Basic Math Shows Contempt for the Audience (Spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2003)

Many things bothered me about T3, which to describe would probably take more than a maximum of 1,000 words. One little nitpick really stood out for me, however, and seems indicative of everything wrong with the movie. T3 insists upon John Connor's being 13 years old and in the 8th grade during the events of T2. I went back to my DVD, and he is clearly identified during T2 as being ten years old. I was willing to let that go, and say it wasn't really a big deal, but then I realized there's a bigger problem. The original Terminator film clearly and unambiguously takes place in 1984. John Connor is clearly and unambiguously born in 1985. Judgment Day, before the events of T2 change the course of the fictional history, was clearly and unambiguously going to take place on August 29, 1997. (T3 still accepts that date as correct, with the whole gratuitous leukemia thing, which I won't get into). It took me all of a few seconds to see what was wrong with this picture. If John Connor was conceived in 1984 and born in 1985, he wouldn't turn 13 until a year AFTER the world was destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. The world looked in pretty good shape in T2 considering, huh? And if Sarah was supposedly diagnosed with cancer three years before 1997, John would have been nine years old -- younger than he originally was during T2, while Sarah would probably have been in Pescadero.
Why is this important? In the course of sequels, things are going to get tweaked to make the new movie work. Certain things may get re-written or reinterpreted. But the anchoring dates of 1984 and 1997 are basic and important facts about the world the Terminator series is set in. The filmmakers were paid incredible amounts of money to make this film, and either couldn't be bothered to do simple math that an elementary schooler could do, or they did do the math, and decided to arbitrarily ignore it, to make a change that really has no pay-off and adds no meaning to the film. I paid $5 to see this film. They're getting back millions. And I offhandedly know more about the world of the film, and care more about it, than they do. This shows a casual contempt for anyone who cared enough about the first two movies to actually bother paying attention to the plot. The exact same people whose money they anticipated taking when they decided to make another sequel in the first place. This isn't a movie with any meaning: it's a cynical cash cow.