Playback / Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day · 1991
Get Down
A second and a half of screen time stretched out until you can read every part of it.
Watch for
- The switch to slow motion and how much longer the moment takes than it would in life.
- How the stretched time lets you read three positions at once — boy, protector, threat.
- The return to normal speed, and how abrupt it feels.
A worked reading · COCA
CContention
Cameron manipulates screen time so that an instant of action becomes long enough for the audience to understand it.
OObservation
As John is caught between two approaching figures and told to get down, the sequence drops into slow motion, holding the moment far longer than its real duration before snapping back to normal speed.
CConnotation
Expanding the moment codes it as decisive, and gives the audience time to grasp a spatial situation that at real speed would pass unread.
AAudience
We are made to feel the significance of a split second, and are handed the information needed to follow the action that follows.
Your turn
- How long would this moment take in real life? How long does it take on screen?
- What does the slow motion let you notice that you would otherwise miss?
- When does the film return to normal speed, and why there?
For teachers
Short, famous and completely clear on structuring of time. Pairs directly with The Green Knight bones shot — one stretches a second, the other compresses years.
