel, and the pinion gear rotates and moves the rack that is attached to the tie rod ends.  Power steering has the same concept but with a cylinder on the rack. The gear box has nothing to do with steering, as its part of the drive train (unless you are british, then it IS the drive train) Citation: I worked in a car factory for about a decade. Also, suck my butt.

Yes, the T800 units are all Arnold.

No.  The T800 and the T850 (he got upgraded in T3) are the battle chassis.  All Model 101s look like Arnold , not all T800s/T850s . In theory, a T800 model 102 would be the size of Arnie but wouldn't look like him.
Citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(character)#Physical_appearance

[Nephasth]

Steering gear box... https://www.google.com/search?q=steering+gear+box&oq=steering+gear&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.4735j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
I'm a certified mechanic... Don't semantics me... 

[Malenko]

Steering gear box... https://www.google.com/search?q=steering+gear+box&oq=steering+gear&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.4735j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
I'm a certified mechanic... Don't semantics me... 

show me a car in the movie with it :p  At least you didnt say you were gonna punch me in the face, so there's that.

I know I already mentioned it on facebook with you, but doesnt the Bus flip cause he grabbed the drive shaft just irritate the piss out of you? arrrrrrghghghhgg