Cameron (Terminator)

Cameron Phillips
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles character
File:Cameron phillips s1 promo.jpg
First appearance	Pilot episode
Created by	Josh Friedman
Portrayed by	Summer Glau
In-universe information
Alias	Cameron Baum Cameron Phillips
Species	Cyborg
Manufacturer	Skynet
Class	TOK715
Model	Unknown

Cameron Phillips is a fictional character portrayed by actress Summer Glau on the American science fiction television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which premiered on FOX in January 2008 as a spin-off of the Terminator film franchise. Cameron first appeared in the series' pilot episode as an unknown model of Terminator, a fictional type of cyborg. She is from the apocalyptic future described in the timeline of the Terminator universe, in which a computer system, Skynet, wages war against the human race and a rebellion lead by John Connor.

In the pilot, Cameron is sent from her time to 1999 to protect John and bring him and his mother, Sarah, to 2007 to stop Skynet's creation and keep John safe from malevolent Terminators, sent back to kill him in the past. As the series progresses, Cameron's role as a benign protector, much like that of Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters in the second and third Terminator films, becomes evident as she engages in many physical confrontations with antagonistic characters.

Whilst developing the character, Josh Friedman drew heavily from the ideas of franchise creator James Cameron, after whom Friedman's character is named. Summer Glau was cast for the part in February 2007. It was not until a month later, however, that co-star Lena Headey, who portrays Sarah Connor, revealed Glau's role. Friedman has confirmed that Glau will return as Cameron for season two, despite the character's fate being left a mystery after being caught in an explosion in the first season finale.

Character concept

Creation and development

"Terminators—and this is from [James] Cameron's vision of the mythology—are actually infiltrators. If that is the case, then what better infiltrator than a beautiful, petite teenage girl?"

James Middleton, Consulting Producer

Josh Friedman referenced franchise creator James Cameron's original concept for Terminators as he formulated ideas for the character. James Cameron envisioned Terminators as robotic, humanoid infiltration units "that could blend in with humanity." In keeping with this idea, Friedman introduced Cameron as the most advanced model of Terminator whose ascendency over other models was defined by her ability to mimic human behavior. The decision to make the character teenaged, female and of a small physical stature was also influenced by the original Terminator character concept; Friedman believed that such attributes were ideal for an infiltrator. Another factor that prompted Friedman to characterize Cameron as an adolescent female stemmed from the desire to add a "coming-of-age" aspect to the narrative by incorporating the story of how John Connor becomes a man. He has stated "eventually, [John] has to let go of his mother. [This] requires a third leverage point... another girl." The decision of Cameron's age and gender were, therefore, also made to satisfy the conditions that the role of the "third leverage point" entailed.

Cameron has been written differently from the pilot episode to the series, with the character behaving more human in the former and more mechanic in the latter. Both Friedman and Glau have confirmed that this behavioral shift was a conscious decision. In a February 2008 conference call, Glau stated "We were experimenting with Cameron quite a bit... In the pilot, [she does] act very human. And then as [she goes] through the series, it appears that [she's] taken steps back and that [she is] acting more like a Terminator would. We did that for several reasons..." Friedman stated in an interview with IGN that he views the pilot, in which Cameron acts "very mannered and strange," as a learning process and that when he began writing the second episode, he became interested in exploring a new side of the character. He continued to say that Cameron's behavior may seem inconsistent to a viewer, but that this inconsistency may be operative in the completion of her tasks.

Casting and portrayal

Four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Josh Friedman had developed another pilot for which he wanted to cast Summer Glau; she, however, was already committed to Serenity. Despite this, Friedman "always kept her in mind" and as the pilot for The Sarah Connor Chronicles was being cast for, she was called in to audition. Glau did not plan on auditioning, however, because she had a pre-concieved idea that the the producers wanted "statuesque, icy blondes" for the role and felt that she did not suit such an image. After recieving encouragement from her mother, Glau agreed to try out; she was further encouraged upon the realization that Josh Friedman had a different idea for how Terminators would be portrayed on the show. The ability of the character to act human is presented in the scene Friedman wrote for the audition, which involved a crying Cameron discussing with John the future in which she meets him, how he saves her life and "how [she] feels about [him], even though [she] doesn't 'feel.'" The audition continued with Friedman and the other producers watching Glau's fight scenes from her previous work on the television series Firefly and Serenity. Glau was cast with Friedman feeling that "there was really no second choice. [Cameron was] basically written for her."

Glau attempts to play Cameron with a balance of human and robotic characteristics. She has stated that because Cameron can merely feign emotion, she wants the audience to "realize that [Cameron's] a robot, but... [also] to stop every once in a while and think 'Oh my Gosh, it seems there's something more going on behind her eyes than just math.'" These robotic characteristics, however, become dominant during action sequences in which Glau must remind herself to not react humanly by doing such things as pushing her hair out of her face. In preparing for these sequences, stunt coordinator Joel Cramer trained Glau in the use of firearms and to fight with brute force, rather than with martial arts as Glau had used in her role as River Tam on Firefly.

Characteristics

File:ImageCameron chip.jpg.jpg

Cameron eats a chip.

According to a FOX promotional poster, Cameron's class is TOK715. No model number has been mentioned yet.

The only thing known about her model is that she has the ability to mimic human emotions and behaviors far better than her predecessors. In the pilot, Cameron eats a corn chip, marking the first time a Terminator unit has eaten food on-screen, and in "The Demon Hand" she eats a piece of a pancake. It is also shown that her head-up display has full color and green tinted sections, instead of the all red or blue "Termovision" screens from other models.

In a flashback, Cameron is seen moving freely inside John Connor's headquarters in 2027, and destroys another reprogrammed Terminator that "went bad."

In the second episode, "Gnothi Seauton", the Terminator sent to kill the resistance fighters living in 2007 scans Cameron during a fight. He is unable to identify her model, reading her only as an "unknown cyborg." In the sixth episode, however, Derek Reese recognizes Cameron on sight as a Skynet Terminator, both in the past and in the future.

Cameron is shown analyzing biomarkers in humans by touching them, but claims that she is unable to perform complex scans, such as a CAT scan.

In the initial episodes of the series, Sarah Connor is shown trying to teach Cameron to value human life, after Cameron shoots down a contact on the possibility (later proven correct) that he might have given away Sarah and John's presence in 2007. She is currently attending high school with John, pretending to be his sister. On their first day at a new school, she repeatedly sets off the school's metal detector; John claims that she has a metal plate in her head to get her past the school's security guards. One of the guards uses a hand held metal detector near her head and then lets them proceed. John informs Sarah Connor that "she's gonna need a note" after they return from school.

Although Cameron was capable of pretending to be a human when approaching John in the pilot episode, befriending John and even flirting, she no longer displays this behavior. Since Cromartie's attack on John in the pilot episode, she has remained relatively emotionless and has thus far proved to have poor social skills when she and John return to school in the third episode. This regression of abilities has yet to be explained, but she has been shown mimicking the behavior of others, such as the Latina lookout from the second episode, providing a baseline for her current behavior. This is also shown in the fifth episode when she impersonates the voice of a distressed student she met just prior to the girl committing suicide. When John comments on the differences between her behavior at different points, she replies, "Fooled you." At times she also displays awkward humor, such as in the fifth episode when she and John are entering a vehicle driven by Sarah. John, wanting to ride in the front passenger seat, calls out "I call shotgun," to which Cameron responds, "I call nine-millimeter." In the episode "The Demon Hand," despite both Sarah and Derek's insistence that she is only a soulless machine, Cameron is shown performing a complex ballet dance.

Unexplained behavior

On the surface, Cameron's role ostensibly parallels that of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Terminator 2: Judgment Day : she is a reprogrammed cyborg assassin sent back through time to protect John Connor. As the series has progressed, however, she has developed into an enigmatic and inscrutable character, showing unusual behavior. For example, near the end of the fourth episode, Cameron rolls a truck filled with coltan off a cliff to prevent Skynet from ever using the stockpile to construct Terminators. However, at the end of the episode, during Sarah's monologue, it is revealed that Cameron saved one bar of coltan.

In the fifth episode, Cameron learns from John that humans write letters to express grief that spoken words can not fully articulate. Later, as Derek Reese is lying on the kitchen table, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound, Cameron decides at that moment to sit and begin writing a letter.

In "Dungeons & Dragons", Derek displays extreme hostility and mistrust of Cameron. He continuously calls her a "liar" earlier in the episode while he is still in shock from his injuries. In a flashback, the episode reveals that Derek encountered Cameron in his original time. Derek recognizes Cameron and nearly shoots her before a fellow resistance fighter explains how John Connor has reprogrammed some of the Terminators. Later, a different model Terminator goes on a killing spree before Cameron destroys it. Cameron explains that "sometimes they go bad; no-one knows why."

At the end of "The Demon Hand" Derek observes Cameron practicing ballet, alone. Sarah Connor's ending monologue overlays the dance scene, with Sarah explaining, as Cameron dances, that the machines cannot appreciate beauty or create art, and if they could, "they won't have to destroy us. They'll be us." Cameron's choice of music for this dance, Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor, is the same as that played in the basement of the prison where Derek was held in "Dungeons & Dragons."

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Terminator (character concept)