Time for some time-travelling, machine battling shenanigans! One of the first 18 rated movies I ever watched and a true science-fiction classic. All hail THE TERMINATOR!
Plot in a nutshell; A cyborg assassin is sent back through time to 1984 to kill the seemingly innocent Sarah Connor. Her only hope is a soldier sent back from the same post-apocalyptic war. The future of the human race depends upon which one reaches her first.
So this is my first Cameron script and from what Iโve been told, James Cameron scripts are something to be excited about. So Iโve been looking forward to this one. Written with his then writing partner, Gale-Ann Hurd, this formidable team created one of the most famous monsters of recent cinema history and one of the toughest female characters in Sarah Connor. Both are historic, both iconic and both are, most importantly, memorable.
Straight in, first observation, the action directions here are efficient, bordering on engineering schematic efficient. Technical, with plenty of language set aside for describing camera angles, different types of shot and details that possibly only James Cameron could understand. I found it best to dodge round these where I could and just focus on the action directions that gave us the story. As for those unfamiliar with these terms, the script can be a bit bewildering at times. But hey, Cameron is a technical director and this makes sense. For him anyway.
Little time is spent on describing the characters. Just enough for us to picture them. This is plenty though, as the action here is whatโs important. You can really feel the compelling force and drive of the plot pushing you forward relentlessly, yet never leaving you behind.
However, I could definitely feel the difference in the voices of the two writers here. Take the entrance for Kyle and the Terminator (clearly Cameron), versus Sarahโs entrance (had to be Hurd). Sarahโs feels much calmer, less technical, more admiring in her being a part of this story. The boys get cold, hard and full on. So this created an interesting paradigm; should the writers voices be different enough to notice? Is this a strong point for helping the scripts โvoiceโ or should multiple writers be more synergistic when creating the overall read? To be honest, the whole thing turned into a game after a while, where I was trying to spot the difference between the two styles, so that made me chuckle. But ongoing, I would recommend a fair bit of coherence in style when collaborating. Otherwise it might be a bit off-putting to a potential investor. Though (as a contradictory point here), if the story is good enough, I suspect the investor will hire in someone to iron out the โcreasesโ anyway, so donโt get yourself too tied in knots;)
So, what did I learn from THE TERMINATOR?
To get on with it! The form here in dropping you straight into the action and getting the story rolling, is flawless. Before you have time to consider if this things following correct formatting, youโre already reading about the Terminators fifth kill and Sarahโs journey home from work. By page 15, weโre well and truly in it.
P.35 has a stellar sequence with the Terminator chasing Sarahโs flatmate Ginger through their shared apartment, gun raised and set to kill. This is a tense little sequence for wording a cat and mouse hunt, with the Terminator as the cat, stoically praying upon Gingers terrified mouse. Just a nasty couple of pages, but a brilliant example of how to write the final moments of a murderous hunt.
P.44 and I nearly missed it. As Sarah and Kyle flee their initial battle with the Terminator in a stolen car, we get this sentence; โThe LTD, like a night-demon, hurtles out of the shadows with its lights off, doing ninety plus.โ Doesnโt seem like much, right? But why are the lights off? That got me thinking. Itโs night in a town he doesnโt recognise. All the other cars have lights on. So why arenโt his? Then I had a thought; in the future where he battles, lights on the vehicles must get switched off to avoid being spotted by the machines. So, Kyle continues this practice when battling in the past. Without thinking. Just instinct. Itโs just a little note, but such an attention to detail, that it borders on lovely. So thatโs going to make me pay helluva lot more attention to my action descriptions and the little details in the continuity between time periods. Let alone scenes!
Any of the sequences for the Terminator accessing its data view system to select weapons, sarcastic responses or target victims, are a cool series of descriptions if youโre looking to recreate those types of images in your script. Short, descriptive and accessible.
The ending is just a belter of an action movie climax. Beats, pace, characters, tension. Just a winner and a great example of how to end a proper chase/battle sequence. Well worth the read on its own.
Whilst the action directions were definitely heavy, I didnโt feel that any of them were wasted. Other writers would probably have condensed them down or been much more sparse, but I really enjoyed it. Cameron and Hurd had a vision in their minds eye and got it all down on paper. Honestly, in the script writing game, you canโt do better than that.
Link to the script;
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