Terminator 2: Judgement Day- Opening Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcisPdJVNl8


The opening of Terminator 2 is a really good opening. It was quite slow but effective. It opens with a high angle Establishing shot of heavy trafic down a street. This gives no indication to what city it is but it gives us a clear indication of time (90's, modern) and setting because most congested streets are located in and around cities. It cuts to a mid-shot of people crossing the busy street- still no indication of setting. This is setting up a norm. That these people are living normal lives without even thinking twice about suddenly being burned to death. There is quite ominous sad music playing over top. Sound is the most effective piece of this opening. We know just from the music, this scene isn't going to last.

The scene cuts to children playing in a playground and in particular a girl swining on a swing. The camera follows the girl then it begins to slow. The sound and movements slow. The girl's laughter suddenly becomes unsettling. There is something oddly scary about a young girl's laughter that is really chilling. Steadily the music builds into a creshendo which builds tension and the screen is fading to white until it suddenly immediately cuts into what looks like a skeleton sitting in a car. There is a sudden contrast in everything; light, sound and mise-en-scene. Its night time, there is no longer any sound save a light wind blowing a piece of metal around and everything and everyone is burned. We're only like 25 seconds in an already just from this the plot is realized. It is also here the city is revealed but no real evidence (since its destroyed) to if it really is Los Angeles. A very clever low-budget trick. The camera slowly pans up fading the camera shot from a close-up to a long/wide shot of the full devastion. It then smoothly cuts to another close-up pan of remains of the playground we saw earlier with skulls lining the ground.

This is a complete parallel to what we saw 15 seconds ago. It opens with congestion, here it opens with the same congested street with dead bodies. You get the idea. Linda Hamilton's voice then comes over the scene to narrate what happens. We learn why we're staring at scenes of devastion. This really sets up the whole story. The Director mixes light non-digectic sound with a non-digectic narration as well as Digectic sounds playing in the background. A really effective piece that really sets up location and story. As she finishes her narration, the camera zooms into a single skull in the dirt and stays for a second allowing time for the audience to lean and try to figure out what they're looking for then WHAM suddenly a large metal foot comes down and crushes the skull causing everyone to jump.

Silence is a very good tension builder. Silence is very unsettling because we live in a world where hearing nothing is nearly impossible and when we do, its quite scary. For a whole minute we watch an epic battle scene between man and machine but the camera remains simple. At the two minute marker (the length of our films) we have the plot but its not till 2:30 that Linda Hamilton finishes her narration; giving us a summary of the first film then a little taste of this one: "The second (Terminator) was sent to attack John himself when he was just a boy..."

Now our films can only be a maxium of 2:10 however, the time between 1 minute and 2 minutes was just battle scenes. The narration took thirty seconds so it could be very easy to do something similar in our own films. Maybe not recreate a battle scene like that but just the camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and lighting. All of it was relatively simple. James Cameron usually only used close-ups, long/wide shots and mid shots. That's pretty much it.

A little note on titles; the titles always appeared in the middle of the scene in white. It started with the Production companies followed by the director's name and producers. Very simple but effective again. You could see it but it didn't take anything away from the scene behind it.

Also the editing is quite interesting. As the clip goes on it picks up pace. Shots become shorter and it cuts faster near the end.

All in all, a very good piece.