Pornography Inspired by the Terminator Series
A Movie Review by Erin O'Riordan
The time-traveling, rock-‘em-sock-‘em-robot Terminator film series seems to inspire erotic filmmakers. It’s no surprise: the sex scene between Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese is a surprisingly tender, and arousing, performance in the original, mainstream 1984 film. The sex under James Cameron’s direction isn’t explicit, but the loving close-up of their intertwined fingers tells the viewer everything she needs to know about John Connor’s conception. And with the release of Terminator: Salvation, it becomes clear John Connor grows up to resemble Christian Bale, the mere sight of whom moistens panties the world over.
The 1995 film Terminatrix, directed by Mikio Hirota, is an early example of such inspired erotic filmmaking. (The original is in Japanese; an English-language version was released by Asia Pulp Cinema in 2001.) In its apocalyptic vision of the future, the world’s population has become so large, people are only allowed to have sex according to a schedule determined by a computer. A resistance movement is instigated by a young woman named Hanako…but only if a resistance fighter from the future can prevent a sexy cyborg (Kei Mizutani) with a penis-mangling vagina from rendering Hanako’s father infertile.
Terminatrix is a decidedly soft-core porn film, with plenty of excuses for the women to walk around topless and/or straddle the men. The women have beautiful natural bodies, and the early scene of a young couple’s enthusiastic romp in the back seat of a car in a parking garage leaves little to be desired. (If only they’d had a chance to finish before the Terminatrix showed up to steal the woman’s clothes.) Taking its cue from the original film, Terminatrix allows a sweet romance to bloom between Hanako’s father and the resistance fighter who traveled back in time to save him (Saeko Ichijou and Yuuki Fujisawa).
Much more sexually explicit is Penetrator 2: Grudge Day, the porn take on the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In fact, as the title may imply, this Pleasure Productions film directed by Nic Cramer is virtually wall-to-wall hetero sex. That’s because Farrah Connor (Melissa Hill), confined to a mental health hospital because no one believes her stories of an apocalyptic future in which humans are sex slaves to machines, and her teen (18, it may be presumed) daughter Dawn (Kaitlyn Ashley) are being pursued by sex machines, the Penetrators. The original make and model of Penetrator (Alberto Rey) is out to help Dawn and her mother, while the evil P-1000 (Jonathan Morgan ) is out to destroy them.
P2 works best when it sticks close to the plot of the 1991 film, as when the good android helps Dawn spring her mother from the institution. The seemingly endless scenes of hetero sex become repetitive and boring after a few minutes, though the scenes of female solo masturbation are hot. Melissa Hill gives an especially passionate exhibition of frenzied self-love. The women-only scene best skipped is the creepy encounter between a busty guard and a comatose, drugged-out Farrah Connor.
Which is the better erotic film? It depends on what the viewer is looking for. P2 is closer to the mainstream film in style, look, and hard-rock soundtrack, and also very much more sexually explicit. The guys in P2 have great bodies, but aren’t given much of interest to do with them. The actors lack chemistry, and there’s no suggestion of any real emotion in this film. Even the mother-daughter relationship is oddly emotionless, as perhaps it needs to be, since the plot requires Farrah Connor to dream about her rebel daughter’s sexual future and to be with Dawn in very intimate circumstances.
Terminatrix, on the other hand, bears little resemblance to a big-budget Hollywood production, but makes up in heart what it lacks in special effects. There is genuine chemistry between Ichijou and Fujisawa. Though director Mikio Hirota is able to take the depiction of their lovemaking further than James Cameron was able to take the sex between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, there’s the same kind of sweetness, despite the desperation of the circumstances, to rebel leader Hanako’s conception.
Terminatrix is available for rent from Netflix, while viewers can add Penetrator 2 to their DVD Avenue queues.
Originally published September 2009