Both Terminator (1984) and Star Wars (1977) pit a ragtag rebellion against a more organized and technologically sophisticated foe. If, as John Beard argues, science fiction futures are always projections of present-day anxieties, what might these films suggest about audiences’ attitudes toward technology in the waning years of the Cold War?
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(Continued). In sum, the fact that these movies have a more optimistic outlook on future’s in which technology has destroyed humanity, suggests that audience’s themselves were more optimistic that they could adapt to such technologies.
Beard notes that science fiction movies of the eighties advanced a more negotiative message with the present day fears of technology. Despite their horrific post apocalyptic depictions, these movies showed that human kind would be able to adapt to the threats of technology, that would ultimately be humanity’s undoing. Star Wars and The Terminator, both reflect this “optimism” in the sense that they demonstrate through the resistance/rebellion that technology can be overcome by scrappiness and persistence. In this way, the present day fears of technology could be consoled. Additionally, the post apocalyptic depictions within The Terminator teem with hints of humanity’s rebirth, as Beard notes. The use of fire throughout these sets as well as the pops, cracks, and crashes are indicative of humanity struggling to come back to life, thus furthering these movies’ optimistic outlooks on the future. Beard further explains that these movies also served to recognize people’s fears of technology in the present, and in doing so helped them cope. Both movies show how technology has become too powerful and destructive (a common fear in the eighties) through the depictions of the Empire and Skynet. Thus, these films recognize and reaffirm audience’s fears of what could happen because of technology and make the audience feel a sense of satisfaction by having their fears confirmed.
Those movies reminded the people of the enormous power to destroy the people on the planet. Despite the period period of détene, and the improvement of communication between the USSR and the USA (which deteriorated after the during the first presidency of Ronald Reagan), the nuclear weapons still existed. The government was trying to make its population feel like it is the technology, which protects the people, while it was the technology, which had the power to destroy everything. In Star Wars, this kind of technology is potrayed by the death star, in Terminator, the destruction of the known world happens due to the nuclear weapons themselves. Furthermore, the techonology that was supposed to protect the Americans turns against them after the war is over. Those movies seem to stress the danger of abuse of those technologies. Therefore, the attitudes of the people were mainly focused on disarmament of the nuclear weapons.