For nine years, John Connor (Nick Stahl) has been living off-the-grid in Los Angeles. His mother, Sarah Connor, has died of leukemia. Although Judgment Day did not occur on August 29, 1997, John does not believe that the expected war between humans and Skynet has been averted. Unable to locate John, Skynet sends a new model of Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back to July 24, 2004, to kill John's future lieutenants in the Resistance. A more advanced model than previous Terminators, the T-X has an endoskeleton with built-in weaponry, a liquid metal exterior similar to the T-1000 and the ability to control other machines. Unlike the terminators in the last two films, this terminator is female. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed T-850 model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect the T-X's targets, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) and John.
The T-X locates John and Kate at an animal hospital and they escape on a truck (though Kate thinks she's being kidnapped). It begins to chase them by controlling two police cars, a fire truck, an ambulance, and steals a crane truck. The Terminator steals a police motorcycle and later a fire truck and goes after them. After a battle in the city streets between John, the Terminator, the T-X, and the controlled vehicles, the three visit the mausoleum of Sarah Connor, who died of leukemia some years before. Inside the vault they find a weapons cache left by Sarah's compatriots as a backup in the event that Judgment Day was not averted. The T-X and police arrive and begin a gun battle, but John, Kate, and the Terminator steal a hearse and escape from them which also damages their vehicle in the process so they later steal an RV. The Terminator has been programmed to take John and Kate to a safe location so that they may survive Judgment Day, set to occur in a few hours, but John instead wants to avert Skynet from ever being activated. The Terminator reveals that in the future, John and Kate were married, and that Kate had reprogrammed him and sent him back after the T-850 had successfully assassinated John in 2032.
After the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in 1995, the United States Air Force purchased the company and took over the Skynet project, and it is being headed by Kate's father, Lieutenant General Robert Brewster (David Andrews). However, they arrive too late to stop him from activating Skynet in an attempt to thwart the spread of a powerful computer virus in their systems (unaware the virus actually is Skynet, trying to take over the global computer network). Skynet assumes control of the military's defense network just as the T-X arrives, using various weapons systems to try and eliminate John and Kate. John asks the dying General, previously shot by the T-X, for the location of Skynet's system core, hoping to stop Judgment Day, and is instructed to go to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Before John and Kate can escape by plane, the T-X takes control of the Terminator, and it attacks them, but it is able to override its programming and shut itself down before it can kill John. As John and Kate attempt to gain entry to Crystal Peak the T-X arrives by helicopter and attacks them, but therebooted Terminator also arrives, crashing its own helicopter into it. Even with its legs severed, the T-X (now more like an actual cyborg) continues to pursue John and Kate, but the Terminator traps it and itself under a blast door and detonates its last remaining hydrogen fuel cell in the T-X's mouth, destroying them both. John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak does not house Skynet's core, but is rather a Cold War-era fallout shelter for high-ranking government officials. General Brewster sent them there to protect them from the impending nuclear holocaust initiated by Skynet. Skynet in fact does not have a core but instead exists as software in cyberspace running on computers all over the world, making it effectively impossible to shut down. It begins a series of nuclear attacks on various cities, commencing Judgment Day. Soon after the attacks, the equipment at Crystal Peak picks up transmissions from amateur radio operators and Montana's civil defense, to which John responds, officially assuming leadership and the war begins.
Cast[edit]
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator: Reprising his role from the first two films. This film was Schwarzenegger's final starring role before becoming Governor of California until his 2013 film The Last Stand.
- Nick Stahl as John Connor: Edward Furlong, who played John in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, reportedly was not asked to reprise his role in T3 due to a substance abuse problem. In a 2004 interview, he responded, "I don't know [what happened]. It just wasn't the time. I was going through my own thing at the point in my life – whatever, it just wasn't meant to be".[2]
- Claire Danes as Kate Brewster: In a 2005 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Danes revealed that she was cast for the role of Brewster as a last-minute replacement after actress Sophia Bush was thought too young to portray her.[3]
- Kristanna Loken as T-X: the first on-screen female Terminator.
- David Andrews as Lieutenant General Robert Brewster, USAF
- Mark Famiglietti as Scott Mason: Kate Brewster's slain fiancé was originally named Scott Peterson, but was changed in order to avoid association with the Scott Peterson case surrounding the murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner.[4] In the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Peterson".
- Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman: Reprising his role from the first two films. Boen appears for one scene, attempting to comfort Claire Danes' character after she witnesses the acts of the Terminator. Prior to Terminator Salvation, Boen was the only actor to appear in all Terminator films, aside from Schwarzenegger.
- Jay Acovone as LAPD Officer.
- Kim Robillard as Detective Edwards: He is killed by being punched through the chest by the TX.
- Mark Hicks as Detective Bell: He is killed by the TX along with Detective Edwards, in the dialogue he is identified correctly, but in the credits his name is listed as "Detective Martinez".
Linda Hamilton was approached to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, but turned the offer down. She explained, "They offered me a part. I read it and I knew my character arc was so complete in the first two, and in the third one it was a negligible character. She died halfway through and there was no time to mourn her. It was kind of disposable, so I said no thank you."[5]
Production[edit]
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2010) |
James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. Tedi Sarafian wrote an early draft, and eventually earned a shared "story by" credit with screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who wrote the screenplay.
The studios had long wanted to make a sequel to the Terminator films. However, they were unsure whether Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in it. Schwarzenegger initially refused to star inTerminator 3 because Cameron, who created the character and helmed the first two films, would not be directing the third installment. Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Cameron to produce the third film. Cameron declined, however, as he felt that he had already finished telling the story upon the conclusion of T2. But feeling that the Terminator character was as much Schwarzenegger's as it was his own, he advised Schwarzenegger to just do the third film and ask for "nothing less than $30 million."[citation needed]
The film's production budget was initially set at $169–170 million,[6][7] making it the most expensive film ever to be greenlit at the time.[8][9] Budget statements for the film put the final cost at $187.3 million (or $167.3 million excluding the production overhead).[10][11] Schwarzenegger received a salary of $29.25 million, plus 20 percent of the profits,[10] although he agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia, from Los Angeles.[12]
Additional scene[edit]
A scene filmed during production gives a possible explanation as to why one particular model of Terminators all look like Schwarzenegger: a character named Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Schwarzenegger) explains in a Cyber Research Systems (CRS) promotional video that he was chosen to be the model for the Terminator project. Schwarzenegger's character has a Southern accent (dubbed by Samuel L. Jackson); when one of the politicians questions the appropriateness of Candy's Southern accent for the Terminator's voice, another scientist replies, "We can fix it" in Schwarzenegger's (overdubbed) voice. The scene was added as a bonus feature on the film's DVD.[13]
Marketing[edit]
Several computer and video games were based on the film. An action game called Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was released by Atari for Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance. The game was poorly reviewed, with a 39% average on GameRankings for the PS2 version.[14] A first-person shooter titled Terminator 3: War of the Machines was released for PCs as well.[15] A third game, titled Terminator 3: The Redemption, was released for Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo GameCube.[16]
Reception[edit]
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines received generally positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 70% approval rating with an average rating of 6.6/10 based on 200 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Although T3 never reaches the heights of the second movie, it is a welcome addition to the Terminator franchise."[17] Shortly after the film's release, James Cameron described the film as "in one word: great",[18] but after the release of the fourth installment, he stated he felt his two films were better than either of the later films.[19] In The New York Times A. O. Scott said the film "is essentially a B movie, content to be loud, dumb and obvious".[20] Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars, remarking, "Essentially one long chase and fight, punctuated by comic, campy or simplistic dialogue."[21]
The film earned a total worldwide gross of $433 million, 17% less than its predecessor's worldwide gross of $519 million not taking into account inflation.[22]f
No comments:
Post a Comment