Reef

THE GOOD SAMARITAN REFLEX: Westworld in Terminator I was never a fan of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but upon rewatching it recently after having seen Westworld (both the new HBO show and the 1973 film it’s based on), I did notice this very interesting sticker on the side of an RV that T-850 commandeers. 

Now, the Good Sam Club is an actual club that RV owners can sign up with for automotive services and the like. But obviously, what struck me was the fact that “Good Sam” is just an abbreviation of “Good Samaritan”, and what is the “Good Samaritan Reflex” on Westworld? Oh, only the code that programs hosts (the robots of Westworld) to protect humans from harm at all time no matter the cost. Ring a bell? This sort of “Good Samaritan Reflex” sounds EXACTLY like what the Resistance programs Arnold to do (in T2 & 3 at least). 

Thing is though, T3 was released in 2003, and it couldn’t have borrowed the “Good Samaritan” concept from the 1973 Westworld movie because as far as I can remember there was no mention of it there.

Note also that there was a 1973 study concerning the Good Samaritan parable that may have, for some odd reason, inspired or at least informed creators of both T3 and Westworld the show. Not to mention the fact that showrunner Jonathan Nolan has used the name “Samaritan” before to refer to an all-knowing supercomputer in his previous work Person of Interest.