N.28 | "The Terminator" (club scene breakdown: skyrocketing tension and converging storylines) plus more

JOURNAL ENTRY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: the film storytelling library

Feb 23, 2025: This journal entry is being sent while I’m out there shooting a short 10-min movie with the other students from film school. We’re shooting between Brisbane and the Gold Coast — in Queensland, Australia.

The preparation for the short film left me with very little time for this newsletter, photography, drawing and filming. But, I found the time to do a bit of everything anyway and even watch two films. I watched Ran (1985) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) — 2 times each.

FILM STORYTELLING

The Terminator (club scene breakdown: skyrocketing tension and converging storylines)

I’m studying James Cameron on Masterclass. Here’s a breakdown of the most pivotal scene from The Terminator (1984): watch 2 min 25 sec clip here.

This is the first time the three characters are together in the same room. Here’s what has happened before this point in the story:

1. The film opens with the two male characters appearing from nowhere in a ball of energy. We understand they’re both after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

2. Although we are not told who the bad guy is, the muscular guy (Arnold Schwarzenegger) kills everybody in his way. The other guy (Michael Biehn) doesn’t use violence to get what he needs.

3. On the news, Sarah Connor hears that women named like her are being killed around the city.

Now, let’s break down the club scene.

Slowly building tension about to reach its peak

We open with Sarah sitting at the table by herself. The music is pounding, which is about to become a very important storytelling element.

The Terminator walks in. The music tells us they’re in the same place. The cold-blooded killer has finally located Sarah. We feel that something big is about to happen. The tension, which has been building up until now, feels like it’s about to reach its highest peak.

As the Terminator walks in, it starts scanning the room left and right — machine-like. Notice the intercutting back and forth between the two characters, which intensifies the moment. A juxtaposition of the machine-like, cold-blooded killer vs. the innocent woman.

A long 175mm lens makes the perfect scene composition

As the Terminator is about to spot Sarah, she drops a bottle off her table. As she bends down to pick it up, we go into slow motion. This tells us to pay even more attention. The Terminator walks into the frame but doesn’t see her.

This shot is very well composed.

Director James Cameron uses a long lens here — anything between 150mm-180mm. If he had used a short wide lens, like a 18mm, the final effect would have not been the same at all.

A short wide lens would have:

1. Shown too much of the background

2. Made the waitress crossing in the foreground enormous and

3. Made the Terminator look smaller

The longer focal length allows Cameron to stack the shot and compress the space to make all elements of the right size — with the focus on the Terminator. This is the way to be selective and lead the audience’s eye by using composition, lighting and focus.

We go back to a shot of Sarah. The Terminator has passed her. The two don’t see each other.

The crowd opens and Sarah sees Reese for the first time. He’s looking at her. Sarah looks scared because she knows someone is killing women in LA named Sarah Connor.

Once again, Cameron uses a long-lens shot. This suggests that Sarah’s brain has excluded everything except this guy looking at her. She quickly looks away.

Sound design signals tension to skyrocket soon

While Sarah looks at Reese, the Terminator completes its scan of the dance floor. It turns back, and sees Sarah.

We’re still in slow motion, but there’s a change.

The music fades away to be replaced by a lower beat that starts to come in. This is a clanging, metallic and relentless sound — something that sounds like the “Terminator’s motif.”

The music from the club is almost gone at this point.

We now go into the Terminator’s POV, moving towards Sarah.

Cameron stretches this out as long as he can to really make the audience plunge in a dreadful state. The intercutting back and forth keeps increasing the tension.

Reese sees the Terminator, turns around and shoots. The Terminator goes down, then gets back up.

Short wide 18mm lens at low-angle makes the bad guy badder

When the Terminator starts shooting at the crowd, Cameron decides to use a low-angle shot from the floor. He’s using a short wide 18-mm lens. This makes the Terminator look huge and powerful.

And it makes sense now to shoot the Terminator this way.

Why?

Because this is the guy who took six 12-gauge rounds at close range and stood up like nothing happened. This is a monster that cannot be stopped.

A few seconds later, Cameron uses the same short lens with the shot below. Again, the wide short lens makes the gun (image below) much bigger.

Source: From James Cameron Teaches Filmmaking on Masterclass and the film storytelling library.

FILM STORYTELLING

2001: A Space Odyssey (low-angle (LA) makes the subject powerful)

The low-angle (LA) shot finds itself below a subject’s eyeline, looking up at them. The LA shot is typically used to make a subject look more powerful. This is perfect for heroes and villains alike.

LA shots are not confined to human subjects — although the effect is the same. For example, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the LA shot shows an ape crashing bones.

Source: From the film storytelling library.