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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (commonly abbreviated T3) is a 2003 movie directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. It is the sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

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

This movie was Arnold Schwarzenegger's last movie before becoming Governor of California, after being elected in the 2003 California recall. Interestingly, the DVD release of this movie was scheduled several weeks after the election, in order to ride a wave of publicity focused on Schwarzenegger.

Tagline: The Machines Will Rise

Contents

Starring

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. Unfortunately it seems the apocalypse was only postponed by his actions in the 2nd movie, and the Air Force has taken over the Skynet project where Cyberdyne left off. A new pair of Terminators are sent back to respectively kill and protect Connor, his future wife and would-be resistance lieutenants.

In this sequel, the T-800 (played by Schwarzenegger) is again the protector, keeping Connor and Kate Brewster (played by Danes) safe from the T-X Terminatrix (played by Loken), an even more advanced Terminator sent from the future to terminate Connor and his future lieutenants, including Brewster.

In a plot twist, this particular model of T-800 reveals that he is in fact the murderer of John Connor in the distant future and that his wife (who will be Brewster) 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 previouos 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 you go back naked and with no weapons, and though 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 them to be transported back in time.

In the end, Brewster's father, an air force officer in charge of the Skynet project, tricks Connor and his daughter into taking cover from the impending Skynet nuclear attack in a VIP bomb shelter, by telling them 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 World War III, paving the way for the Machines' rise to power.

It has been argued that Skynet would be unable to continue to operate after the nuclear weapons explode because of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emission.

Deleted scene

The only deleted scene on the T3 Special Features DVD had Gen. Brewster watching a promo-video for CRS, describing the new robots that are being researched. The scene also shows the man who became the model for the T-101, Chief Master Sergeant William Candy. One of the people watching the video doesn't agree with his Southern accent. His assistant (voiced by Schwarzenegger) says they can fix it.

Trivia


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Last updated: 05-21-2005 03:04:23