Some of the inextricable little relationships between Terminator and Alien 2.
Alien 2 as James. Cameron's second feature film work, from the perspective of "Terminator" and "Alien 2", they actually have a lot in common in the structure of the play, and even more personally to interpret, I think this is also the beginning of the formation of a cameron-style action movie.
Although "Terminator" and "Alien 2" are two completely different stories, in the structure of the action genre, the kashen action label has begun to take shape.
For example, in terms of story distribution, it basically follows the four-act storytelling style rather than the three-act style, as far as "Alien 2" is concerned, the four-act style is after the end of the third act of the overall climactic story of the film, originally thought that all the dust had settled, but in fact, there will be a separate single-player scene in the end.
In 1979, although Alien had already presented such a four-act structure, it was not obvious, and Cameron made the four-act style enhanced and more prominent, so that it became the standard of the Alien series.
You can recall that whether it is the works of the Alien series, it seems that after the end of The Armageddon, there will be a turn at the end, and the importance of the protagonist in this victory is more emphasized.
Throughout Cameron's film works, it is basically four acts, and the final decisive battle scene is also given to the protagonist and the villain.
In addition to the classic narrative structure of the four-act style, Cameron's grasp of the film's camera scheduling and rhythm, local and overall coordination, are very appetizing.
And one of the most important indicators of a good action movie is to hang people's appetites, not to explode from beginning to end (Michael Bay).
This kind of appetizing setting is not only as simple as creating suspense points, but also completing the emotional accumulation of the audience at the same time, like the backlog before the volcanic eruption.
In Cameron's audio review commentary "Alien 2", there is a very important sentence of "more on terro, less on horror".
In this sentence, terro and horror roughly mean terror, but to be precise, terro mainly refers to the great fear and horror in people's hearts when they encounter unknown dangers.
Horror is a manifestation of terrifying phenomena and behaviors, making people disgusted and disgusted.
Cameron's very topical sentence shows that the film still revolves around the horror of fear than cheapness, so that the audience pays more attention to the process of fear in the heart, which is why when we watch some cheap horror movies, we do not like the shocking and scary camera language expression at first, because those arehoror, not terror.
From the perspective of the rhythm of action movies, "Alien 2" is more full than Old Ray's "Alien", especially the addition of that group of soldiers, so that the film is full of curiosity, the mutual provocation and playfulness between soldiers, showing the audience's unique internal friendship in the military camp, and from it also brings out a distinct character, a few simple lines and actions, can become a classic in film history.
The control of details is also Cameron's signature, which is why Cameron's films are always overspended in funds and time, Cameron's three years and three years, three years and three years are also because of the intransigence of details and technology.
In Alien 2, the destruction of Alien is an offensive rather than a military mission to flee, so cameron is particularly important in the portrayal of military details.
To this end, Cameron also specially invited a real soldier to participate in the exercise, and asked him to be a military details consultant in the film. He is al, the black man who plays the captain in the film. Matthews, who had a rich military resume, fought in the Vietnam War and received 13 battle rewards, including 2 Purple Hearts.
In the film, a lot of military slogans, preparations, as well as the actor's gun-holding posture, emotions and movements, etc., Al. Matthews fine-tuned and gave a lot of advice, so he also made the actors who played the soldiers, and the action scenes of the whole movie more realistic about military operations.
Regarded as a classic is the scene of the team armed equipment battle, which is the narrative technique usually used in war films to render the tension and high emotions before the war.
The film uses the bridge section of the show weapon equipment here, with a very American army percussion, which adds to the atmosphere of this scene, because this is the sequel of the alien, so compared to the previous game, there is no gun that can only DIY itself, and the sophisticated weapons and equipment of "Alien 2" can instantly inspire people and give the audience more rich imagination of the fierce battle behind.
Cameron's role in shaping the characters to advance the plot Cameron adopts a submerged exploration mode, and "Terminator" and "Avatar" are also the same vortex narrative mode, in which the characters lead the audience step by step into the unknown territory to perform tasks or solve problems.
For example, Cameron's foreplay is very long, the protagonist of "Terminator 1-2" meets T800, all half an hour later, "Alien 2", "Titanic", "Avatar", etc., Cameron directly places the strongest conflict in the middle of the film as a turning point, and all the preparation and accumulation in front of it is aimed at establishing a plump and credible role for the audience.
In particular, the portrayal of the protagonist Ripley gives Ripley an extra identity as a female mother, and this design instantly closes the distance between the character and the audience.
Creating real and believable characters is a very lacking part of many action genre films, but it is also a part that the action moments are around, because there are almost no action scenes in the first half of the film, which will be extremely easy to dissuade the audience, but we see how Cameron handles it.
In fact, before the alien came out, the unfathomable fear in the corner had been brewing, and every scene in the film revolved around the MacGuffin of the alien, laying a variety of attractive time bombs for the appearance of the alien.
Of course, the film is not in accordance with the routine, when they go to the base camp that has been fallen, there is no expected battle scene with the alien, but the little girl who survived is accidentally harvested, such a clever twist in the plot design, and it is also a killer of Cameron.
In "Alien 2", they found the traces of the alien after taking control of the main control room, and went to explore again, but the soldiers, like the audience, were attacked by the alien brothers without warning, and this turn of the enemy and the dark also added a stronger sense of suspense and crisis to the film.
Therefore, the classic film, even the "Alien 2" 34 years ago, is anti-routine in terms of plot.
Finally, in Cameron-style action films, there is also a need to talk about the innovation of film technology, Cameron's contribution to the film industry can be said to be pivotal, as early as the first "Terminator", Cameron used a lower cost to create an impressive pair of metal skeleton equipment.
It wasn't until the liquid 3D post-production technology matured that Cameron began working on Terminator 2.
The more familiar "Avatar" does not need to be expanded, the film makes the 3D movie and 3D cinema market boom, so that more people return to the cinema.
It is said that another reason for the delay in filming "Avatar 2" is also because the underwater film technology has not reached the requirements of Cameron's devil level, and even once rumored that Cameron was waiting for the arrival of naked-eye 3D, but now it is estimated that this is just a rumor.
Back in Alien 2, Cameron has also made a lot of innovative settings, among which the more classic is the mecha of Ripley and the final showdown of the Alien Queen.
Originally designed to resemble an elephant, cameron changed to a humanoid design inspired by the hardcore science fiction writer known as "Mr. Sci-Fi", Robert E. Lee. Heinlein's 1959 novel The Galactic Team.
"Galactic Team" is about the war between humans and the distant galaxy "Zerg" after colonizing aliens, and this novel has a great influence on later science fiction films and television works, including "Alien 2", which was also adapted into the film of the same name in 1997. (Put some footage of "Galactic Team")
The novel "Galaxy Squad" gave Cameron a lot of inspiration, the most important of which was the concept of enhanced exoskeleton armor invented in the novel, which is similar to the mecha in Alien 2, and then it was updated and iterated by Cameron to become a combat mech like Avatar. (The set of mechs operated by the villain at the end of Avatar)
The concept of enhanced exoskeleton armor in the "Galactic Team" novel, in fact, not only affected Cameron, a small partner who likes science fiction films, in fact, this setting is not unusual, "Edge of Tomorrow", "Elysium Space", "Iron Man", "Wandering Earth" and other films, all have such external power equipment, and their inspiration sources can be traced back to the novels of "Galactic Team".
Before filming, Cameron even asked every actor to read the "Galactic Team" novel as a reference for the way of acting and emotion.
In addition, many of the small details in the film are extremely elaborately designed, and they are all pictures that Cameron himself has thought about in advance.
For example, in the case of almost all physical shooting at that time, the picture of the face-hugging insect action was actually partly the use of upside down to achieve the effect of attack.
In the scene where the face-hugging worm attacks Ripley, it is first let the face-hugging worm lie on the pillar, then pull it back, and then put it upside down, and get the effect of the face-hugging worm jumping on the pillar, all of which are in Cameron's mind, and then teach the team to complete it by hand.
So Cameron is also known as an all-round filmmaker, no one on the set can fool him, because he knows better than anyone, photography and light performance props are proficient, and he can't do it himself.