Comparison between 2 Sci-fi movies.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Foong Wing Hoe
STUDENT ID NO: 0320085
FILMS SELECTED: Terminator 2: Judgement Day & Predator
WORD COUNT: 951
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 3RD, 2015
!1

2. Compare Essay Between:
Terminator 2: Judgement Day vs Predator (1987)
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day directed by James Cameron and the Predator directed by
John McTiernan, both protagonists discover that their lives are in danger and they had to rely
on their wits and skills to survive. In Terminator, Sarah Connor was hunted down by a
humanoid indestructible cyborg the Terminator sent from the future while her unborn child
soon will lead humanity in a war against the machines. Moving on 11 years later, her child
John Connor is once again been hunted, but this time the cyborg who failed to kill his mother
now must protect him from a far more advanced killing machine. In Predator, our
protagonists Alan "Dutch" Schaefer is private military team leader who was hired by U.S.
military for a “rescue mission” or so he thought. Dutch blindly took on the mission where he
and his squad of six found themselves in a situation that where they bite off more than they
can chew. All hell break loose as soon as they set foot on to their location.
!2

3. On to our protagonists’s personalities and traits. John Connor is a comical character, he is
cool and often uses slangs and punchy one liners. In a particular scene where he was
interacting with the Terminator, he was tired of it’s robotic phrases so he taught it slangs
instead. Moreover, through out the movie John’s wittiness can be clearly seen when he
always managed to puzzle his way to escape tight situation. During the scene where John
infiltrates the Cyberdyne headquarter, he uses his quick thinking skill to unlock one of the
sealed door. It was near impossible however John, being a tech geek he pulled out his Atari
Portfolio and went to work with it. Put aside the jokes and his geekiness, deep down John is
a sympathetic and compassionate individual. In the course of relieving their victory against
the T-1000, the Terminator insisted that it needed to be terminated as well. Being
programmed to be unable to self terminate, he required John to lower itself to the vat of
molten metal. It was probably my favourite and surely the most touching scene of the whole
movie. We get to see a machine having ‘feeling’ toward the boy which really portrait great
emotional element.
Similar to John, Dutch also shows his soft side. At the end of the movie, the Predator was in
Dutch’s mercy. He hesitated to kill it while it lays helplessly crushed under a log. Earlier on
in the movie, Dutch used his quick thinking to challenge a much stronger opponent the
Predator. Learning it’s weakness, Dutch was able to manipulate his surrounding to his
advantage. Similar to John again, determination was also one of Dutch key characteristic. On
one of his most quotable line was “If it bleeds, we can kill it” shows his conviction toward
killing the antagonist and so he did eventually.
!3

4. Speaking of the antagonist, the Predator is a series of different killers from outer space. In
the movie the Predator came from the Jungle Hunter Clan. They are known for stalking and
killing their preys through gruesome butchery. Unfortunate for Dutch’s team, they were
hunted down one by one leaving Dutch incapacitated to fight off his 7’3” foot tall opponent
alone. To challenge itself, the Predator kills and keeps the skulls of it’s preys as trophies.
Similar to the Predator, the T-1000 is also a killing machine. Like it’s predecessor the T-800
was sent by Skynet from the future to assassinate John. It has no feeling nor remorse, it kills
for the sake of getting on to John. Alike the Predator, the T-1000 is also faster and stronger
than its predecessor making it a much more effective killer. When it comes equipment, the
T-1000 doesn’t come with a lot. However, it can shape shift to any form it wants making it
the ultimate weapon itself. Its made out of mimetic poly alloy, physically indestructible. It
adapts from using firearm to hand to hand combat, similar to the Predator. Unlike the
T-1000, the Predator equips itself with lots of technology and gadgets. From plasma caster to
the fan favourite cloaking device, the Predator defines the word killer. Although it’s well
equipped with massive firepower, the Predator is also high skilled just like the T-1000 in
close quarter combat. It was until the last half of the movie do we see the Predator’s gadgets
were immobilised and it was force to challenge our protagonist in a close combat battle.
Besides the obvious similarity in terms of character persona and traits, both movies have
somewhat similar macguffin also known as plot element that catches viewer’s attention. The
macguffin in both movies really centralise our protagonist’s state. Through out the whole plot,
the movie really wants the audience to root for our heroes. During memorable scenes such as
the fight between Dutch and the Predator, it was clear that Dutch was hopelessly
!4

5. overpowered by his opponent. Thus making the movie more exiting than it already is. Same
goes for Terminator 2, where we see the Terminator taking on the T-1000 during the steel
mill scene. Being the weaker Terminator, it was clear that John’s life was in danger. The plot
and directory sums up a very well directed movie that perfectly shows the movie’s macguffin.
All and all, I think both of these are quite similar in their our perspective. Since both films
have a strong character being played by the same actor, Anorld Schwarzenegger during his
prime time. Both were a proper 80’s and 90’s movie, in term of visual affect both movies are
quite ahead of their time. Personally these 2 are some of my many favourite movies of all
time.
References
• Terminator 2. T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). (2010, April 25). Retrieved April 8,
2015, from http://terminator.wikia.com/…/T-1000_(Terminator_2:_Judgmen…
• Predator. Jungle Hunter. (2010, March 19). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://
avp.wikia.com/wiki/Jungle_Hunter
• Terminator 2. John Connor. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/John_Connor
!5