- So check this out.
I just got back from the doctor's office
and I can finally take this arm brace off.
I'm cast-less.
I don't have any cast or anything.
Although, I feel like maybe I should just leave it on
for this video 'cause it kind of makes me look like
a Terminator and that's what we're talking about today.
Terminator 2.
And now that was an iconic film.
That movie came out in 1991 and by the way,
there's gonna be a lot of spoilers in this video
about Terminator 2 but that movie came out in 1991, okay?
You've had 28 years to watch it.
If you haven't seen it yet,
you should've probably get on it.
I remember watching that movie as a kid
and I could not get enough of it.
And watching it now as an adult, you know what,
it still holds up.
It's still very entertaining.
I mean, not only are the action sequences just epic
but it really has a good story,
right down to its core as well.
So one thing I've always wanted to do was to
go and dissect the movie.
Watch it over and over, and just start taking notes
and try to figure out what makes it so entertaining.
So let's start at the very beginning of the movie,
or the hook.
So general rule of thumb with hooks is
you're supposed to have a hook or something
really interesting to pull the audience in,
within the first five to ten pages of your script.
Now Terminator 2 is a sequel obviously so the first five,
six minutes of it was actually a recap
to bring everyone up to speed.
But the first scene after that
was the introduction to Arnold's character,
where he appears in an alley, just butt-ass naked,
and walks into a biker bar and takes everyone's (beep).
Starting off the movie,
off the bat with such an iconic scene
and that was a really good hook 'cause I was intrigued,
it had me wondering and curious what's going on
and that whole scene of Arnold grabbing that shotgun
and hopping on a motorcycle, I mean,
the badassery was just insane.
So I would say, they did a great job on that hook
because I'm not changing the channel after that.
So we spend the next 20 minutes introducing our main
characters so we have John Connor, the rebellious kid,
the mom that's locked up
and the two Terminators who are looking for John Connor.
Now, story-wise, we have completed our set-up.
We know who everybody is and now it is time for inciting
incidents which is basically what propels the story.
Basically, a kickoff to the rest of the movie.
Before that inciting incident,
John Connor was just living his normal life,
doing everyday kid stuff, you know, stealing money from ATMs
and hanging out with his buddy was a rad mullet.
So 26 minutes in, everything changes.
Now, John Connor is being chased by a cop that teleports
in time and also Mr. Olympia wearing a leather jacket.
How terrifying.
And then comes the first plot twist
and I love the irony of it because the cop,
who's generally seen as good guys,
he ends up being the bad guy
and Arnold, who looks like a clean-shaven Hells Angel rider,
comes in and saves the day.
Now we enter a epic nine minute action sequence
which starts with the Terminators fighting each other
and then it turns into a chase scene.
And one thing I really appreciate about this movie
is that it's not just another typical action sequence.
It's not just another shoot, duck, shoot, duck
and then car chase.
This movie is a lot more original than that.
So now we have a semi-truck chasing a dirt bike
and then we have the melty cyborg man
chasing the car on foot
and then we get a helicopter chasing an armored truck
and then another semi-truck chasing
a little beat-up pick-up truck.
The writer and director, James Cameron,
he actually used to be a truck driver
and I wonder if he came up with a lot of these ideas
while he was working.
By the way, James Cameron does mention that he read
the book, Screenplay by Syd Field, early on in his career.
And it's one of the classic screenwriting books out there.
It was first published in 1979 but it still holds up.
Definitely worth a read if you're into screenplay writing
and I'll link ya below if you're interested.
So one of the things that I think that made Terminator 2
so successful is that it's not necessarily a simple story
but it's very clear to the audiences,
it's very easy to follow along.
So let's start with a T-1000, the liquid mirror guy,
his intention is to kill John Connor,
no matter what it takes
and then we have Arnold Schwarzenegger
that is basically the complete opposite.
His job is to protect John Connor, whatever it takes.
And then we have Sarah Connor trying to escape
the mental institution because she knows what happens
and she needs to get the hell out of there to save
the planet and then we have John Connor,
who finds out his mom's in danger
so he needs to get her out of there.
And that's one of the common rules of writing,
is every single character should have
a clear motive and intention.
Quite a few action films I tend to forget,
like what the (beep) is everyone trying to do.
But Terminator 2 keeps it simple,
you can pretty much pause it at any point in the movie
and clearly state what each character
is trying to accomplish.
And I also think it helps that John Connor is a kid
so whenever they're trying to explain some of the rules
of what the T-1000 can do, or any of the science-y stuff,
the Terminator has to explain it to John
using little words and in a sense, explaining it to us.
I hate it when movies use too much technical jargon,
I'm like, I don't even know what they're saying.
So now we're in act two and Sarah Connor
makes her big escape from the mental institution
and is reunited with John Connor and the Terminator
but at the same time, the T-1000 is there as well.
But they get away just in time and during the getaway
and hideout scenes, they do a good job establishing
the relationship between those three.
And these scenes are always important because
you really have to have a human aspect to any movie.
So John Connor and Sarah Connor are distant
but they clearly love each other more than anything else.
And then John and the Terminator,
it's kind of like a weird, strange father-son figure,
where the father's trying to protect the son
and John's trying to teach the Terminator
how to have a personality.
And at first, Sarah was terrified of Arnold
but as soon as she found out that he was there to help,
she realized he's a very valuable asset.
And over time, they start to develop a relationship
that's kind of like a son and the two parents.
Not a whole bunch of stuff happens within these scenes but
you can't discount these scenes
because they're important to establish this relationship
'cause that's how we start to get attached
to these characters.
I feel like there's some movies out there
where at the end of the movie, I don't really care
that much about the characters and that's a bad sign.
So I think the lesson here is that even if you have an epic
action sequence, if you don't have that personal touch,
that really makes you connect with these characters,
it's all for nothing.
So now that we've hit the very middle of our movie,
it is now time for a turn of events.
So instead of hiding out,
Sarah takes off and goes after Miles Dyson,
who is responsible for inventing the AI technology
that ends up taking over the world.
But here's the issue,
Miles Dyson is actually a nice guy who's innocent
and is just trying to do his job,
he's a family man, so when it comes down to the time
to kill him, she can't do it.
I think this was actually
a really big scene for Sarah's character,
it's a big turning point for her
because up until this point,
she was very cold and almost not very likable.
In this scene, we are reminded that she's not committing
all this violence because she wants to,
it's because she wants to save the world
but she's still a human at heart.
New game plan is to bust into Cyberdyne System
and blow up the entire factory, meanwhile every single cop
and SWAT time in town is after them,
trying to stop them because they think they're crazy.
And of course, this entire movie is just peppered
with iconic scenes all over the place
and finally we're reaching the climax, which is essentially
the three of them versus, that super advanced T-1000.
There's a chase, there's fighting, there's battle
and climaxes to these types of movies are pretty much always
that the bad guy is winning, and winning, and winning,
and just when you think we're about to lose hope,
the good guy turns around and does one last move
to destroy the bad guy, but I think of it as a sports game.
You know, if you see two teams playing against each other,
and they're neck and neck the whole game
and finally at the very last minute, one beats the other,
you're like, whoa!
And I think they did a phenomenal job with the ending
because after that epic fight,
there was one last twist at the end where he was like,
we have to destroy all the chips
but there's one last one in here,
you have to lower me into this human made lava pit.
That's the point of the movie when you realize,
oh I actually do care about this robot machine thing
that doesn't even have feelings.
Why? Why am I emotional right now?
And I love that, I love it when they give you one last mmm
to take home with you, after the movie.
I guess they could've made it a happy ending.
They could've all just gone and gotten ice cream
and ride in a ferris wheel or something
but it just wouldn't have had the same effect.
Overall, I think it was such an epic film because it was a
combination of a lot of great things from epic sequences
to interesting characters to unique settings
but meanwhile, still remembering all the core elements
of a story and the characters and the relationships.
And I don't think anyone would ever call this a comedy film
but there's quite a few funny scenes in there
that just help lighten things up
to loosen up all the super serious talks
and super serious action sequences.
And I also really appreciate the attention to detail.
James Cameron's known to be a little bit of a perfectionist
so all the scenes sell, you know,
all the actors went out and did some training with guns
so that when they shoot guns in the scenes
Sarah Connor looks like she knows how to handle a gun.
And James Cameron was ahead of his time too.
Back then, he was talking about
artificial intelligent computers, taking over the world.
Fast forward to today, that's a real concern
and I find it interesting that
he said he came up with the idea during a dream.
He was really sick, he had a fever and he was sweating
and he had this nightmare and he woke up
and he was like, I'm gonna write Terminator.
I also think it was shot very well.
I can't imagine what it would be like to
shoot all those sequences like that.
And part of the deal with Arnold was to always shoot him
from a lower angle to make sure that he looks nice,
big and intimidating and scary.
After that movie, everyone just assumed
that Arnold Schwarzenegger was massive.
And I actually saw him once at Paramount Studios
and he is a big guy.
He's big but he's not massive.
If you see him standing next to really massive guy,
you realize, oh, he's actually not that big.
And that's what a low camera angle can do for you.
I actually have my camera mounted fairly low
so I look pretty tall.
A lot of people were surprised when they first met me,
they were like, I thought you would've been taller.
(laughs)
I'm 5'8" so I'm an average height, okay?
I'm proud of my 5'8".
Anyways I know this video's a little bit different from
my usual content but I hope you guys found it
interesting and informative
and it's the type of stuff that you need to understand
as a filmmaker and luckily, we study movies
which we can watch, anyone can watch it.
It's not like being a tech engineer or something,
where you're trying to build something
but have all these plans and you want to hide it away from..
Like anyone can go and watch a movie and analyze it
so I love that.
Anyway, let's read some comments from my last video,
where we go and surprise a fan for his 15th birthday
and also we talk about some fancy tripods.
Top comment was from VulgarMenace96, he says,
so basically you guys went over to break Sam's bike.
I didn't break it, okay?
Sam broke it.
Blame that guy, I know right.
First he steals his bike and then breaks it.
How rude.
What's your message for the world?
Nothing.
Like a boss.
She's just savage, man.
Bigger the ball, bigger the head.
How do I avoid an entire video without you guys
making it all perverted, okay?
This video itself was extremely difficult to not say
the word climax too many times because I mean,
the climax is a pretty major part of the story, okay?
It's hard to make a video about stories
without saying the word climax too many times.
Jam Hemstad said, little known fact.
Gene also does quinceaneras and bar mitzvahs.
I'm down.
If it's an open bar especially.
You probably broke his bike to keep him from
breaking his arm in an accident
so from this point of view, you are heroes.
Yes, I was actually a Terminator, sent back in time
to prevent that from happening.
So you're welcome, Birthday Sam,
I just saved you a broken arm.
Check this out, look at my range of motions.
(groans)
Almost there.
See I can almost straighten it out all the way,
that's pretty good and look at that.
I can touch my face and stuff.
It's so weird not being able to touch your face.
You realize how much just having a little bit of motion
in your left hand can effect you.
Now I'm just wearing this thing
which has this like, putty stuff
and I guess it has some enzyme that I'm supposed to just
hold up to my scar and it's supposed to break down
some of the scar and make it look a little bit less gross
and gnarly so we'll see how this thing works.
Anyhow, thanks for tuning in
and don't forget to check out PotatoJet.com
to buy some fresh merch.
See ya guys later.
(lighthearted music)