FAQ For New Fans #27: "Why No Termovision in Technoir?"

 My websites were always targeted primarily for the hardcore fans who almost know it all. The purpose of my sites was too shine light on some very obscure interviews and facts that aren't accessible in well known books or extras that are still available for purchase. However, times change, and new generations and fans come along - and I realized that a lot of my audience consist of fans who aren't diehards who know every book and interview by memory for decades (like all the fans at the Terminator Files Forum years ago), or just never went outside the films. So this is the first part of a different type of FAQ section, for those less initiated in Cameronverse. James Cameron is one of those very few storytellers who leave the fans with more answers than any scifi fan would hope for, certainly much more than any other scifi storyteller. While movies are about the kinetic energy, emotions visual art and story, and they are certainly not obligated to explain or elaborate on every fictional aspect of it, Cameron, often praising the audiences as 'smart' and ones who 'get it', spread just enough clues and sprinkled bits of information that are enough for the viewers to draw they answers from, without a need to do it through dialogue, ruining the flow, pace and running time of the film. And he always goes extra miles unlike anyone else to give reason and logic behind everything, even fictional made up tech. 

Let's continue with "Why No Termovision in Technoir?"

When the Terminator notices Sarah, we seemingly see from his point of view, but we don't see the red termovision. Why? Is this an oversight?

No, not an oversight, and those who follow his career and watched and read about making of his films, it never is with James Cameron. Originally yes, once the Terminator saw Sarah, we were suppose to see his point of view with a Termovision (the red enhanced vision of Terminators), but it broke the flow and feel of the scene, which at that moment, had a tension rising and escalating to a fever pitch. Here's James Cameron explaining it in his MasterClass in 2021








So instead, we see sort of from Terminators angle, point of view, but not through his eyes. Same thing in an earlier scene where he approaches the door of the first victim, and looks down at the barking dog. At this point in the story it was way too early to reveal anything mechanical about the man for multiple reason (mainly, like in Jaws, to show the monster part by part when the time is right in a latter part of the film), so we saw from his point of view but not through his eyes.

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