Arnold Schwarzenegger returned for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the 2003 sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the film hands him a $30 million salary and a story that undoes the ending he fought for. Jonathan Mostow directed. Nick Stahl plays John Connor, Claire Danes plays Kate Brewster, and Kristanna Loken plays the T-X. It runs 109 minutes. It is not a good film.
Trailer, via Warner Bros. Rewind.
The T-X and What She Is For
Skynet sends the T-X back to 2003 to kill John Connor and his future Resistance allies, including Kate. John has lived as a nomad following the death of his mother, Sarah, so the T-X targets Kate to find him, anticipating their paths will cross. The T-X carries a liquid metal exterior over a durable endoskeleton and can control other machines. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed T-850, Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, to protect the pair.
Loken has the look and none of the menace. The T-1000 in Judgment Day was frightening because it could be anything. The T-X is a bigger, louder version of the same idea, and the film mistakes scale for dread.
A Casket Full of Guns
The best stretch comes at the mausoleum. Inside Sarah’s casket, John and Kate find a weapons cache Sarah left in case Judgment Day was not averted. It is the one scene where the film remembers that Sarah Connor mattered. Then the Terminator reveals the truth: John and Sarah only delayed Judgment Day. Skynet’s attack happens that day.
That reveal is the whole problem. Terminator 2 closed on a note of victory. Terminator 3 walks it back so it can stage a nuclear war. The film spends its first hour on a chase and its last act telling you the chase was pointless.
What the Money Bought
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Budget | $187 million |
| Schwarzenegger salary | $30 million |
| Mostow salary | $5 million |
| Effects | Industrial Light & Magic and Stan Winston |
| Filming | California, April to September 2002 |
The budget bought effects and a star, not a script. James Cameron, who created the franchise, was interested in directing the third film but ultimately had no involvement. Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar got the rights through Carolco’s liquidation auction and talks with producer Gale Ann Hurd. Tedi Sarafian wrote the first draft in 1999. Mostow came aboard in 2001 and brought John Brancato and Michael Ferris to rewrite it. Three writers, and the story still ends where it began.
Edward Furlong was dropped from the role of John Connor over a substance abuse problem. He later said, “I don’t know [what happened]. It just wasn’t the time. I was going through my own thing at the point in my life – whatever, it just wasn’t meant to be.” Mostow said he wanted to start fresh because John was “a very different character now.” Stahl plays him as a man with no direction, which is honest to the script and fatal to a lead.
Earl Boen returns as Dr. Peter Silberman, reprising his role from the first two films, in a single scene. It is the only moment with a pulse.
Terminator 3 is a film built to keep a franchise alive rather than to say anything. The T-X is a retread. The Judgment Day reversal erases the previous film’s victory. The ending, with Skynet’s attack already underway, is bleak but unearned, because the film never makes you care whether these two people survive it. The action is competent and weightless. The star is present and tired. Mostow delivers a product, and the product works only if you have not seen the first two.
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