Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
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- For the video game, see Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (video game). For the rap single, see Rise of the Machines (song).
| 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' | |
|---|---|
 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines movie poster |
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| Directed by | Jonathan Mostow |
| Produced by | Mario F. Kassar Hal Lieberman Joel B. Michaels Andrew G. Vajna Colin Wilson |
| Written by | John D. Brancato Michael Ferris |
| Starring | Arnold Schwarzenegger Nick Stahl Claire Danes Kristanna Loken |
| Music by | Marco Beltrami |
| Cinematography | Don Burgess |
| Editing by | Nicolas de Toth Neil Travis |
| Distributed by |  Warner Bros.Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 2, 2003 |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Country | United States United Kingdom Germany |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $187,300,000 |
| Preceded by | Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
| Followed by | Terminator 4 (Unknown Title) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom: | 12A/12 |
| United States: | R |
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (commonly abbreviated T3) is a 2003 science fiction 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). It was released in the United States on July 2, 2003.
This film was Arnold Schwarzenegger's final starring role before becoming Governor of California, after being elected in the 2003 California recall. In order to ride a wave of publicity focused on Schwarzenegger, the DVD release of this movie was scheduled several weeks after the election. Warner Home Video released the film on HD DVD on May 9 in North America, 2006.[1]
A fourth film in the saga has been announced, and is slated to be released in 2008. It is also to be directed by Jonathan Mostow. To date, a cast list has not been released, but it is rumoured that Edward Furlong may reprise his role as John Connor.[citation needed].
Tagline:
- The Machines Will Rise.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In the absence of the previously-scheduled Judgment Day, John Connor has gone from messiah to burn-out, and is wandering aimlessly around Southern California, living "off the grid," with no permanent home or credit cards so he can't be tracked. Unfortunately, it seems the apocalypse was only delayed (not prevented) by his actions in the second movie. The United States Air Force has taken over the Skynet project. Skynet sends another advanced new Terminator model, the T-X, back in time to kill the human resistance's future lieutenants, and John Connor, if possible.
As with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a reprogrammed Terminator, a Cyberdyne Research Systems Model 101, 850 Series, (played by Schwarzenegger) has been sent back in time to protect John as well as his future wife (Kate Brewster) from the T-X, later dubbed the "Terminatrix."
In a plot twist, this particular T-850 reveals that he is in fact the murderer of John Connor in the distant future, and that Connor's wife reprogrammed him for the mission. This plot point serves to illustrate the Machines' complete lack of both emotion and personal will. Another twist to the formula of the previous films is that the T-X is armed with a full arsenal of advanced weapons from the future: in the first two films, it is said that nothing but living tissue can be sent backwards through time, so time travel by humans requires that they be naked and without weapons. Although a Terminator is a metal robot, it is surrounded by living tissue. The T-X expands on this principle by having internal weapons, thus enabling this model to be transported back in time with weapons from the future.
The T-X has been given a different mission to complete: Rather than stop John Connor, it must kill his top lieutenants, and his future wife.
Sometime later in the film, John and the Terminator find a weapons cache hidden in a graveyard (placed there by Sarah Connor's friends in accordance with her will), and equip themselves with its contents; however, the T-X has been hunting Kate, and posing as her boyfriend, attempts to kill John and Kate at the cemetery. The pair, aided by the Terminator, escape with their lives. During the events within the Air Force facility, the robotic defences come to life and attack the unprepared scientists and Marines. The T-X is also in the facility, and follows Kate and John into the power core, where they trigger a super-strong electromagnetic field, hoping it will pull the T-X into a puddle of liquid metal. It escapes, however, by turning its hand into a buzzsaw, and shortcircuiting the power generator.
In the end, Kate Brewster's father tricks Connor and Kate into taking cover from the impending Skynet nuclear attack in a Cold War-era VIP fallout shelter ("Crystal Peak"), by making them believe that it is where the Skynet mainframe is located. As they try to open a security door with codes given to them by Kate's father, they are tracked down by the T-X. The Terminator, who was thought to have been destroyed earlier in the movie, saves them, and terminates the T-X by detonating the second of its two internal nuclear power cores in its mouth, thus destroying both the T-X and itself.
Connor and Kate enter the base, and discover that it does not contain Skynet — Skynet is in fact a distributed computer program. They had been tricked into entering the base in order to (unknowingly) protect themselves. In a fatalistic turn, the main characters are unable to avert Judgment Day, and Skynet triggers a nuclear apocalypse, paving the way for the Machines' rise to power. However, there is a glimmer of hope, when the bunker is filled with the voices of confused US military forces and HAM radio operators asking for orders and guidance. With some hesitation, Connor picks up the microphone to respond, laying the groundwork for his future leadership of the human resistance against the Machines. The final scene shows the remains of the Terminator with Connor narrating that the war between humanity and the machines has begun...
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Arnold Schwarzenegger | The Terminator |
| Nick Stahl | John Connor |
| Claire Danes | Kate Brewster |
| Kristanna Loken | T-X |
| David Andrews | Robert Brewster |
| Mark Famiglietti | Scott Mason (originally "Scott Petersen") |
| Earl Boen | Dr. Peter Silberman |
| Moira Harris | Betsy |
| Chopper Bernet | Chief Engineer |
| Chris Lawford | Brewster's Aide |
| Carolyn Hennesy | Rich Woman |
| Jay Acovone | Cop - Westside Street |
| M.C. Gainey | Roadhouse Bouncer |
| Susan Merson | Roadhouse Clubgoer #1 |
| Elizabeth Morehead | Roadhouse Clubgoer #2 |
The studios had long wanted to make a sequel to the previous Terminator films. However, they weren't sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in it. Schwarzenegger initially refused to star in Terminator 3 because James Cameron, who created the character and directed the first two films, would not be directing the third installment. Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Cameron to produce the third film. Cameron declined, however, and 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]
Besides Arnold Schwarzenegger, Earl Boen (Dr. Peter Silberman) is the only actor to appear in all three Terminator films. Linda Hamilton was initially approached to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, but turned it down. John explains in T3 that Sarah died of leukemia in the year 1997.
In a 2005 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Claire Danes revealed that she was cast for the role of Kate Brewster as a last-minute replacement, after actress Sophia Bush was thought too young to portray Kate Brewster. Danes started filming immediately, and basically learned about her character on the job. Danes later said this may have helped her performance, as Kate Brewster's character was similarly thrust into a strange new reality with no warning.
This was Kristanna Loken's breakthrough movie role. Loken did her own nudity in the opening of the film, on a very cold night, and barefoot on a pavement.
Kate Brewster's slain boyfriend, Scott Mason, was going to be 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 Connor. The fact that there would have also been occurrences of "Connor" on both sides would have reminded viewers too much more about the Laci Peterson murders, and give them the misconception that the movie makers deliberately made a parody / reversal of the roles involved in the Laci Peterson murders. However, in the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Petersen."
[edit] Development
James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. During his divorce with Linda Hamilton, she asked for the Terminator franchise rights — and after earning the rights, decided to have them sold. Former Carolco Pictures owners Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna won the auction, and started searching for a screenplay, since Cameron was focusing on other projects. Tedi Serafian wrote a script, but as it would cost over $300 million (a scene involved a Boeing 747 crashing in downtown Los Angeles), it was rejected. Serafian earned a "story" credit after screenwriters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris used some of his ideas (Sarah Connor being dead, the rival Terminator being female). After T3 was released Cameron would go on record as saying he "Never planned on doing a 3rd film, because the story was finished with T2."
Filming began on April 12, 2002.
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[edit] Budget and financing
The movie's final production budget was $187.3 million, making it the most expensive independently-produced movie in history. Schwarzenegger had to dip into his own pocket ($6 million) to help fund the production of the movie — in particular the car-chase scene that included a crane crashing through an entire building. It was a scene that he himself wanted to put in the movie (as he explains in the audio commentary, and on The Tonight Show). 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.
- Story rights (Carolco and Gale Anne Hurd): $14.5 million
- Screenplay: $5.2 million
- Director (Jonathan Mostow): $5 million
- Producers: $10 million
- Cast: $35 million
- Arnold Schwarzenegger: $29.25 million + 20% gross profits
- Arnold's perks: $1.5 million
- Rest of principal cast: $3.85 million
- Extras: $400,000
- Production costs: $58 million
- Post-production costs: $4 million
- Visual effects: $20 million
- Music: $2 million
- Other costs: $33.6 million
Total: $187.3 million [1]
[edit] Financing
- Warner Bros.: $51.6 million for North American rights.
- Toho-Towa: $20 million for Japanese rights.
- Sony Pictures Entertainment: $77.4 million for the rights to the rest of the world.
- Internationale Medien und Film: IMF is a German tax shelter. The tax laws of Germany allows investors to take an instant tax deduction even on non-German productions, and even if the film has not gone into production. By selling the copyright for $160 million and then buying it back for $149 million, producers Intermedia effectively made $11 million in profit.
Total: $160 million
[edit] References to previous Terminator films
- Earl Boen reprises his role as Dr. Peter Silberman, the long-suffering psychologist from the last two films, though his appearance is only for a single scene. Unlike Schwarzenegger's Terminator character, Earl Boen makes a reference to the second Terminator film when he says, "I know what it's like to be in a hostage situation. I've been there myself. The fear...the adrenaline...you find yourself...imagining things. Impossible things, crazy things, insane things...takes years to get over it." It is a direct reference to the T-1000's battle with the T-800 in the hospital during the second film.
- This is the third movie where the line "Get out" is said in the context of scenes involving the taking of another character's vehicle. Arnold says this line when stealing the fire truck, and a similar line ("Get off!") when dismounting a police officer from his motorcycle. This line also appeared in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (when the T-1000 steals the helicopter).
- A particular shot has been used at least once in each Terminator film. While on a stationary motorcycle, the T-800/850 wheelspins, and turns the bike 180 degrees right in front of a low-lying camera, before he rides off into the distance. In Terminator 3, this occurs as he commandeers the police motorcycle.
- Like the first two movies, the Terminator loses one human eye, though it does not lose a left arm in this movie.
- In the first two movies, the Terminator says, "I'll be back"; in T3, he never says it, but he paraphrases it ("I'm back," and "She'll be back").
- In all three Terminator films, the Terminator's definition of "being back" means entering a building by driving a vehicle through it: In "The Terminator", he drives a car into a police station after saying "I'll be back"; in "Terminator 2", he drives a SWAT van into the Cyberdyne Building after saying "I'll be back"; in "Terminator 3", he flies a helicopter into an airplane hangar, steps out and proclaims "I'm back!"
- Unlike the first two Terminator movies, the line, "Come with me if you want to live," is not used in this film. However, a variation of it is given when John says to Kate, "Do you wanna live? Come on!"
- John quotes his mother in the cemetery as calling every day after August 29th, 1997 a "gift". The quote is a near-exact copy of what Sarah Connor says in Terminator 2: Judgment Day's original, "happy" ending available on most of its DVD editions.
[edit] Deleted Scene
There was a scene filmed during production that explains why all Terminators looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. A character named Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Schwarzenegger) explains in an army promotion video he was chosen to be the model of the Terminator project. Schwarzenegger's character has a Southern US accent. When General Brewster questions it, another scientist replies (in a Schwarzenegger voice over), "We can fix it." The actor portraying this scientist is Jack Noseworthy. 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.
[edit] John Connor's age
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor's age is ten years old (see screenshot). Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines retcons this continuity by stating in the opening prologue that the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day took place when John Connor was thirteen, through the following dialogue:
| “ | My name is John Connor. They tried to murder me before I was born. When I was thirteen, they tried again. | ” |
[edit] Games
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 PlayStation 2 version. [2] A first person shooter titled Terminator 3: War of the Machines was released for PCs as well. [3] A third game titled Terminator 3: The Redemption was released for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. [4]
[edit] Critical Reception
Terminator 3 was generally well-received by most movie critics, and was successful at the box office. It earned 71% on rottentomatoes.com[5]. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "T3 delivers the goods." Ross Anthony wrote, "Jonathan Mostow has taken good care of Cameron's baby, showing both respect and homage to the characters and trends." Chris Hewitt of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, wrote, "The result is a swift, startlingly entertaining movie, a summer behemoth that actually lives up to its potential." However, Roger Ebert gave it 2½ stars and said that Terminator 3 was "essentially one long chase and fight, punctuated by comic, campy, or simplistic dialogue." Rick Groen of Globe Mail said that T3 was "a whole lot less than what came before." Brian J. Arthurs compared Terminator 3 to rock bands, saying that "Rise of the Machines feels like an old rock band that reunites without one of its key players."
[edit] Trivia
- In the first draft of the script for T3, Sarah Connor was alive and well, but in the graveyard scene meets her gruesome death. Linda Hamilton refused to star in it, citing the physical training she had done for the second film, and indicating she did not wish to do similar training again, but did not want to disappoint her fans. The writers response to this instead changed the graveyard scene to be her character's grave, and her casket was full of weapons.
- The Manner waffle products from Austria had a cameo appearance in the movie, when the Terminator 850 grabs a bunch when shopping for food at the gas station in the desert. Since Manner waffles are one of Schwarzenegger's favorite snacks, he integrated them into the movie. Manner ran a series of television commercials in Austria in 2003, marketing their waffles with the release of the movie in theatres there.
- It is one of few films to be rated "R" in the United States, but then to be given a "12A" certificate (roughly equal to PG-13) in the UK.
- A number of actors were supposedly in the running for the role of the T-X, including Vin Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal, Famke Janssen, and Joanie Laurer. Laurer's name came into the mix when she was recommended for the part by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself during an interview prior to filming.
- In an early draft of the script, Lance Henriksen was to reprise the role of Detective Vukovich (from The Terminator), having the character bound to a wheelchair following the events of the first Terminator film. The idea was eventually dropped.
- Ridley Scott and John McTiernan were considered for the director's job after James Cameron turned down the chance to reprise the director's role. Cameron refused to do so, as he claimed that he had told the story completely after Terminator 2. Incidentally, James Cameron was hired as the director of Aliens after Ridley Scott declined the offer (Scott's breakout film was the original Alien).
- An early draft had a completely different storyline from the film, in which John Connor is a successful computer programmer, who ends up being instrumental in the activation of Skynet. Sarah Connor is also featured in the film. The evil Terminator is a shapeshifter, but also can take on a gaseous energy form.
- The "Rich Woman" attacked by the naked TX was planned to have attempted to use an ATM that wouldn't respond, but there wasn't time to film it. If this scene had been included, it would have been one of several indications (Kate's cell phone, the lack of TV reception at the AM/PM) that the computer virus is taking over.
- Kristanna Loken speaks all of her character's dialogue in the first 25 minutes of the film.
- The storyboards for the Judgement Day scenes near the end of the film were much more graphic than what was seen in the film, and included images such as the Statue of Liberty melting, the Hollywood sign going up in flames, and even Dr. Silberman being incinerated by a nuclear blast. However, the VFX team were told that it was "too soon after 9/11" to show such graphic destruction, and that only a single nuclear explosion should be seen, and that it should actually be of relatively poor quality, compared to what was seen in the second film.
- Jonathan Mostow's previous films were Breakdown and U-571. In the DVD commentary to U-571, during the end credits, he states he never intended to do two thrillers back-to-back, and couldn't imagine doing something similiar for his next project, which would probably be a very small quiet film. His next film was Terminator 3.
- Claire Forlani auditioned for the part of Kate Brewster.
- Shane West was considered for the part of John Connor.
- The T-X was originally called the T-1G. At one point The T-X was going to be a male Terminator.
- Various versions of the Terminator's final line were tested, including "Eat me!" The filmmakers finally settled on "You are terminated!"
- Ben Curtis (aka "the Dell Dude") auditioned for the role of John Connor.
- Chris Klein auditioned for the role of John Connor.
- Carrie-Anne Moss, Peta Wilson and Jeri Ryan were also considered for the role of T-X.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out for 6 months, about 3 hours a day before shooting started, and when shooting started he had the exact same body weight and muscle measurements as 12 years previously while shooting Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
- The original tagline was "The War Begins 2003," but it was removed from all promotional material due to the political climate of the time, and the war in Iraq. The line was changed to simply "Coming Soon".
- The cemetery scene where John Connor and the Terminator retreive their weapons is actually Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California a few miles east of Los Angeles. Shooting was done at the Rainbow Chapel right off Workman Mill Road.
- T-X is also the antagonist boss character in both the movie and in the game.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Business Wire. Warner Home Video Announces Titles and Release Dates for HD DVD. January 5, 2006.
- ^ Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Game Rankings. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ Terminator 3: War of the Machines. Game Rankings. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ Terminator 3: Redemption. Game Rankings. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ Terminator 3:Rise of the Machines at Rotten Tomatoes
[edit] External links
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