{"id":269,"date":"2009-04-30T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/human-vs-machine-spirit-vs-body\/"},"modified":"2009-04-30T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T20:27:00","slug":"human-vs-machine-spirit-vs-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/human-vs-machine-spirit-vs-body.html","title":{"rendered":"Human vs. machine = spirit vs. body?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
John Connor has an interesting line in the newest TV spot<\/a> for Terminator Salvation<\/a><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Victory lies in the soul of the human spirit, not in the hands of the machines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A phrase like \u201cthe soul of the human spirit\u201d sounds a little redundant at first, but when you hear it contrasted with \u201cthe hands of the machines\u201d, it sounds more emphatic than anything else \u2014 and its meaning seems clear enough. As far as John Connor is concerned, machines are defined entirely by their physicality, their material qualities, their bodies<\/i>, but humans are defined by something more invisible, something more intangible, something more spiritual<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, this isn\u2019t the first time John Connor has referred to the \u201chands\u201d of his opponents. In a trailer<\/a> that was released late last year, John Connor remarks, \u201cThe devil\u2019s hands have been busy,\u201d and then proceeds to say some not-very-friendly things to a man who may or may not be a Terminator.<\/p>\n

Is the man in question really<\/i> a Terminator? John Connor certainly seems to think so, at least in that scene. But other trailers<\/a> released since then have indicated that this man might be something else, either a human-machine hybrid or a machine that has achieved an unprecedented degree of consciousness, such that he is now virtually indistinguishable from a human being.<\/p>\n

Either way, it seems John Connor may have to rethink the sharp line he has drawn between \u201chuman\u201d and \u201cmachine\u201d in this film.<\/p>\n

Note, also, that this TV spot goes on to include a line from Kyle Reese, spoken as he points to his head and then, presumably, to his chest, just below the frame:<\/p>\n

Stay alive, in here [head<\/i>] and in here [chest<\/i>].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once again, the trailer suggests that true \u201clife\u201d is not simply to be found in the body; it is not simply a matter of keeping all the physical parts working. Instead, it is to be found in something more intangible, tethered though it may be to the body: in this case, the mind and the heart.<\/p>\n

But who is Kyle talking to in that clip? John Connor? One of the other human resistance fighters? Or is it possible that he is speaking to the mechanical man? If so, does Kyle know the man is at least partly mechanical when he says this line? What does Kyle<\/i> believe about the human-machine dichotomy in general, and about how it might apply to this man in particular?<\/p>\n

I guess we\u2019ll learn the answers to at least some of those questions in three weeks. In the meantime, the trailers have certainly given us a fair bit to chew on.<\/p>\n

And for what it\u2019s worth, I can\u2019t resist noting the irony that almost all of the humans depicted in this film will probably be played by actual people who were physically present in front of the camera, while many of the machines will be digital creations that exist only in the minds of the computers that generated those images.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Connor has an interesting line in the newest TV spot for Terminator Salvation: Victory lies in the soul of the human spirit, not in the hands of the machines. A phrase like \u201cthe soul of the human spirit\u201d sounds a little redundant at first, but when you hear it contrasted with \u201cthe hands of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHuman vs. machine = spirit vs. body?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Connor has an interesting line in the newest TV spot for Terminator Salvation:Victory lies in the soul of the human spirit, not in the hands of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/human-vs-machine-spirit-vs-body.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human vs. machine = spirit vs. body?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Connor has an interesting line in the newest TV spot for Terminator Salvation:Victory lies in the soul of the human spirit, not in the hands of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/human-vs-machine-spirit-vs-body.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-30T20:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SfputnHVhoI\/AAAAAAAADEg\/7NQ-0Glaxm0\/s400\/terminator4-johnconnor-radio.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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