SARAH'S E.C.T. 5/10/90 In the original 5/10/90 draft, the transition from future to present occurred through adult John's memory of his childhood, and both young John and Sarah are established in their respective environments before the arrival of the terminators. The transition from Sarah at the hospital to the scenes of the arriving terminators was accomplished through the following scene. ----------------------------------------------------------- INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR Sarah, strait-jacketed and strapped onto a GURNEY, is being wheeled down the corridor by Douglas and the other orderlies. Silberman is right behind her with the interns. Sarah's eyes are full of suppressed rage as she stares up and back at him. SILBERMAN (to the interns) What's fascinating about her case is that the architecture of the delusion-- SARAH Don't talk about me like I'm not here. I'm right goddamn here! SILBERMAN We know where you are, Sarah... (continuing to the interns) ... the delusion seems to have begun with the boyfriend and then been adopted by the patient. He believed he was a soldier from the next century, sent to protect her from a killer machine called a "terminator". Frustrated, Sarah begins struggling against her restraints. Douglas, blocking the action from the doctors, casually smacks her solar plexus with his baton. Sarah gasps for air. Douglas winks at her. SILBERMAN You see, it's all about machines, for her. We're seeing more and more of this new syndrome, a sort of acute phobic reaction to technology. It's a defensive response to the dehumanization of relationships in a high-tech world. They sweep through a set of double doors. The doors swing closed into CLOSEUP. Big block letters stenciled across them read: ELECTRO-CONVULSIVE THERAPY Yes, they still do this shit to people. INT. E.C.T. ROOM Sarah's eyes go wide, clocking the sign on the door as she is wheeled in to a room full of ominous machines. Aging shock therapy equipment. SILBERMAN Sarah, today we're going to be trying ECT... electro-convulsive therapy-- SARAH No! Don't do this. Okay, look, Silberman -- hey! Don't put that -- HEY! She struggles vainly against the gurney straps as a NURSE tapes electrodes to her head. Silberman leans down to Sarah. The interns and the orderlies watch from near the door. SILBERMAN Now relax, we've found this very helpful with problems like yours. Such as this feeling that you're being persecuted-- SARAH I'm not being persecuted, you fucking moron! I'm not a threat to them anymore. I told you. It's my son who's the target! Silberman sighs. They finish placing the electrodes on her temples. SARAH You've got to let me go so I can protect him! He's naked if they come for him now! Please! Why won't you listen? You know how important this is! The nurse sets the dials on the machine. Sarah starts to thrash now, becoming irrational. Starts shrieking at everyone in the room. She sounds exactly like what they say she is -- a whacko. SARAH Goddamnit. Let me go!! I'll kill you, FUCKER!! She screams incoherently as they jam the rubber biscuit down between her teeth so she won't bite through her tongue when the voltage jumpstarts her brain. Silberman is smooth and cheerful as he turns to the interns. SILBERMAN ECT is coming back into favor lately, and we've had good results with it. It looks worse than it is. As soon as the current hits her brain, she's out. It's a bit like punching the restart button on a computer when the program crashes. He nods to the nurse and the current blasts through Sarah's brain, locking every muscle in her body into a painful contortion. It triggers an epilepsy-like seizure and she bucks and flops on the gurney. SILBERMAN She's not feeling anything right now. TIGHT ON SARAH'S FACE, contorted, jerking spasmodically. Then... STROBOSCOPIC FLASH CUTS speeding up in rhythm, images coming at us like a roaring freight-train. TERMINATOR'S STEEL HAND lunging for her in the punch press. A CHROME SKULL, eyes burning red, a demon after her soul. STEEL FINGERS closing on her throat. Then... SARAH'S FINGERS groping endlessly for the switch to the press. Then... TERMINATOR'S RED EYES filling frame. Lightning arcing all around as the press crushes the hideous machine. But even as it dies it has her by the throat. Even now, long after it's dead, it still has her by the throat. The lightning gets brighter and brighter... WHITING OUT FRAME. CUT TO: ----------------------------------------------------------- This ending lightning and whiteout then cuts directly to the lightning arcing outside the trucker bar at night, heralding the arrival of the terminator through time. the stroboscopic flash cuts in the moments immediately preceding this transition were to be shots from the climax of the first film, as Sarah in the throes of her electroshock therapy relives the arcing destruction of the first terminator, a nightmare that is still ever-present in her mend.