Cyborg Identities – Media and Identity – The Terminator & Terminator 2: Judgement Day
On the internet, we are able to create new cyber-personalities, avatars that bear no resemblance to ourselves, and free ourselves from the constraints of the physical limitations of the real world. You are posthuman, (Becker, 362). Identities are always changing shape, in the same way water takes the shape of whichever containers it fills. This happens in real life (IRL) as well as in the internet domain.
Becker (362) notes theorist Donna Haraway states humans have already become cyborgs, and any delineations between human and machine are evaporating. We should not be afraid. There is nothing to fear. Skynet (Cameron, 1984) is not coming online anytime soon, and no Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 (ibid) is going to come from the future and say “Your clothes. Give them to me,” (ibid). Haraway and Butler state that “gender and sex,” (Becker, 362) are not natural but imposed upon us by particular debates and forced on our bodies by society (362). Haraway notes that our bodies cannot be considered as amalgamated units with delineations and definitive, static identities (362). New models such as computer code, optical, copper, and Wi-Fi networks — the whole global data network, of which the internet is only a part, and the fragmentation of technologies and media, have eliminated the idea that the only thing anyone can be sure of is that they exist, and genuine knowledge of anything else is unachievable (362).
“This is deep!” - John Connor, Terminator 2 (Cameron, 1991).
In the postmodern world, we appear to be living in a situation of overexposure. Telotte notes Jean Baudrillard finds this “obscene” and “everything…immediately transparent, visible, exposed,” (26). Telotte, writing in 1992, thought that true science fiction films echoed Baudrillard’s notes on the overexposure that focused on the synthetic, the “robot, cyborg, android…” (26). These unnatural bodies threaten and frighten us. They make us feel as if we are headed for our own destruction if technologies relating to cyborgs, robots, and androids are left to continue on their current paths (26).
The two Terminator films show a conflict between humans and robots, cyborgs, and machines. Humans have been subjected to nuclear genocide by machines, led by the autonomous defence computer network, known as Skynet. The survivors band together and strike back at Skynet and the machines in the year 2029, in Los Angeles. The Resistance, as they are known, are so successful that Skynet decides to send — first, a cyborg back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the Resistance — and a second, more dangerous, implacable, inexorable Terminator to kill the Resistance leader, John Connor, while he is still a child (Telotte, 26).
The first film The Terminator (Cameron, 1984), shows the cyborg body, a technological threat that plays on society’s fears of what Telotte calls “Technophobia,” (Telotte, 28). The danger is not just for Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, if she is killed by the Terminator (T1), played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the future of humanity is at stake (28).
Telotte argues that showing us the “technologized body” as a threat from the T1, plays to a societal fear of “technophobia” (28). The T1 passes easily for a human. He sweats, his skin is shiny and oily, and his first interaction with some punks does not go well. At first, the T1 repeats what the punks say. He is completely naked, and the epitome of hegemonic masculinity. He kills one punk, the rest but one run away. The T1 then says his iconic line: “Your clothes. Give them to me,” (Cameron, 1984).
The T1 is so difficult to “read” that Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn — sent back through time by the Resistance, as the protector of Sarah Connor — cannot shoot the T1 in the nightclub, where Sarah is holed up, until the T1 makes his move.
After this shootout, and the following chase, in which Reese is arrested and Sarah gives a statement, the T1 shows up at the police station. He surveys the flimsy structure and says: “I’ll be back,” (Cameron, 1984). He then ploughs a car into the front of the station and massacres police in search for Sarah. Reese and Sarah escape.
The T1 is now shown to be more machine than cyborg. He has a damaged hand that he must repair — he cuts the living tissue off, exposing the metal skeleton — and fixes his damaged hand. His organic eye is irreparably damaged, so the T1 simply cuts out the organic eye covering, exposing the digital video camera he has in place of eyes, (Telotte, 28).
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Cameron, 1991), Telotte argues that the T1 is not a threat, but a protector. “Holy shit! My own Terminator, cool!” – John Connor, (Cameron, 1991). Sarah and John remove and alter the cyborg’s CPU so it can begin to learn (29).
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Cameron, 1991) shows the rehabilitation of one Terminator, but the introduction of a second, more deadly, more unstoppable Terminator — the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick. It has no organic covering, no metallic endoskeleton — it is “all surface,” (Telotte, 29). The T-1000 has no gender, it is a “poly-mimetic alloy,” (Cameron, 1991) that can take on whatever shape it touches. Telotte argues that the T-1000, being all surface and no depth, or inner workings, indicates misleading reassurances that society may feel about the increasing hegemony of technology in our everyday lives (29).
The T-1000 is a genderless, fluid thing. It can form solid metal objects: stabbing weapons, prying tools, and other human beings —both women and men, with near-perfect accuracy. (It does not know John’s dog’s name.) “Your foster parents are already dead,” – The T1, (Cameron, 1991). The T-1000’s formless shape gives rise to a new kind of fear — “what shapes we give to our technological imaginings — and what shapes they could, in turn, give to us,” (Telotte, 30).
Judith Butler states in Performative Acts and Gender Constitution that gender is “not a stable identity,” and gender is “…an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts,” (519). The T1 is the ultimate in male hegemonic masculinity. He is tall, well-muscled, with razor-sharp cheekbones, and a square cut jawline. His appearing naked also showed a shot of his penis, leaving no doubt that this cyborg stands for a masculine gender performance. Once the T1 has the punk’s clothes, and later the iconic image of him wearing sunglasses at night; this repetition of acts that carries over through two films, cements the T1 as the apex of hegemonic masculinity. He performs his gender by wearing punk clothes, by wearing sunglasses, by the use of weapons, by his muscle-bound frame, by his ultra-violence, and by riding a Harley-Davidson in Terminator 2, (Cameron, 1991).
Sarah Connor is an interesting case for her gender performance. As Butler contends; “the body becomes its gender through a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time,” (523). In The Terminator (Cameron, 1984), Sarah is first presented as an example of the opposite of the epitome of the 1984 female. She performs her gender by wearing jeans, riding a motorcycle, and when she is stood up by her off-screen boyfriend, she goes to the movies alone. She ends up in a restaurant, eating pizza, where she discovers, not only that a second Sarah Connor from Los Angeles has been executed, but also a third. When Kyle Reese saves (and kidnaps) her from the T1, and forces her to listen to him, she relents — and becomes passive, “I can’t even balance my check book!” – Sarah Connor, (Cameron, 1984). Later the pair have sex, conceiving John Connor.
By the end of The Terminator (Cameron, 1984), Sarah has changed her gender performativities that have been placed on her by the T1’s inexorable quest to terminate her. After Reese dies to save Sarah, she lures the remnants of the T1 into a hydraulic press. As she presses the button, crushing and destroying the T1, she says in a firm and deep voice: “You’re terminated, motherfucker!” (Cameron, 1984).
Sarah undergoes a dramatic gender performance change in the second film. The first time the viewer sees her, she is sweating, oily-skinned, and doing pull-ups on her upturned bedframe. Not only has she become a cyborg, but also, she has changed her stylised acts of repetition. Sarah has become masculinised in the way she performs her gender. She looks like a Terminator — well-muscled and prone to violence and aggression. She is a weapons expert; she is in Pescadaro State Mental Facility because she was caught trying to blow up a computer factory, (Cameron, 1991).
The T1 performs his gender in much the same way as he did in the first film, except this time he is the protector, not the Terminator. After alteration of the T1’s CPU, he begins to learn — as he is lowered into molten steel, after hugging John and saying “Sorry John, I must go away now,” the T1 says “I know now why you cry,” (Cameron, 1991).
John Connor, played by Edward Furlong, performs his gender in a series of repetitions that become clearer throughout the film. At first, his performativity is that of the rebellious teen — he rides a motorbike and does not listen to his foster parents. In time, it becomes clear that John is compassionate. He discovers that the T1 must obey him, so he commands it not kill people anymore. The T1 now shoots them in the legs: “He’ll live,” says the T1 after shooting a security guard in the leg, (Cameron, 1991).
There is a moment in Terminator 2 where Sarah, fully armed and become a Terminator herself, masculinised and with deadly violent intent — goes to Miles Dyson’s house. Dyson, the inventor of Skynet, is days away from making a breakthrough which will set the future on a course of nuclear annihilation in 1997. At a considerable distance, the Terminator, Sarah Connor, aims an assault rifle with a laser scope at the back of Dyson’s head. She pulls the trigger. Dyson bends down at the last millisecond, and Sarah misses. She switches to fully automatic and begins spraying Dyson’s office with bullets. The magazine is empty, she pulls out an automatic 9mm pistol, and begins firing at Dyson, still a Terminator.
She enters the house and at close range, shoots Dyson through the shoulder. His family come rushing in and his son leaps onto his father. “Please don’t kill my boy,” Dyson begs. Sarah falters. Is she still a Terminator? She is a mother, with a son of her own. She slumps against a wall and begins to cry as John and the T1 enter. John hugs his mother, asks her if she is hurt and she becomes fully human in this moment: “I just couldn’t do it…I just couldn’t…I just couldn’t...I just…” - Sarah Connor says. John holds her tightly as she begins to sob heavily. She is no Terminator. (Cameron, 1991).
Throughout the denouement of the film, Sarah regains and keeps her masculinised gender performance until the T1 is immolated, wherein she hugs the distraught John, in an act of motherly compassion.
Becker, Barbara. "Cyborgs, Agents, and Transhumanists: Crossing Traditional Borders of Body and Identity in the Context of New Technology." Leonardo 33.5 (2000): 361-356. PDF. 16 October 2020. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/1576879>.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-531. 16 October 2020. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/3207893>.
Telotte, J.P. "The Terminator, Terminator 2, & the exposed body." Journal of Popular Film & Television 20.2 (1992): 26-34. PDF. 16 October 2020.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Director's Cut). By James Cameron and William Wisher. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, et al. Prods. James Cameron and Stephanie Austin. TriStar Pictures, 1991. Digital Video. 10 October 2020.
The Terminator. By James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. Prod. Gale Anne Hurd. Orion Pictures, 1984. Digital Video. 10 October 2020.
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