Of course the first Terminator was an epic movie, only bested by its own sequels; it has action, love, and clever scientific ideas, but there are at least three reasons why the third instalment of the Terminator series knocks the first down to third.
Firstly, Terminator 3 has more destruction, carnage and relentless chases in it than the previous two put together. In the space of five minutes, two Terminators and John Connor manage to destroy an entire town with just one crane truck; it is the most destruction during a vehicle chase that has ever been committed to screen. Rumours were once spread that director Jonathan Mostow and crew made an entire fake town just to get destroyed by the ferocious femme fatale terminator T-X model. This is a film that will be adored by lovers of any type of vehicle, as almost every kind is included in this film; a pet shop van, a fire truck, a police bike, a Saleen-Modified Ford Mustang police cruiser and many more.
“The film says “Screw You” to its predecessors’ ideas of saving the world from the nuclear attack”
Not only is destruction caused by vehicles, but also by the Terminators themselves as we get to see an entire fight scene with Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, and the very first Terminators - the T-1s. Obviously, any self-respecting Terminator fan would know that the T-1s appear in the battle scenes with Kyle Reece and co. in the future, but because Terminator 3 was released in 2003, this meant better graphics could be used to truly bring these sleek machines to life.
Secondly, Terminator 3 has the balls to kill off main characters. Following the death of Sarah Connor, John must get along by himself - this is brilliant! This means viewers don’t have to put up with that annoying scene where Sarah has to stop to tell John she loves him, or the agonising scene where Sarah reveals she would do anything for John, including getting killed. Well Sarah, you did get killed and we fans are happy for you. Bye bye irritating idealistic sentiments.
Thirdly, the end of Terminator 3 is not what anyone was expecting at all. The film says “Screw You” to its predecessors’ ideas of saving the world from the nuclear attack, and instead decides to make the bombs drop after all; it is one of the best anti-climaxes in film history. All of the chasing, fighting and crying across the three films is for naught as nothing was prevented, nobody was saved, everybody dies anyway. Don’t you just love it when you find out that all your life’s training to fight Terminators and destroy Skynet to prevent the end of the world was for nothing? Well done Jonathan Mostow!
