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Pilot (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Encyclopedia
Pilot is the premiere episode of the American science fiction television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It first aired on January 13, 2008 in the United States
.
is seen in the background. It completely destroys the library and slowly disintegrates Sarah and the Terminator down to its endoskeleton. But it turns out to be a nightmare. Sarah wakes up with her fiancé, Charley Dixon. The date is August 24, 1999 and Sarah and John are living with Charley in West Fork, Nebraska
. She tells John that they have to leave once he wakes up.
After they have fled from the house, Charley assumes that they are missing and reports this to the police. FBI agent James Ellison then tells him that his fiancée is an escaped mental patient who blew up a building and killed the noted computer genius Miles Dyson because she thought he would create a computer system that will destroy the world. Charley gives Agent Ellison Sarah's new alias, Sarah Reese
, which is entered into her database file. A new terminator, who has been monitoring the FBI's database, is now informed of her new name, and begins his search.
Sarah and John move to Red Valley, New Mexico
, a "hick" town, where John meets a pretty girl named Cameron
Phillips at school. An 800 series Terminator comes to the school masquerading as a substitute teacher. He identifies himself as Cromartie and calls John's name under the pretense of taking attendance. When John answers, Cromartie pulls out a pistol that was hidden within his leg and tries to shoot John, but Cameron shields John from the bullets with her body, taking three hits to the chest. After John flees the school, John hides near a parking space but is found by Cromartie. Cromartie prepares to shoot him but is run over by Cameron, seconds later. Cameron is revealed to be a reprogrammed Terminator from 2027, sent back in time to protect John. She helps John escape and tells him that Skynet was activated on April 19, 2011, and launched a nuclear apocalypse two days later. John convinces Sarah that he will never be ready to lead an army against Skynet, and that she has to try again to stop it from ever being created.
John, Sarah, and Cameron first go to the Dysons' house, in Los Angeles, California
, asking about who might have followed Miles' work. Cromartie attacks again, but they escape in the Dysons' car. Cameron takes the Connors to a bank. Cameron pulls out a gun and forces an employee to lock them up inside the vault. Inside, she uncovers a time displacement transporter
, which had been surreptitiously built into the vault by "the engineer" sent back in time to 1963. Meanwhile, a SWAT
team is preparing to raid the bank outside. After Cromartie is supposedly destroyed by an isotope
-fueled weapon also built by the engineer, they use the time machine to travel from September 10, 1999 to September 2007. The time machine generates an explosion that destroys the entire bank. Because nothing can come with them, they appear in the middle of a highway naked. They steal clothes and a car from three drunk men. This news gets reported on TV as a college prank, but Charley Dixon sees the report and immediately recognizes Sarah.
." Bellafante described Lena Headey as "all anxious muscle" and wrote "John, played by Thomas Dekker, complements Sarah's intensity with a quiet anguish." Bellafante described the episode as "a fantasy of technophobic paranoia, but it is also a metaphor for mad, crazy blood love, for motherhood not merely as an honorable career but also as salvation. Keeping John safe has required Sarah to learn four languages, work at 23 jobs, assume nine aliases and submit to years in a mental hospital."
Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald
wrote "In the dregs of the writers strike
, with most dramas sputtering, the new Fox series (debuting tonight...) is a megawatt jolt to the heart, crackling with exhilarating stunts, plot swerves and, most unexpectedly, a touch of humanity. It's everything Bionic Woman
should have been." Perigard wrote, "The first two episodes continuing the big-budget Terminator blockbusters present a richly reimagined life for Sarah Connor and her teenaged son John, destined one day to lead humanity's resistance fighters against relentless cybernetic enemies." Perigard said, "Fortunately for John, his future self sent back another cybernetic protector in the form of a beautiful teenager named Cameron (Summer Glau, Firefly
)." Perigard said, "Director David Nutter has a firm grasp on the electrifying action sequences but displays a deft touch in the smaller moments", said "[John's] longing for a father figure is palpable...", and said "Headey won't make anyone forget Linda Hamilton
's memorable turn in the second film and her voice-overs are unconvincing. Give her time to grow into the role."
Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it.com wrote that even without the writer's strike
there was going to be a lot of pressure on the show and said "it was still going to be a costly, high-risk, big-name gambit." Fienberg wrote "My immediate reaction, after watching the first two episodes of Sarah Connor, is that the series is by no means a disaster." Fienberg said "the transition to the small screen has been as smooth as one could hope, particularly in terms of the inevitably diminished production values." Fienberg said the first two episodes lacked "the sort of single-minded purpose that defined the two James Cameron films" but said they were "neither fish nor fowl." Fienberg said the end of the pilot took "slightly ludicrous steps...to erase nearly all of the possibilities of the third movie." Fienberg said, "Ideally, the show becomes less a series of weekly chases and escapes from brutal robot slaughter and more a chronicle of how a single mother and her son attempt to live their lives when imminent death is like another member of the family." Fienberg said the show "isn't really of blockbuster scope" and "no more ambitious than, say, last spring's prematurely cancelled Drive
." Fienberg said "Headey's in a tough place" due to Linda Hamilton's performance as Sarah Connor, but said "The stand-out in early episodes is Glau, showcasing the same sort of deceptively passive deadpan mixed with physical grace that fans of Firefly
came to love."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Plot
The episode begins in 1999 with Sarah Connor and her son John being captured by police outside a public library. A Terminator attacks the police convoy and kills all the cops; John flees but is shot dead by the machine. The Terminator proceeds to strangle Sarah as a nuclear explosionNuclear explosion
A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device...
is seen in the background. It completely destroys the library and slowly disintegrates Sarah and the Terminator down to its endoskeleton. But it turns out to be a nightmare. Sarah wakes up with her fiancé, Charley Dixon. The date is August 24, 1999 and Sarah and John are living with Charley in West Fork, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. She tells John that they have to leave once he wakes up.
After they have fled from the house, Charley assumes that they are missing and reports this to the police. FBI agent James Ellison then tells him that his fiancée is an escaped mental patient who blew up a building and killed the noted computer genius Miles Dyson because she thought he would create a computer system that will destroy the world. Charley gives Agent Ellison Sarah's new alias, Sarah Reese
Kyle Reese
Kyle Reese is the primary character in the first Terminator film, the posthumous father of John Connor, and the love of Sarah Connor. He is played by Michael Biehn in the first Terminator films, Jonathan Jackson in the television series, and played as a teenager by Anton Yelchin in Terminator...
, which is entered into her database file. A new terminator, who has been monitoring the FBI's database, is now informed of her new name, and begins his search.
Sarah and John move to Red Valley, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, a "hick" town, where John meets a pretty girl named Cameron
Cameron
-People:* Cameron * Cameron * The Scottish Clan Cameron* David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom* Cam'ron, the stage name of hip hop artist Cameron Giles...
Phillips at school. An 800 series Terminator comes to the school masquerading as a substitute teacher. He identifies himself as Cromartie and calls John's name under the pretense of taking attendance. When John answers, Cromartie pulls out a pistol that was hidden within his leg and tries to shoot John, but Cameron shields John from the bullets with her body, taking three hits to the chest. After John flees the school, John hides near a parking space but is found by Cromartie. Cromartie prepares to shoot him but is run over by Cameron, seconds later. Cameron is revealed to be a reprogrammed Terminator from 2027, sent back in time to protect John. She helps John escape and tells him that Skynet was activated on April 19, 2011, and launched a nuclear apocalypse two days later. John convinces Sarah that he will never be ready to lead an army against Skynet, and that she has to try again to stop it from ever being created.
John, Sarah, and Cameron first go to the Dysons' house, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, asking about who might have followed Miles' work. Cromartie attacks again, but they escape in the Dysons' car. Cameron takes the Connors to a bank. Cameron pulls out a gun and forces an employee to lock them up inside the vault. Inside, she uncovers a time displacement transporter
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, which had been surreptitiously built into the vault by "the engineer" sent back in time to 1963. Meanwhile, a SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team is preparing to raid the bank outside. After Cromartie is supposedly destroyed by an isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
-fueled weapon also built by the engineer, they use the time machine to travel from September 10, 1999 to September 2007. The time machine generates an explosion that destroys the entire bank. Because nothing can come with them, they appear in the middle of a highway naked. They steal clothes and a car from three drunk men. This news gets reported on TV as a college prank, but Charley Dixon sees the report and immediately recognizes Sarah.
Cast
- Sarah Connor – Lena HeadeyLena HeadeyLena Headey is an English actress. Headey's performance in a one-off show when she was 17 caught the attention of a casting agent, who took a photo and asked her to audition and eventually she got a supporting role alongside Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke in the 1992 British drama film Waterland and...
- John ConnorJohn ConnorJohn Connor is a character appearing in the American science fiction Terminator franchise and he serves as the series main protagonist. Created by writer and director James Cameron, the character is first referred to in the 1984 film The Terminator and first appears portrayed by teenage actor...
– Thomas DekkerThomas Dekker (actor)Thomas Alexander Dekker is an American film and television actor and a musician. He is also a singer and has written and produced two albums. He is best known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nick Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Zach... - Cameron Phillips – Summer GlauSummer GlauSummer Lyn Glau is an American actress, known for playing River Tam in the science fiction series Firefly and follow-up film Serenity, and for playing Cameron in the series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.-Early life:...
- James Ellison – Richard T. JonesRichard T. JonesRichard Timothy Jones is an American film and television actor.Jones was born in Kobe, Japan and raised in Carson, California. He is the son of Lorene, a computer analyst, and Clarence Jones, a professional baseball player and the hitting instructor for the Cleveland Indians. He also has an older...
- Cromartie – Owain YeomanOwain YeomanOwain Yeoman is a Welsh actor. His credits include The Nine, Kitchen Confidential and the HBO series, Generation Kill. He currently appears as Agent Wayne Rigsby in The Mentalist.-Biography:...
- Charley Dixon – Dean WintersDean WintersDean Winters is an American actor, who has portrayed Ryan O'Reily on HBO's Oz, Johnny Gavin on FX Network's Rescue Me, and Dennis Duffy on NBC's 30 Rock...
- Michelle Dixon – Sonya WalgerSonya WalgerSonya Walger is an English actress known for her roles in the ABC series Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, and as Olivia Benford on ABC's FlashForward.-Education:...
- Deputy Ridge – Nick WechslerNick WechslerNick Wechsler is an American actor best known for his role as Kyle Valenti in the The WB teen drama series Roswell . He stars as Jack Porter on the ABC drama series Revenge.-Life and career:...
- Tarissa Dyson (Miles Dyson's Widow)– Charlayne WoodardCharlayne WoodardCharlaine "Charlayne" Woodard is an American film, stage and television actress and playwright. She has written four plays, titled Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life, which she starred in, and "Flight"....
- Wiseass – Aurora Antonio
- F.B.I. Agent – Chad Brummett
- TerminatorThe TerminatorThe Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
– Aaron Cash - Police Officer – Jason Grutter
- Mr. Ferguson – Gary Houston
- News Anchor – Deborah Martinez
- Bank Teller – Genia Michaela
- Boy – Kenneth Miller
- Big Cop – Brandon Molale
- Danny Dyson – Shawn Prince
- Miles Dyson - Phil Morris (pictures only)
Reception
Ginia Bellafante of New York Times said "One of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while, the series is taut, haunting, relevant and an exploration of adolescent exceptionalism rendered without the cheerleading uniforms and parody of HeroesHeroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
." Bellafante described Lena Headey as "all anxious muscle" and wrote "John, played by Thomas Dekker, complements Sarah's intensity with a quiet anguish." Bellafante described the episode as "a fantasy of technophobic paranoia, but it is also a metaphor for mad, crazy blood love, for motherhood not merely as an honorable career but also as salvation. Keeping John safe has required Sarah to learn four languages, work at 23 jobs, assume nine aliases and submit to years in a mental hospital."
Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
wrote "In the dregs of the writers strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
, with most dramas sputtering, the new Fox series (debuting tonight...) is a megawatt jolt to the heart, crackling with exhilarating stunts, plot swerves and, most unexpectedly, a touch of humanity. It's everything Bionic Woman
Bionic Woman (2007 TV series)
Bionic Woman is an American science fiction television drama created by David Eick, under NBC Universal Television Group, GEP Productions and David Eick Productions that aired in 2007...
should have been." Perigard wrote, "The first two episodes continuing the big-budget Terminator blockbusters present a richly reimagined life for Sarah Connor and her teenaged son John, destined one day to lead humanity's resistance fighters against relentless cybernetic enemies." Perigard said, "Fortunately for John, his future self sent back another cybernetic protector in the form of a beautiful teenager named Cameron (Summer Glau, Firefly
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
)." Perigard said, "Director David Nutter has a firm grasp on the electrifying action sequences but displays a deft touch in the smaller moments", said "[John's] longing for a father figure is palpable...", and said "Headey won't make anyone forget Linda Hamilton
Linda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
's memorable turn in the second film and her voice-overs are unconvincing. Give her time to grow into the role."
Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it.com wrote that even without the writer's strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
there was going to be a lot of pressure on the show and said "it was still going to be a costly, high-risk, big-name gambit." Fienberg wrote "My immediate reaction, after watching the first two episodes of Sarah Connor, is that the series is by no means a disaster." Fienberg said "the transition to the small screen has been as smooth as one could hope, particularly in terms of the inevitably diminished production values." Fienberg said the first two episodes lacked "the sort of single-minded purpose that defined the two James Cameron films" but said they were "neither fish nor fowl." Fienberg said the end of the pilot took "slightly ludicrous steps...to erase nearly all of the possibilities of the third movie." Fienberg said, "Ideally, the show becomes less a series of weekly chases and escapes from brutal robot slaughter and more a chronicle of how a single mother and her son attempt to live their lives when imminent death is like another member of the family." Fienberg said the show "isn't really of blockbuster scope" and "no more ambitious than, say, last spring's prematurely cancelled Drive
Drive (TV series)
Drive is a short-lived American action drama television series created by Tim Minear and Ben Queen, produced by Minear, Queen, and Greg Yaitanes, and starring Nathan Fillion, four episodes of which aired on the Fox network in April 2007...
." Fienberg said "Headey's in a tough place" due to Linda Hamilton's performance as Sarah Connor, but said "The stand-out in early episodes is Glau, showcasing the same sort of deceptively passive deadpan mixed with physical grace that fans of Firefly
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
came to love."
External links
- http://www.tv.com/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles/pilot/episode/987902/trivia.html