Controversy: Is Terminator plagiarism?

Controversy: Is Terminator plagiarism?

After the premiere of the latest installment of the franchise: Terminator Genisys, controversy resurfaces around the true identity of the most famous cyborg killer in cinema.

The design of the Terminator The original corresponds to the director of the first two parts of the saga, James Cameron, who was inspired – he initially maintained – by a series of nightmares after having suffered an accident that left him prostrate for a few weeks.

However, in an interview he commented that the true inspiration for the story of Terminator It emerged from a television series from the ’60s, called The Outer Limits, translated simultaneously as Heading to the Unknown and Beyond the Limit.

Now, that television series did not appear spontaneously. All episodes were based on two fantastic stories by writer Harlan Ellison (1934- ): Soldier From Tomorrow and Demon with a Glass Hand.

This confession of James Cameron served as support for a million-dollar lawsuit from Harlan Ellisonwho demanded financial compensation and recognition for his contribution in that and all future versions of the saga. Terminator.

The amount agreed in the agreement between is unknown. Harlan Ellison and Orion Pictures, but because of the novelist’s public comments, which called Terminator as “an excellent film”, everything seems to indicate that the problem was resolved satisfactorily.

However, the question remains open: is it Terminator a plagiarism?

Not at all, although the plot is quite similar to the two stories of Harlan Ellison.

In Soldier of tomorrowFor example, a soldier is sent from the future to our present to solve some problems that compromise the fate of the planet. There is no love story, much less one Sarah Connor who to protect; On the contrary, the only being who trusts the veracity of the time traveler is a modest philologist.

The demon with the glass hand tells the story of Trent, a man who has lost his recent memory. His left hand has been replaced by a robotic limb of unknown material, and he is pursued, almost blatantly, by a race of one-armed and visibly disturbed cyborgs.

Do these similarities justify the plagiarism lawsuit against the franchise? Terminator?

According to the laws of Ellison, Yeah. Finally the author’s name was added to the film’s credits.

But the controversy did not end with the first installment of Terminator.

Terminator II: Judgment Day was also accused of breaking copyright laws. This time the plaintiff was Constantinos Kourtis, who argued that the conceptual model of T-1000 was stolen from his film project: The Minotaur, which was never even made. Fortunately for Cameron, the lawsuit was dismissed by the court.

These episodes marked a trend, to the point that almost all of the movies James Cameron received at least one lawsuit for copyright infringement.

Lucien Lambert, for example, sued him after the release of True Lies, alleging that the film reflects the same plot as the French film: La Totale!.

Do you remember the drawings that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character sketches in Titanic? Well, artist Sally Mann sued the director for finding those sketches suspiciously similar to hers.

Argentines Carlos Trillo and Carlos Meglia also appealed to the courts to discuss the true origin of the Dark Angel series, according to the artists, a blatant theft from Cybersix.

Avatar was the most successful movie James Cameron, at least in the courts. He received eight different lawsuits from eight alleged victims; some of them are still in litigation.

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