MovieChat Forums > The Terminator (1984) Discussion > John's message makes no sense

John's message makes no sense


I am sure we have all felt the frustrations of AVGN, when he plays a game where every NPC gives completely useless non-information, but when useful information appears, you can accidentally click it away and never see it again. Yet, you have to see 'Vanquish this horrible night' like 8 zillion times.

When Reese mentions he memorized a message from John to give to John's mom, the audience can expect something useful, something amazing, something heart-felt, something interesting and futuristic. Instead, we get the NPC 'What a horrible night'-type message, with NO useful content whatsoever. Nothing heartfelt, like 'I miss you, mom' or anything. Nothing compassionate, caring, not even a *hug* emote (hey, it's the future, they should have emotes, emojis, smileys, etc).

What was John thinking when composing that message? What was Reese thinking when simply memorizing it instead of, maybe, giving him some good ideas? "Oh, you want to give the saviour of the future a completel cold, robotic, useless, informationless message, gotcha! I will be HAPPY to memorize THAT!"

What kind of sense does it make?

How about AT LEAST inform Sarah to NEVER USE THE PHONE in this situation? Why can't Reese tell her that at least, or unplug the hotel phone or just.. SOMEthing? Sarah knows what happened, she taped it so John can know it, so then John could tell Reese.. but she doesn't say anything about the phones, even though THAT DETAIL caused so much danger, havoc and the death of Reese?

WHAT kind of 'mother of the future' is this, when she doesn't even want to save her 'beloved' Reese that she supposedly 'loved a lifetime's worth'? WHAT KIND OF SENSE DOES THAT MAKE?!

Information and time travel... somehow moviemakers can't connect those two dots. When you have information, you can change future and even the past, if someone from the future is going to travel (and also, did) to the past. But nope, let's DISCARD all that and just shoot a lot and have huge explosions. Sigh.

How about telling something touching to your gosh-darned mother in that message, something intimate and loving? How about telling something useful in that message, like 'this is what you do so the terminator can never find you'? HOW ABOUT TELLING EVERYONE TO TELL SARAH TO NEVER TOUCH A PHONE BECAUSE THE TERMINATOR CAN MIMIC VOICES AND HAS SARAH'S ADDRESS/PHONE NOTEBOOK? (or whatever it's called)

I can't believe how little of this movie makes sense, but this 'message' part is the stupidest part, because SO MUCH could have been said (even with just few words), SO much could have been saved, but nothing useful is said or given.

I also don't get why Reese himself doesn't MAKE SURE Sarah can never, ever be alone with a functional telephone, and lecture her from the start to never, ever pick up a phone at all whatsoever until the danger is gone. Why doesn't Reese even mention the phones, why? I can't fathom the reason. He has EVERY motivation to do so, and yet he doesn't.

It's like EVERY single character in this movie is irretrievably STUPID. John is stupid for making Reese memorize a useless and emotionless, robotic NPC message, Reese is an idiot for memorizing it without adding his own touch or editing it to something more useful and more 'human', and Sarah is a complete and utter moron for not making sure she gives useful information to John in those tapes so John can give that info to Reese so past Sarah can then realize to NEVER PICK UP A RECEIVER! (Yes, that's what it's called)

What kind of point is there to say '..or I will never exist', as if Sarah has some kind of reason to fear the non-existence of someone she has never even met?

Wouldn't it be better to say '..or the world will become a hopeless hellscape nightmare for all, and all humanity will be completely destroyed'? Wouldn't SOMETHING like that have been more impactful and important than 'or I will never exist'? HOW SELFISH is it for him to say something like that? He's certainly from the 'future', considering how selfish people are nowadays but come on, this is ridiculous..

In any case, this message makes no sense. It's not convincing, it doesn't utilize hypnosis/suggestions at all, it doesn't contain useful information, it doesn't have heart or soul or humanity, it's a cold, robotic, selfish 'please make me exist, you dumb bimbo', and nothing else.

What the heck were they thinking? Who thought this message was the best one that could be sent to Sarah? I don't even care if we're talking about the actual writer of that message or the fictional characters in the movie, it's a ridiculously stupid, cold message to send, and I am convinced NOTHING would change if that message didn't exist.

But a LOT could change if the message contained even a TINY bit of useful of heartfelt information, as in 'Mom, PLEASE don't touch any telephone while the Terminator is active, as it can MIMIC voices'.

Even Reese doesn't tell Sarah that it's capable of that trick, so Sarah could AT LEAST figure it out..

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NOOOO!
Go back to the matrix you pointless bot from hell

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