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Terminator Salvation

Date: Jul 29 2009

Themes: Tech

Grammar: Past Perfect Progressive

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Intro

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Even if you never saw the original Terminator movies, you probably know one of its most famous lines: “I’ll be back.” Now the Terminator series is back, but its most famous star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, isn’t. He’s too busy being the “governator” of California.

The new Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation, is set in 2018, after a nuclear explosion has wiped out most human life on earth. It stars Christian Bale as John Connor, who leads mankind in its struggle against machines that want to take over the world. Find out if Jason thinks the new Terminator movie lives up to the original series.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Marni

Jason: So what’s your take on the new Terminator?

Marni: Well, I’d been looking forward to seeing it, but then I read the reviews and I kinda heard it was terrible.

Jason: Yeah. I mean, the ending leaves a little bit to be desired. It’s a little bit too positive, a little bit rah-rah for a post-apocalyptic movie.

Marni: Alright. OK.

Jason: But it definitely has some pretty glorious moments. It’s a cool plot about this resistance to the machines that are taking over the world.

Marni: Well, I’ve seen all three, and I really liked the first one, second one was pretty good, third one…Kinda left a little bit to be desired.

Jason: The third one is way worse than the fourth one so if you…If the third one wasn’t terrible to you, the fourth one will be great.

Marni: OK. Well, I have to admit, I’ve been super curious about it. I mean, the special effects look great. You know, Arnold’s not in it, which I think is good.

Jason: There is a look-alike in it, who looks exactly like him.

Marni: Really? That’s funny.

Jason: I thought it was him at first.

Marni: They had to put that in probably, as a little plug.

Jason: Yeah, they put in all kinds of plugs, like “I’ll be back” appears in there.

Marni: Oh, nice.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Discussion

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Marni had been excited to see Terminator Salvation until she read the reviews, which weren’t positive. But Jason thinks she should give it a chance. Although he didn’t like the ending, he was impressed by the special effects and enjoyed the story about humans battling machines.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred in the first three Terminator movies, doesn’t appear in the new film. But there is someone who looks a lot like him. There are also a lot of references to the earlier films, including the line “I’ll be back,” which was Arnold’s most famous line in the original series.

There have been a lot of science fiction movies and books about machines turning against humans. Do you think something like that could ever happen? Will the Terminator movies be as good without Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Comments

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shahinahmadov

Azerbaijan

love can rescue the world not such kind of terminator or another
as a movie it is not bad

Denny500

Australia

I prefer comedy instead of this kind of movies. Watching those kind of movie can let me feel relax and it's easy to pickup some easy language.

For example, yesterday I watched The Hangover, introduced by EnglishBaby last week, and that's really funny! I hope I could have an experience like that.

sofree

China

That could ever happen or not, who care, I will not be here at that time, lol~

I'm not a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, if it's a good movie, it's ok with or without him. But I don't think any one looks alike him in the Terminator Salvation.

There's another movie, The Terminators, I downloaded it, it was definitely junk. I think it was made for the coming new Terminator, to fool people with the name.