Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines  is a 2003 science fiction action film, the third installment in the Terminator franchise and a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. In the film, Skynet sends a Terminator, the T-X (Loken), back in time to ensure the rise of machines by killing top members of the future human resistance, which will be led by John Connor (Stahl). Among the T-X's targets is John's future wife Kate Brewster (Danes), but not John himself, as his whereabouts are unknown to Skynet. John's life is placed in danger when the T-X finds him. The Resistance has also sent their own Terminator (Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect John and Kate.

By the end of 1995, James Cameron was interested in directing a third Terminator film. He had previously directed and co-written the earlier films, but he ultimately had no involvement with Terminator 3. Carolco Pictures, which owned half of the rights to future Terminator sequels, went into bankruptcy in November 1995. Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar obtained the full rights in 1998, and they produced the film. In 1999, Tedi Sarafian was hired to write the first draft of the script. Mostow joined the project as director in 2001, and he brought on John Brancato and Michael Ferris to rewrite Sarafian's script. With a final budget of $187.3 million, it was the most expensive film ever made up to that point. The budget included a $5 million salary for Mostow and a record $30 million salary for Schwarzenegger. Filming took place in California from April to September 2002. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Stan Winston created the special effects, as they did for the previous film.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines premiered in Westwood, Los Angeles on June 30, 2003, and was released on July 2, 2003 by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States and by Sony Pictures Releasing International under the Columbia Pictures label in worldwide territories. It grossed over $433.4 million worldwide and was followed by a sequel, Terminator Salvation, in 2009.

 

Plot

Ten years after destroying Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, John Connor has been living a nomadic life following the death of his mother, Sarah Connor, to hide from Skynet, despite a war between humans and machines not happening in 1997, as foretold. Unable to locate John in the past, Skynet sends a new Terminator model, the T-X, back in time to John's present in Los Angeles, to instead kill his future allies in the Human Resistance. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed Terminator (a T-101 referred to as the "Terminator") to protect the T-X's targets, including John and his future wife, Kate Brewster.

After killing other targets, the T-X locates Kate and John at an animal hospital, where Kate works. John becomes the T-X's primary target, but he and Kate escape with the Terminator's help. The Terminator takes them to a mausoleum where John's mother is supposedly interred. Inside her vault, they find a weapons cache left at Sarah's request in case Judgment Day occurred. Police arrive and a gun battle ensues. The T-X also chases them, but they escape. The Terminator reveals that John and his mother's actions only delayed Judgment Day and that its plan is to drive John and Kate to Mexico to escape the fallout when Skynet begins its nuclear attack at 6:18 p.m. John orders the Terminator to take Kate and him to see Kate's father, a U.S. Air Force general. In the present, General Robert Brewster is supervising the development of Skynet for Cyber Research Systems (CRS), which also develops autonomous weapons. The Terminator agrees to take them to CRS at Kate's request. The Terminator reveals that it killed John on July 4, 2032; Kate sent it back after it was captured and reprogrammed, and she is the only one who can give it orders.

Meanwhile, at CRS, General Brewster faces pressure from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff^[a] to activate Skynet to stop an anomalous computer virus from invading servers worldwide; he is unaware that the virus is actually Skynet establishing control over them. John and Kate arrive too late to stop Skynet from being activated. The T-X wounds General Brewster and activates the CRS weaponized machines, which kill the employees. Before dying, General Brewster gives Kate and John the location of what John believes is Skynet's system core. John and Kate head for the tarmac to take General Brewster's single-engine plane; their destination is Crystal Peak, a facility built inside the Sierra Nevada. After a battle, the T-X severely damages the Terminator and then reprograms it to kill John. The T-X pursues John and Kate through the CRS facility, but it becomes trapped when a particle accelerator is activated and the magnetic field bonds the T-X to the accelerator. The Terminator struggles to control its outer functions due to still being consciously aware. When it is about to kill John, he urges the Terminator to make a choice between its conflicting programming; it deliberately shuts its corrupted system down, enabling John and Kate to escape. Shortly after they leave, the Terminator's system reboots. Meanwhile, the T-X frees itself from the accelerator and continues its pursuit of John and Kate.

After John and Kate reach Crystal Peak, the T-X arrives by helicopter. Before it can attack, the rebooted Terminator arrives in a second helicopter and crashes into the T-X, crushing it. The T-X pulls itself from the wreckage and attempts to drag itself inside the bunker to follow John and Kate. The Terminator holds the bunker door open long enough for John and Kate to lock them inside then uses the last of its hydrogen fuel cells to destroy both itself and the T-X.

John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak is not Skynet's core, but rather a nuclear fallout shelter and command facility for government and military officials. Skynet has no core and it has become a part of cyberspace after becoming self-aware. Judgment Day begins as Skynet fires nuclear missiles worldwide, starting a nuclear holocaust that kills billions. John and Kate begin receiving radio transmissions on the emergency equipment; John tentatively assumes command by answering radio calls, and they reluctantly accept their fate.

 

Cast

·         Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator: Reprising his role from the first two films, this was Schwarzenegger's final film role before becoming Governor of California. In the 2015 film Terminator: Genisys, he returned to reprise his role.

·         Nick Stahl as John Connor. Stahl replaces Edward Furlong from the second film.

·         Kristanna Loken as the T-X

·         Claire Danes as Katherine "Kate" Brewster

·         David Andrews as Lieutenant General Robert Brewster: Kate's father who is also the program director at CRS. He is supervising the development of digital defense systems, including Skynet.

·         Mark Famiglietti as Scott Mason: Kate Brewster's slain fiancé was originally named Scott Peterson, but the name was changed in order to avoid association with the Scott Peterson case involving the murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner.^[6] In the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Petersen".

·         Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman: Reprising his role from the first two films, Boen appears in one scene, attempting to comfort Kate after she witnesses the acts of the Terminator. Boen and Schwarzenegger are the only actors to appear in all of the first three Terminator films. This is also Boen's final film role before his retirement from his film career to focus on his voice acting career.

Jay Acovone portrayed an LAPD Officer. Kim Robillard and Mark Hicks portrayed Detective Edwards and Detective Bell. In the film's dialogue Bell is identified correctly, however in the film's end credits his name is listed as "Detective Martinez". One of Schwarzenegger's stunt doubles, Billy D. Lucas, portrayed a civilian who has his car accidentally wrecked by John.