#4 - True Lies

(Continuing the James Cameron Project with number 4...)

Er.... LIES.

Intro: In the early ‘90s, James Cameron itched to do something different. He had arguably mastered the action blockbuster, but set his sights on digging deeper. He developed a treatment based around the famous multiple-personality case of Billy Milligan, titled A Crowded Room, but not even Cameron’s clout could get the project moving.

Enter Arnold Schwarzenegger, clutching a little-known French film, La Totale!. Arnie Muscles had fallen for the main character -- a suburban dad who hides his exciting secret agent life from his family -- and he begged Cameron to direct an American remake. Cameron agreed, not least because when a giant Austrian asks you to do something, you make him happy. Although not the sharp departure he’d been looking for, Cameron did discover new skills on the set of True Lies. The film is his first, and so far only, straight-up action comedy.

The Particulars: American spy Harry Tasker (inexplicably Austrian and built like Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the top agent for the ultra-secret Omega Sector. After infiltrating an exclusive party, stealing files, and making an explosive escape, Harry returns home to bluff his nerdcore wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) about the thrills of his latest computer conference. Both Helen and daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku in her larvae stage) struggle to hide their boredom.

Unfortunately, Harry is much too busy tracking down international terrorists to find time for family issues. Harry’s partner Gib (Tom Arnold) briefs him on the deciphered files -- extremists, stolen nukes; the usual. Harry tracks a lead, fends off some bathroom assassins, and then chases down the terrorist leader Aziz (Art Malik) on horseback!

Alas, Aziz escapes, and insult meets injury when Harry slumps home to discover he’s missed his own birthday party.

Harry tries to apologize to Helen, but makes a startling discovery – she’s got a rendezvous with another man! Harry and Gib jump into action, fearing another spy has smoked Harry out, and turn the combined might of the U.S. spy net on Helen Tasker and her mystery date. Instead of a rival agent, they discover Simon (Bill Paxton), a used car salesman who only pretends to be a spy to get laid. Harry fantasizes about killing Simon, but opts to kidnap the not-so-cheating couple instead (Helen never went through with it).

Harry tricks Helen into dressing up and seducing a “suspected double-agent” – actually Harry with a tape deck – to give her a taste of the action and adventure she’s craving.

That’s when the terrorists, bored with Harry’s marital counseling, break back into the plot and snatch the confused couple. Helen is shocked to discover her husband’s true job as Aziz monologues about planting a nuke in the Florida Keys. Harry soon escapes and, in a very good action sequence, rescues Helen from the fleeing terrorists. They share a make-up kiss as the first nuke destroys a sizeable chunk of Florida real estate.

Just about then, Harry discovers that the terrorists have also kidnapped his daughter, so he hijacks a convenient Harrier Jet and saves the day once more. As the movie ends, a mysterious phone call sends “Boris” and “Doris” -- Harry and Helen’s code names -- into action and the couple tangos the night away as a happy pair of spies.

The Scene: What makes True Lies so darn entertaining is the utter lack of bad scenes. The dialogue is always interesting, the action always sharp. There are no weak links. Even the generic terrorists get a funny bit while recording their demand tape, and the standard briefing scenes at Omega Sector are improved by Charlton Heston doing his Nick Fury impression.

The standout is Helen’s striptease at the Marquis suite. Admittedly, Harry’s trick is a bit mean and won’t win him any Husband of the Year awards, but the scene does a lot of heavy lifting in the story. It sparks Helen’s transformation from nerdy housewife into a potential spy, allows Harry to truly see his wife for the first time in years , and lightly balances sex appeal with comedy, all while getting the single biggest laughs in the film.

The Line: There’s so much gold in this script, such as Harry’s frank answers while under the effects of the truth serum, or Simon’s monologue about undersexed housewives. The true hero of the movie has to be Tom Arnold, though, who prances through the movie like he’s some kind of misplaced comedy genius. Who knew he could be this funny? I never fail to laugh at his mumbled “Son of a BITCH!” when he takes a particularly sensitive injury in the mission to snare Helen and Simon. Really, most of his lines could go in this section.

The Production: The production of True Lies is packed with stories of James Cameron’s dictatorial rules and regulations on set. According to rumor, Cameron was determined to finish the project on time, even if it meant, say, no bathroom breaks for the crew. Like those “Life’s Abyss and Then You Die” shirts from Cameron’s earlier blockbuster, the crew took to wearing shirts that proclaimed “You Can’t Scare Me – I Work For Jim Cameron!” And, truthfully, he might have earned some of that fear. One story claims he convinced Jamie Lee Curtis to do her own helicopter stunt in the climactic chase by promising to hang out of the copter, shooting the entire thing with a handheld camera. Fearless, and just a little crazy.

A James Cameron Film: Dr. John L. Flynn wrote an article on True Lies suggesting Harry Tasker’s struggle between career and home life might have been a personal one for James Cameron, whose tumultuous marriages are well-documented. This feels like a stretch, considering that the film is a remake and was actually softened from the French version (in La Totale!, the main character’s wife is on the verge of leaving him.) Of course, it’s a fair bet Cameron could relate to his hero’s plight.

As for the rest of the film, True Lies does feature the threat of nuclear annihilation (including a piece of America being wiped off the map) as well as Cameron’s favorite theme of technology used as a weapon and a tool (Harry’s spy gear can be used to hunt down evil terrorists, or to root out perceived infidelity.)

Lasting Impact: Sadly, very little. True Lies gets less love than Cameron’s other films. As of this writing, there’s only a stripped down DVD available on store shelves, and any talk of a sequel stalled after September 11, 2001, since, as Cameron says, terrorism just isn’t that funny anymore. The biggest legacy from True Lies was a resuscitation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s briefly flagging career. Just one year earlier, Arnold suffered his biggest defeat in the mega-bomb Last Action Hero, with many predicting the hunky Arnie’s run had ended. Schwarzenegger himself reportedly asked to remove the comedy elements from True Lies, hoping to leave comedy behind him and return to his purely action roots. Cameron wisely talked Arnold off the ledge and the result was one of Schwarzenegger’s biggest career hits.

Reason for Ranking: Another tough placement. After raving about the film throughout this post, how can I defend leaving it out of the top three? Especially with one of Cameron’s least popular films still to come? Bottom line – True Lies is empty calories. There’s nothing going on under the hood. The top three films in this countdown have something to say, for better or worse, while True Lies is just pure entertainment. It’s a perfect example of “popcorn” cinema, but I just can’t put it any higher.

The James Cameron Project:

1. ???

2. ???

3. ???

4. True Lies

5. The Terminator

6. The Abyss

7. Ghosts of the Abyss

8. Piranha II: The Spawning

#5 - The Terminator

Intro: The Terminator was James Cameron’s breakthrough film, the movie that put him on the speed dial of every producer in Hollywood. In this one modest action flick, Cameron established his fundamental style, made 'Schwarzenegger' a household word, and created a fictional universe deep enough to sustain a multi-billion dollar Hollywood action franchise.

And he did it armed only with a shoestring budget and a reputation as "the flying piranha guy."

The Particulars: In the year 2029, giant motorized tanks roll over a field of crunching human skulls. A prologue talks of war and annihilation, assuring us that the last battle for the future will take place in our time… tonight.

1984. A freak lightning storm rains naked men down onto the California streets. One of these men is a hulking, Austrian brute (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who promptly mugs a street gang (which includes Bill Paxton and that alien thug from The X-Files) for their jeans.

Meanwhile, the other guy (Michael Biehn) snags a pair of trousers from an unfortunate homeless man. That's right, folks, the first 10 minutes of this movie is all about pants.

Slacks acquired, both men embark on a quest to find local waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). The Austrian's technique is to track and assassinate all the Sarah Connors found in the phone booth. The other guy zeroes in on the right Sarah, then shadows her into a dance club called Tech-Noir.

Only in the ‘80s, folks. The Austrian shows up to shoot Sarah, but the other guy rescues her from certain death by plugging several shotgun rounds into the Austrian's chest. A bewildered Sarah watches the Austrian rise to his feet, just in time to get a message from her defender – “Come with me if you want to live.”

The man is Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent to protect Sarah from a programmed killing machine, a cybernetic organism called a Terminator. Sarah’s future son will be a great leader in the epic war between humanity and the ruthless machine army manned by the defense grid Skynet. The machines, on the edge of losing the war, sent the Terminator back in time to erase the existence of their enemy, John Connor, before he even exists.

The Terminator quickly finds the pair, resulting in a disastrous car chase that severely injures the bot and lands Reese and Sarah in jail. While Reese proclaims his sanity, the Terminator busts into the precinct and slaughters everybody with a badge. Reese and Sarah escape and hide in a motel room, where Reese romances Sarah with talk of plastic explosives and guns. He has a confession – Sarah's son John gave Reese a picture of her in the future, his most prized possession. Reese volunteered for this mission because he's in love with her. Sarah swoons and the two get with the busy.

The Terminator soon arrives, sending them running for their lives once more. The ensuing chase ends when the Terminator hijacks a tanker truck, and Reese makes him pay for it with a pipe bomb in the exhaust. Whatever doesn’t kill a terminator, however, makes him scarier. Arnold exits the stage as the flesh burns off the machine, which climbs out of the fire and chases the couple into an unnamed factory. Reese dies defending Sarah, but the severely crippled machine makes one last lunge for her throat. With an ironic one-liner Arnie would approve (“You’re terminated, fucker.”), she mashes the bot in a press.

In the film's final scene, a visibly-pregnant Sarah drives to Mexico, making audio tapes for baby John. The future is uncertain, but a storm hangs on the horizon.

The Scene: Say you're an assassin with orders to terminate a young woman. She’s in police custody, barricaded safely inside a building with 30 police officers standing between you and her. What do you do? If you’re human, you might observe the station at a distance and wait for your chance, or perhaps you’ll infiltrate. If, on the other hand, you’re an unstoppable killing machine from the future, you might try a different tactic. Like, for example, plowing into the building with your car and laying waste to every soul in your way, including the cool Paul Winfield and the cooler Lance Henricksen. It’s the meanest scene in the film, redefining the rules of the game. How do you combat something that seriously lacks in give-a-shit? For Sarah and Reese, no place is safe and they are completely on their own. This scene makes this villain, which in turn makes the film. And, of course, it's all prefaced by...

The Line: “I’ll be back.” It's the line that launched a career. On the page, it's nothing special. But combined with his sudden, violent return a few moments later, it struck an audience nerve and became Arnold's signature line throughout several more movies. No question here.

The Production: Unlike other films on this list, the production of The Terminator appears to have been rather calm. Instead of the usual urban legends of James Cameron's wrath, most of the production stories revolve around the long list of original “Terminators” before Arnold came on board. Originally the part was supposed to go to Cameron favorite Lance Henricksen, who wound up in a bit police officer part instead. Biehn was also considered for the role before snaring the part of Reese. There is a frequent rumor that OJ Simpson was up for the part, but that Cameron vetoed him for being unbelievable as a cold-blooded killer. I don't know if I buy that one, but it's a fun story. While I love Arnold in the role, a part of me mourns for the Lance Henricksen version we never saw. It would have been very different, but perhaps even more chilling.

The story famously came to Cameron in a dream, but there is some debate about exactly how much Cameron invented. The writing credits actually belong to Cameron and his eventual ex-wife Gale Anne Hurd, with William Wisher doing an uncredited polish on the dialogue. Sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, however, filed a lawsuit which accused Cameron of stealing the idea from several of Ellison's short stories. Although the terms of the lawsuit sound like a reach, the studio settled out of court and Ellison is acknowledged in the credits.

...A James Cameron Film: This is the film that established James Cameron's technique. Cameron plays with the theme of nuclear war and the idea of machinery/technology becoming humanity's biggest threat. Technology can also save us, however, as Sarah learns in the factory – a factory whose whirring machines draw an obvious parallel to the machines of the future. Sarah Connor is a proto-version of the superheroine Cameron likes to work with, and she blooms completely by the sequel. Also, this film combines Cameron's favorite stable of actors, with Michael Biehn, Lance Henricksen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Paxton all in various roles. The only thing we're missing is an ocean.

Lasting Impact: Enormous. In addition to being an action highlight of the ‘80s and spawning a slew of mediocre imitations, The Terminator is its own cottage industry, giving us masks, toys, books, games, sequels, a TV spinoff, and, incidentally, James Cameron himself. If The Terminator had failed, Cameron might have had his star snuffed before it had even begun to shine.

On a more global level, The Terminator gave us a new look at the future, and it wasn't a pretty one. The Terminator didn’t invent the idea of a machine-dominated dystopia, or mankind’s extermination via technology, but the film certainly popularized it. Other action franchises, such as The Matrix trilogy, owe a debt of gratitude to this film bringing that idea into the mainstream.

Perhaps most importantly, The Terminator gave us Arnold Schwarzenegger, who at the film's release was mildly famous for being famous. He’d become a minor celebrity from his bodybuilding success, and achieved some movie fame for the Conan series, due more to his pecs than his performance. The Terminator and “I’ll be back” gave Arnold real audience clout, which he parlayed into an shrewd string of action hits and, eventually, into politics. Today, he’s one of the most powerful political figures in the country, possibly the world, and only a constitutional amendment away from making a serious run at the Presidency. To say The Terminator started this is simplifying things, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Reason for Ranking: This was a difficult film to rank, my first real challenge. While the film is a landmark of action cinema and has a tremendous legacy, and despite its archetypal story and iconic scenes... I have to rank the actual film here, not its script or impact. Ultimately, The Terminator is clunky in spots, and a lot of the film is showing its age. There are simply better films in Cameron's catalogue, even if they don't have quite the same far-reaching influence. It's a very good film, but Cameron has topped it many times since.

The James Cameron Project:

1. ???

2. ???

3. ???

4. ???

5. The Terminator

6. The Abyss

7. Ghosts of the Abyss

8. Piranha II: The Spawning