15) “Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997” – Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
When James Cameron’s The Terminator was released in 1984, it soon became a commercial and critical success – entering the annals of film history as a beloved classic of the science fiction genre. As its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day had a lot to achieve. The first film having set up a complex time-travel mythology, encompassing a terrible future event that we never really see happen, the second film needed to incorporate that synopsis early on in order to set the new chapter up correctly – but such endeavours can make screenplays seem overly indulgent.
Fans needn’t have worried, as writer-director James Cameron, and co-writer William Wisher Jr. took the unusual step of an opening voice-over. Rather than sounding like a TV-style “Previously on…” reminder, Cameron used lead character Sarah Connor to sum up the story so far – in what soon became one of the most iconic movie openings of all time.
“Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war ‘Judgement Day’. They lived only to face a new nightmare – the war against the Machines. The computer which controlled the Machines – Skynet – sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the Human Resistance. John Connor – my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me, in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was sent to strike at John himself, when he was still a child. As before, the Resistance was able to send a lone warrior. A protector for John. It was just a question of which one of them would reach him first.”
It is brilliant for two reasons. Firstly, it gives a succinct and accurate summation of a vast and sprawling story arc. The audience knows exactly what has happened, who everyone is, and what is at stake – all in the space of 11 sentences. This makes the film accessible to everybody – fans and newcomers alike. Secondly, the language and delivery has huge impact, and sets exactly the right tone for everything that follows. Rather than claiming that 3 billion humans died, Sarah Connor says – in her characteristically matter-of-fact way – that those lives “ended.” That simple choice of word takes the film from being about the avoidance of tragedy, to being about the prevention of avoidable destruction, and – to its credit – the film continues in the same lean, taught manner throughout.
16) “Mad as Hell” – Network (1976)
Few films have been as prophetic, passionate or socially relevant as Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire Network. It was a great film when it came out, earning a Best Picture nomination and giving three of its stars Oscars for their performances. However, in 2014, it is an even finer film, an eerily prescient exploration of the power of media.
Network is best known for the vitriolic, vindictive on-air speech from beleaguered news anchor Howard Beale, who decides to call out the political leaders and media conglomerates for their B.S. once he is fired from his post. He blasts the apathy and misery of America during the post-Vietnam era, and he does so in the most thrillingly entertaining way. He rants on the news.
His volcanic tirades came to a head with this call from the heavens. Beale arrives in the studio, drenched in rain but searing with rage. His angry rhetoric is a precursor to much of the uncompromising spewing of opinion that has become commonplace on television news. Imbued with something special, he hopes his insights into the crazy spectrum of affairs in the national zeitgeist will create truth. Therefore, he tells his viewers to go to their windows, stick their heads out, and yell with him. (Lumet then cuts to dozens of people shouting from their tenement windows.)
In the age of Cronkite, a character like Howard Beale was a true original and an eccentric. Today, he seems like a shattering indictment of what television news would eventually become, in an age of the 24-hour news cycle and reality television. His words of anger and delirium resonate more with an audience today than the film’s release close to 40 years ago. Few comedies have aged as well as this one. Even today, audiences are still mad as hell.