So, I just saw Terminator 2 for the first time and about a month ago, I finally saw Terminator 1 for the first time so yay me. Anyhoo, I quite enjoyed Terminator 2 although a person definitely needs to see the first one before watching it as it relies on the viewer knowing a lot of what happened in it since it references it a lot and a lot of the humor comes from the way it reverses things from the first film. All in all, it definitely makes for an enjoyable ride. However, there are a couple things I wanted to comment on about the movies and some of it pertains to things Unclebob has posted about them before. As NWR's most efficient poster, I didn't just want to post them in UB's Terminator but also use them as an attempt to make Unclebob respond to this thread. Will this finally be the post that makes Unclebob crack and reply? I guess we'll soon find out.
First up, at one point in T2, Arnold is referred to as Uncle Bob. Is this what led to or is a part of the reason as to why our favorite Junior Ranger chose his forum nickname?
The beginning of T2 states that Skynet sent back a Terminator to kill Sarah in 198- whatever and one to kill John Conner for this movie. But in the first one, we are told Skynet only sent one Terminator and the resistance sent one human before destroying the time machine. What happened? Skynet built another time machine? The future soldier in T1 was misinformed? James Cameron just didn't care? It's a shame this wasn't explained a bit more as it creates a puzzlement at the start of the movie for me that is never resolved.
When the Terminator is described as liquid metal and what it can do, I began to think about how to kill it. Maybe some molten lead or steel to disintegrate the robot, I thought. Amazingly enough, the movie ends up at a steel factory for the final showdown.
However, just before that, the movie had me fooled a little bit when the Terminator commanded a semi near the end that was full of liquid nitrogen. That made me laugh a bit. How many times are you driving down the road and you get slowed down by a tanker of liquid nitrogen! I'm so glad this movie commented on the epidemic liquid nitrogen trucks are causing on our highways. What are the odds? About as good as ending up at a steel factory at the same time, I guess.
Of course, when the nitrogen and steel factory showed up, then I began to think that maybe the liquid nitrogen would kill the T-100 and the Conners would end up having to save themselves by melting the T-1000 but it didn't quite turn out that way. When the T-1000 was shattered into many nitrogen pieces, I was saying to myself, ok, now I'd grab those pieces and throw it into the molten steel to ensure no one can try to copy its technology and make sure it is eliminated for sure. But do the movie characters listen to me? No, they listen to James Cameron.
And let's go back for a moment to when Sarah shoots the black guy in his home in front of his family and then her support group comes in. As the guy is lying there shot and bleeding and Arnold is told to look after him, Sarah and her son share a heartfelt moment expressing their love for each other. However, I couldn't help but put myself in the shoes of the black guy and his family. What the heck is going on here? This lady just about kills my husband and then her kid comes in and they start hugging and crying and saying how much they love each other? It sticks out because of how long that scene seems to play out.
Ok, so in the first movie, UncleBob pointed out a problem in the first movie about how Sarah is able to magically press the right button to bring down a press and save herself in the first movie. While watching T1, I was watching for that moment. If you want to give yourself a so-so answer, you could present the theory that as Sarah is crawling through the press, she can see the buttons ahead of her. I don't really remember any shots really showing what the view was like for her as she crawled through as the scene focuses more on the chase and how close the Terminator is to catching her. I didn't bother to check after watching the movie because that theory was good enough for me. That said, at the end of T2, she is handed the controls for a crane to lower some "cargo" and from what I saw, there was no labels or markings on the controls nor does she ever look at them but she automatically knows which button to press to lower the crane. Yes, there are fewer buttons on the crane control than the press but she's batting 100% on knowing which machine buttons are which without looking. Maybe she has some machine or machinery background that the movies haven't touched upon which gives her this uncanny knowledge. We don't know everything she's done in life up to the time T1 starts and with the way she seems to be able to get around in factories in two movies, it makes me think she may have worked in some at one time in her life.
Well, that's all I wanted to really chime in about. I will just make one more comment that Arnold's style of acting is just right for these films and this character and it's probably his best role (hence all the sequels) and that just adds another layer of fun and like-ability to these films.
One last question. I've got T3 recorded and ready to roll. How necessary is watching T4 before T5? Because now I almost feel like watching T5 in theaters before its gone but I don't have T4 ready to watch.