Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, commonly abbreviated as T3, is a 2003 science fiction/action film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken. It is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The film was released in the United States on July 2, 2003. It was released under the Warner Bros. label, as the studios that produced the first two Terminator films (Orion Pictures and Carolco Pictures) had gone out of business by that point.
After the failure of Skynet to kill Sarah Connor before her son is born and to kill John himself as a child, it sends back another Terminator, the T-X, in a last attempt just on Judgment Day to wipe out as many Tech-Com resistance officers as possible. This includes John's future wife, but not John himself as his whereabouts are unknown to Skynet. Yet, as the story unfolds, the T-X coincidentally finds a trace of the resistance leader-to-be.
Plot
Despite the prevention of the events shown in the previous film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, from occurring in 1997 as originally predicted, John Connor (Nick Stahl), does not believe the prophesied war has been averted. Living "off-the-grid" in Los Angeles, California with no permanent residence, credit card, or mobile phone, John works freelance to prevent anyone from tracking him. Skynet sends another Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back to July 24, 2004, Judgment Day, to kill the human resistance's future lieutenants, thereby preventing the future organization of Tech-Com. In order to avoid the non-living tissue restriction of time travel, Skynet designs the T-X, dubbed the "Terminatrix" by John Connor, to carry all weapons internally. Armed with a full arsenal of advanced weaponry from the future, including the ability to remotely control most machines, the T-X is far more dangerous than any of the previous Terminators sent by Skynet.
As in the previous films, a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent back to counter the T-X. Similar in design and programming to the Terminators from the previous films, this particular Terminator is revealed to have killed John in 2032 before being reprogrammed by John's future wife, Katherine Brewster (Claire Danes), and sent to protect the couple. After rescuing John and Kate from an initial attack by the T-X, the Terminator leads them to Sarah Connor's coffin. Inside, they find a weapons cache set up by Sarah's friends in the event that Judgment Day was not prevented. The T-X and the police arrive, but John, Katherine, and the Terminator escape with the weapons in a hearse.
Following the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in T2, the U.S. Air Force took over the Skynet project as part of its Cyber Research Systems division, headed by Lieutenant General Robert Brewster, Kate's father. In an attempt to stop the spread of a computer supervirus, Brewster activates Skynet, allowing it to invade all of division's systems. Arriving too late to prevent Skynet's activation and subsequent propagation, John, Kate, and the Terminator's situation is further complicated with the arrival of the T-X. The T-1 Terminators, under control of the T-X, begin killing office personnel in an attempt to find and eliminate John and Kate. Believing that Judgment Day can still be stopped, John asks Brewster for the location of the Skynet system core. Just before General Brewster dies, he tells John and Kate to go to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
As they are boarding an airplane to leave, John and Kate are attacked by the Terminator, which was reprogrammed by the T-X to kill them. However, the Terminator is able to override its programming enough to shut itself down and avoid killing John. Upon their arrival at Crystal Peak, John and Kate are attacked by the T-X, however the fight is soon interrupted by the arrival of the Terminator. Having rebooted itself, the Terminator traps the T-X under a helicopter announcing, "I'm back!" The T-X detaches its legs to free itself from the helicopter and crawls after John and Kate. The Terminator catches hold of the T-X before it reaches John and Kate, but tells them to leave immediately. The Terminator iconically exclaims, "You are terminated!", as it detonates its last remaining hydrogen fuel cell in the T-X's mouth, destroying both the T-X and itself.
John and Kate discover that the base does not house Skynet's core as expected, but is rather a Cold War-era fallout shelter for government officers: General Brewster sent his daughter and John there to protect them from the impending nuclear holocaust. Here, they discover that Skynet is software in cyberspace, running on computers throughout the world, and effectively impossible to shut down. Skynet launches nuclear missiles, initiating the war against humans. Amateur radio operators and confused military forces from Montana Civil Defense ask John for orders, foreshadowing his future leadership role in the Tech-Com resistance.
The film's last shots are of Skynet's nuclear weapons destroying cities around the world on Judgement Day. Accompanied by John's narration, "the battle has just begun", this scene paves the way for the next film, Terminator Salvation.
Cast
- 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.
- 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] Other considerations for the role included Josh Hartnett, Chris Evans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ashton Kutcher.
- Claire Danes as Kate Brewster: In a 2005 interview on National Public Radio'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. Danes started filming immediately and thereafter learned about her character while playing it. Danes later said this may have helped her performance, on the grounds that Kate Brewster's character was similarly thrust into a strange new reality without warning.
- Kristanna Loken as T-X
- David Andrews as Lieutenant General Robert Brewster, USAF
- Mark Famiglietti as Scott Mason: Kate Brewster's slain boyfriend was originally named Scott Petersen, but was changed in order to avoid giving the false impression that this was a type of "reverse parody" of the Scott Peterson case surrounding the murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner. In the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Petersen".
- 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. Besides Schwarzenegger, Boen is the only actor to appear in all three Terminator films.
- Moira Harris as Betsy
- Chopper Bernet as Chief Engineer
- Christopher Lawford as Brewster's Aide
- Carolyn Hennesy as Rich Woman
Linda Hamilton was initially approached to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, but turned it down. Hamilton explained in the script she was given, Sarah dies halfway through and her death was glossed over.[3] John explains in T3 that Sarah died of leukemia in the year 1997.
Production
James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. Tedi Serafian 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 in Terminator 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] Schwarzenegger received a salary of $29.25 million, plus 20 percent of the profits, for his role in the film.[4]
The film's final production budget was $187.3 million, making it the most expensive independently-produced film in history. Schwarzenegger had to spend $6 million of his own money to help fund production. It was a scene that he himself wanted to put in the movie, as he explains in the audio commentary. Schwarzenegger agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia, from Los Angeles. Many pundits saw this as preparation to his campaign for California governor, in which he emphasized giving incentives to have movie productions stay in California, rather than film in less-expensive places elsewhere. In that vein, the film was markedly "cleaner" than previous Terminator films, featuring significantly less violence and swearing.
The film takes several ideas from the novel T2: Infiltrator by S. M. Stirling.[citation needed] The novel, published in 2001, features a female terminator, the I-950, a plot point later reused in Terminator Rewired. The idea of Judgment Day being postponed was also used in the book. It also inspires the Sergeant Candy scene with its own explanation of the Terminator's physical appearance, in the form of Austrian counter-terrorist Dieter von Rossbach.
Filming began on April 12, 2002.
A scene filmed during production explains why one series of Terminators all look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. A character named Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) explains in an Air Force promotional video he was chosen to be the model of the Terminator project. Schwarzenegger's character has a Southern accent. When Lieutenant General Brewster questions it, another scientist replies (in a Schwarzenegger voice-over), "We can fix it." It was included in early prints of the film, but was later deleted. This scene is available as a special feature on the DVD version.
Reception
Terminator 3 earned a 70% positive rating on the film critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.[5] James Cameron, who created the Terminator franchise but otherwise played no role in T3, told the BBC he thought the film was "in one word: great."[6] However, Yahoo! later reported that Cameron "wasn't happy with how it turned out".[7] In The New York Times, A. O. Scott said the film "is essentially a B movie, content to be loud, dumb and obvious".[8] In its box office run it failed to match its $200 million budget domestically, earning $150 million stateside. It did far better overseas and closed with a total worldwide gross of $433 million, a financial success but still falling significantly short of its predecessors' gross.[9]
The film also failed to match both its predecessors in terms of cultural significance: both The Terminator and Terminator 2 were cultural phenomena, and in two cases noted by the AFI twice in the same list (100 Years...100 Quotes for I'll be back and Hasta la vista baby as well as 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains for the T-800 in both incarnations). Furthermore Terminator 2 won 4 Academy Awards, where the sequel didn't get a single nomination.
Marketing
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 Game Rankings for the PS2 version.[10] A first-person shooter titled Terminator 3: War of the Machines was released for PCs as well.[11] A third game titled Terminator 3: The Redemption was released for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.[12]
The film's soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande on June 24, 2003:
- "A Day In the Life"
- "Hooked on Multiphonics"
- "Blonde Behind the Wheel"
- "JC Theme"
- "Starting T-1"
- "Hearse Rent a Car"
- "T-X's Hot Tail"
- "Graveyard Shootout"
- "More Deep Thoughts"
- "Dual Terminator"
- "Kicked in the Can"
- "Magnetic Personality"
- "Termina-Tricks"
- "Flying Lessons"
- "What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?"
- "Terminator Tangle"
- "Radio"
- "T3"
- "The Terminator" (from the motion picture The Terminator, composed by Brad Fiedel)
- "Open to Me" performed by Dilon Dixon.
- "I Told You" performed by Mia Julia.
Songs that are not included on the soundtrack album:
- "Dat Funky Man": performed by William Randolph III and Words by Jonathan Mostow
- "Sugar" Performed by Peter Beckett and words by Jonathan Mostow.
- "Party" performed by Peter Beckett.
- "Can't Hide This" performed by Mega Jeff.
- "Macho Man" performed by Village People.
- "The Current" performed by Gavin Rossdale and Blue Man Group.[13]
Sequels
Josh Friedman, producer of the 2008 Fox television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which takes place after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, stated in an interview that the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines occur in an alternate timeline from that of the TV series.[14]
The continuity of the plot of the franchise comes into question immediately in the opening scene of the film in which John Connor narrates the events that have led to his current situation. During this scene, he indicates that the Terminators failed to kill his mother before he was born, so they tried again when he was only 13. This is a continuity error between T2 and T3, since it is made evident in T2 that John is 10 years old during the events of that film. However T3 director Jonathan Mostow has stated this was a creative decision based on Edward Furlong's actual age at the time of shooting T2.[15]
A fourth film, Terminator Salvation, has been produced and is slated for a May 2009 release. Salvation was written by The Perfect Weapon's David C. Wilson. Script treatment are by John Brancato, Michael Ferris, David C. Wilson, Paul Haggis (Quantum of Solace), Shawn Ryan (TV's The Shield, The Unit) and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight). Arnold Schwarzenegger is not expected to reprise his starring role due to his duties as Governor of California.[16] However, Roland Kickinger, who played Schwarzenegger in biography See Arnold Run, will have a major role in the film as the prototype T-800. Christian Bale would take over the role as John Connor, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Brewster, and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese. New to the series are Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, Common as Barnes, and Helena Bonham Carter as the film's antagonist Serena Kogen. The film is directed by McG.
References
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Weak and tired pseudo-sequel tries to revive the long ended franchise
It's pathetic how much this film wishes it could be T2. Nick and Claire
camera_in_the_shadow from United States - 27 June 2009are good actors but deliver nothing but annoying "cuteness" here
(though this seems to be all the script was interested in along with
the lame and very casual changes to John's "destiny" and future
legacy). Arnold, while in awesome shape, seems very tired in this role.
Lokken tries way too hard and is very wooden (even for a Terminator
actress) and ultimately nonthreatening. Reliance on (poor) comedy only highlights how light is the human story
and even the tactical story. Although the climax is pretty good, if
typical, sensationalistic action and the f/x, of course, are the best
in the series thus far, this is a heartless and hollow, nostalgic
silhouette of an update at best.
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