1. How does cinematography and mise-en-scene construct meaning and provoke a response in a se-
quence from Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991)
In this extract, Cinematography and mise-en-scene provoke suspense to the audience by highlighting the
dangers in the scene and the power and strengths each character has. The protagonist, John Connor (John)
is trying to escape from the T-1000, who is disguised a policeman who is acknowledged as the name Pat-
rick. The Terminator, just fallen from the last battle with the T-1000 is chasing the T-1000 in attempt save
John who is trying to escape on his bike. The use of mise-en-scene has been chosen with consideration in
this extract as Cameron has used contrasting vehicles in the scene which show different abilities of the three
characters on their individual vehicles.
The scene begins with John Connor panicking to leave the arcade through the car park this raises concern
for the audience as the arcade acknowledges the audience that he is only young and only has himself to
escape. The use of the pan shot allows the audience to know how little time John has before the policeman
arrives through the door, the scene also shows John in the weaker position due to his age and lack of
knowledge of motor vehicles. The use of John using a small motor bike and not a full size one makes the
audience realise that the character is only young and defenceless when trying to run from a full grown ma-
chine. Contrasting shots of the T-1000 approaching and John desperate to escape, this builds suspense for
the audience. When the chase begins there is a cut between a eye level angle shot and a point of view shot
of John turning back, the point of view shot creates an idea of the fear and trouble John is in and wishing for
the Terminator to come back after the previ-
ous fight, due to John’s age the audience
are also wishing for John to receive help.
There are several point of view shots of
John looking and dodging the traffic which is
contrasting to the previous shots of the T-
1000 staying centre and just crashing into
cars that were in way, this makes the audi-
ence feel part of the change from both inter-
pretations to review how much danger John
is currently in. There is a wide shot of the
Terminator exiting the car park behind the car, he also leaves on a motorbike which reliefs the audience as
they have been shown through the cinematography that he is in need of rescuing. Throughout the scene so
far, the facial expression of the T-1000 has not changed which reveals how he is not humanlike or safe
through appearance, showing the audience the machine is focussed and will not back down until he kills
John.
A low angle shot of John taking a cut through from the roads, the low angle suggests that the path he has
taken is too narrow for a truck and the audience feel more safety for him. When the noise of the truck begins
to get louder the close up of John’s face zooms in to present facial expression of change of emotion, this
creates fear for the audience as we know the T-1000 is coming back and John is not safe. This follows with a
wormhole shot of the truck falling down in front of him to present how careless and irresponsible the T-1000
is, this creates irony for the audience due to the character wearing a public services uniform. Seeing the T-
1000’s out of control behavior enables the audience to see how psychotic the T-1000 is. When the truck
lands there is a tilt up camera movement to reveal that the T-1000 is not hurt and is still determined to catch
John, at this point the audience may feel frustrated as it seems nothing can stop the T-1000. The Terminator
now enters the scene and there are three separate chases happening, for the first time we see a point of
view shot from the T-1000 which may suggest that the T-1000 sees John as close, seeing the Terminator
back in the scene gives the audience hope for John.
There is a high angle shot of the Termina-
tor looking down on the truck and John,
this could give the audience a god like
idea of the character as he is watching
over John and soon to protect him. We
have a wide shot of the turning John went
down as the T-1000 follows, this shows
the audience T-1000’s lack of experience
driving as he drives left and right into the
walls as he has not yet experienced a
bend in this extract. This cuts to a close up
2. of the T-1000 in the truck stirring and showing the struggling he has controlling the vehicle, the audience are
relieved as this gives John time to escape.
The Terminator enters to scene again with a tracking out shot to show he is near. The idea of the Terminator
who is shown to be good having a gun breaks the conventions of a protagonist as usually the enemy in the
scene which is the Policeman would have a weapon to succeed. The clip cuts to a point of view shot from
the policeman, showing that the Terminator has little time to save John, the audience feels like part of the
rescue by the Terminator’s interpretation. A crane shot is used to see the Terminator ready to begin his at-
tempt to save John. As Terminator loses his position, there is a low angle of John riding his bike which may
connote that John is close to being crushed underneath the truck and is desperate for help, this raises con-
cern for the audience. There is a quick point of view cut to look as if the audience are driving the truck allow-
ing us to see that the T-1000 is about to hit an arch, this creates relief as the audience were aware that
John’s time was running out. As the truck re-
mains fine there is a close up on John’s face
as that was perhaps his last chance to es-
cape. There is a tracking in shot to present
how the policeman is using the truck to break
the bike John is using. As John is now hope-
less, it cuts to the Terminator’s position, there
is a slow motion low angle shot of him riding
off a cliff to show he is potentially more expe-
rienced than the policeman. There is a close
up of the wheels of the clips which are sway-
ing side to side to stop the Terminator passing to John. As the Terminator grabs John, his bike falls under
the truck’s lorry in a close up shot to express how close John was to death, the audience knows John is now
in safe hands. The camera pans to the gun in the Terminator’s hand, this connotes that now John is safe
with him and allows relief, as we are aware of the Terminator’s strength. The shot follows with an extreme
close up of the damaged tire to reveal to the audience that the T-1000’s chase is crumbling.
A point of view shot from the T-1000’s perspective is shown to show the danger he’s heading to as he has
little control of the truck and is approaching an arch, this creates happiness for the audience as we finally
have the realisation that John is safe. A high angle shot is used to present the final damage that has been
done to the T-1000’s truck and how he is trapped behind the arch whereas they are past which is presenting
safety. Gasoline is seen leaking from the truck in a extreme close up as it is the only relevant part of the shot
as leaking gasoline can be very dangerous. The following clip is a wide shot to review what the Terminator’s
gun shot does when coming in contact with the gasoline. An over the shoulder shot is used as John and the
Terminator are driving away to make the audience feel part of the safety that the Terminator has caused for
John, it makes the audience feel part of the scene and that we are escaping too. The final clip reveals a wide
shot of the truck exploding behind the motorbike when driving away which may connote that all the sins in
the clip have been incinerated, all suspense and tension the audience is feeling is now dropped as the an-
tagonist is gone.
Overall, Cameron uses cinematography to grab the audience into the extract by making them feel personally
involved with the scene and part of the events happening in the extract. The use of point of view shots ena-
bles suspense to be felt by the audience as we felt like we was in all the character’s perspectives which
raised tension when we was shown in the character of John in dangerous and weak moments. The camera
shots also allowed the audience to easily interpret that the Terminator was helping John, the use of the high
angles of the Terminator watching over John connoted him to look God like and watching over John and pro-
tecting him.
