Terminator 3 (Rise of the Machines) - Film review - word-on-the-web

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Director: Jonathan Mostow (2003)
Distributor: Buena Vista International. Certificate: 12A

Main Characters:

T-800	Arnold Schwarzenegger
TX	Kristanna Loken
John Connor	Nick Stahl
Kate Brewster	Claire Danes

He certainly is back! Arnie’s return completes a trilogy of excellent Terminator films. For the second time, a captured and adjusted T-800 robot is sent back from the future by human resistance fighters in an attempt to save the earth from a bleak post-nuclear holocaust, engineered by computers and from which machines rise victorious from the ashes.

As in T2: Judgement Day, the T-800’s mission is to protect John Connor from a particularly nasty advanced Terminator that has also been sent back through time by the machines to kill Connor. His death would prevent him from becoming the leader of the human resistance in the future.

The latest model Terminator is, in fact, a Terminatrix. But don’t be fooled by appearances. Underneath a beautiful female exterior is an extremely lethal killing machine that, in addition to having the ability to become liquid metal and assume the appearance of whatever it touches, also has a built-in multi-purpose weapon in its arm. Kristanna Loken’s TX makes Arnie’s T-800 look a little dated, to say the least.

Following two great scenes in which both the T-800 and TX arrive naked from the future (standard practice for Terminators!) and acquire their outfits, they begin their separate searches for Connor. He, meanwhile, has dropped out of sight ~ fearful of the future since his encounter with Terminators earlier in his life.

Connor breaks into an animal hospital looking for drugs to treat injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident. He is caught by vet Kate Brewster who, coincidentally, is a childhood acquaintance ~ and someone whose life will be tightly bound up with Connor’s in the future.

At that point, the TX crashes the scene, followed quickly by the T-800 and mayhem results for the rest of the film as the two robots proceed to batter each other with increasingly large, sharp-edged and explosive objects ~ including guns, flamethrowers and even helicopters ~ as one seeks Connors’s death, the other his protection. As the film draws to a close, time ticks away towards the moment when computer intelligence becomes self-aware and takes it upon itself to set the wheels of Judgement Day and the rise of the machines in motion.

T3, as with all of the Terminator films, offers a grim view of the future. Despite the mind-blowing creativity of humankind, somehow paradise on earth is never achieved. Technology takes over and becomes master rather than servant. This idea of things going wrong and human beings finding themselves caught out by the consequences is a common theme in film. Blade Runner, AI, and Minority Report are just a few examples where a bleak future is portrayed ~ due in no small part to the consequences of advances in computer technology and artificial intelligence.

It is as if there were a flaw in the human condition that is bound to overlook the consequences of developing faster and cleverer machines, so that things at some point get out of control.

Perhaps it is a deep-seated fear rooted in the human experience of doing something simply because it can be done, without giving sufficient thought to what the result might be. From the perspective of a 21^st century world that has enough nuclear weapons to blow us all to pieces with just a fraction of the arsenal, would the atom have been split with hindsight? The answer is, probably, ‘yes’ because the quest for absolute power continues to corrupt absolutely in a broken world. It is a sobering thought that the things taking place in laboratories across the world today will indeed shape the world of tomorrow, and not always for good.

That is all sounding pretty negative, so let’s get off the doom and gloom trip. The world is an unsure place and none of us can do any more than speculate on what might lie ahead. We, do, however, read throughout the Bible of God’s assurance for the future. To Isaac, God says: ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you’ (Genesis 26.24). The Psalmist writes: ‘In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid’ (Psalm 56.4). Jesus says: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid’ (John 14.27).

Whatever lies ahead for this world ~ and whether technological advance will ultimately be a blessing or a curse ~ Christians look forward with hope. For the God who said ‘yes’ to this world by becoming one of us in the person of Jesus will not leave us whatever the future may hold. As we read at the end of Matthew’s gospel: ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28.20b).

· What do you hope will be the consequences of humanity’s continued technological advance?

· What are your fears concerning advances in technology ~ for instance, do you think the future as portrayed in T3 could become a reality?