No one must follow your work
At the climax of the film the third and final death of the T800 occurs, and with it, the ultimate deconstruction of the Terminator series.
The terrifying killing machine from T1 served as the first iteration of the character, with the learning computer of T2 being the character going through change. This final iteration can see the moment from three perspectives, and with that insight, understands what it is to be truly human. It is this iteration which we see last before it is terminated – resulting in the moment being burnt into memory.
What this means then, is that from this point onward, whenever we re-view the character of the T800, we cannot see it solely in its original iteration, without being reminded of its humanity in T2. Therefore whenever revisiting the Terminator series, our perception of it has irrevocably changed. The original T800 can no longer be experienced in a vacuum, because its other iterations continue to exist in our memory, and are now an intrinsic part of its identity. This is one of the main reasons why the later sequels fail in emulating the feeling of the first two movies. The title character has been deconstructed to such a point that it can never return to its original form.
From a viewer perspective, the person we are at the start of the film is not the one we are at the end of it. With the film’s impact being so profound on first time viewers, it’s understandable that we would want to experience this journey once again. However, in trying to recreate the initial viewing experience, we are doomed to failure. This can be seen in the numerous times fans have flocked to the sequels, despite the decreasing quality in each attempt. In an ironic turn of events, both the fans and producers of the series have emulated the mistakes of Skynet – repeatedly attempting to revisit the past, with a fundamental misjudgment of the human propensity to change.
“I think the disappointment that I sometimes sense in younger readers who find Neuromancer and really, really like it, and then find my later work and they’re like: ‘why can’t you please do more like this?’ – and I have to say well I just can’t… I don’t have access to that material now, and if I did, I would probably be in grave trouble.”
William Gibson on Neuromancer - No maps for these territories
It is time to acknowledge that the series has self-terminated. It lives on in a time and place that we can revisit, however, we can never re-live that first time viewing experience. It may seem to be a depressing notion, but like the film’s coda, it offers an opportunity to gain insight.
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”
Sigmund Freud
Each time we give the film a nostalgic re-watch, a strange situation occurs – We detach from our linear timeline and perceive it from three different perspectives:
The person that watched the film the first time
The person that grew up watching the film repeatedly
The person that has grown and changed into our current iteration
Watching T2 in this way reveals the captivating effect that it has on viewers. It is not simply an action film, but an existential milestone for fans of cinema. Therefore, whenever we watch it, it is both invigorating and melancholic:
We are reminded that we aren’t who we once were, but we see that we have come so far since then.