Some lighter fare for Sunday, while I’m holed up avoiding the roads because of a “freedom convoy” in Halifax. (Joke’s on them: if they’re driving to the Bayers Lake big-box store district on a Sunday, it will make absolutely no difference to traffic whatsoever.)
There comes a time in every daddy’s life when his kids are approaching adolescence and becoming more curious about the world, and their father has a duty of introducing them to the really important stuff about life.
I’m referring to classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, of course.
We watched the first two Terminator movies this weekend, and both hold up amazingly well. Which one is better? That’s a tough call. The second one has much more action and higher production values (although the original looks amazing for a movie with a low budget even by 1984 standards), while the first one is more tense and tightly paced. Either way, they’re both awesome.
And yet, I got a little bit angry watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day for the first time many years. Not because of the movie itself, but because of how the studio promoted it back in the day.
I saw it on opening night in 1991, and knew going in that Arnold was playing a reprogrammed “good” Terminator this time around. It was revealed in all the magazines and the studio made no effort to hide it.
I since learned that this was supposed to be an unexpected plot twist, and when I watched T2 last night with that in mind, it was really obvious that it’s what James Cameron had in mind. Until the T-101 tells John Connor to “get down” about a half hour in, you are given absolutely no sign that he (it?) is trying to protect John Connor, nor that Robert Patrick is a even Terminator at all. The T-1000 beats up a cop to take his police car and (we assume) his uniform, but Reese takes a homeless guy’s pants in the first movie, so that wouldn’t really prove anything.
(Side note: leaving aside the debate/plot hole about a liquid metal Terminator travelling through time, which we had been told was impossible for non-living objects, why is the T-1000 naked when he turns up in 1991?)
Anyway, as much as I was completely blown away by T2 when I first saw it, and know I’d witnessed something truly special, I can only imagine how it would have felt had I not known that twist going in. The audience would have absolutely lost its mind.
When I saw the original Planet of the Apes I already knew about the twist ending, and I doubt there are even any young children seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time who don’t already know Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Still incredible movies, but the element of surprise is gone.
Speaking of classic movies from my childhood: this Substack post is paywalled, but from the photo I think the answer is clearly “RoboCop.”
Another Schwarzenegger movie I fondly remember is "The Eraser". I haven't seen it in twenty years though.