Comprehensive information and links about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 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 (1984).

Its release date within the United States was July 2, 2003.

This film was Arnold Schwarzenegger's final movie 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.

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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. 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 where Cyberdyne left off, Presumably (although it is never said) by using data backups that were not destroyed in the second film. Unable to locate Connor, who is now living "off the grid", Skynet sends another advanced new Terminator, the T-X, back in time to eliminate his future lieutenants, and (hopefully) locate and kill John in the process.

As with , a reprogrammed Terminator, a Cyber Research Systems (Formally "Cyberdyne Systems") Model 101, Series 850, (played by Schwarzenegger) has been sent back in time to protect John as well as his future wife, Kate Brewster (played by Danes) from the T-X, later dubbed the "Terminatrix" (played by Loken).

In a plot twist, this particular model of T-850 reveals that he is in fact the murderer of John Connor in the distant future and that his wife reprogrammed him for the mission. This plot point serves to illustrate the complete lack of both emotion and personal will that the machines possess. 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, the point is made that nothing but living tissue can be sent backwards through time, so time travel by humans requires they be naked and without weapons. Although a Terminator is a metal robot, it is surrounded by living tissue (the T-1000 Terminator in T2 is all-metal, but it is never revealed on-screen in exactly what manner the T-1000 arrived). The T-X expands on this principle by having weapons, thus enabling them to be transported back in time.

In the end, Brewster's father, an air force officer heading up the Skynet project, tricks Connor and his daughter into taking cover from the impending Skynet nuclear attack in a Cold War era VIP bomb shelter, by making them believe that it is where the Skynet mainframe is located. The revelation that 'Skynet' is in fact a distributed computer program serves to update the film to modern technology which was deemed too obscure to be used in the original film. In a nihilistic turn, the main characters are unable to avert Judgement Day and Skynet succeeds in triggering a nuclear apocalypse, paving the way for the Machines' rise to power.

Themes and critique

It has been argued that Skynet would be unable to continue to operate after the nuclear weapons explode because of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emission. It has also been argued that Skynet would be unable to continue to operate because -- being a distributed system, much like the SETI@home project -- obliterating the computer systems it was using and the networks that connected them through full-scale nuclear warfare means that Skynet is in effect committing suicide. But Skynet is not like SETI@home; Skynet is more like the Internet itself. To say it in simple words, Skynet is another version of the Internet, another Network. The difference is that Skynet can think by itself; it can be self aware. It's software that can control hardware, but Skynet is software in its entirety.

Another criticism is the change from different resolutions of the Grandfather paradox. The two previous movies made general and even specific mention that the future could be changed. For example if the future could not be changed, then Skynet would have never sent a Terminator back in time because it would be futile; and in T2, specific mention is made of changing the future with the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems Corporation and Terminator parts, ending narration. Also, a deleted alternate ending portrays a different future, where Skynet never exists. This alternate ending is still present in the T2 novel. In T3 a restricted action resolution is integrated into the plot in which the future can never be changed so that Skynet and the acts of time travel do not occur. This doesn't contradict the previous movies because the future cannot be changed. It does contradict the T2 book which had an optimistic ending, but not the movies.

Although a solid financial success, many hardcore followers of the series believe Terminator 3 fell flat attempting to rewrite or rehash plot points and meanings behind the Terminator mythology, painstakingly established by director, James Cameron in the previous films. The phrase, "No fate but what we make", serves no purpose or truth in this installment of the series, ignoring the notion put forward in the original film that Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) comes from "one possible future".

Another criticism of the film was its lack of humanity, and character depth as opposed to the previous films. While previous installments heavily focused on human frailty and emotions, Terminator 3 lacks complex characters and instead attempts to compensate by piling action on top of action resulting in "essentially one long chase and fight, punctuated by comic, campy or simplistic dialogue."-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.

There was also argument over the inconsistency of T3 with the previous films. Both T1 and T2 make specific mention that there is no set future, as it depends on free will. In T2, especially, specific mention is made of eliminating the existence of SkyNet through the destruction of Cyberydyne technology and all remnants of the first and second T-800's. Director James Cameron even had an alternate ending for T2 which portrays a non-apocalyptic, peaceful future in which SkyNet never and no longer exists, proving that human choices, and not fate, determine the future. Although T3 reveals a plot twist by stating that the events in T2 didn't change the future (Judgment Day and the ensuing wars), but only delayed it, it never specifies how SkyNet still comes to be developed if its existence has apparently been wiped out already. This resulted in a variety of plot holes, and was cited as evidence that T3 was made solely for profit, rather than continuing the Terminator storyline.

Another argument was that there was no need to make any more Terminator films, as T2 concludes the Terminator saga perfectly. Even though Cameron was offered to direct T3 himself, he refused as he made the claim that the entire story is already told after T2. Everything is already solved by the conclusion of T2, and the ending especially is very profound. Thus, the alteringcontinuing of the story in T3 was considered unnecessary.

Others, while agreeing that T3 was behind T2 and T1 in terms of quality, have praised the film for continuing the story and essentially setting up the final part of the series if and when it is filmed. T3, in their opinions, provided a balance to the power of free will presented by the characters of the earlier films, arguing that in the real world both free will and fate co-exist. This was even true in the first movie where John Connor sending Reese back in time essentially created him in the first place. They say that T3, rather than contradicting the first film, provided a balance.

Another view of the film shows that unless there was a nuclear holocaust and ensuing war, there could never have been homicidal machines programmed in a post-apocalyptic warzone to kill a survivor. The future of Kyle Reese is "one possible future," and it's not the future coming, since he mentioned that Sarah survived the war, and because of the actions of the characters, she died before the war. The film ties up the utter paradoxical nature of the second installment. The future of the second film was "one possible future," as Judgement Day passed without event. Even the alternate ending agrees with the third movie.

Besides Arnold Schwarzenegger, Earl Boen (Dr. Peter SilbermanTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the only actor to appear in all three The movie's final production budget was $187.3 Million, making it the most expensive independently produced movie in history.Even though Terminator 3 eventually had a world box-office gross of $427 million (at least half of which is kept by movie theaters), it barely broke even.Arnold 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).Linda Hamilton was initially approached to reprise her role as Sarah Connor but turned it down. A dialogue in the movie has instead the T-850 saying that Sarah died of leukemia in 1997.This is the first film where Arnold does not say the famous line "I'll Be Back". However, he does say variations of the catchphrase (Another recurring line, "Come with me if you want to live," does not make an appearance in this film. Conner nearly says it to Brewster in the cemetary scene, but not quite.This is the third movie where the line "Get Out" is said in scenes of taking one's vehicle. Arnold says this line when stealing the fire truck. This line also appeared in The Terminator (when The Terminator steals the truck) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (when the T-1000 steals the helicopter).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 left the production.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 for 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 parodyreversal of the roles involved in the Laci Peterson murders. Though if you watch the ending credits his name is still "Scott Petersen."