The narrative paradigm of American science fiction films seen by "Terminator"
Science fiction movies have always been popular with audiences because of their imagination of the development of science and technology and the social life of human beings in the future. The biggest achievement and the most excellent work in this regard is undoubtedly American science fiction films, George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and other science fiction films with both communication breadth and artistic depth have become a shining name. It should be said that the success of American science fiction films, in addition to the support of the entire Hollywood film empire in material technology and publicity promotion, is inseparable from a set of narrative paradigms chosen in intensive cultivation. This is detailed below in Cameron's Terminator.
The narrative characteristics of Hollywood genre films are summarized as: "First, the audience, like the protagonist in the film, never knows what will happen next, and this uncertainty provides a wide space for plot setting." Second, the main clue develops linearly, which meets the viewing needs of the widest audience, and also conforms to Hollywood's strong dramatic narrative structure. "Hollywood's requirements for drama make its films mostly based on causality as the logic, and a series of time and characters in chronological order to promote the development of the plot have more reasonable motives. In causality, the plot progresses one after the other, from the beginning to the development, from a small climax to a large climax, and finally to complete the closed narrative with a complete ending.
For example, in "Terminator", in the future world, the earth has been controlled by the "Skynet" of robots developed by humans, which have become self-aware and begin to rebel against humans, and even want to kill humans. As the original masters of the earth, human beings are naturally not willing to be extinct. So under the leadership of John Connor, the elite of humanity, humanity formed the Resistance. In order to eliminate this rebel force, the robot sends the Terminator robot T-800 to travel back in time to kill John's mother——— Sarah Connor, who was not pregnant at the time, in 1984. So John also sent the warrior Kyle Reese back to protect Sarah. It was in the process of fighting the Terminator together that Sarah and Kyle fell in love, and Sarah became pregnant with Kyle's child, which is the future John. Even if the audience can't accept the concept of time travel for the time being, it's completely understandable why the Terminator desperately kills Sarah, and why Kyle risked danger to help Sarah escape repeatedly.
In American science fiction movies, the audience often gets a more ideal happy ending. For example, in "The Terminator", the Terminator is blown up several times by bombs, losing the threat to Sarah, Sarah turns the corner, and a new life is being born. The audience also breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah's survival also means the success of the rescue mission assigned by John. The audience and the protagonists of science fiction movies are in solidarity, and finally ushered in a gratifying and emotionally released ending together.
Except for a few classic American science fiction movies such as "Blade Runner 2049" that deliberately slow down the narrative rhythm and attract the audience with artistic conception rather than plot, almost all have a tight plot arrangement. In the process of watching the movie, the audience often does not have time to think, and is brought into an almost suffocating narrative rhythm, maintaining a high degree of concern for the fate of the protagonist throughout the process.
Still taking "Terminator" as an example, at the beginning of the movie, the audience first saw the miserable future world under the rule of "Skynet", this scene far from the audience's life experience naturally aroused the curiosity of the audience, and then the timeline immediately cut to 1984, the three protagonists appeared in turn: first, the Terminator T-800 appeared expressionlessly, and killed three innocent earthlings with a raised hand; When the audience was still worried about this cruel scene, Kyle also appeared in front of the audience, and a chase scene between you and me and T-800 was launched, and under the foreshadowing of the previous plot, the audience naturally also suspense for Kyle's life and death; At this time, Sarah Connor's name reappeared in the phone book, and Kyle and T-800 were looking for the focal point.
The same goes for other science fiction movies. For example, in Roland Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow", the arrival of extreme cold does not give mankind any time to prepare, the temperature in North America drops at a rate of ten degrees Celsius per second, and the characters around the protagonist's father and son die or are injured one by one; In "Independence Day", computer engineer David just deciphered the signal sent by aliens, and before he could notify the president through his ex-wife, aliens began to attack the earth, the president organized the air force to fight back, and the power of humans hit stones with pebbles on aliens, etc., all of which made the protagonist busy, exhausted, and extremely nervous for the audience.
The so-called "air port", that is, the place of ventilation. Although science fiction movies need a compact plot that is oppressive to the audience, this does not mean that the audience's viewing process is always tense, otherwise the audience will be visually and psychologically fatigued and numb. American science fiction movies will deliberately set up "breath outlets", that is, set the transition or pause of the plot, so that the audience's spirit can be relaxed, and also make the entire film's literary drama and martial arts play reasonably matched, the priorities of the characters' emotions are staggered, and the narrative has a sense of rhythm.
To sum up, based on the principle of audience-centeredness, American science fiction films have produced a stylized and repeatable narrative paradigm, that is, taking causality as the narrative logic, setting up compact and coherent plots, and paying attention to mixing soothing and romantic plots and scenes in the tense narrative to provide the audience with joy to the greatest extent. In practice, filmmakers sometimes make appropriate "variations", but they are basically not out of the barrier of this paradigm. This can be considered a proven business wisdom in Hollywood, as well as an aesthetic choice.
