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Terminator 2 (1991) was directed by James Cameron. It was very successful sequel of The Terminator (1984). Terminator 2’s worldwide box office was “$519,843,345 ($204,843,345 domestic and $315,000,000 foreign)” (Box Office Mojo). The film won four Oscars including visual effects and makeup. The main computer of Skynet sends T-1000 to the present in order to remove John Conner, who is the future leader of the human resistance. John Conner in the future sends T-101, whose appearance is same as that of the terminator in the past, to the present in order to protect himself and his mother Sarah Conner. John and Sarah survive with the support of T-101 defeating T-1000. T-101 sacrifices himself to terminate the micro-processor which comes from the future.

Postmodern Setups and Subjectivity

Terminator 2 is a typical model of the technophobic SF genre films. The man-made military computer system, Skynet, obtains artificial intelligence superior to the human’s. When

humans try to unplug Skynet, it fights back by launching missiles. The immediate aftermath of the nuclear bombing is described, in detail, in the scene wherein Sarah screams in front of the wired-in park. The blast of nuclear weapons sweeps the earth. The urban center and the playground fall into ruins. The very first shot of the film presents the playground ruined in the near future, Los Angeles in 2029. Skynet’s fighters are flying over the burned swings and rocking horses. The film begins with this dystopian state of the future.

In the post-apocalyptic scene, which is represented as Sarah’s vision, the skyscrapers of the modern urban cityscape abruptly changes to the postmodern dust from the nuclear bombing. Right before the bombing, the camera captures the long take of the skyscrapers as the symbol of modern urbanization at the background of the frame. At the same time, it takes in Sarah, who is “a traditional bourgeois mother playing with a toddler,” at the foreground (Byers, 1995, p. 7). The shot depicts a happy and modern spring day. In contrast, due to the bombing, the buildings collapse and the trees are uprooted. The nuclear storm rolls over the buses, burning everything, including the children. Los Angeles becomes a handful of dirt. It is a terrible sight of the future, caused by highly developed technology, the postmodern world.

The contrast between T-101 and T-1000 “embodies the opposition between classical and late capitalism, and between modern and postmodern culture” (Byers, p. 8). As we can see from the very first scene, when a few T-101s having the same shape of endoskeleton search the human rebels, the T-101 model is a “production-based industrial” cyborg produced by the standardized factory automation system (p. 8). In addition to this production aesthetic, the subjectivity of T- 101 as Terminator is modern in terms of its heroic performance. The action it shows resembles that of superheroes. When John and Sarah are in danger, Terminator defeats T-1000, saves them, and leaves/dies alone. The Terminator character is the figure of the protagonist in Superman

disappearing into the sky after rescuing people and/or that of Shane (George Stevens, 1953) leaving alone after defeating the villains. In addition, the way he fights is modern. T-101 uses only the modern style weapons such as guns, rifles, and M-60 machine gun. T-101 can be viewed as a cyborg Rambo. Although its body is “a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal

endoskeleton that is postmodern hybridization” (p. 8), the figure of T-101 is full of humanity to the degree that John Conner feels paternal affection for it.

On the other hand, T-1000 is liquid metal, able to change into anything that it touches; its identity is instable. It shows the uncertainty of the postmodern subject, as we can see in The Matrix that Agents can transform into anybody in the Matrix. T-1000 does not use a specific firearm; its body is a weapon itself. Its arms transforms to the gimlet, the axe, and the lever. Its liquid body heals up automatically when it is shot. Its fragmented body is combined together at the liquid status. The only purpose for which it exists is to terminate John Conner. It does not show any humanity. T-1000 is a killing machine, which is specially produced for the user’s needs. In this sense, T-1000 embodies the product of “consumption-based informational economy” (p. 8). Though T-1000 is an advanced cyborg, it is inferior to the old one in terms of humanity, the lack of humanity as a byproduct of highly developed technology. As such, T-1000 portrays postmodern subjectivity which is ambiguous and unstable due to the repetition of its body’s fragmentation and unification.

The Breakthrough of Visual Effects: Morphing

3-D morphing technology served as a landmark of special effects through the

presentation of the liquid-performance of T-1000 in Terminator 2. As T-1000 is an implication of a future technology in diegesis, the morphing is an advanced model of visual effects. The level of

visual effects moves out of the early stage of CGI insertion in Tron, and enters into the advanced realm in order to “map 2-D images on to the surface of 3-D animated objects” (Rickitt, p. 305). The first movie that tried the morphing technique was Willow (Ron Howard, 1988); however, the film could not obtain favorable reception due to its low quality (Knoll, Special Features). Then, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) experimented with morphing in CG scenes of The Abyss (James Cameron, 1989). Terminator 2 realized the breakthrough of visual effects, the morphing. The reality effect of the impossible events of T-1000, such as the seamless transformation from the shape of liquid metal to that of the Police Officer, was made possible by the development of computer technology, which made it possible to transfer film images to a digital form. From the early 1990s, the technology permitted films to be converted into digital media (Rickitt, p. 35). CGIs began to be added onto the digitized live-action footages. Thus, by the support of the digitization of films, digital effects, such as the morphing, began to emerge.

The morphing technique can be viewed as the first digital effect to produce a reality effect approaching the verisimilitude of actual events. The morphing is also called “texture mapping.” It allows the surface of an object to digitally transform that of the other by means of a new software program, “Make Sticky,” produced for Terminator 2 (Vaz and Duignan, 1996, p. 97). The digital shape-changing process makes some distortions on the surface. However, any distortions on the CG object “could be digitally painted to completion using Photoshop on Macintosh computers” (Vaz and Barron, 2002, p. 221). Thus, we can be aware that the scene wherein T-1000 steps from the flame in the status of liquid metal and transforms into the Police Officer is made up of the digitized live-action footage, CGI of 3-D morphing of the shape- changing cyborg, and a number of manipulations of the CG figure with Photoshop. It is the basic form of the compressed projection of multi-layered CGIs. The different time and space in which

each effect is produced is compressed into a single time and space to create the reality effect. In this context, the hyperreal presentation of the morphing is able to have its reality effect through the time-space compression of multiple CGI, although it is only cinematic illusion.

The Effects of Attractions

Dominating over the narrative, the spectacle of Terminator 2 makes the film part of the cinema of attractions. The reason that Terminator 2 commercially succeeded was not the novelty of its narrative structure or well-made story, but the new appearance of the incredible sight of T- 1000. For the narrative structure of ‘time travel’ and the leitmotif of the ‘nuclear war’ were not only repetitious of those of The Terminator (1984), but had already become a cliché of SF. The basic setups were also not unique; the only twist was that the villain character of the first part, T- 101, played the protagonist in the sequel. Accordingly, the central aim of the film moves to the spectacle. The question was not what the story would tell, but how they would show it. The solution for ‘how’ was the morphing technique. The development of the computer program and the resulting emergence of the digital effects support the power of spectacle to lead the narrative by means of reinforcing the power of attractions. Thus, the tradition of the cinema of attractions is transforming into the effects of attractions in the digital age.

Digital effects overwhelm and lead the narrative. The structure of time travel from the future emphasizes the performance of the future robot technology of T-1000. T-1000’s

transformation, presented by morphing, not only catalyzes the narrative progression, but also ends the narrative flow. When T-1000’s truck is turned over and wrapped in flames, it survives by means of its feature of liquid metal. It transforms into a metal state, and revives as a shape of the police officer. The morphing supports the continuity of the storyline. In the scene wherein T-

1000 intrudes into the mental hospital, in which Sarah is confined, the camera takes T-1000’s rising out from the checkerboard floor. The digital effects lead the narrative progression of T- 1000’s obtaining the key to Sarah’s room. In the very last scene, T-1000 falls into the smelting furnace because of T-101’s final gunshot. T-1000 transforms its shape into the various figures in order to survive; however, it fails, and the narrative ends. T-1000 revives through the morphing, and is also terminated by it. At the same time, the narrative is controlled and ended by the digital effects. The diegesis of Terminator 2 is overwhelmed by the digital effects of attractions. Digital effects are the tools for the audience’s absorption and for its empathy into the diegesis. In this sense, the effects of attractions in Terminator 2 dominate the narrative, motivate the narrative progression, and induce the audience’s empathy into the diegesis by means of the reality effect. Whereas the trickality of Méliès makes the audience a gawker by visibility of tricks, the reality effect of morphing in Terminator 2 provides “technological verisimilitude” to the audience.

The Tension between Technophobia and Technofuturism

The theme of technophobia versus technofuturism, of the computer versus human beings, is clearly presented in the dialogue between Miles Bennett Dyson, the director of the Skynet project at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, and his wife, Tarissa Dyson. Tarissa asks Miles, working all day at home on Sunday, to play with their children.

Miles: Baby, I am this close. Come here. Imagine a jet liner with a pilot that never gets tired, never makes mistakes, never shows up to work with a hangover. Meet the pilot.

Tarissa: Why did we get married, Miles? Why did we have these children? You don’t need us. Your heart and your mind are in here (She indicates the computer). But it

doesn’t love you like we do.

Miles’ line clearly shows a technofuturist vision about the computer. However, Tarissa’s line implies the dystopian aspects of the distorted development of technology. Finally, he turns off the computer and chooses his family. When Sarah draws a bead on the back of Miles’ head, Miles is able to dodge the bullet because his son touches him with the toy car. When Miles hangs down his head to grasp the toy car, Sarah fires toward him. The bullet lodges in the computer monitor, not him. It is the cinematic criticism of the computer technology.

However, there is a moment wherein technofuturism appears. When the camera takes John’s merry laughter with Terminator, Sarah’s voice-over is heard.

Sarah: Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him, never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there, and it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.

Looking at John, who is viewing the Terminator as a father figure, Sarah considers the cyborg as an alternative of the actual father. The implication that humanity’s last hope is in the hands of the cyborg, created by Skynet, portrays James Cameron’s technofuturist belief. As Cameron

mentions, “Don’t let the real world dictate to you” (Special Features). Sarah’s voice-over implies to us that we should actively access the digital world to minimize the evil influence of the

computer or to stand against its subversion.

Sarah’s very last voice-over describes the tension between technofuturism and

hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.” When Terminator enters into the smelting furnace by itself, Sarah grants the value of humanity to the cyborg. She suggests a precaution against “the unknown future” that is the regression to human nature. It is the implication that the original sin does not belong to the computer, but to the humans who created it. In this sense, the film shows the tension between the hope, which is discovered from the cyborg, and the latent despair, caused by the destruction and avarice of the human.