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Banned
Since we've mentioned one Sci-Fi classic franchise I might as well wonder aloud what's going to become of The Terminator. I could honestly see it getting made without significant altering by Rumsfeldian censors.
I don't know. One of the Terminator's themes is the fear of nuclear war-although that really popped up Judgement Day.
Under Rumsfeld, the government was more or less making veiled threads to the media to tow their line. A movie about nuclear war would, in his sick mind, "threaten national security by spreading the message of surrender and weakness to the communist menace." Remember, he thought of Europe's détente along those lines.
They could still make the movie, but without the threat of nuclear war.
Perhaps the future of the ITTL Terminator is one where America has been reduced to a backwater and Soviet puppet state. The puppet leader is a barely veiled caricature of Pete McCloskey who "seduced Americans with his promise of plenty, only to show his true colors and destroy American initiative".
Kyle Reese could be a guy going back in time to prevent the election of the "future communist leader" of America (a la the Dead Zone) with a well-timed assassination, and the Terminator is sent to stop him.
Kyle Reese would, supposedly, be a "true American warrior". Lives in a nice suburban house, is a muscular white guy, spouts the usual bromides of hard work, supports "the family", disdains "parasites and bums", opposes foreign influences, and goes to church. The Terminator is supposedly an unthinking machine, but he spouts words that sound like they came from Pravda. To add even more insult to injury, the Terminator could be made to resemble Nikolai Ryzhkov.
The movie ends with Reese dying, but not before exposing the McCloskey caricature's communist ties. Reese is given an elaborate funeral, where a Rumsfeld-like President praises Reese as "a true American."
Rumsfeld's Terminator, like a lot of movies made by the Rumsfeldia-CV period, is one of those movies where you end up rooting for the bad guy, because the hero is such a bastard. While he is supposed to be an American hero, the alternate Kyle Reese just embodies the vulgarity of Rumsfeldia.