Miles Dyson sits at the huge desk in his study. He is deep in
thought, tapping away at the keyboard of his home computer terminal.
Next to desk are racks of sophisticated gear. On a Sunday morning,
when most men are relaxing, spending time with their families, Dyson
is hard at work.
IN A PROFILE CLOSEUP we see him in deep concentration, his mind
prowling the labyrinth of his new microprocessor.
A WOMAN'S FACE ENTERS FRAME soundlessly behind him. He doesn't hear
her. His wife, TARISSA, extends her tongue and traces it down the
back of his neck. He smiles and turns to kiss her good morning.
She's still in her bathrobe, holding coffee. He's been up for hours.
He turns and goes back to work, forgetting instantly that she is
standing there.
She watches him work, the arcane symbols moving across the screen.
We see her frustration, her inability to truly enter the magic box
of his world.
TARISSA
You going to work all day?
DYSON
I'm sorry, baby. This thing is just kicking my ass. I thought we had it with this one...
He points to a metal box on his desk, about two feet long. As
assembly of small cubes. It looks like a dinosaur version of
Terminator's CPU.
DYSON
... but the output went to shit after three seconds. I'm thinking now it's the way I'm matrixing the command hierarchies...
TARISSA
You need a break. You'll see it clear when you come back.
DYSON
I can't
TARISSA
Miles, it's Sunday. You promised to take the kids to Raging Waters today.
DYSON
Oh. I can't, honey. I'm on a roll here.
He takes her hands. We see a childlike excitement in his face. He
wants so badly to share the almost orgasmic thrill of discovery,
the satisfaction of creation.
DYSON
Baby, this thing is going to blow 'em all away. It's a neural-net process --
TARISSA
I know. You told me. It's a neural-net processor. It thinks and learns like we do. It's superconducting at room temperature. Other computer are pocket calculators by comparison.
(she pulls away from him)
But why is that so goddamn important, Miles? I really need to know, 'cause I feel like I'm going crazy here, sometimes.
DYSON
I'm sorry, honey, it's just that I'm thiiis close.
He holds up his thumb and index finger... a fraction of an inch apart.
She picks up the prototype. It doesn't look like much.
DYSON
Imagine a jetline with a pilot that never makes a mistake, never gets tired, never shows up to work with a hangover.
(he taps the prototype)
Meet the pilot.
TARISSA
Why did you marry me, Miles? Why did we have these two children? You don't need us. Your heart and your mind are in here.
(she stares at the metal box in her hands)
But it doesn't love you like we do.
He takes the anodized box from her hands and sets it down. Then he
puts his hands on her shoulders and kisses her gently. She acquiesces
to his kiss.
DYSON
I'm sorry.
Tarissa glances over his shoulder. She nods her head toward the
doorway to the study. Dyson turns and sees their two kids standing
there. Danny (6) and Blythe (4) look rumpled and adorable in their
PJs. Dyson wilts at their hopeful expressions.
TARISSA
How about spending some time with your other babies?
Dyson grins. The forces of darkness have lost this round. He holds
out his hands and his kids run to him, cheering.
CUT TO:
A100 EXT. DESERT/COMPOUND - DAY
The desert northwest of Calexico. Burning under the sun like a
hallucination. Heat shimmers the image, mirage-like.
Terminator turns the pickup off the paved road and barrels along a
roadbed a sand and gravel, trailing a huge plume of dust.
A sign at the turnoff says: CHARON MESA 2 MI
CALEXICO 15 MI
A101 AHEAD is a pathetic oasis of humanity in the vast wasteland, a couple
of aging house-trailers, surrounded by assorted junk vehicles and
desert-style trash. There is a dirt airstrip behind the trailers, and
a stripped Huey helicopter sitting on block nearby.
The truck rolls to a stop in a cloud of dust. The place looks
deserted. The door to the nearest trailer bangs in the wind.
SARAH
(to Terminator and John)
Stay in the truck.
A102 ANGLE FROM INSIDE ANOTHER TRAILER, NEARBY.
A DARK FIGURE in the F.G. has an AK-47 trained on the pickup as
Sarah gets out.
ON SARAH peering through the backlit dust.
The sound of wind. She approaches the trailer.
SARAH
(in Spanish)
Enrique? You here?
She hears KACHANK! behind her and spins, whipping out her .45 in one
motion.
ENRIQUE SALCEDA stands behind a rusting jeep, a 12-gauge pump trained
on her. He is mid-forties, a tough Guatemalan with a weathered face
and heavy mustache. He wears cowboy boots and a flak vest, no shirt.
SALCEDA
You pretty jumpy, Connor.
His fierce face breaks into a broad grin. The shotgun drops to his
side as he walks toward her. When he reaches her he hugs her, then
steps back.
SALCEDA
(in Spanish)
Good to see you, Connor. I knew you'd make it back here sooner or later.
He grins at John as he steps from the truck, and then clocks
Terminator getting out.
SALCEDA
Oye, Big John! Que pasa? Who's your very large friend?
JOHN
(perfect Spanish)
He's cool, Enrique. He's... uh... this is my Uncle Bob.
(to Terminator, in English)
Uncle Bob, this is Enrique.
Terminator smiles. Sort of. Salceda squints at him,
SALCEDA
Hmmm. Uncle Bob, huh? Okay.
(yelling)
Yolanda. Get out here, we got company. And bring some fucking tequila!
A thin Guatemalan KID, FRANCO, eighteen or so, comes out of the
trailer with the AK-47, followed by Salceda's wife, YOLANDA. She has
THREE younger children with her, from a five-year-old GIRL, JUANITA,
to a year-and-half-old BOY. She waves at John. They exchange
greetings in Spanish. They seem like nice people.
Terminator looks down at John, next to him. He says quietly...
TERMINATOR
Uncle Bob?
SALCEDA
(to Sarah)
So, Sarahlita, you getting famous, you know that? All over the goddamn TV.
Salceda rips the cap off the tequila bottle. The two-year-old toddles
to Terminator and grabs his pants, sliming them with drool.
Terminator looks down at the tiny kid, fascinated. What is it?
He picks up the child with one huge hand. Looks at it. Turns it
different ways. Studying it. Then sets it down. The kid waddles
off, a little dizzy.
SALCEDA
Honey, take Pacolito. Thanks, baby.
She hands him the tequila and takes the child. Salceda takes a long
pull from the Cuervo bottle.
SALCEDA
(to Terminator)
Drink?
Terminator gestures "no" at the proffered bottle, but Sarah grabs it
and takes a long pull. She lowers it without expression. Her eyes
don't even water.
SARAH
I just came for my stuff. And I need clothes, food, and one of your trucks.
SALCEDA
(grinning)
Hey, how about the fillings out of my fucking teeth while you're at it?
SARAH
Now, Enrique.
(turns to Terminator and John)
You two are on weapons detail.
CUT TO:
A103 EXT. COMPOUND/BEHIND THE TRAILERS
There is an aging and rusted Caterpillar sitting behind one of the
trailers. John expertly backs it toward Terminator who is holding
one end of a piece of heavy chain which disappears into the sand.
JOHN
Hook it on.
Terminator hooks the chain onto the towhook on the back of the
tractor. John hits the throttle and the Cat churns its treads,
pulling some massive load. A six-by-eight foot sheet of steel plate
moves slowly under six inches of sand.
John drags it far enough to reveal... a rectangular hole in the
ground. Like the mouth of a tomb. The kid drops down from the
tractor and walks to the hole.
JOHN
One thing about my mom... she always plans ahead.
A104 INT. WEAPONS CACHE
From inside the "tomb". Sunlight slashes down into a cinder-block room, less than six feet wide but over twenty long. Sand spills down the steps. The walls are lined with guns.
John precedes Terminator into Sarah's weapons cache. Rifles, pistols,
rocket launchers, mortars, RPGs, radio gear. At the far end, boxes
containing ammo, grenades, etc. are stacked to the ceiling.
Terminator gets real alert. Scanning, wondering where to begin. He
picks up a MAC-10 machine pistol. Racks the bolt.
TERMINATOR
Excellent.
JOHN
Yeah, I thought you'd like this place.
A105 EXT. COMPOUND/NEARBY
Sarah emerges from a trailer. She has changed. Boots, black fatigue pants, T-shirt. Shades. She looks hard. Salceda is nearby, packing food and other survival equipment with Yolanda. He looks up as Sarah approaches, and slaps the side of a BIG FOUR-BY BRONCO next to him,
SALCEDA
This is the best truck, but the water pump is blown. You got the time to change it out?
SARAH
Yeah. I'm gonna wait till dark to cross the border.
(she pulls him away from Yolanda)
Enrique, it's dangerous for you here. You get out tonight, too, okay?
SALCEDA
Yeah, Saralita. Sure.
(he grins)
Just drop by any time and totally fuck up my life.
She slaps him on the shoulder.
CUT TO:
A106 INT. WEAPONS CACHE
Terminator returns from carrying out several cases of ammo. John is selecting rifles from a long rack.
JOHN
See, I grew up in places like this, so I just thought it was how people lived... riding around in helicopters. Learning how to blow shit up.
John grabs an AK-47 and racks the bolt with a practiced action.
Inspects the receiver for wear. Doesn't like what he sees. Puts is
back. His movement are efficient. Professional. Uninterested.
JOHN
Then, when Mom got busted I got put in a regular school. The other kids were, like, into Nintendo.
Terminator has found a Vietnam-era "blooper" M-79 grenade launcher.
A very crude but effective weapon. He opens the breech and inspects
the bore.
JOHN
Are you ever afraid?
Terminator pauses for a second. The thought never occurred to him.
He searches him mind for the answer...
TERMINATOR
No.
Terminator slings the M-79 and starts looking for the grenades.
JOHN
Not even of dying?
TERMINATOR
No.
JOHN
You don't feel any emotion about it one way or the other?
TERMINATOR
No. I have to stay functional until my mission is complete. Then it doesn't matter.
John is idly spinning a Sig Saur 9mm pistol on his finger... backwards
and forwards like Bat Masteron.
JOHN
Yeah. I have to stay functional too.
(sing-songy)
"I'm too important".
Terminator pulls back a canvas tarp, revealing a squat, heavy weapon
with six barrels clustered in a blunt cylinder. Chain-ammo is fed
from a canister sitting next to it. A G.E. MINI-GUN. The most
fearsome anti-personnel weapon of the Vietnam era.
Terminator hefts it. Looks at John as if to say "Can I? Please?"
JOHN
It's definitely you.
CUT TO:
A107 EXT. COMPOUND - DAY/LATER
Sarah and John have their weapons and supply selections laided out on
two battered picnic tables for cleaning and packing. Maps, radios,
documents, explosives, detonators... just the basics. Sarah is field-
stripping and cleaning guns, very methodical. There is no wasted
motion.
Not far away, John and Terminator are working on the Bronco. They're
greasy up to their elbows, lying on their backs under the engine
compartment, ratcheting bolts into places on the new water pump.
JOHN
There was this one guy that was kinda cool. He taught me engines. Hold this a second. Mom screwed it up, of course. Sooner or later she'd always tell them about Judgment Day and me being this world leader and that's be all she wrote.
John thinks he's being causal, but his longing for some kind of
parental connection is obvious.
TERMINATOR
Torque wrench please.
JOHN
Here. I wish I coulda met my real dad.
TERMINATOR
You will.
JOHN
Yeah. I guess so. My mom says when I'm, like, 45, I think, I send him back through time to 1984. But right now he hasn't even been born yet. Man, is messes with your head. Where's that other bolt?
(Terminator hands it to him)
Thanks. Mom and him were only together for one night, but she still loves him, I guess. I see her crying sometimes. She denies it totally, of course. Like she says she got something in her eye.
They crawl out from under the truck into the bright sunlight.
TERMINATOR
Why do you cry?
JOHN
You mean people? I don't know. We just cry. You know. When it hurts.
TERMINATOR
Pain causes it?
JOHN
Uh-unh, no, it's different... It's when there's nothing wrong with you but you hurt anyway. You get it?
TERMINATOR
No.
Terminator gets into the Bronco and turns the ignition key and the
engine catches with a roar.
JOHN
Alriight!! My man!
TERMINATOR
No problemo.
John grins and does a victorious thumbs up.
Terminator imitates the gesture awkwardly.
John laughs and makes him get out of the truck, to try the move again.
A108 SARAH, across the compound, pauses in her work to watch John and
Terminator.
A109 SARAH'S POV... we don't hear what John and Terminator are saying. It
is a soundless pantomime as John is trying to show some other gestures
to the cyborg. Trying to get him to walk more casually. John walks,
then Terminator tries it, then John gestures wildly, talking very
fast... explaining the fundamental principles of cool. They try it
again. Continued ad lib as we hear:
SARAH (V.O.)
Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him... it would always be there. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it couldn't spend time with him because it was too busy. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.
Sarah clenches her jaw and goes grimly back to work... a strong woman
made hard and cold by years of hard choices.
CUT TO;
A110 EXT. ROAD - DAY
A police cruiser is parked off the side of a quiet, empty road on the
outskirts of Los Angeles. A ribbon of traffic moves steadily by on a
freeway in the distance. Nothing stirs around the cruiser except some
pump-jacks sucking the earth on the hill behind it.
A111 IN THE CRUISER. The T-1000 sits inside. John's notes and letters are
spread out on the seat beside it. Sarah's voice speaks from a
cassette deck. John's tapes. Her voices mixes with the static filled
chatter of the radio that T-1000 monitors for any signs of its
targets.
SARAH
... if we are ever separated, and can't make contact, go to Enrique's airstrip. I'll rendezvous with you there.
T-1000 whips around and rewinds the tape, replaying the last section.
It then snaps up the envelope of photos we saw earlier.
ECU on envelope. We see the postmark: "Charon Mesa, Calif."
TIGHT ON T-1000 staring at the postmark on the envelope. It glances
up at the sound of crunching gravel. In the rear-view it sees a BIKE
COP pulling onto the shoulder behind it. The big KAWASAKI 1100 idles
up next to the T-1000, still seated in the cruiser.
BIKE COP
Howdy. I saw you pulled over here earlier. Everything okay?
T-1000
Everything's fine. Thanks for checking.
(it gets slowly out of the car)
Since you're here, though, can I talk to you a second...
CUT TO:
A112 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY/MINUTES LATER
The T-1000 thunders along on the Kawasaki 1100, doing about a hundred
and twenty. PAN WITH IT until it recedes toward the horizon.
CUT TO:
A113 EXT. COMPOUND - DAY (LATE AFTERNOON)
Sarah sits at the picnic table. The weapons are cleaned and her work
is done. She hasn't slept in twenty-four hours and she seems to have
the weight of the whole world on her shoulder.
She draws her knife from its belt sheath.
Idly starts to carve something on the table top... the letter "N".
A114 NOT FAR AWAY, John and Terminator are packing the Bronco for the trip.
A115 ON SARAH, AT THE TABLE as she looks up from her carving, thinking.
She watches Salceda's kids playing nearby... wrestling with a mutty
dog and loving it. Sarah watches Yolanda walking her toddler by her
hands. Backlit, stylized. She looks over at John. Loading guns and
supplies.
A116 ANGLE ON kids playing.
A117 SARAH'S HEAD droops. She closes her eyes.
A118 TIGHT ON small children playing. Different ones.
Wider now, to reveal a playground in a park. Very idyllic. A dream
playground, crowded with laughing children playing on swings, slides,
and a jungle gym. It could be the playground we saw melted and frozen
in the post-nuclear desolation of 2029. But here the grass is vibrant
green and the sun is shining.
118A Sarah, short-haired, looking drab and paramilitary, stands outside the
playground. An outsider. Her fingers are hooked in a chain-link
fence and she is staring through the fence at the young mothers
playing with their kids. A grim-faced harbinger.
118B Some girls play skip-rope. Their sing-song weaves through the random
burbling laughter of the kids. One of the young mothers walks her
two-year-old son by the hands. She is wearing a pink waitress
uniform. She turns to us, laughing.
It is Sarah. Beautiful. Radiant. Sarah from another life,
uncontaminated by the dark future. She glances at the strange woman
beyond the fence.
118C Grim-faced Sarah presses against the fence. She starts shouting at
them in SLOW MOTION. No sound comes from her mouth. She grabs the
fence in frustration, shaking it. Screaming soundlessly.
Waitress Sarah's smile falls. Then returns as her little boy throws
some sand at her. She laughs, turns away, as if the woman at the
fence were a shadow, a trick of light.
118D-118F OMITTED
118G THE SKY EXPLODES. The children ignite like match heads. Sarah is
burning, screaming silently, everything silent and overexposed.
118H THE BLAST WAVE HITS... devouring the cowering mothers and children.
Sarah's scream merges with the howl of the wind as the shockwave rips
into her, blasting her apart and she...
119 Wakes up.
All is quiet and normal. The children are still playing nearby. Less
than fifteen minutes have gone by.
Bathed in sweat, Sarah sits hunched over the table.
Every muscle is shaking. She is gasping.
Sarah struggles to breathe, running her hand through her hair which is
soaked with sweat, She can escape from the hospital, but she can't
escape from the madness which haunts her.
She looks down at the words she has carved on the table, amid the
scrawled hearts and bird-droppings. They are: "NO FATE."
Something changes in her eyes. She slams her knife down in the table
top, embedding it deeply in the words. Then gets up suddenly and
we --
CUT TO:
A120 LONG LENS on Sarah walking toward us, striding across the compound
with grim purpose. She carries a small nylon pack and a CAR-15
assault rifle. Her face is an impassive mask. She has become a
terminator.
A120A JOHN LOOKS UP from his work in time to see Sarah throw the rifle
behind the seat of their stolen pickup, jump in and start it. She
slams it in gear. Salceda walks up to John.
SALCEDA
She said you go south with him...
(he points at Terminator)
... tonight, like you planned. She will meet you tomorrow in...
But John is moving, running after her.
JOHN
Mommm!! Wait!!
A120B MOVING WITH SARAH as she leaves the compound. We see John running
after her... yelling. Can't hear his words. She looks in the rear-
view mirror but doesn't slow down.
CUT TO:
A121 EXT. COMPOUND - DUSK/MINUTES LATER
John and Terminator ponders the message carved into the top of the
picnic table. Sarah's knife is still embedded there.
JOHN
"No fate." No fate but what we make. My father told her this... I mean I made him memorize it, up in the future, as a message to her -- Never mind. Okay, the whole thing goes "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."
TERMINATOR
She intends to change the future somehow.
JOHN
I guess, yeah --
(snaps his fingers as it hit him)
Oh shit!!
TERMINATOR
Dyson.
JOHN
Yeah, gotta be! Miles Dyson! She's gonna blow him away!
John motions to Terminator and breaks into a run.
JOHN
Come on. Let's go. LET'S GO!!
CUT TO:
A122 INT./EXT. SARAH'S JEEP - DUSK
Sarah speeds through the darkening desert. Expressionless. In her
dark glasses, she looks as pitiless as an insect.
DISSOLVE TO:
A123 EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT
TRACKING WITH THE BRONCO, Terminator and John heading toward L.A.
TERMINATOR
This is tactically dangerous.
JOHN
Drive faster.
TERMINATOR
The T-1000 has the same files that I do. It could anticipate this move and reacquire you at Dyson's house.
JOHN
I don't care. We've gotta stop her.
TERMINATOR
Killing Dyson might actually prevent the war.
JOHN
I don't care!! There's gotta be another way. Haven't you learned anything?! Haven't you figured out why you can't kill people?
Terminator is still stumped.
JOHN
Look, maybe you don't care if you live or die. But everybody's not like that! Okay?! We have feelings. We hurt. We're afraid. You gotta learn this stuff, man, I'm not kidding. It's important.
PANNING as they pass, revealing the lights of the city ahead.
CUT TO:
A124 EXT, DYSON'S HOUSE - NIGHT
The house is high-tech and luxurious. Lots of glass. Dyson's study
is lit bluish with the glow of his computer monitors. He is at the
terminal, working. Where else? We see him clearly in a long shot
from an embankment behind the house.
A DARK FIGURE moves into the foreground. Rack focus to Sarah as she
turns into profile. She raises the CAR-15 rifle and begins screwing
the long heavy cylinder of a sound-suppresser onto the end of the
barrel.
CUT TO:
A125-A125K OMITTED
129 OMITTED