Terminator (1984)
[related: James Cameron, SkyNet, Skid Row, T-1000, Piranha 2: The Spawning [disambiguation: SkyNet Syndrome]
Anti-tech feminist manifesto by James Cameron starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, centering on SkyNet [1], a sentient machine-based post-corporate lifeform capable of unidirectional time travel. The film originated from Cameron's fever dream of a metallic torso using long blades to drag itself from a large explosion. The film was shot largely in the abandoned downtown area of Los Angeles now known as Skid Row at night without proper permits, with Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd, the film's producer [2] (and, later, Cameron's wife), claiming the film was a UCLA student project when confronted by police.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (or, simply, T2), was, at the time of its 1991 release, the most expensive film ever made. T2's spiraling production budget was both a result of Cameron's quest to develop the liquid metal technology required for the T-1000, a frightful new brand of Terminator, and the need to buy out Hurd's film rights following the couple's acrimonious divorce in 1989. Following T2, Cameron went on to write and direct another heralded sequel - Aliens- and, subsequently, The Abyss, a sci-fi thriller about discovering extraterrestrial life in the depths of the ocean. The film's production process ignited in Cameron a deep passion for underwater exploration. The director used a significant portion of his exorbitant wealth to develop the DeepSea Challenger, a one-person high-pressure deep-diving submersible. Nineteen days after testing the machine's first prototype, Cameron became the first human to explore the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, discovering countless new underwater species in the process.
"Its vision of the future and the relation between man and its destiny is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art."- Andrei Tarkovsky, re: Terminator
- ↑ More specifically SkyNet is an "artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system developed by Cyberdyne Systems for the United States Department of Defense. Upon achieving The Singularity, various unsuccessful attempts were made to deactivate SkyNet, eventually resulting in a nuclear holocaust due to SkyNet's ascertation that humankind was a virus-like mortal threat to both itself and the general ecology and equilibrium of the planet. Following the subsequent dissolution of Cyberdyne, SkyNet's illegal development continued under the guise of The Turk, an advanced chess-playing A.I. prototype.
- ↑ Hurd notably purchased distribution rights to the film for a single American dollar in exchange for allowing Cameron to write and direct the picture with final cut rights. Cameron's only prior project was the box office bomb Piranha 2: The Spawning, commonly thought to be one of the worst films in cinema history: "An abject failure - the fish look like Haddock with dentures."