Whilst promoting the Snyder Cut of The Justice League, Terminator 2: Judgment Day‘s Miles Bennett Dyson, Joe Morton, was interviewed by THR about his character ‘Silas Stone‘ in the much hyped DC movie when the subject of T2 arose.
The Hollywood Reporter asked:
“Silas sacrifices himself in a major way. If he didn’t mark that mother box somehow, the Justice League, and Earth by extension, would probably lose. So were you quite pleased that Silas’ sacrifice had real utility to the eventual victory?”
THR
Joe Morton said:
“I think that his self-sacrifice was the ultimate human gesture, if you will. The same thing was true in Terminator 2. When the Terminator actually sacrifices himself at the end of the film, it’s because he understands the fullness of humanity and what that means in terms of making it better for other people. And I think that’s certainly what Silas is going through in that moment.”
Joe Morton told THR
Even though Joe Morton compares the sacrifice of Silas Stone to that of the T-800 (Uncle Bob) we think Miles Dyson’s sacrifice was one of greater loss; his life’s work, the realization that he was responsible for what would come to be the end of the world as we know it, and, ultimately, the knowledge that he would never see his wife and children again.
Plus, those mother boxes are a little unpredictable, Silas Stone was disintegrated and, well, ‘if’ Zack Snyder’s Justice League continued; the character could be in some other dimension or radically changed in some way. Anything can happen these days…
The Hollywood Reporter also asked Mr. Morton about the memorable (and meme-able) Miles Dyson gasping for breath scene in T2:
THR asked:
“Dr. Miles Dyson’s last gasp is another indelible scene from Terminator 2. For the uninitiated, how did you arrive at that breathing pattern?”
THR
Joe Morton said:
“Well, we tried a couple of different things and it wasn’t working. So I told James [Cameron] that a few years earlier, I had been in a car accident where my lung had collapsed. So I told him how I was breathing. I said, ‘This guy just got shot in the chest, so I’m sure he’s breathing the same way.’ And so when I showed him, we both got excited, and that’s when he started working with the lights and so forth. So that’s where it came from.”
Joe Morton
Do you agree with Joe Morton’s comparison of Silas Stone’s sacrifice in Justice League to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘good’ T-800 from T2?
Leave a comment…
1 Comment
No, I think his character in its entirety is a homage to James Cameron’s Terminator 2.
The connection between the Snyder Cut and Terminator 2 is as follows:
Joe Morton plays Cyborg’s dad who is the same actor who is the eventual creator of Skynet in Terminator 2.
I think they cast him deliberately.
Because in both films he basically:
• Is the head scientist at a technology laboratory.
• Creates a cyborg (Justice League)/Skynet (Terminator 2) from technology he’s found, not created himself.
• Sacrifices himself in the end to help save everyone else.
I think it’s Snyder’s way of giving a friendly “nod” to James Cameron’s Terminator 2.