How ‘Terminator Genisys’ Made A Young Arnold Schwarzenegger Through CGI


Terminator Genisys did massively good visual effects work. Whatever you think of the movie, the fact that scenes were recreated digitally for Terminator Genisys to the point that viewers thought they were watching footage from the earlier films is an ode to the skill used to put this film together.

Bringing back the younger Arnold Schwarzenegger, the one we knew much before his political days, makes Terminator Genisys the perfect vehicle to continue his film career. Terminator Genisys benefits from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearances in other films like The Expendables and such, showing us that 67 isn’t too old to be an action star.

The Verge interviewed Terminator Genisys director Alan Taylor about the hefty effort that went into the visual effects process.

“Our visual effects people have sort of been gnashing their teeth about this, knowing if they did a really perfect job, then they would be accused of doing just exactly what you said: of lifting material. Like, the best compliment would be a lawsuit from the people that owned the rights to the original material.”

Badly-done CGI would have hurt Terminator Genisys from the beginning. It would hurt the story they are trying to tell from the legacy of the two original Terminator movies they are working from. It’s unknown if this will have quite have the impact of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but it is nonetheless a feast for those looking at the state of visual effects technology today.

There’s also the much-talked about scene where the older, current day Arnold Schwarzenegger as caretaker Terminator fights with his younger self. The scene took a lot of effort, as the crew needed a muscular body double to stand in as Schwarzenegger’s former self, and then map Schwarzenegger onto him as they fought. The difficulty is in making it all look real.

Taylor mentioned the amazing results in the completed Terminator Genisys, though they will likely be lost on the movie-viewing public.

“And the scary thing about those things is that when those shots aren’t quite there, they suck. I mean, there’s nothing worse than being that close, because it just looks like a dead-eyed zombie with fish skin. Until you cross a line where it’s actually looking human, you’re afraid you’re really going to fall on your face.”

Terminator Genisys hasn’t annihilated the box office. So far, it’s beating out opening weekend competition from Magic Mike XXL, but faces an uphill battle from earlier releases Inside Out and Jurassic World.

[Photo by Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures International]

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