By Travis Maynard
Taken as a whole, it is readily apparent that Terminator the Second is a product of assemblage, as it assembles the physical materials and genre conventions of theater, the words of Shakespeare, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day into a single coherent text. Nowhere is this claim more apparent than in the script. Johnson-Eilola and Selber define assemblages as texts made primarily from other texts, but Terminator the Second goes even further, being composed entirely of other texts. Drawing from a wide array of Shakespeare’s work, the script is an assemblage of lines and phrases used to convey the plot of the film. Conceived as assemblage, the plot itself is comprised of any number of component parts drawing on at least two different sources: the Shakesperean five-act structure and individual scenes from Terminator 2, carried out through the assemblage of the script from Shakespeare. Finally, we can understand the spectacle of the play if we consider the material elements assembled to construct the viewer’s visual experience. Since assemblage attends to both the material and semiotic, we can look
at the more explicitly physical markers of meaning like costumes and props as being assemblages in themselves that work with other component parts to create the visuals of the play. When we consider actors’ bodies dressed in articles of clothing appropriate for their roles, carrying “weaponry,” and delivering lines, actors become assemblages temporarily assuming roles of “John Connor” or “Terminator.” Returning to the minigun scene, that minigun prop is also a case of assemblage. The Terminator the Second Facebook page suggests that the minigun prop is actually a modified house appliance of some sort. On April 4, 2011, the group made a post soliciting advice from amateur propmasters: “Which household tool could most easily be converted into a minigun prop?” (“Terminator the Second”). The conversion of yard appliance into weapon prop is an extreme case of assembly, as we are actually modifying physical materials to serve an incredibly different purpose in the play. Through all these examples, we see how Terminator the Second is a product of assemblage from top to bottom.