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FEATURED THREADS for 6-15-22

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:45 am    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 6-15-22 Reply with quote



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A salute to James Cameron!

I sure the members of All Sci-Fi won't have much trouble finding something to say about the three Cameron movies listed below.

And just to put my money where my mouth is (despite the fact the fact that it would be much better off in my wallet), I'll leave three replies on those threads right now! Very Happy

Heck, it'll be easier than falling off a log! (For the record, I've fallen off a log, nor have I ever seen anyone else do it — so it might be much more difficult than people think! Confused)

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Aliens (1986)

Gord Green wrote:
You know Bud, I never thought of them as having a "home planet", no more than you could say any particular place was the original home of bees.

Seriously? Confused

Gee, Gord, doesn't every living creature have to have an "origin"? I mean, they can't just simultaneously burst into existence all over the universe, can they? Bees evolved like everything else, right? Shocked

For example, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Frankly that's a no-brainer. First there was an egg that had an embryo inside which was a mutated form of the creature who laid it. The mother-creature was very chicken-like . . . but not quite a bona fide chicken.

But its "ugly duckling" offspring was the first true chicken! Ta-daaa! Very Happy

So, viewed that way, the egg with a chicken-embryo that was laid by a chicken-like creature came first.

There ya go! I've answered that age-old question. Easy, eh? Wink

By the way, I do NOT believe in evolution.

I'm an agnostic who suspects that the universe was created by a group of intelligent (but completely dispassionate) godlike beings. And they did it more-or-less just for fun. Shocked

Let's call these beings the Demon Gods. Powerful, yes. Kind and loving? Hell no . . .

This would explain the obvious evidence of intelligent design in the universe — as well as the obvious existence of the cruelty and injustice we all have to endure.

So . . . there ya go again! I've answered the question of whether or not there's a God. Very Happy

The answer is — yes-and-no. There's more than one god . . . but none of them are very nice. Sad

And just to bring this discussion back to Alien, if the universe was created by my hypothetical Demon Gods, it would certainly include horrible creatures like the ones in this movie! Rolling Eyes

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The Terminator (1984)

IMDB has 209 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
________________________________

~ Contrary to popular belief, Lance Henriksen was never going to be the Terminator. However, James Cameron based some of his early sketches of the Terminator on Henriksen's likeness.

He also helped Cameron pitching the film's idea to the producers in a rather unique way: He prepared himself for the meeting by dressing up in some leathers, adding a cut on his head and putting gold foil on his teeth. Fifteen minutes before the meeting, he kicked the door to the office in. He then just silently sat there and stared at the producers, which made them gradually uncomfortable. When Cameron arrived, Henriksen left the room.

He later overheard that one of the producers even said "I don't care who you use for the Terminator, not him."


Note from me: This sounds exactly like something the brilliant Mr. Cameron would do to sell his idea. I hope it's actually true.

~ O.J. Simpson was considered for the Terminator, but the producers feared he was "too nice" to be taken seriously as a cold-blooded killer. In 1990 (before Simpson's first trial) Dark Horse Comics printed issues using his likeness.

Note from me: Funny! Macabre as hell . . . but still funny. Laughing

~ Near the beginning of the movie, when Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) receives a message on her answering machine breaking her date, the voice on the machine is James Cameron's. Years later, Hamilton and Cameron got married and subsequently divorced.

Note from me: So, was it sort of a breakup message from the future? One can't help but wonder . . . Shocked

~ James Cameron's original story idea was much more elaborate, and involved Skynet sending two Terminators back in time: the first one was a cyborg that would be defeated by a human also sent back in time (the Resistance actually sent two men, but one was to die during the time travel).

A second Terminator, one consisting of liquid metal that would be able to shape-shift, would be sent by Skynet in response (reluctantly, as it is so experimental that it may alter the past beyond Skynet's intentions).

Cameron briefly considered clay-animation in dark shots to portray this shape-shifter, but he soon realized that the concept was too ambitious for what he could achieve with contemporary techniques. He also knew that his reputation at the time wasn't big enough to sell a story of such scope to a studio, so he used only the first half of it.

When a completely computer-generated special effect proved to be a success in Cameron's The Abyss (1989), he revived the idea of the liquid Terminator for the sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).


Note from me: Cameron is clearly a man ahead of his time. Kind of like a Terminator! Laughing

~ The initial draft for the movie was sold to Gale Anne Hurd, James Cameron's production partner and former collaborator at New World Pictures, for the price of only $1.00.

The symbolic gesture came with a 'blood oath': Hurd had to promise to do everything in her power to get the film produced, but with Cameron as director. She kept her word, and dismissed every studio that showed interest but wanted to ditch Cameron.

He and Hurd would get romantically involved during production of this movie, made Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989) together, and were married from 1985 to 1989 (they had separated by the time they made The Abyss).


Note from me: Cameron has been married five times, twice to women he was working closely with on Terminator projects. One can't help thinking that Jimmy boy sort of slept his way to the top! Wink

~ According to a 2008 interview with Lance Henriksen, James Cameron had no agent and was either living in his car or sleeping on the couch of a friend when he wrote the script for the film. Cameron had actually fired his agent because he didn't like the story idea Cameron had conceived for this film.

Note from me: I can't hear the brief phone call from Cameron to his agent. "This is Jim. You're terminated, f*cker!"

~ Mel Gibson turned down the role of the Terminator, simply feeling he wasn't right for the part. After seeing the film, he praised Arnold Schwarzenegger as a much better choice.

Note from me: I'm fan of Mel's work, but having him abandon all his charm and facial animation (as in the Lethal Weapon movies) to play an unemotional machine would be like casting Dolly Pardon as a flat-chested girl with a Boston accent!

~ Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued James Cameron, claiming that while he hugely enjoyed the film, he felt the story was plagiarized from the two The Outer Limits (1963) episodes that he had written, namely The Outer Limits: Soldier (1964) and The Outer Limits: Demon with a Glass Hand (1964).

The concept of "Skynet" could also have been borrowed from an Ellison short story called "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream".

The suit was settled out of court and newer prints of the film acknowledge Ellison. Cameron has claimed that this settlement was forced upon him by the producers, who refused to support him. He felt that Ellison made invalid and opportunistic claims, and wanted the case to go on trial.

However, the insurance company told him that he would be held personally responsible for financial damages in the event that he lost the trial. Since he was short on money at the time, Cameron couldn't take the risk, so he had no choice but to accept the settlement, a fact that he has always resented.


Note from me: This is typical of Harlan Ellison. Just because two basic premises are somewhat similar doesn't mean the original creator can claim he copyrighted a concept. For God's safe, is there any story that hasn't been influenced by other stories the writer admired? Rolling Eyes

~ The original treatment by James Cameron included the detail that the Terminator needed to eat periodically in order for his human flesh to survive.

A scene is included where the Terminator eats a candy bar, wrapper and all. This detail was incorporated into the script for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), with the Terminator selecting Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite Austrian chocolate wafer.

When fans learned that a scene had been shot where the Terminator ate chocolate, the reaction was overwhelmingly negative and the scene was omitted.


Note from me: Although I like the concept concerning the "renewal" of the pseudo-body around the robot, I understand the fans' objection to seeing the soulless robot killer suddenly taking a Kit-Kat break! Laughing

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Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

More great trivia items for this movie! Very Happy
________________________________

~ An alternate coda was filmed, with an elderly Sarah and John as a U.S. Senator sitting peacefully in a park, in a future where Judgment Day never happened.

Sarah would originally see a young, non-veteran Kyle Reese walking by, to whom she regrettably cannot say anything. This idea was dropped very early on, as it simply raised too many questions about how this alternate Reese could have fathered John Connor.

The entire ending was ultimately deleted, in favor of a more ambiguous and less cheery ending, also because a juvenile delinquent like John could not plausibly have become a Senator. The idea did survive in some form: in the novelization of the film, Sarah hires a private investigator to find Reese for her, without success.


Note from me: Yes, indeed, if Judgement Day never happened, then Reese wouldn't come back in time and do "jungle monkey dance" with Sarah, thus preventing the existence of John Connor. But just like the producers of Back to the Future did with the unavoidable paradoxes in that wonderful story, T2 avoiding calling attention to logical paradoxes the story ended up causing. Very Happy

~ In the first film, William Wisher portrays a police officer, "1 L 19", who witnesses the T-800 being thrown from Kyle Reese's car after he and Sarah escape Tech-Noir. He is then attacked by the T-800 and has his car stolen.

In this film, Wisher appears in the mall following the battle between the T-1000 and T-800. After the T-800 is thrown through a store window, Wisher can be seen photographing him as he is climbing to his feet, and his facial expression shows that he recognizes the T-800 (not knowing that this is a different machine).

James Cameron confirmed that this is the same character as the police officer in the first film.


Note from me: I'll have to keep an eye out for these scenes the next to time I watch either of the movies. Very Happy

~ After the escape from the mental hospital, the Terminator mentions that his internal chip is a learning computer, so the more time he spends with humans, the more he can learn. This was meant as an explanation as to how he picks up more and more human traits from John over the rest of the movie.

However, the scene originally continued, with Terminator explaining that Skynet had set the chip to read-only, preventing him from thinking too much and becoming too independent. John and Sarah then reset the chip by surgically removing and reinserting it. The scene was omitted from the theatrical version but restored in the Special Edition.


Note from me: I think the extended version is a far better story, because it explains why the Terminator eventually becomes so human at the very end. Without this fascinating and dramatic aspect of the story, the scene of the Terminator's self-sacrificing behavior at the end is just schmaltzy emotionalism.

~ During the climax, after T-1000 has pushed the T-800's arm into the gears, the T-1000 can be briefly seen 'glitching'. Although the theatrical version does not explain why this is happening, a few scenes restored in the Special Edition reveal that the android was damaged while being frozen in liquid nitrogen; it has problems maintaining its form and color, so it regularly has to 'reset' itself.

Note from me: These restored "glitching" scenes also add a interesting element to the story — which is why I will never again watch the theatrical version, because the extended cut is so much better!

~ When John and the T-800 are looking at the message that Sarah carved into the table, the T-800 is sitting down slightly hunched over and with his hands resting in his lap similar to a human, as opposed to sitting completely upright and still similar to a robot. This is a subtle hint that the T-800 is slowly becoming more "human-like".

Note from me: I never noticed that before. Cameron certainly knows his craft.

_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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