Movie Treatment: Terminator: Van Tech
Directed by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Written by: Joseph C. Jukic
Starring: Ned Jukic and Paulo Almeida
The Vision
Under the direction of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film moves away from CGI spectacle and returns to the “Heavy Metal” horror roots of the 1984 original. Schwarzenegger utilizes practical effects, massive sets, and slow-build tension. The script by Joseph C. Jukic focuses on the psychological toll of being hunted by “The Absolute Unit”—a terrifyingly muscular, unstoppable force that represents Skynet’s peak physical evolution.
The Protagonist: John Connor (Ned Jukic)
Ned Jukic portrays a young John Connor with a gritty, street-smart edge. He isn’t a superhero; he’s a kid who knows how to hotwire a bike and hack a mainframe. His survival instinct is the only thing keeping him alive as he navigates the halls of Van Tech.
The Antagonist: The T-Omega (Paulo Almeida)
Skynet’s ultimate creation. Paulo Almeida leads the armada as the T-Omega. He is a 300-pound mass of hyper-dense combat chassis covered in flawless organic muscle. Unlike the rank-and-file Terminators, Almeida’s leader is eerily calm, possessing a predatory intelligence. When he walks, the floorboards of the school groan under his sheer mass. He doesn’t carry a weapon because he is the weapon.
The Narrative Arc
Act I: The Breach The film opens with a haunting, silent sequence in the Van Tech parking lot. Thirteen lightning arcs strike simultaneously. Out of the smoke, thirteen massive figures emerge. Paulo Almeida stands at the center. They don’t speak. They don’t look for clothes. They simply march toward the main entrance in a terrifying, synchronized phalanx.
Inside, John Connor (Ned Jukic) is in the gym. He feels the rhythmic thud of their footsteps before he sees them. The school’s reinforced doors are torn off their hinges like paper.
Act II: The Hunt Joseph C. Jukic’s script shines in the cat-and-mouse sequences. The Armada splits up to seal every exit. Schwarzenegger directs these scenes like a slasher film—the Beast Terminators move through the narrow locker-lined hallways, their massive frames nearly touching both walls.
Ned Jukic uses the school’s unique layout—the basement boiler rooms and the “Tech” wings—to set traps. In a standout sequence, John uses a pressurized steam pipe to blind one of the behemoths, but Almeida’s T-Omega simply walks through the scalding heat, unfazed, his eyes glowing a dim, menacing red through the vapor.
Act III: The Heavy Metal Climax The final confrontation takes place in the Van Tech Power Plant. John is cornered by Almeida and the remaining survivors of the armada. Schwarzenegger’s direction emphasizes the scale difference—Ned Jukic’s lean agility versus Almeida’s overwhelming power.
The finale involves John utilizing a massive industrial electromagnetic crane. As the T-Omega (Almeida) lunges for the kill, John activates the magnet, pinning the titan against a steel beam. The film ends with a visceral, practical-effects showdown where John must use a thermite charge to finish what the magnet started.
Director & Writer Style
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (Director): Focuses on “The Weight.” Every punch feels like a car crash. He utilizes low-angle shots to make Paulo Almeida look like a mountain of unstoppable flesh.
- Joseph C. Jukic (Writer): Infuses the dialogue with high-stakes tension and a “Vancouver-tough” attitude. The script emphasizes John’s ingenuity and the terrifying realization that Skynet has stopped trying to hide and has started trying to conquer.
SCENE START
INT. VAN TECH – BOILER ROOM – NIGHT
The room is a nightmare of hissing steam and groaning iron. Huge, soot-stained boilers loom like ancient monuments.
NED JUKIC (16, intense, grease-streaked face) slides behind a massive pressure tank. He’s clutching a ruggedized laptop and a detonator wired to a lead-lined SUITCASE.
Heavy, rhythmic THUDDING vibrates the floor. The metal door to the boiler room is punched off its hinges. It doesn’t fly; it crumpled under the sheer weight of the force behind it.
PAULO ALMEIDA (The T-Omega) steps through the steam. He is a mountain of hyper-defined muscle, skin glistening with condensation. He doesn’t look around; he scans. His eyes catch the flicker of Ned’s shadow.
ALMEIDA (Voice like grinding stones) The search ends here, John.
Ned pops up from behind the tank, smirking despite the terror.
NED Search? I thought you guys were just looking for the weight room. You’re a long way from Gold’s Gym, Paulo.
Almeida lunges. The speed is impossible for his size. He swats a steel support beam out of his way, snapping it like a toothpick. Ned dives through a narrow gap between two boilers.
NED (Into a headset) Joey! Tell me the extraction is hot! We can’t hold them in the city!
INTERCUT – JOEY JUKIC (VAN TECH COMMS HUB) Joey is surrounded by glowing CRTs, typing furiously.
JOEY The cargo plane is idling at YVR, Ned! But you’ve got twelve more of those freaks converging on your floor. If you’re going to lure them to the Levant, you gotta move NOW!
BACK TO BOILER ROOM
Almeida grabs a massive steam pipe and rips it free, using it like a club. He swings, smashing the brickwork inches from Ned’s head. Ned slides under a crawlspace, dragging the suitcase.
NED (Gritting teeth) I’m leading them to the port. We’re taking the fight to Beirut.
Ned kicks a release valve. A wall of 300°C steam blasts directly into Almeida’s chest. The Terminator doesn’t flinch, though the skin on his chest blisters to reveal the dull, matte-grey chassis beneath.
Almeida reaches into the steam and hauls Ned out by his jacket. He lifts him off the ground with one hand.
ALMEIDA Beirut will be your tomb.
NED (Coughing, grinning) No… it’s gonna be yours. I packed a little something extra for the trip.
Ned slams a heavy industrial wrench into the Terminator’s hydraulic neck joint. The distraction is enough. Ned slips out of his jacket, leaving Almeida holding the empty denim, and sprints toward the coal chute leading to the loading docks.
EXT. MEDITERRANEAN COAST – BEIRUT – DAWN (FLASH FORWARD)
The thirteen Beast Terminators, Almeida in the lead, march across the ruins of the port, cornering Ned against the sea.
Ned looks at his watch. He looks at the SUITCASE at his feet.
NED Welcome to the finish line.
He hits the switch.
FADE TO WHITE.
THE SCREEN READS:
THEY STARTED IN VANCOUVER. IT ENDS IN BEIRUT.
SCENE START
EXT. BEIRUT PORT – DAWN
The air is thick with the smell of salt and decay. The ruined concrete of the port juts into the choppy grey waters of the Mediterranean. Ships lie half-sunken, skeletal cranes lean precariously.
NED JUKIC (16, battered, bleeding from a dozen cuts, but eyes sharp as ever) stands alone on a cracked asphalt road, the vast expanse of the sea behind him. He clutches a beat-up leather SUITCASE, its surface scratched and grimy.
He looks utterly exhausted, but a grim, almost defiant smirk plays on his lips.
Ahead, marching with relentless, heavy strides, are the SEVEN REMAINING BEAST TERMINATORS. They are damaged but functional—one missing an arm, another with a shattered leg dragging behind it, sparks flying. In the lead, PAULO ALMEIDA (The T-Omega) is a terrifying sight, his organic skin almost entirely burned away to reveal raw, matte-grey endoskeleton beneath, glowing red eyes burning with singular purpose.
The other Terminators spread out, forming a semicircle, cutting off any escape. Almeida stops directly in front of Ned, maybe twenty feet away.
ALMEIDA (Voice a raw, distorted growl, almost entirely metallic now) This ends, John Connor. There is no escape.
Ned lets out a short, hollow laugh.
NED Escape? Paulo, you think I dragged you freaks halfway across the planet just to escape?
He gestures vaguely at the ruined cityscape.
NED This is your final destination. Consider it a… retirement package.
Almeida takes another heavy step forward. The ground trembles.
ALMEIDA Your resistance is… futile.
Ned slowly kneels, placing the suitcase carefully on the cracked asphalt between them. He runs a gloved hand over its surface, then looks up at Almeida, his eyes glinting.
NED Yeah, I figured you’d say that. But you know what’s really futile? Trying to kill the future, with a present that’s already dead.
He looks down at the suitcase. It’s a heavy, lead-lined military-grade container, with a complex, blinking keypad on top.
NED This isn’t some Van Tech science project, big guy. This is a little souvenir from the Cold War. Courtesy of a very… interested party. Let’s just say they had a lot of ‘dirty’ laundry to get rid of.
Almeida’s glowing eyes narrow. The other Terminators halt their advance, their internal sensors likely picking up something unusual.
ALMEIDA You do not possess… such a device.
NED Oh, I possess it alright. The trick wasn’t getting it. The trick was getting you here. Skynet always sends you after me, right? Always gotta get the leader. Well, congratulations. You found him. And I found you.
Ned’s fingers fly across the keypad. Beeps and clicks fill the sudden, tense silence.
NED The funny thing about these old models, Paulo. They’re built to last. And they’re built to… clean house. No radiation sensors in your new organic tissue, I bet. Skynet got too clever for its own good. Thought it could hide the metal under meat.
He presses the final button. A small, red light on the suitcase begins to pulse.
ALMEIDA (A flicker of something that could almost be alarm in his voice) What… have you done?
NED (Standing up slowly, a tear streaking through the grime on his face, but his gaze fixed on Almeida) I ended it. All of it. For good. They started in Vancouver…
He raises his voice, yelling over the sudden, piercing WHINE emanating from the suitcase.
NED …IT ENDS IN BEIRUT!
The red light on the suitcase pulses faster, brighter. A deep, resonant HUM builds in the air, vibrating the very ground.
Almeida takes a desperate, heavy step forward, his hand beginning to lift, a final, futile attempt to stop him. The other Terminators, though damaged, also begin to surge.
Ned closes his eyes, a single, sharp intake of breath.
FADE TO WHITE.
A blinding, overwhelming FLASH of light engulfs the entire screen.
A deafening ROAR, followed by a shockwave that seems to rip through the very fabric of existence.
EXT. BEIRUT COASTLINE – MOMENTS LATER – WIDE SHOT
A massive, incandescent FIREBALL mushrooms violently over the Beirut port, rising with terrifying speed. A mushroom cloud begins to form, boiling and expanding, dwarfing the ruined city.
The sound is a rolling thunder, echoing across the sea.
Silence.
Only the sound of distant waves, and the crackle of residual energy in the air.
SCENE END
SCENE START
EXT. BEIRUT PORT – CONTINUOUS
https://nedjukic.website/
The red light on the suitcase is a blurred heartbeat. The WHINE has reached a frequency that shatters nearby glass.
The T-Omega (ALMEIDA) is five feet away, his massive hand outstretched like a claw.
NED (Whispering) Checkmate, you overgrown toaster.
Ned doesn’t run. He doesn’t flinch. He reaches behind his heel and grabs a heavy, recessed TITANIUM RING embedded in the concrete.
With a guttural yell, he heaves. A heavy, three-inch-thick TITANIUM PLUG—a custom-engineered “fox hole” lid—swings upward.
Almeida lunges, his fingers grazing Ned’s collar.
Ned drops. It’s a six-foot vertical plunge into a lead-lined, reinforced titanium cylinder bored deep into the bedrock of the port.
INT. THE FOX HOLE – CONTINUOUS
Ned hits the bottom hard. He reaches up and grabs the internal handle.
NED (To himself) Metal Shop 101. Always reinforce your joints.
He slams the lid shut. CLANG. Four heavy hydraulic bolts fire automatically, sealing the chamber airtight.
EXT. BEIRUT PORT – MOMENTS LATER
Almeida stands over the sealed titanium circle. He punches the metal, leaving a massive dent, but the titanium holds. He looks at the suitcase.
The countdown hits 00:00.
FADE TO WHITE.
The suitcase nuke detonates with the force of ten thousand tons of TNT. A localized, high-intensity thermal pulse vaporizes the salt air.
The thirteen Beast Terminators are caught in the epicenter. We see the “organic muscle” on Almeida’s frame turn to ash in a microsecond. The reinforced endoskeletons glow white-hot, then soften, their combat chassis liquefying under the 100-million-degree plasma.
The shockwave hits. The concrete of the port is pulverized into dust. The mushroom cloud towers over the Mediterranean.
INT. THE FOX HOLE – MOMENTS LATER
The world is screaming. The titanium cylinder vibrates with such violence that Ned is tossed around like a ragdoll. The temperature inside spikes, the lead lining beginning to sweat.
Ned covers his ears, screaming as the roar of the apocalypse passes over him.
Then… SILENCE.
Absolute, crushing silence.
Ned waits. His breathing is ragged in the tiny, dark space. He checks a small geiger counter on his wrist. It’s clicking rapidly, but the levels are dropping as the sea breeze carries the fallout away.
He grabs a manual emergency crank. With every ounce of his remaining strength, he begins to turn it. The hydraulic bolts groan and retract.
He pushes. The lid is heavy—covered in melted asphalt and debris—but it gives way.
EXT. BEIRUT PORT – DAY
A hand, caked in soot and titanium dust, reaches out of the smoking ground.
Ned Jukic pulls himself up. He stands in a crater of glassed sand. The port is gone. The Terminators are gone. Nothing remains of the Beast Armada but thirteen scorched, blackened outlines etched into the fused glass floor.
Ned looks out at the Mediterranean. The sun is trying to break through the dust-choked sky.
He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a crumpled Van Tech student ID, and tosses it into the crater.
NED (Voice raspy) Class dismissed.
He turns and walks toward the horizon.
FADE TO BLACK.
CREDITS ROLL.
Directed by ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Written by JOSEPH C. JUKIC