‘Terminator Genysis’ Event Came To NYC

With the summer beginning in a few days, the action thrillers we all love to watch during the hot months of the year are starting to kick off. What better way to begin the summer in the big screen then with a classic saga like “Terminator.” Paramount Pictures were kind enough to invite us to a fantastic promotional event, held in NYC, for the new chapter in the franchise called, “Terminator Genisys” in one of the biggest block parties I have ever seen in New York City.

Paramount Pictures had an amazing high-tech booth with a giant screen inside that, once you walked in turned you, the average Joe, into the newest form of combat soldier the world has ever seen. It turned you into Skynets’s most powerful terminator, the T-1000.

I was lucky enough that I was allowed in the booth, because the lines were long. Once you entered, you saw yourself in the screen and suddenly your image turns into liquid metal, your arms are huge knifes and you are as powerful looking as you could imagine. The screen was interactive so after they turn you into the T-1000, a little target practice comes into play. Meanwhile everything is being recorded. It was quick and easy, about 30 seconds in and out of the booth, but the best part is that once you’re out, they email you the video. Making a long lasting impression of the event, and the movie on everyone’s mind. Even those who did not get to go saw the people who did and it made them aware of the movie. It was something so cool that people couldn’t wait to get to a theater to see the film.

It was fantastic promotional service and the best part of it all, was that it was free for the public. All the people had to go to become a T-1000 was wait in line. But while I was standing looking at the different transformations and mingling, I noticed something different.

See, the “Terminator” franchise started 31 years ago and it has had an incredible following since then. That following grows with every “Terminator” film that is released. So, while I was looking at the line, besides the kid’s excitement, I noticed parents and older fellows griming almost as much as their kids were. I realized that this experience is as much part of them as it is the children’s, simply because they have grown up with this saga of futuristic robots and the story on John Connor’s survival. The more I paid attention to this, the more I heard them speak of the films, about what they expect and wondering how will the story line continue. It became so interesting to me that I joined a conversation with a couple of parents that were waiting in line and one of them, Hugh Romberg, said something that to me might be the best quote about the “Terminator” films. He explained “Terminator has become the ultimate guy soap opera. There is action, drama and there is a hero, guys end up falling in love with Arnold’s character and the struggle of John Connor’s survival, we love them, we root for them always.” He added with a smile “Or else none of us would be waiting in this ridiculously long line.”

Paramount connected several generations of “Terminator” fans all at once. Those that have been following them since the first one in 1984 and fell in love with the idea of a futuristic robot living among us in a time when technology was not so advanced. To those fans that grew up on technology, like millennials who have a different perspective or a better understanding of what futuristic machinery would look like, or be capable of doing. I particularly will be at the theater July 1^st to watch “Terminator Genisys” and what Skynet has in store for us.