With a ton of movie news coming out of SDCC all this week, especially that of Terminator: Dark Fate, I’ve decided to revisit the Terminator franchise as a whole.
The Terminator (1984) devotes just under 2 hours to showing how Arnold Schwarzenegger is a relentless, ruthless, and damn near indestructible killing machine. While watching T2 directly after the original, it fully hit me that T2 contains a scene (that is already awesome in its own right) set up by the original that subverts the audience’s expectations to an “I am your father” level, and deserves notoriety as one of the greatest twists and moments in cinematic history.
Throughout the first act of T2 we see Arnold’s T-800 and Robert Patrick’s T-1000 show up from the past, kill a few people, and get some clothes (and boots and motorcycle) all while only knowing that one is there to kill John Connor and the other to protect him. From here we see them both trying to find John, with Patrick’s demeanor resembling that of Kyle Reese in the original, and Arnold acting pretty much the same. As they both come closer to reaching John, the pursuit comes to a conclusion in the maintenance hallway in a mall, and this initial face-off ends up being such an amazingly perfect twist and an “OH SHIT!” Moment for the ages.
The audience is led to believe that Arnold is back again to kill John, and the nice policeman is Johns protector, but with Patrick on one side of the hall and Arnold on the other, with John caught in the crossfire, Arnold simply utters “Get down.” And John ducks so Arnold can blast Patrick with his shotgun. (See the full scene here.)
This scene in T2 not only shocks and surprises audiences, but it also takes an iconic character and completely flips the script on everything that character stands for. This keeps T2 from being a “let’s do this all over again” sequel and sets up the relationship of John and the T-800 throughout the rest of the film (and arguably the franchise). The T-800 is no longer just a mindless killing machine. It has more purpose, learns more about human nature, and ultimately becomes a deeper character because of the twist in that one simple hallway scene. Not to mention, in an OSCAR WINNING FILM.
Now obviously “I am your father.” Has a much larger pop culture impact because of a broader audience (I see you PG-13 ratings), but in my honest opinion, with an A-List Star, changing (and in the time creating) an iconic character, both in an Oscar Winning film, “Get Down” deserves to be right next to it at the top of the greatest twists (and moments) in cinematic history.
FlickFix 