Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, and welcome to a brand new episode of
Speaker 1: Second Take Cinema, coming at you from the Glorious Imparlor
Speaker 1: Film's headquarters in futuristic South End on Sea. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jamie Evans, joined as always by Rory Jocelyn. I'm Burke,
Speaker 1: and today we are going back to the year of
Speaker 1: our Lord in nineteen eighty four to give a second
Speaker 1: take to the Terminator. The Terminator is a nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: four American science fiction action movie directed by James Cameron,
Speaker 1: written by James Cameron and Gail Ann Hurd, and it
Speaker 1: stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bean, Lance Henrickson, and Linda Hamilton.
Speaker 1: It was made for a budget of six point four
Speaker 1: million dollars and grossed seventy eight point three million dollars
Speaker 1: at the box office, defying all expectations of its Of
Speaker 1: the people who made it, they were expecting it to
Speaker 1: do a lot worse than that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure if flop would be the right term,
Speaker 2: but they certainly didn't expect it to be the outrageous
Speaker 2: success it was.
Speaker 1: The Terminator has an approval rating of one hundred percent
Speaker 1: on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, with the site's critical consensus, reading
Speaker 1: with its impressive action, sequencers, taught economic direction, and relentlessly
Speaker 1: fast pace, it's clear why The Terminator continues to be
Speaker 1: an influence on sci fi and action flicks. It appears
Speaker 1: on many lists of best movies ever made, and in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Hugh Fullerton of The Radio Times ranked it
Speaker 1: as the second best film in the franchise, stating The
Speaker 1: Terminator was a brilliantly original, visceral, and genuinely scary movie
Speaker 1: when it was released in nineteen eighty four, and no
Speaker 1: matter how badly the visual effects age, it hasn't lost
Speaker 1: its impact. In twenty twenty one, DALLN. Rowl of slash
Speaker 1: Film ranked it the fourth best film of James Cameron's career, stating,
Speaker 1: while its pacing and story structure isn't as tight as
Speaker 1: it sequels, the Terminator remains one of the most iconic
Speaker 1: pieces of pop culture ever created. At the time, however,
Speaker 1: reviews were a little bit more mixed. Variety praise to
Speaker 1: the film, calling it a blazing cinematic comic book full
Speaker 1: of virtuo so movie making, terrific momentum, solid performances, and
Speaker 1: a compelling story. Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast in a machine
Speaker 1: like portrayal that requires only a few lines of dialogue.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Times called the film a crackling thriller
Speaker 1: full of all sorts of gory treats, loaded with fuel
Speaker 1: injected chase scenes, clever special effects, and sly humor. The
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Journal gave the film three stars, calling it the
Speaker 1: most chilling science fiction thriller since Alien. Other reviews criticized
Speaker 1: the film's violence and storytelling quality. Janet Maslin of The
Speaker 1: New York Times opined that the film was a B
Speaker 1: movie with flair. Much of it has suspense and personality,
Speaker 1: and only the obligatory mayhem becomes dull. There is far
Speaker 1: too much of the last in the form of car chasers,
Speaker 1: messy shootouts, and mister Schwarzenegger's slamming brutally into anything that
Speaker 1: gets in his way.
Speaker 2: God, you'd hate modern movies then, because compared to modern movies,
Speaker 2: the action in this is quite tame. Well, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: say necessarily tame, because it works, but it's definitely pared
Speaker 2: back compared to the bullshit we get now.
Speaker 1: The Pittsburgh Press wrote a negative review, calling the film
Speaker 1: just another of the films drenched in artsy ugliness like
Speaker 1: Streets of Fire and Blade Runner. I think this motherfucker's
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of history.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, fucking hell. Like we watch, We've so, we've
Speaker 2: seen Fire. We watched Streeter Fire looks incredible, Like it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Looking, just another films drenched in artsy ugliness like Streets
Speaker 1: of Fire and Blade.
Speaker 2: I don't like color in my film is essentially he's
Speaker 2: said that that is like literally those three are like
Speaker 2: three of the most gorgeous films of the early eighties.
Speaker 2: He's literally just made the three most beautiful movies. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and god, this shite to see that.
Speaker 1: The Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars, adding that
Speaker 1: at times it's horrifyingly violent and suspenseful, at others it
Speaker 1: giggles at itself. This schizoid style actually helps providing a
Speaker 1: little humor just when the sci fi plot turns too
Speaker 1: sluggish or the dialogue to hokey.
Speaker 2: I'm going to imagine that's when the psychiatrist comes in,
Speaker 2: is what he's referring to there, Because, as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: basically is the film calling itself out.
Speaker 1: The New House News Service called the film a lurid,
Speaker 1: violent pretentious piece of clap trap.
Speaker 2: Pretential.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard the phrase clap trap used in one
Speaker 1: of these reviews in a long time.
Speaker 2: No, but also pretentious doesn't sound right. Okay, we'll get
Speaker 2: to that. That's strange.
Speaker 1: Oh, listen to this, because I see what we feel
Speaker 1: about this. Scottish author Gilbert Adair called the film repellent
Speaker 1: to the last degree, charging it with insidious Nazification and
Speaker 1: having an appeal rooted in an unholy compound of fascism,
Speaker 1: fashion and fascination.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating. I had no idea where he's picked up
Speaker 2: any of that. There's no Nazi overtures, so fascism doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily require Nazi overtures?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Maybe?
Speaker 1: Because of these are the bad guys skying out the fascists?
Speaker 2: Obviously surely, well, I can't see how you would view
Speaker 2: Sarah Connor and Carl Reese's the fascists. So the only
Speaker 2: one is Arnie, who is the villain. And I suppose
Speaker 2: I think this motherfucker has some problems with history because
Speaker 2: they Arnold Schwartzenegger is an Austrian. He's a very tall Austrian.
Speaker 2: He's a very well built Austrian. He's got blonde hair
Speaker 2: and blue wires. Austrian.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have blonde hair, does he not? He's got
Speaker 1: brown hair?
Speaker 2: Oh, so he does. But he's either way, he's essentially
Speaker 2: the uber Mensch sort of. So maybe all I can
Speaker 2: think of is that he's seen the look of Arnie
Speaker 2: in this film, and certainly how cool he looks when
Speaker 2: he's got the leather jacket and stuff on, and has
Speaker 2: basically gone, that's them basically saying that this fascist ideology
Speaker 2: is fine, but it's so surface level a read that
Speaker 2: I would just disregard that without.
Speaker 1: It's a shame he's dead. I'd like to know why
Speaker 1: he said, I might look into him more. And Lastly,
Speaker 1: in a retrospective review done years and years later, Peter
Speaker 1: Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded it five out of five stars,
Speaker 1: stating that on the strength of this picture, Cameron could
Speaker 1: stand toe to toe with Carpenter and Spielberg. Sadly it
Speaker 1: spawned a string of pointless and inferior sequels, but the
Speaker 1: first terminator stands up tremendously well, with out rageous verve
Speaker 1: and blistering excitement. Hang on, he is he saying that
Speaker 1: James Cameron could have stood with them based on the
Speaker 1: strength of this picture and based on where his career
Speaker 1: has gone. He doesn't anymore, which we would agree with
Speaker 1: because we both hate Avatar and think it's a piece
Speaker 1: of hack.
Speaker 2: Shit, right, So I suppose it would depend on when
Speaker 2: that review was made.
Speaker 1: That must be that's a modern review. It's a retrospective,
Speaker 1: right right, Okay, because I mean, I'm glad to hear
Speaker 1: my man happened to get in some shout out.
Speaker 2: Come to the world deserves a shout out. The Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll be honest. Until let's say the Turn of the Millennium,
Speaker 2: actually really rate James Cameron's back catalog. He didn't really
Speaker 2: do much after two thousand. Avatar doesn't. Avatar is the
Speaker 2: only one that really counts, and I didn't like it.
Speaker 1: That's all he's done.
Speaker 2: Well, he's done Avatar to the Way of Water, which
Speaker 2: nobody ever saw, and somehow has broken Box off his record.
Speaker 2: The point is he's I don't believe correctly.
Speaker 1: He's trapped in Avatar Land, and he trapped himself there though,
Speaker 1: and if it's to be believed, he will be trapped
Speaker 1: there until the day he retires.
Speaker 2: At this because he says there's like thirty films or something.
Speaker 1: It's five. But look how long it took him to
Speaker 1: make the second one. Yeah. If they're going to be
Speaker 1: a gap, that money's in his sixties.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If there's a gap that big between all of them,
Speaker 1: then our dot he's even going to finish, although I
Speaker 1: think three and four he's filming back to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But he was so he ded Terminator. He did
Speaker 2: True Lies, which was very popular. He did the second
Speaker 2: Alien film, which was very popular. He did The Abyss,
Speaker 2: which was very popular. He also did a few other
Speaker 2: films where he wasn't director, but he wrote and produced them,
Speaker 2: such as Strange Days, Strange Days. I really rate Strange Days,
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. It's got a lot of failures,
Speaker 2: but it's a really good film, a really good cyber
Speaker 2: punky film. He wrote a lot of gold and had
Speaker 2: the potential of writing even more. But after Titanic he
Speaker 2: basically went up that shit, I'm going under the sheer,
Speaker 2: and then when he came back up for air, he
Speaker 2: went the backstre.
Speaker 1: Anyway, the Terminator. Do you remember when you first saw
Speaker 1: the Terminator?
Speaker 2: Rory So, I first saw Terminator two. Okay, I saw
Speaker 2: them out of order. I remember when I saw Terminated two.
Speaker 2: I won't go too much into it because it's not
Speaker 2: the film we're reviewing yet, but my parents bought me
Speaker 2: and my brother a VHS or got somehow, and like
Speaker 2: a really old VHS player, and I mean really odd
Speaker 2: for the time. It was like a late seventies VHS
Speaker 2: player in like nineteen ninety nine, maybe two thousand, like
Speaker 2: super late for how old I was. Some of the
Speaker 2: first tapes we got. My parents had recorded Terminator Too
Speaker 2: off the TV, so I watched it. So my first
Speaker 2: introduction to Terminator Universe was T two and seeing Arnie.
Speaker 2: I'd add none of the precursor as to how much
Speaker 2: the horror was in the first one, because I hadn't
Speaker 2: seen it, so, but I did know the twist that
Speaker 2: he becomes good. So when I eventually got round to
Speaker 2: seeing Terminator one, which was not for a little while afterwards,
Speaker 2: trying to think of when I saw Terminator one, probably
Speaker 2: around two thousand and five, maybe two thousand and six,
Speaker 2: it would have been on a DVD. When I got
Speaker 2: round to watching it, I was really surprised by how
Speaker 2: evil Ernes Schwarzenegger's character was. Considering that my precursor to
Speaker 2: that was T two, where he's the good guy. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a brilliant heel turn. And I say heel turn
Speaker 2: because he did the hell turn first, but you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, it's he was very convincing in T two.
Speaker 2: I then go back to watching Terminator one. It's a
Speaker 2: completely different type of movie. They're both action movies to
Speaker 2: a certain degree, and obviously both somewhat sci fi ish,
Speaker 2: but Terminator two is basically all action, whereas Terminator one
Speaker 2: is also very much a horror movie, monster of the week,
Speaker 2: horror movie, really like it's the thing that it had
Speaker 2: in common with the first Predator and the first Alien
Speaker 2: film seemed to be a very common thing in the eighties,
Speaker 2: and even though seventy nine f Alien, where you'd start
Speaker 2: off with an iconic horror Killer one, Alien one, Predator
Speaker 2: one Terminator and then you'd sequalize it with more action
Speaker 2: was a very common reaction. And I can understand why,
Speaker 2: because it's a way you can make it bigger, whereas
Speaker 2: making it more horror. Usually making it bigger doesn't make
Speaker 2: it more scary, so I can understand why they did that.
Speaker 2: But either way, yeah, it was a great he'll turn.
Speaker 2: I remember enjoying it, but I will be honest, this
Speaker 2: is one that's grown on me more and more from
Speaker 2: my subsequent watches. The more I watch it, the more
Speaker 2: I enjoy it. Yeah, rather than it wasn't one that
Speaker 2: came out the gate as my favorite I watched, it
Speaker 2: was Air T two. Still better. I'm now at a
Speaker 2: point where I actually think it's better than T two. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah, so what about yourself?
Speaker 1: So I did see them in order. My dad showed
Speaker 1: me this and I loved it. Yeah, as you know,
Speaker 1: I have a thing for horror anyway.
Speaker 2: You can say a thing for naked ard all.
Speaker 1: Well, yes that too. Obviously for me, the Slasher influence
Speaker 1: on this is really clear. Yeah, my biggest memory of
Speaker 1: it is the bit where he catches fire and then
Speaker 1: the metal exoskeleton or sorry endoskeleton comes out of Yeah,
Speaker 1: out of the flames. It stopped motion and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But it was so cool because it had such limitations
Speaker 2: and yeah, it pulls it off.
Speaker 1: I remember watching that and it's feeling really impactful, and
Speaker 1: I remember my I do remember my dad saying to me,
Speaker 1: Arnie comes back in the next one, but he's the
Speaker 1: good guy and I was like, how's that work?
Speaker 2: How'd he come back?
Speaker 1: And how do you get I remember my dad saying
Speaker 1: that basically the good guys get him and reprogram him
Speaker 1: and whatnot. But no, I, like you've just said, I
Speaker 1: actually prefer T one to TEA two T too. I
Speaker 1: like T too the Liquid Metal Terminators great, it holds up.
Speaker 1: I find TEA to a little self indulgent.
Speaker 2: I think what it is is, if you watch the
Speaker 2: theatrical version of T too, it's actually better. I always
Speaker 2: I'm one of these people that when I watch a film,
Speaker 2: if there is a longer director's cut that has more
Speaker 2: of the stuff that the director want to put back in,
Speaker 2: that will be the version I watch. And for films
Speaker 2: like say Star Trek two Rath of Calm, that's fine
Speaker 2: because it's actually only slightly longer, and the scenes they
Speaker 2: add back in add emotional weight. With T two, the
Speaker 2: director's cut is like an extra fucking hour or something
Speaker 2: like this, an egregious edition for what should be an
Speaker 2: action movie, and I get I start to struggle to
Speaker 2: finish it. Whereas I think if I went back to
Speaker 2: the theatrical release, I would enjoy it a lot more
Speaker 2: because of the shortened run time, but I always dick
Speaker 2: myself over by go we've got to watch the director's
Speaker 2: version of them, and I need to remember not to
Speaker 2: do that next time I watch. Whereas Terminator one, you
Speaker 2: just watch it and it's right on the money each time.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, Yeah. I think this film is probably
Speaker 1: the fourth or fifth time I've seen it, and it
Speaker 1: totally holds up for me. Yeah, even some of the bits.
Speaker 1: The thing that's aged the worst is the haircuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the scooter and the scooters Sarah Sarah Connor's
Speaker 2: scooter is so eighties it hurts. Yeah, the square front
Speaker 2: and everything.
Speaker 1: The effects really haven't aged that much for me, because
Speaker 1: I am one of these old biddies who still thinks
Speaker 1: that practical is better. Practical is better, like stop motion
Speaker 1: looks better. The miniatures that are used in the future scene.
Speaker 2: They actually don't do a lot of stop motion. They
Speaker 2: do less than I remember.
Speaker 1: Pretty much. Only when the skeleton comes out.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but even then a lot of that isn't
Speaker 2: stop motion.
Speaker 1: No, it's only when you see his full body moving,
Speaker 1: when it's half a body. He's clearly got a pupper
Speaker 1: teer under him moving him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that which means that you get a lot
Speaker 2: less of the jank, and because he he's smart to
Speaker 2: cut around it. Because you don't see a lot of that,
Speaker 2: you just see enough you get the meaning of it
Speaker 2: while without having to see a lot of the jank,
Speaker 2: because we're seeing a lot more at full frame.
Speaker 1: And to be fair, I just thought the jank worked
Speaker 1: because it's a fucking robot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that does help. If it was meant to
Speaker 2: be like a biological monster, it would look weirder.
Speaker 1: I think the action in this film does does work.
Speaker 1: As you know, I'm not a big action guy, but
Speaker 1: I'm especially not a modern action guy because I think
Speaker 1: we've talked about this before, but the way modern action
Speaker 1: is shot and cut together, it can become difficult to
Speaker 1: tell what's happening in a scene or to understand where
Speaker 1: everyone else is in Well, you know, we recently covered
Speaker 1: I don't know if it will come out before this
Speaker 1: or not, but we recently watched over on our other
Speaker 1: show VGMP resident Evil Afterlife, Yes, and we talked about
Speaker 1: how there's a bit at the climax of that film
Speaker 1: where the villain Albert Wesker is having a fight with
Speaker 1: Chris and clear Redfield whilst Millerjovivic's character Alice is there
Speaker 1: with these two zombie dogs, and literally the film basically
Speaker 1: pauses Alice to let the Chris Clear and Wescer fight happen,
Speaker 1: and you can see Millerdjovivic in the background just waiting
Speaker 1: for just standing there, and you're like, a better director
Speaker 1: and editor would have made this feel more.
Speaker 2: These two fights happened at the same time rather than
Speaker 2: into each whereas at the moment Miller pauses while this
Speaker 2: fight happens, and then once that fight finishes, Miller starts, Yeah.
Speaker 2: There are never any bits in this film, at least
Speaker 2: for me, where suddenly the Terminator will appear.
Speaker 1: Somewhere and I'm like, hang, I know he was over
Speaker 1: there a minute ago. It always feels consistent, which makes
Speaker 1: the cat and mouse nature of the film feel more realistic,
Speaker 1: and it allows you to feel the tension from it more. Well,
Speaker 1: what's smart about it is the Terminator does lose track
Speaker 1: of Sarah Connor and Cole Reice a couple of times,
Speaker 1: so it's got no way to know where they are.
Speaker 1: But rather than just do what a lot of lesser
Speaker 1: directors and writers would do, which is just oh, it's
Speaker 1: found them.
Speaker 2: Just get on with it. Oh scary, it found them,
Speaker 2: walked through the wall. There's always a process that we see,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't take very long because it's so it's
Speaker 2: very economical with its time. We see the process of
Speaker 2: how the terminator picks back up the trail. So it
Speaker 2: goes in to when it it's going around killing every
Speaker 2: Sarah Connor in the town because all it knows is
Speaker 2: the name and the rough location, so it's going through
Speaker 2: the phone book and killing every Sarah Connor. When it
Speaker 2: goes to kill the real Sarah Connor, it's actually after
Speaker 2: it's her flatmate Ginger and her boyfriend. It kills both
Speaker 2: of them and essentially would assumed job done. Sarah Connor
Speaker 2: basically gives herself away by calling in and leaving a
Speaker 2: voice smail on the answer machine and he goes, I'm
Speaker 2: at this club, please come and help blah blah blah
Speaker 2: blah blah, and he's cool, I'm gonna go there, And
Speaker 2: it doesn't say any of that, but it's basically think
Speaker 2: it's great, I'm gonna go over there, and Murcer for
Speaker 2: real so travels down there, finds her, and then they
Speaker 2: leave shoot it with the shotgun a few times and
Speaker 2: it loses track of them. So the way it catches
Speaker 2: the track again is it steals a police car and
Speaker 2: then it listens in over the wire as to when
Speaker 2: it they pick up the vehicle that they left in
Speaker 2: and then it goes there and then it picks up
Speaker 2: on the police wire that they've been the suspects of
Speaker 2: being found in court and brought to the police station.
Speaker 2: That leads to it then doing the raid on the
Speaker 2: police station. So we're at no point do we get
Speaker 2: this normal movie bullshit where it's just like and suddenly
Speaker 2: a terminator appears because the plot.
Speaker 1: Needs the terminator to find them.
Speaker 2: At this point, no, you know how the terminator has
Speaker 2: found them in you know what. Actually, some people go, well,
Speaker 2: it's a bit more creepy if you don't know how
Speaker 2: it found out, and yeah, you don't want everything over explained.
Speaker 2: But actually adds to this enemy that it's not a
Speaker 2: mystical piece of bullshit, because we know it's not We
Speaker 2: know it's not a monster, we know it's not a
Speaker 2: you know, a psychic other worldly thing. It's a machine.
Speaker 2: So it has to have a process. So if you
Speaker 2: were just like, well, somehow a machine psychically knew people
Speaker 2: were in location, it would pull you completely out the film.
Speaker 2: And to be fair to James Camerony figured that. I
Speaker 2: also like the fact that there's a lot of minor
Speaker 2: characters that actually have some relevance. They don't do it
Speaker 2: a lot, but like the two Cops, Lance Hendrickson, and
Speaker 2: he was another big name. He was also in Rather Card,
Speaker 2: he was the captain. But the two cops have quite
Speaker 2: a bit to do. They have a personality of their own,
Speaker 2: and they have a back and forth of their own.
Speaker 2: And then you have the doctor who's the psychologist. He
Speaker 2: has quite a big bit to do. And that's the
Speaker 2: bit I was talking about earlier where he essentially calls
Speaker 2: out the film. And you mentioned when we were watching
Speaker 2: that this is actually quite smart because it gets the
Speaker 2: nerds on side. Were the nerds to be sitting there
Speaker 2: going but why would they only send one robot back?
Speaker 2: Why would they only do like all the bullshit that
Speaker 2: comes with this narrative. You have a character in there
Speaker 2: calling it out openly. Paul Winfield was Paul win He's legend,
Speaker 2: He's been in loads of stuff. But yeah, he yeah.
Speaker 2: So you have this character that's almost the voice of
Speaker 2: the nerds that would pull the script apart, and that
Speaker 2: basically means that you get a very short scene of
Speaker 2: him grilling Kyle Reese and kyl Ree's going, fucking cares
Speaker 2: about your shit, and you go, yeah, actually it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: There's a terminator.
Speaker 1: One thing I love about this film as well is
Speaker 1: the gradual and continual degradation of Arnold Schwarzenegger into being
Speaker 1: the terminator. So when he first turns up, obviously he
Speaker 1: looks perfect and perfect, you know, not a blemish on him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then he gets he takes a few gun shots first.
Speaker 1: Then he like goes through those flames, doesn't he. That
Speaker 1: burns his eyebrows off, Yes, and cinders his hair, so
Speaker 1: his hairstyle changes. Yeah, so you get this cool effect.
Speaker 1: And then as the film progresses, bits of the skin
Speaker 1: start to come off and you see like the metal
Speaker 1: chassis underneath.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's rotting on his eyeball, he's got a broke,
Speaker 2: he's ripped his arm open, Yeah, he's got Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: slowly becoming exposed. But as he becomes more exposed, he
Speaker 2: becomes more well you normally do. He's getting more desperate.
Speaker 2: But it's a machine. It doesn't get desperate. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: just it's becoming, it's revealing its true self more and more.
Speaker 2: What I also liked is, and I said this when
Speaker 2: we watched it, the ending, there's multiple points where you
Speaker 2: could end this early. So there's a point where the
Speaker 2: terminator has a tank is driving a tanker and they
Speaker 2: managed to ignite it and blow him up inside the tanker.
Speaker 2: You see the term that his body come out, step out,
Speaker 2: and then collapse and start and that that's when the
Speaker 2: last of its skin and everything all burns, Yeah, burns
Speaker 2: off and melts Awight, it's dead. You would imagine you
Speaker 2: could end the film there. It might be a little
Speaker 2: anticlimactic because even though you've had this big explosion, you know, fine,
Speaker 2: it got melted to death, James Cameron, you to continue.
Speaker 2: So it gets out of the flames. That's iconic. It
Speaker 2: then chases them into a factory and you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: we need to now nerve Reese from the car Reese
Speaker 2: from the story. Why don't we nerf them both together,
Speaker 2: because then the two things from the future each other out,
Speaker 2: so that he gives you that moment Carl Reese is injured,
Speaker 2: he can't continue. So what he does instead is he
Speaker 2: has a plastic grenade that he's made, puts it into
Speaker 2: the chassis of the robot halfway through to blow it
Speaker 2: into pieces, and as he drops down the steps to
Speaker 2: try and escape, he breaks his own neck and eyes.
Speaker 2: The terminator explodes. Terminator is dead. You could end the
Speaker 2: film there. You'd be satisfied with that ending, but that
Speaker 2: would be about it. You'd be just about satisfied the
Speaker 2: thing that kicks it over the edge. And it's because
Speaker 2: it's also short. It doesn't go on for like another
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes. He's from that point. The terminator is dead,
Speaker 2: except it's still gets top half going, and that's enough
Speaker 2: to try and continue the mission. So it conpleue is
Speaker 2: the mission and a smart move as well that somehow
Speaker 2: in that explosion, Sarah Connor gets injured so she can
Speaker 2: only really crawl herself, so she can't run away from
Speaker 2: a crawling robot. Clever move. She has to go through
Speaker 2: the press and the thing comes after her and it
Speaker 2: then finally gets compressed to death in the big crutching machine.
Speaker 2: I don't know what this factory actually produces. It needs
Speaker 2: a big crutcher, but either way it gets compressed in
Speaker 2: the machine. You finally see it die. But the fact
Speaker 2: is is that nothing else matters but finishing the mission, and.
Speaker 1: She goes, you're terminated. Fucker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a fucking line. The truth is those that
Speaker 2: continuation and that fact that it just does not stop,
Speaker 2: as is mentioned by Cole Ree's halfway through the film
Speaker 2: when he's in police custody. That's what makes the film memorable, Yes,
Speaker 2: because it just like anything else. If it was human
Speaker 2: or a beast, it would slowly be wounded, it would
Speaker 2: slowly die, it would think of itself in some way.
Speaker 2: I need to get myself healed. I need to do this.
Speaker 2: I need something to save my life, or I need food.
Speaker 1: This has nothing. Well it's that. That's what I mean
Speaker 1: when I say that obvious Slasher influence on Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: Michael Myers. Yeah. Now, in that original Halloween, she stabs
Speaker 1: him through the eye with the no him. In the
Speaker 1: next with the knitting needle, she stabs in through the
Speaker 1: eye with the coat hanger, but he keeps getting back up.
Speaker 1: Loomis comes in and shoots him and he falls over
Speaker 1: the balcony, doesn't he And when they go to look,
Speaker 1: he's gone. Yeah, and this had I remember as a
Speaker 1: kid feeling, you know, this has that same feel of
Speaker 1: just it's just swapper, supernatural killer for a machine. This
Speaker 1: thing will not stop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it kind of makes more sense in this
Speaker 2: capacity than it does in Halloween because it is a robot.
Speaker 2: It makes sense that it can take a few stabs
Speaker 2: to the face, neck and eye and not really have
Speaker 2: much trouble showing for it, Whereas even I'm human that's
Speaker 2: very powerful, etc. There'd be some result of stabbing it
Speaker 2: in the fucking eye. I don't believe that there's anything
Speaker 2: that could take us to have a fork to the
Speaker 2: eye and just go eh, fuck it. It makes sense
Speaker 2: when it's a robot. Yeah, this film is I think
Speaker 2: a fantastic movie. Definitely rates on mine. It's legend for
Speaker 2: a reason. It's not just legendary because it was good
Speaker 2: for its time. It still holds up. Yeah, and it
Speaker 2: manages to pace itself in a way that even a
Speaker 2: lot of modern films that even contemporaries following it throughout
Speaker 2: any of the few decades since it came out rarely master.
Speaker 1: There's not many films I've ever heard of that have
Speaker 1: one hundred percent on rotin tomorrow.
Speaker 2: No, Now, some of that will be based on its
Speaker 2: own reputation, but it works. It's hard for me to
Speaker 2: explain why it doesn't deserve one hundred percent because it
Speaker 2: does so much of what it does so well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. It's like, if you want to poke
Speaker 1: holes out, you can kind of point out the grandfather
Speaker 1: paradox of it all. Yeah, but the film is done
Speaker 1: in such a way that you don't care that, you know,
Speaker 1: Kyle Reese turns out to be John Connor's dad, but
Speaker 1: John Connor had to have been born to send Kyle
Speaker 1: Reese back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but you kind of.
Speaker 1: Just don't care. You kind of just go, yeah, okay, fine.
Speaker 2: Well, I think what helps with that is just our
Speaker 2: way line almost kind of ups with that where he
Speaker 2: says it's one of many possible futures, which suggests that
Speaker 2: at some point John Connor wasn't born, Carl Reese was born,
Speaker 2: and for whatever reason, Carl Reese got sent back anyway,
Speaker 2: found Sarah Connor and started the paradox. But because it's
Speaker 2: almost more dimensional than it is just straight narrative of time,
Speaker 2: because it could be one of many possible futures, suggests
Speaker 2: that there is a there is a case that we're
Speaker 2: out of sync with time because of what Carl Reese does. Okay,
Speaker 2: so performances in this We've got Sarah Connor, we've got
Speaker 2: Linda Hamilton, we've got Arnold Schwarzenegger, and we've got Michael
Speaker 2: Bean as sort of the main trio of cast. We
Speaker 2: then have some supporting cast as we mentioned, I guess
Speaker 2: the main one to start with. Then let's start with
Speaker 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger because it's his breakout role. Realistically, Conan could
Speaker 2: be argued to be his breakout role.
Speaker 1: Was Conan that successful though?
Speaker 2: It was for him in terms of his career, but
Speaker 2: in terms of making him it was enough to make
Speaker 2: Kim a Hollywood star. I think Terminator kicked it over
Speaker 2: the edge and that he will now be a permanent star.
Speaker 2: I think there is the slight differential. I always differentiate
Speaker 2: him that way.
Speaker 1: Terminator, I mean Terminator is his most iconic role. Yes,
Speaker 1: when you think Schwarzenegger, you think Terminator and the Terminator
Speaker 1: films they've tried to make without Schwarzenegger do not work
Speaker 1: in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Well, he's been in all of them, hasn't he.
Speaker 1: He's not well, he's technically in Salvation, but that's not him,
Speaker 1: that's just a CGI. What was he in Genesis is
Speaker 1: himself again? He comes back, remember, and they find he's aged. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, they don't work past three.
Speaker 2: I thought that was that was dark face.
Speaker 1: They both do it.
Speaker 2: Oh good, why not just recycle things now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, because he has aged, that's the problem.
Speaker 2: No, No, But my point is is like, yeah, it shows
Speaker 2: that you needed something different. I think the Terminator's had
Speaker 2: its time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, honestly, I didn't. I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: would say you don't need any past the first two.
Speaker 1: I'll give you the third one because I like the
Speaker 1: twist at the end of the third one.
Speaker 2: The twist was very clever in the third one, and
Speaker 2: the rest of the film was a bit shit and cheesy,
Speaker 2: but like the actual concept of it becoming software was
Speaker 2: really clever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's fine to watch the third one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it might be not as artistic as the first two,
Speaker 1: just done.
Speaker 2: The logan does well as the TX, even though I
Speaker 2: don't think they give her as much cool shit they
Speaker 2: could have given her. Yeah, but Arnie still looks kind
Speaker 2: of decent enough in the role. Yeah, it's paced well,
Speaker 2: like it does not feel laborious to what. No, it's
Speaker 2: a good time.
Speaker 1: I would I think you'd have a decent trilogy if
Speaker 1: you just left it at those three and the third
Speaker 1: one ends with Judgment Day happening anyway, making the first
Speaker 1: two fearly relevant, which is fascinating. It feels like all
Speaker 1: the struggles here a Kona goes so it is still
Speaker 1: for nothing eventually. Yeah, because which makes it really depressing
Speaker 1: trilogy as well. Yeah, basically Skynett is inevitable.
Speaker 2: Well, but that's always been the story realistically, apart from
Speaker 2: the very end of the director's cut of Tea two
Speaker 2: where it's like, hey, we averted it, so they stay
Speaker 2: openly in the director's cut. But yeah, so I Swartzenegger's
Speaker 2: performance in this, Yes, it's his most iconic role, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good one. You know,
Speaker 2: if you could quote me the you know, the the
Speaker 2: most iconic role that Stephen Sigal has ever done, it
Speaker 2: wouldn't make it a good role because it's Stephen Segal.
Speaker 2: So arnor Schwarzenegger though is not Steven Segall.
Speaker 1: I would say Stephen. I don't think Stephen Sagal has any.
Speaker 2: Iconic roles under Siege.
Speaker 1: I've heard of the film, but I don't think it's iconic.
Speaker 1: I don't see you know, posters of under Siege in people's.
Speaker 2: Rooms, and yeah, so what do you think of his
Speaker 2: performance as this thought that's great. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 1: There's none of that self consciousness sometimes when people who
Speaker 1: usually play good guys play bad guys. Yeah, you get
Speaker 1: a sort of a self consciousness to it where you
Speaker 1: can tell they kind of don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: And I actually found out Arnold originally wanted to be
Speaker 1: Kyle Reese.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that was the role Who's originally meant
Speaker 2: intended for because there was a crossover between either Lance
Speaker 2: Henrickson or O. J. Simpson as the Terminator simply because
Speaker 2: they they can blend into a crowd.
Speaker 1: And when James Cameron met with him, because the thing is,
Speaker 1: if you have him as Kyle Reese, the Terminator needs
Speaker 1: to be even bigger to be a threat.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the idea was that Kyl Reese is
Speaker 2: a hench dude, but then like the Terminators insidious because
Speaker 2: he could be anywhere, he could be anyone, almost which
Speaker 2: they do. They keep that notion in the film, but Yeah,
Speaker 2: every terminator we see is hench as fuck, so you'd
Speaker 2: always be able to go, well, this guy's a beefcake,
Speaker 2: so he's probably a terminator. This dude is weedy as shit,
Speaker 2: so he's probably not a turn. It's the one negative
Speaker 2: that you could throw at the film. But let's be honest,
Speaker 2: because of how cool it is, no one cares.
Speaker 1: But no, I think this is a great performance. He
Speaker 1: feels sinister. You don't get distracted by the arny of
Speaker 1: it all either. No later Arnold Roles I like him,
Speaker 1: but a lot of later Arnold Roles they're not acting.
Speaker 1: He's just playing Arnold Schwartzenegger and all of the gimmicks
Speaker 1: we like with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This feels like he's acting.
Speaker 2: I don't think he had gimmicks yet because he hadn't
Speaker 2: done many films before this, so I think that maybe helped.
Speaker 2: He did Hercules in New York, but in the original
Speaker 2: cinematic run of that he was dubbed, so it wasn't
Speaker 2: even his voice. The DVD re releases now have his
Speaker 2: original voice in and it's a lot better, and buy
Speaker 2: a lot better. I mean, there's a couple of funny
Speaker 2: bits and the rest of it's still garbage only bay.
Speaker 2: You can not heard Hercules, but it was originally a
Speaker 2: really posh Transatlantic voice. You cannot heard Hercules, You're like,
Speaker 2: why won't you ever dub Ardie with that bullshit? You
Speaker 2: had Pumping On, which was a documentary so doesn't really count.
Speaker 2: You had Conan the Barbarian, which was I think a
Speaker 2: great film, though I know you're not particularly a fan
Speaker 2: of it. However, there wasn't really any lines that were
Speaker 2: quotable in the same way. I think the closest one
Speaker 2: is the lamentation of the women.
Speaker 1: It's a bit from the beginning where he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: lations of their women.
Speaker 2: And I also liked his line about crowd like the
Speaker 2: god crown that I want you to basically bestow me
Speaker 2: and if you don't, then to hell with you. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's how religion should be, is it? God
Speaker 2: helped me out?
Speaker 1: If not fun.
Speaker 2: Yourself, which is essentially on that line. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's how religion is supposed to work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, if you're if you're a god and you're
Speaker 2: supposedly loving, fucking give me some love, motherfucker. Anyway, the yeah,
Speaker 2: so Arnold hadn't yet built what I mean, there's things
Speaker 2: in this that would later be reused in things like Commando,
Speaker 2: and by that point he'd very much hit into his
Speaker 2: Let's give him a decent set of one liners. Dylan
Speaker 2: your son of a bitch. Yes, I lied, You're funny guy, Sally,
Speaker 2: I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you.
Speaker 1: Last, don't just serve my friend. He's dead tired.
Speaker 2: Man. I love Commando. It was a charper. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone has has has had as many
Speaker 2: epically quotable lines as Arnold Schwartzen. Oh no, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: He manages somehow to make it all so quotable. But yeah,
Speaker 2: so on Schwarzenegger, I think was great. What about Linda
Speaker 2: Hamilton and Michael Bean.
Speaker 1: Linda Hamilton does a great job.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's so.
Speaker 1: Interesting because she is such a different character in the
Speaker 1: second one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, in this she's still she's not a way
Speaker 2: far from it. Actually she does harden up over the
Speaker 2: course of the film. You do see that progression. But
Speaker 2: obviously at the beginning she's she's a waitress, and there
Speaker 2: was nothing more special about her than any of the
Speaker 2: other waitresses that are working in, which is what works
Speaker 2: so well. Yeah, is that you can take this absolute
Speaker 2: nobody and she's got to become the mother to the
Speaker 2: greatest leader of the resistance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the evolution does work. Who works well in
Speaker 1: my opinion, And you really feel it at the end
Speaker 1: when she says you're terminated, fucker, and it's the button.
Speaker 2: It feels earned. It's a really earned moment. Michael Bean
Speaker 2: as well. He's doing a role that I've seen him
Speaker 2: then perform again about ten years after this, in a
Speaker 2: film called time Bomb. That's not a good film. It's
Speaker 2: him and Patsy Kensit basically doing the story again, but
Speaker 2: without a robot chasing Hill. You have Billy Blanks chase
Speaker 2: it after them in a suit. And Yeah, there's a
Speaker 2: bit where they're trying to crawl through a porno theater
Speaker 2: and there's a full on porno going on in the
Speaker 2: background and said, try and escape.
Speaker 1: Delightful.
Speaker 2: Michael Bean's doing a role that he becomes very accustomed to,
Speaker 2: very like he does it basically again in Aliens. I
Speaker 2: don't think he was intended to be in Aliens, but
Speaker 2: the person that was meant to be his role left
Speaker 2: and he took.
Speaker 1: It he replaced James Remark, didn't they that was it?
Speaker 1: I thought Bill Paxton replaced James Remar But was it not?
Speaker 1: Was it Michael Ban?
Speaker 2: I heard it was Michael Ban. I could be wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You're probably right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're both just going on what we've heard. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think he does a service I say serviceable, very
Speaker 2: good performance. And I did like that he's brought back
Speaker 2: in right at the start of Terminator two, but it's
Speaker 2: not in a way that undoes his death here because
Speaker 2: he's he's a vision, isn't he too? Sarah Connor while
Speaker 2: she's in the mental home.
Speaker 1: Yes, I had forgotten about that, to be honest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he repeats the line that she gives to
Speaker 2: him where she says, on your feet, soldier, and she
Speaker 2: says that to him, and he says that to her
Speaker 2: in the second one. Yeah, the other performances, as I say,
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed, I'll enjoyed the two Cops, and I
Speaker 2: enjoyed Dr Silverman, who comes back in Terminator two as
Speaker 2: the person running the mental home that Sarah Connor is
Speaker 2: being kept in, and he because he misses all of
Speaker 2: the Terminator shit in this film, he is in the
Speaker 2: police station and it's as he exits that Arnold Schwarzenegger enters,
Speaker 2: so he misses the fact that the terminute was somehow
Speaker 2: able to endure so many bullets and get riddled and
Speaker 2: still walk on. When it came to the second one,
Speaker 2: he's now running the psychiatric care home and he is
Speaker 2: still doesn't believe that it's real, and he just thinks
Speaker 2: that she's absorbed Carl Reese's delusion. And then in the
Speaker 2: third one, he's seen their two one thousand walk through
Speaker 2: the bars and like just liquefy and reanimate the other side,
Speaker 2: and he drops his cigarette. And then in the third one,
Speaker 2: when he's trying to ease off the girl in that one,
Speaker 2: Claire Dame's character, Yeah, Katherine Brewster, that's it. While he's
Speaker 2: trying to help Katherine Brewster feel a bit better about
Speaker 2: all the shit she's seen in the churchyard. Yes, things happen,
Speaker 2: you know, and you think you've seen things, crazy things,
Speaker 2: impossible things, things that couldn't possibly be real. It's just
Speaker 2: like haunted by it, and you're like, it's a funny.
Speaker 2: It's a cameo really more than anything. Whereas in this
Speaker 2: and the second one. It's more of a role, but
Speaker 2: it is a funny cameo. He then doesn't appear again because, well,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, anything after Terminator three has no real
Speaker 2: lineage connection to the rest. Terminated Salvation isn't a reboot.
Speaker 2: It could technically be a follow on, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: look anything like the future that we've seen. And it's
Speaker 2: a completely new cast and.
Speaker 1: Shit, I can't remember if it's shipped or not.
Speaker 2: Only to double take that word, second take that one.
Speaker 2: I think I have.
Speaker 1: Only seen it once. To be fair, My memory is
Speaker 1: it's awful.
Speaker 2: And then they did Terminated Genesis, which is a full
Speaker 2: on reboot and only the main two characters are in it,
Speaker 2: but they're played by completely different people. And then it's
Speaker 2: Dark Fate, which basically reboots from after Terminator two, doesn't it? Yes,
Speaker 2: because Dark Fate doesn't include Terminator three or anything after. No,
Speaker 2: because John Connor dies at the start of Yes, everywhere
Speaker 2: they've cgi recreated Edward for long. Yes, and he gets
Speaker 2: got Yeah.
Speaker 1: I do really like the vibe the future has in
Speaker 1: this film. It always felt as a kid, It always
Speaker 1: felt like a real dystopian.
Speaker 2: Oh, it feels like a real nightmare. It's why I
Speaker 2: was so disappointed with the visuals of Salvation. Salvation feels
Speaker 2: like it's set in a desert, very much like an
Speaker 2: Iraq war style shoot. But obviously, what with futuristic elements,
Speaker 2: this doesn't have that.
Speaker 1: It feels like you're blue. The future is really blue.
Speaker 1: It's really in the next one as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's really blue, it's really dark. You've got the
Speaker 2: bright laser lights of like the pinch lasers and shit
Speaker 2: are the only things that really illuminate it. But it
Speaker 2: also feels like the world is a giant scrap yard,
Speaker 2: and that's the big difference. Salvation made it that the
Speaker 2: world is a big desert, which is the opposite.
Speaker 1: This is as we already know. I'm not a fan
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: No, I'm also not a fan of that look. But
Speaker 2: also it doesn't make sense with what we've seen previously.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna do that, if your whole idea is
Speaker 2: let's do a film that's set in the negative future,
Speaker 2: Terminate three is set up that we're going there anyway,
Speaker 2: make it look like the negative future that everyone wanted
Speaker 2: to see, don't make it look like some different franchise.
Speaker 1: I do also just want to say that I really
Speaker 1: like the score in this film. Yes, finally obviously the
Speaker 1: famous Terminator theme music.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think he improves at Brad Fidal is very good.
Speaker 2: I think he improves on some of it in the
Speaker 2: second one over this one, but let's be honest, a
Speaker 2: lot of it's still very good.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: There's there's one point where the Terminators attacking, and I
Speaker 2: think it's in the police station where the soundtrack is
Speaker 2: a little over techno for my liking, just that it's
Speaker 2: just very obvious early eighties syinth is that and you're like,
Speaker 2: all right, carve it down said, but it's I'm over.
Speaker 2: This is probably one of the first films as well,
Speaker 2: that of its type that had such a huge impact
Speaker 2: that wasn't an orchestrated soundtrack. This and Blade Run must
Speaker 2: have come out a similar sort of time. Vangelists, who
Speaker 2: did the soundtrack for Blade Runner, was also very SYNTHI
Speaker 2: but it was slightly different to this. It's not the
Speaker 2: same sound. Vangelists is kind of a I think, a
Speaker 2: slightly bigger sound than this, but that's fine. This had
Speaker 2: a more This felt more like a mashup of maybe
Speaker 2: the evangelist style of Blade Runner, crossed with any Morricone's
Speaker 2: style of composing for the Spaghetti Western Trilogy, where it's
Speaker 2: made up off pieces of music rather than being like
Speaker 2: obviously it's one big piece. Any Amercanis has done orchestra's
Speaker 2: performing the Spaghetti Western Trilogy music, but like the Waestion.
Speaker 1: Did he do, it's the Dollars Trilogy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's They're called the Spaghetti Western Trilogy.
Speaker 2: And though there's Spaghetti Westerns other than that, but.
Speaker 1: I've always called it. I've always heard it called the
Speaker 1: Dollars Trilogy.
Speaker 2: I've never heard it called the Dollars trip. Okay, interesting
Speaker 2: but yeah no, yeah, fistful of dollars, a few dollars
Speaker 2: more and the good, the band, the ugly. Obviously he's
Speaker 2: done more than that. Sergey early One, who was the
Speaker 2: director of those, had done more than that as well. Essentially,
Speaker 2: before that point, all of the soundtracks for westerns were
Speaker 2: that whole dun d had that whole big sort of
Speaker 2: orchestrated soundtrack.
Speaker 1: Wow wow wow Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: It's all in bits, and you've just got bits of
Speaker 2: gone for wringle and then just a bit of guitar
Speaker 2: going down and just bits of chance, bits of guitar
Speaker 2: bits of this bit, and it's almost like it's almost
Speaker 2: like sampling, but he's created it himself. It's like an
Speaker 2: early form of sampling, but that fits in the Western theme.
Speaker 2: Brad Feigel's theme for Terminator has a similar feel in
Speaker 2: that it seems to be made out of parts of
Speaker 2: people hitting chunks of metal and banging on ship and
Speaker 2: then you get that almost an orchestrated piece, but it's not.
Speaker 2: It's clearly synth.
Speaker 1: Of do Do Do.
Speaker 2: It's it's all you can almost hear are Gone four
Speaker 2: Ringle being thrown in there, because it's just made up
Speaker 2: of all these pieces that make overall this unique sound,
Speaker 2: and sci fi hadn't really done that before. Obviously Western's
Speaker 2: had and it's a great way, I think for Brad
Speaker 2: Fidley Brad Fidle to have built that soundtrack, which is
Speaker 2: why the only bit that stands out for me as
Speaker 2: not being my favorite in terms of soundtrack is the
Speaker 2: bit where he goes to a bit of a standard
Speaker 2: synth line during one of the attack sequences. Because the
Speaker 2: rest of this has that kind of raw energy, it
Speaker 2: gives it an energy because it's made up of percussive
Speaker 2: bangs on actual things. It's more percussive. I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the sound in this is brilliant. It looks incredible.
Speaker 1: This still totally holds up in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's bits when they're outside the lighting you to
Speaker 2: you can't do this lighting anymore. And what I mean
Speaker 2: by that is essentially, essentially they were unable to get
Speaker 2: the rights to film in the city. They filmed in outside,
Speaker 2: so they did it on the fly a bit gorilla
Speaker 2: style ish, which is not uncommon for low budget film. However,
Speaker 2: the reason that it looks so good is that on
Speaker 2: scouting the locations as much as he could, James Cameron
Speaker 2: realized that the street lamps were lit with something that
Speaker 2: you can't do anymore because they're considered bio hazardous. They're
Speaker 2: actually rated on the same scale as having nuclear equipment. Yeah,
Speaker 2: which is they were mercury lamps. Now, my grandfather had
Speaker 2: some mercury, yeah, because he when in World War Two,
Speaker 2: they used to use it in the lamps for the
Speaker 2: jeeps and the tank that the jeeps and the trucks.
Speaker 2: Because they're brighter than normal bulbs. They're very bright and
Speaker 2: there are white brightness, but they have a bluish tinge
Speaker 2: rather than what we know of more from tungsten, where
Speaker 2: it's a more yellowish tinge. And we've kind of gone
Speaker 2: back to white a little bit with led lights and
Speaker 2: even on head lights in cars they've gone back to white,
Speaker 2: but there was a sort of a bluish tinge to
Speaker 2: mercury lamps. And when it came to destroying it, they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't. Basically we asked if you can sell it.
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, no one will buy this because it's
Speaker 2: technically considered radioactive. It's not that level. It's not actually radioactive,
Speaker 2: so it's safe in its little vial. But still, the
Speaker 2: point is he realized that this city was lit with
Speaker 2: these particular types of lamps, so wherever you picked a
Speaker 2: film at, he made sure there was lamps like that nearby,
Speaker 2: so A they didn't have to get out so much
Speaker 2: lighting equipment, but b it gave it this really odd
Speaker 2: white blue look that is still unique to this film.
Speaker 2: It doesn't really recur in the sequel because by that
Speaker 2: point all the mercury lamps had gone. They replaced it
Speaker 2: with a different style in the sequel, which I really love,
Speaker 2: where they do that sort of blue and red lighting
Speaker 2: on the side of the faces. But with this, they
Speaker 2: didn't have time to set up that sort of extensive lighting,
Speaker 2: so instead they just went with what they got and
Speaker 2: this gave them a really unique look. It's a bit
Speaker 2: of a shame because I'd love to film a film
Speaker 2: that has this aesthetic, But the only way to realistically
Speaker 2: do it, I think, is to get mercury lamps, which
Speaker 2: would there, which basically would be breaking.
Speaker 1: A million laws.
Speaker 2: So it's just basically it's not feasible. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: love that there is a unique lighting scheme to this
Speaker 2: film that is so eighties, and it's so eighties because
Speaker 2: you cannot do it anymore. I need to find a
Speaker 2: way to replicate it. Man. I just love it so much.
Speaker 2: This is a great film. I love the way it looks,
Speaker 2: I love the way it sounds, I love the way
Speaker 2: it's performed. I think it's perfectly paced. It never gets boring.
Speaker 2: We heard criticisms from people of the time in that
Speaker 2: review section. I don't really agree with most of it.
Speaker 2: I certainly don't agree that it's pretentious. I don't know
Speaker 2: where you'd find pretension in this film.
Speaker 1: No, no, me neither, And I don't know where that
Speaker 1: nassification thing was coming from. But yeah, no, I think
Speaker 1: this is a great film. It still holds up. It's
Speaker 1: definitely been a very successful second take.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, definitely, Yeah, we'll give it a watch
Speaker 2: if you haven't already.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you everyone for tuning in. It is a
Speaker 1: pleasure to be able to bring you this show every
Speaker 1: week and get to talk about the films that we enjoy.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Please do like, share, subscribe, etc.
Speaker 1: And make sure you check out the other Imparlor film
Speaker 1: shows VGMP, the Video Game Movie Podcast where we talk
Speaker 1: about movies based on video games, or one of our
Speaker 1: two fiction podcasts, our sci fi audio drama The Lakes
Speaker 1: of the Moon and our horror adventure audio drama Haunted,
Speaker 1: which are available on all good podcasting apps. And we
Speaker 1: will see you next time for another second take.