Atomic Bomb Cinema by Shapiro Jerome F.;

Author:Shapiro, Jerome F.; [JEROME F. SHAPIRO]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1195834
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

While on the surface of the text the Terminator’s function is to kill Sarah, at the subtext level he symbolically represents that element—psychic or social—that stops our hearts, just as it stopped the tragic hero’s heart in The Amazing Colossal Man, and prevents us from developing, overcoming our crises, and reaching our fullest potential as human beings.

Reese, on the other hand, is a strong warrior, tempered by compassion, creativity, and love. And yet, when asked to describe the women of his time, all he can say is that they are good fighters. While this is no mean compliment, it lacks the response of one living in a “kinder, gentler nation.” (In one future-flashback, we observe the pained expression that comes across Reese’s face when his partner, a woman, is blown to pieces by one of the gleaming cyborg tanks.) Reese is the wounded warrior who commonly appears in atomic bomb cinema and Hollywood in general, a war veteran who is still capable of love but too scared to act on his feelings for Sarah. So it is Sarah who initiates their romance, and when they make love she is, for a time, on top, a suggestion of feminine empowerment. More importantly, their intertwined fingers relax at the same time. That is to say, their suggested simultaneous orgasm evokes their emotional proximity and equality.

Kyle’s name means firth or channel.44 Although this connection may have been unintended, and it certainly would not come across obviously to the viewer, it is, nevertheless, through Kyle that Sarah can access the strength and powers that are normally reserved for men. More importantly, it is through Kyle that Sarah finds her own strengths. Their lovemaking may perhaps symbolize Sarah’s integration of Kyle’s psychic functions. Dialectally speaking, one might then conclude that Kyle gives Sarah something she did not always possess, and, therefore, it must not really be hers. This is in part true, but only at the mundane level of gender politics. While Sarah matures beyond Kyle and survives the crisis by developing classical resourcefulness, Kyle succumbs to the crisis and dies. Therefore, their love serves as a catalyst to the nascent powers residing within Sarah, not Kyle.

After Sarah and Kyle make love, the Terminator bursts through their hotel door and instinctively fires into their soiled bed. The Terminator is again being systematic. Since anagogic transformations occur in the bed via sexual communion, it is therefore the locus of greatest threat to the Terminator. One can argue that he is just being logical. He arrives too late, however, and his powers begin to wane while Sarah’s and Kyle’s powers strengthen. For the first time, the two act on the offensive. When the Terminator rushes back through the door Kyle rams his pickup truck into the unsuspecting cyborg.

The two flee the hotel; the Terminator gives chase and shoots Kyle. Sarah, who is driving, rams her truck into the Terminator’s motorcycle, causing both truck and cycle to crash. The Terminator, limping on his left leg (a sure sign

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