Daily Dialogue — June 10, 2015

“Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there 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.”

— Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), screenplay by James Cameron, William Wisher Jr.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Voice-Over Narration. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Given Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $15-million salary and his total of 700 words of dialog, he was paid $21,429 per word. “Hasta la vista, baby” cost $85,716.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “V.O. is used at this moment to give utterance to Sarah’s reflection as she watches her son John interact with the machine. It seems like an abrupt shift in the storytelling, but it works because Sarah is an action character who’s not given to sharing her inner feelings with other characters. It’s hard to picture Sarah saying this out loud. But it’s necessary to give us a sense of how she feels about John, and why she might feel pushed to go on the shooting rampage that follows. If she fails, she knows her son will be safe.”