3 ms·

I think a big part of the delayed reveal of the skeleton only version in T1 is pretty simple: once you reveal that, Arnie is no longer in the movie, and the spe

by orev 4y ago

I think a big part of the delayed reveal of the skeleton only version in T1 is pretty simple: once you reveal that, Arnie is no longer in the movie, and the special effects required to fully animate it didn’t exist back then (other than stick figures or rotoscoping which would have looked awful). As is, the scenes with just the skeleton look like a stiff puppet show instead of some intimidating killer robot.

jonhohle 4y ago
As an audience member, you’re expected to maintain some suspension of disbelief. At a musical no one would say, “no one would actual sing what they could just say!”, or reading a book “those letters could have been scrawled by any kindergartener!” At that point of the movie the thing the protagonists thought they killed is resurrected in an even more frightening form and dread is elevated. Obviously the viewer is not at risk, so how that is implemented has little bearing on the impact of the scene. On the other hand, if you are interested in the technical details of how this creature appears next to actors, knowing Cameron’s history in the model department on low budget movies and Ray Harryhausen’s similar technique used in Jason and the argonauts would allow you to appreciate how it was made. I don’t buy that the late reveal was due to effects limitations. It’s really to take an audience that may have allowed themselves to relax to be immediate brought back to an even higher anxiety level than the proceeding chase.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  I think GP's point is less about breaking or sustaining suspension of disbelief, or technical limitations themselves, and more about costs. Once the Terminator loses its human skin, the (then) relatively cheap actor is replaced by a prop that's (then) stupidly expensive to animate. Deciding to do it earlier would likely force the movie to look entirely different at least from that point on. Such considerations were a major driver of how sci-fi in general was done up until early 2000s. With TV shows, a lot of the tropes and patterns of sci-fi, particularly around how the aliens look and behave, boil down to the fact that about the only way to make non-grotesque aliens without breaking bank was to glue prosthetics to the actors and apply tons of makeup. The writing was thus constrained by what the makeup department could handle.
  - porknubbins 4y ago
    If they made the scene today I imagine it would be a smoothly walking CGI metal skeleton with less of that awkward jerkiness that made it so scary. Yet another benefit of practical effects.
sangnoir 4y ago
> I think a big part of the delayed reveal of the skeleton only version in T1 is pretty simple: once you reveal that, Arnie is no longer in the movie Not true: they could have revealed the skeleton earlier and still have Arnie, e.g. via opening scenes set in the future, or via a Reese flashback (flash forward?), or showing the process of hybridizing the T1 before it was sent in time. The articles argument seems congent to me: the movie FX and story reveals are carefully structured such that the terminator appears less human over time, until it is not human at all. Add to this the fact that the T1's red-hued HUD is not shown early (this could have been shown with no loss of Arnie as the T1, but wasn't) shows that the robotic nature of the character was being intentionally being hidden at first.

by orev 4y ago

jonhohle 4y ago

As an audience member, you’re expected to maintain some suspension of disbelief. At a musical no one would say, “no one would actual sing what they could just say!”, or reading a book “those letters could have been scrawled by any kindergartener!” At that point of the movie the thing the protagonists thought they killed is resurrected in an even more frightening form and dread is elevated. Obviously the viewer is not at risk, so how that is implemented has little bearing on the impact of the scene. On the other hand, if you are interested in the technical details of how this creature appears next to actors, knowing Cameron’s history in the model department on low budget movies and Ray Harryhausen’s similar technique used in Jason and the argonauts would allow you to appreciate how it was made. I don’t buy that the late reveal was due to effects limitations. It’s really to take an audience that may have allowed themselves to relax to be immediate brought back to an even higher anxiety level than the proceeding chase.

TeMPOraL 4y ago
I think GP's point is less about breaking or sustaining suspension of disbelief, or technical limitations themselves, and more about costs. Once the Terminator loses its human skin, the (then) relatively cheap actor is replaced by a prop that's (then) stupidly expensive to animate. Deciding to do it earlier would likely force the movie to look entirely different at least from that point on. Such considerations were a major driver of how sci-fi in general was done up until early 2000s. With TV shows, a lot of the tropes and patterns of sci-fi, particularly around how the aliens look and behave, boil down to the fact that about the only way to make non-grotesque aliens without breaking bank was to glue prosthetics to the actors and apply tons of makeup. The writing was thus constrained by what the makeup department could handle.
- porknubbins 4y ago
  If they made the scene today I imagine it would be a smoothly walking CGI metal skeleton with less of that awkward jerkiness that made it so scary. Yet another benefit of practical effects.

sangnoir 4y ago

> I think a big part of the delayed reveal of the skeleton only version in T1 is pretty simple: once you reveal that, Arnie is no longer in the movie Not true: they could have revealed the skeleton earlier and still have Arnie, e.g. via opening scenes set in the future, or via a Reese flashback (flash forward?), or showing the process of hybridizing the T1 before it was sent in time. The articles argument seems congent to me: the movie FX and story reveals are carefully structured such that the terminator appears less human over time, until it is not human at all. Add to this the fact that the T1's red-hued HUD is not shown early (this could have been shown with no loss of Arnie as the T1, but wasn't) shows that the robotic nature of the character was being intentionally being hidden at first.