Terminator and Philosophy: I'll Be Back, Therefore I Am (14 page)
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Authors: Richard Brown,William Irwin,Kevin S. Decker
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Most warriors fight in designated locations with clearly defined mission goals and a clearly identified enemy. Sarah Connor, by contrast, fights alone, yet surrounded by humans, any of whom could actually be Terminators (which can even imitate the form and voice of loved ones, as the T-101 does when it imitates her mother in
The Terminator
).
The Terminator
).
To better understand Sarah’s situation, let’s look at Jean Baudrillard’s (1929-2007) concept of
simulation
in society. According to Baudrillard, simulation happens when we face a situation that is “hyperreal,” that is, a situation that “threatens the difference between the ‘true’ and the ‘false,’ the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary,’ a place where signs of the real are substituted for the real.”
5
In this respect, the Connors must
prove
the reality of the future they have experienced through the imaginary: the Terminators. Because the Terminators, for the most part, look, talk, and act like humans,
6
the Connors face an uphill battle.
simulation
in society. According to Baudrillard, simulation happens when we face a situation that is “hyperreal,” that is, a situation that “threatens the difference between the ‘true’ and the ‘false,’ the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary,’ a place where signs of the real are substituted for the real.”
5
In this respect, the Connors must
prove
the reality of the future they have experienced through the imaginary: the Terminators. Because the Terminators, for the most part, look, talk, and act like humans,
6
the Connors face an uphill battle.
To make matters even more complicated, the Connors feel compelled to utterly destroy any evidence of the Terminators’ existence for fear that, if discovered, their technology could be reverse-engineered, thus contributing to the development of the machines that have come to destroy them. Just think of the heart-tugging scene at the end of
T2
when Sarah must press the button to lower the T-101 into the boiling metal. Likewise, when Cameron does not destroy Vick’s chip, Sarah and Derek Reese immediately become suspicious of her motivations (
SCC
, “Vick’s Chip”). Cameron believed that Vick, another Terminator sent back on a mission from Skynet in a type of “sleeper” mode to procure materials, might carry within his chip additional Skynet plans, which would provide the Connors with a bigger picture of the overall puzzle. As the episode continues, we see that Cameron is right. Vick’s chip does contain important information. That still does not stop Sarah from wanting the chip destroyed as soon as its usefulness is ended. The Connors fear that any residual piece of a Terminator could lead to the launch of Skynet. Thus they destroy any proof they have about the impending war against the machines.
T2
when Sarah must press the button to lower the T-101 into the boiling metal. Likewise, when Cameron does not destroy Vick’s chip, Sarah and Derek Reese immediately become suspicious of her motivations (
SCC
, “Vick’s Chip”). Cameron believed that Vick, another Terminator sent back on a mission from Skynet in a type of “sleeper” mode to procure materials, might carry within his chip additional Skynet plans, which would provide the Connors with a bigger picture of the overall puzzle. As the episode continues, we see that Cameron is right. Vick’s chip does contain important information. That still does not stop Sarah from wanting the chip destroyed as soon as its usefulness is ended. The Connors fear that any residual piece of a Terminator could lead to the launch of Skynet. Thus they destroy any proof they have about the impending war against the machines.
Baudrillard writes that the world of simulation is more dangerous than the “real” world because it “always leaves open to supposition that, above and beyond its object,
law and order themselves might be nothing but simulation.
”
7
Nothing better illustrates the confusion between real and imaginary safety than the shots of Terminators driving police cars, displaying the logo “To Protect and Serve.” In fact, the T-1000 of
T2
appears more often in a police uniform than in any other disguise, fostering misplaced trust and confidence from unsuspecting characters.
law and order themselves might be nothing but simulation.
”
7
Nothing better illustrates the confusion between real and imaginary safety than the shots of Terminators driving police cars, displaying the logo “To Protect and Serve.” In fact, the T-1000 of
T2
appears more often in a police uniform than in any other disguise, fostering misplaced trust and confidence from unsuspecting characters.
By inserting Terminators into the present world, James Cameron’s stories illustrate an important change in science fiction. According to Baudrillard:
In this way, science fiction would no longer be a romantic expansion with all the freedom and naïveté that the charm of discovery gave it, but, quite the contrary, it would evolve implosively, in the very image of our current conception of the universe, attempting to revitalize, reactualize, requotidianize fragments of simulation, fragments of this universal simulation that have become for us the so-called real world.
8
Baudrillard understands the present-day world as a world of simulation, a world in which reality and illusion blur and former notions of safety must be constantly questioned. In line with this, the
Terminator
series focuses on the present rather than on a postwar, Skynet-dominated future. With most of the action in the present, the philosophically minded viewer is forced to examine contemporary culture for signs of impending doom, just like the Connors do. While you and I may not be looking over our shoulders for Terminators, we should be examining the role technology plays in our own lives.
9
This type of self-examination leads Sarah to conclude that time, identity, and everything else change; that there is no constant or control; and that the only thing left is “family and the body God gave us” (
SCC
, “Gnothi Seauton”).
Terminator
series focuses on the present rather than on a postwar, Skynet-dominated future. With most of the action in the present, the philosophically minded viewer is forced to examine contemporary culture for signs of impending doom, just like the Connors do. While you and I may not be looking over our shoulders for Terminators, we should be examining the role technology plays in our own lives.
9
This type of self-examination leads Sarah to conclude that time, identity, and everything else change; that there is no constant or control; and that the only thing left is “family and the body God gave us” (
SCC
, “Gnothi Seauton”).
No one would have thought that the Sarah Connor from
The Terminato
r and
T2
would eventually learn to trust and rely on the machines that so drastically altered her fate, but she does. Her thoughts while watching young John and the T-101 interact in
T2
perfectly illustrate the contradictions of her world:
The Terminato
r and
T2
would eventually learn to trust and rely on the machines that so drastically altered her fate, but she does. Her thoughts while watching young John and the T-101 interact in
T2
perfectly illustrate the contradictions of her world:
Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him . . . it would always be there. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it couldn’t spend time with him because it was too busy. 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.
In such a world, can anyone blame Sarah for not being the best mother?
“You suck as a mom.” “I know. I’m working on it.”
—Martin and Sarah,
SCC
, “Goodbye to All That”
SCC
, “Goodbye to All That”
If Sarah truly represents a warrior “stained” from the violence and trauma she experiences in a world most cannot imagine, it should come as no surprise that her mothering skills are a bit unorthodox at best. No one doubts her love for John or her devotion to him. From the moment she knows she is pregnant, Sarah begins making a tape for John about her life and his fate. She tells Dr. Silberman that John is “naked” without her, in serious danger while she remains locked away at the beginning of
T2
. John describes a life of running guns and learning to fight physically with shooting practice and fight mentally with chess lessons. Sarah does all of this to prepare John to be the leader he needs to be if she cannot change his fate. In fact, John tells the T-101 that he thought every child grew up like this, and that he never experienced a “regular” school until his mom was sent away.
T2
. John describes a life of running guns and learning to fight physically with shooting practice and fight mentally with chess lessons. Sarah does all of this to prepare John to be the leader he needs to be if she cannot change his fate. In fact, John tells the T-101 that he thought every child grew up like this, and that he never experienced a “regular” school until his mom was sent away.
In
SCC
, we often see Sarah making pancakes, hugging her son, glaring at John for letting Cameron do his math homework, and so on. Sarah’s attempts at normalcy don’t always work, though. When she tells John and Cameron that she read the school newsletter and knows it’s pizza day, John and Cameron sit quietly and smile. After she leaves the room, they both note that she has read it wrong: pizza day is tomorrow (
SCC
, “Vick’s Chip”). Of course, Sarah never believes that she is raising a “regular” child, so she feels no compulsion to send him to a “regular” school until she realizes that too much absenteeism can put John “on the radar.” Only in dreams can Sarah envisage a normal life with a normal child, but even these dreams are recurrently interrupted by the playground that ends in fire and bright light. She risks her life to save John more times than we can count, and yet, by the middle of the second season of
SCC
, John has all but completely shut her out. She resorts to talking to him through the door in “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” caressing the door in place of the face of her son. John just lies and replies that he is fine. As she watches John struggle with his present and his probable future, Sarah often feels powerless, even saying, “I don’t know how to help him” (
SCC
, “The Turk”).
SCC
, we often see Sarah making pancakes, hugging her son, glaring at John for letting Cameron do his math homework, and so on. Sarah’s attempts at normalcy don’t always work, though. When she tells John and Cameron that she read the school newsletter and knows it’s pizza day, John and Cameron sit quietly and smile. After she leaves the room, they both note that she has read it wrong: pizza day is tomorrow (
SCC
, “Vick’s Chip”). Of course, Sarah never believes that she is raising a “regular” child, so she feels no compulsion to send him to a “regular” school until she realizes that too much absenteeism can put John “on the radar.” Only in dreams can Sarah envisage a normal life with a normal child, but even these dreams are recurrently interrupted by the playground that ends in fire and bright light. She risks her life to save John more times than we can count, and yet, by the middle of the second season of
SCC
, John has all but completely shut her out. She resorts to talking to him through the door in “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” caressing the door in place of the face of her son. John just lies and replies that he is fine. As she watches John struggle with his present and his probable future, Sarah often feels powerless, even saying, “I don’t know how to help him” (
SCC
, “The Turk”).
The problem rests in the fact that John, too, becomes stained by the fate awaiting him. From the constant running, the foster families, and, worst of all, the videotape of Sarah signing away her parental rights in “The Demon Hand,” John lives in a world where “field trip” means dangerous mission and his mother has to use a code over the phone (the date of Judgment Day) to prove it really is her. John also feels responsible for the fates and deaths of others, starting with the deaths of his foster parents Todd and Janelle in
T2
. Finally, in “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” John has to do what even Sarah has not yet brought herself to do: take a life. John kills Sarkasian in events between seasons one and two, a deed we get to see only in limited flashbacks. To prepare John, Sarah realized she must “stain” him as well.
T2
. Finally, in “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” John has to do what even Sarah has not yet brought herself to do: take a life. John kills Sarkasian in events between seasons one and two, a deed we get to see only in limited flashbacks. To prepare John, Sarah realized she must “stain” him as well.
When Cameron discusses the John of the future, the Terminator describes an older John Connor who remembers his mother more as “the best fighter he knows” than as an affectionate mother (
SCC
, “Gnothi Seauton”). It is no surprise in the simulated world of the Terminator story that the cyborg Cameron, often referred to by Sarah as “Tin Man,” clarifies the situation once and for all when it says to Sarah, “Without John your life has no purpose” (
SCC
, “Heavy Metal”).
SCC
, “Gnothi Seauton”). It is no surprise in the simulated world of the Terminator story that the cyborg Cameron, often referred to by Sarah as “Tin Man,” clarifies the situation once and for all when it says to Sarah, “Without John your life has no purpose” (
SCC
, “Heavy Metal”).
In order for John to have a hope for a better future, Sarah gave up her own life, her old dreams, and her chance to live free of the stain caused by the violence of the future inflicted upon the present. Warriors and mothers, now and in times past, have made such sacrifices to better their societies. With greatness thrust upon her, Sarah did not have much of a choice. Still, we admire her for what she becomes, the mother of all warriors.
1
René Girard,
Violence and the Sacred
, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), 28.
René Girard,
Violence and the Sacred
, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), 28.
2
Richard A. Bryant and Allison Harvey,
Acute Stress Disorder: A Handbook of Theory, Assessment, and Treatment
(Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000), 164.
Richard A. Bryant and Allison Harvey,
Acute Stress Disorder: A Handbook of Theory, Assessment, and Treatment
(Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000), 164.
3
Girard,
Violence and the Sacred
, 41.
Girard,
Violence and the Sacred
, 41.
4
Kris Kershaw,
The One-Eyed God: Odin and the (Indo)-Germanic Männerbunde
(Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 2000).
Kris Kershaw,
The One-Eyed God: Odin and the (Indo)-Germanic Männerbunde
(Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 2000).
5
Jean Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1994).
Jean Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1994).
6
I insert “for the most part” here because in the episode “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” the psychologist believes that Cameron likely has Asperger’s syndrome. For more on how the Terminators fit in, or fail to fit in, see Greg Littmann’s chapter in this volume, “The Terminator Wins: Is the Extinction of the Human Race the End of People, or Just the Beginning?”
I insert “for the most part” here because in the episode “The Tower Is Tall but the Fall Is Short,” the psychologist believes that Cameron likely has Asperger’s syndrome. For more on how the Terminators fit in, or fail to fit in, see Greg Littmann’s chapter in this volume, “The Terminator Wins: Is the Extinction of the Human Race the End of People, or Just the Beginning?”
7
Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, 20.
Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, 20.
8
Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, 124.
Baudrillard,
Simulacra and Simulation
, 124.
9
To further your examination of technology and its potential, see Jesse W. Butler’s essay “Un-Terminated: The Integration of the Machines” in this volume.
To further your examination of technology and its potential, see Jesse W. Butler’s essay “Un-Terminated: The Integration of the Machines” in this volume.
7
JAMES CAMERON’S MARXIST REVOLUTION
Jeffrey Ewing
At face value, the
Terminator
movies are great sci-fi action films about murderous cyborgs, time travel, and a guy named John Connor who ends up saving us all from, well, an army of murderous cyborgs. Looking deeper, though, James Cameron’s films share intriguing similarities with the predictions and analysis of a nineteenth-century German philosopher and economist, Karl Marx (1818-1883). In particular, Cameron’s films share with Marx the perspectives that (1) the development of technology in capitalism tends to be harmful and dangerous, and that (2) technology is not naturally harmful, but can be reclaimed to make us more free.
1
Terminator
movies are great sci-fi action films about murderous cyborgs, time travel, and a guy named John Connor who ends up saving us all from, well, an army of murderous cyborgs. Looking deeper, though, James Cameron’s films share intriguing similarities with the predictions and analysis of a nineteenth-century German philosopher and economist, Karl Marx (1818-1883). In particular, Cameron’s films share with Marx the perspectives that (1) the development of technology in capitalism tends to be harmful and dangerous, and that (2) technology is not naturally harmful, but can be reclaimed to make us more free.
1
Before we tie Cameron to Marx, let’s take a brief look at the development of Skynet, which in many ways is the most pivotal “character” in all the movies. In 1984, a mysterious and technologically advanced metal arm is found inside a Cyberdyne Systems factory. Both the arm and the chip inside it are used to develop an advanced artificial intelligence, and Cyberdyne gradually becomes the top defense contractor for the U.S. government. The artificial intelligence is almost completed when a break-in occurs at Cyberdyne, destroying the arm, the chip, and all the research. The government gives the patents over to another corporation, Cyber Research Systems, which completes development of Skynet, an artificial intelligence (AI) designed to control U.S. military weapons and replace human soldiers with robotic ones, called Terminators. Skynet gets under way, becomes aware of its own existence, takes control of all military weaponry and global communication networks, and launches nukes to “defend” itself against humanity. Three billion people die in the event known as Judgment Day, and Skynet sends out its Terminator army to pick off the rest. Regardless of who goes back in time, with the mission to destroy whichever Terminator, Skynet comes back, and Judgment Day arrives.
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