Simon and Jim discuss Jonathan Mostow’s TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES, a pivot from interesting and distinctive Terminator films towards generic early 2000s action films. They discuss this film’s wild tonal whiplash and the great disservice it does to the film’s more ambitious plot points, the casual laddish misogyny and voyeurism expressed through the T-X and the Kate Brewster characters, how terrible and generic the film looks including a stunt superficially similar to the famous truck flip from THE DARK KNIGHT, Arnold’s small distraction during this film of running for Governor of California, and the naming conventions of blockbuster franchises after the third film.

Content warnings: misogyny and patriarchy; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; casual homophobia; murder and violent death including the shooting of children; body horror and removal of skin.

Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at ⁠https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix⁠

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at ⁠https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/MA22Y4VE/collection