Sci-fi action fans attending the 2002 San Diego International Comic Con–the biggest comic book, science fiction and fantasy convention on the planet–merely hoping to glimpse stars Lucy Liu (Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever) or Jason Lee (Dreamcatcher) got way more than they could’ve imagined when one of the world’s biggest movie action heroes showed up unannounced.
“The last time I was here I said I’ll be back, and I kept my promise!” exclaimed Arnold Schwarzenegger as he took a seat onstage in the convention center ballroom alongside director Jonathan Mostow to discuss Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, quite possibly the most hotly anticipated sequel ever. The image of the original Terminator evoking his famous catch phrase instantly whipped the audience into a frenzy.
A smiling, wisecracking Schwarzenegger first recalled attending his first comic book convention as a youth in Austria (an event attended by about 20 people, he joked) before getting to the matter at hand: unveiling the first-ever public look at footage from T3, which won’t hit theaters until July 2, 2003.
“The movie I always look most forward to doing is The Terminator. I love that character,” said the actor, who first took on the role of the unstoppable android assassin T-800 for director James Cameron in 1984. “I’m working my butt off. But as you know, I’m also getting paid.” The actor is reported to be taking home a paycheck that could be worth an estimated $30 million, according to industry trades (though the studio has denied that the pricetag is that high).
Pumped up
This time, Schwarzenegger said, the Terminator will journey from the future to the present, “to stop a very dangerous conspiracy: Enron.” Well, actually he comes back to intervene when the machines who rule the future send babe-alicious female cyborg T-X (Kristanna Loken) to murder a now-twentysomething John Connor (with In the Bedroom actor Nick Stahl assuming the role originated by Edward Furlong).
“Every single part of her is artificial,” said Schwarzenegger of his new female adversary, dubbed “The Terminatrix” in fan circles (and rumored to have the same liquid metal properties as T2‘s Robert Patrick), “just like every other Hollywood actress.”
Various sci-fi and film-oriented media outlets have predicted that the movie will have a romantic element, with Claire Danes playing a possible love interest for the John Connor character as they team to fight against the techno uprising.
The 55-year-old action hero, whose recent movies have suffered at the box office in comparison to his heyday a decade ago, also discussed getting his body pumped back up to Terminator-sized proportions.
“One of the things that you can’t hide is when you arrive from the future to the present… you arrive naked,” he said. “So you have to have the same body as you had in the first movie or the second movie, because otherwise you’re not the same mold or the same kind of a robot. So the pressure is on…I started going with the heavy workout again for the last six months… I love it.”
Schwarzenegger compared the focused mindset of getting back into shape to his early days of prepping to win the Mr. Olympia title, but admitted that a December 2001 motorcycle accident–which broke six of his ribs–made it even harder for him to get in shape. Nevertheless, he had a sense of humor about the mishap, saying he was driving along when “all of a sudden I saw a real blonde and I crashed.”
Money shots
It was then that the actor and director Mostow (best known for the sub drama U-571) lowered the lights and unveiled the first peek at the film. “You’re the hardcore audience that really cares and you push us,” Mostow told the fans. “I’m making a movie that I as a fan want to see as a third installment…It’s been twelve years since the last movie.”
The clips showed some very heavy action sequences, first featuring a scruffy, motorcycle-riding John Connor and lots of Terminator-style mayhem, culminating with Arnold’s first appearance as he emerges from a demolished truck. There are several shots of bulky, silver, tank-like robots– a modern-day precursor to the T-800?–and many
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glimpses of the gleaming, red-eyed exoskeleton-like Terminator (created by returning F/X artist Stan Winston) seen in the earlier films.
In one sequence the Terminator strides nonchalantly around tombstones in a cemetery, firing a weapon at pursuers while shielding himself from a hail of bullets with a casket.
And in what had to be the money shot, the camera gets close up on a battered Schwarzenegger as genuine emotion at last flickers across the typically stone-faced android. “Desire is irrelevant,” says the Terminator. “I am a machine.”
From the past to the future
While there were stunts and explosions, most of the special effects scenes are still incomplete and weren’t included. Also missing were any shots of Loken in action as the Terminatrix or Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Hamilton will not reprise her role but reports have suggested her character will appear in flashbacks in unused footage from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
“It was like a no-win situation for me,” Hamilton told Entertainment Weekly’s Web site in January. “The best I could hope for was that I wouldn’t be compared too unfavorably with myself 10 years ago. Without Jim [Cameron] breathing the breath of life into the film? No thank you.” Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese in the first film and returned for the second but had his scenes cut, is also not expected to return.
Coincidentally, Cameron was at the Comic Con, taking the stage just moments after Schwarzenegger to unveil a scene from director Steven Soderbergh‘s sci-fi opus Solaris, which Cameron executive produced. Another Terminator co-creator, producer Gale Anne Hurd, was also on hand to preview her latest project, The Hulk.
The fans’ questions quickly diverted to other long-rumored Schwarzenegger projects, including a third outing as Conan the Barbarian. The prospect drew whoops from the fans, and while he revealed that original director John Milius has submitted a script to the studio, nothing is set in stone. “I hope,” he said, “but this is not in my power.”
He also addressed playing 1930s pulp novel hero Doc Savage in a film written and directed by Frank Darabont. Because the film’s initial projected budget ballooned to $220 million, Schwarzenegger said the studio is “a little bit shy about making this movie.”
All too soon, the Terminator’s time was up. Before triumphantly leaving the stage, Schwarzenegger shouted a playful farewell to the comic book crowd: “Hasta la vista, fanboys!”
