Tonight I went to see Terminator: Salvation in theaters, just one week after having seen J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. The differences between the two films could not be more stark. I do not mean differences in plot or time or genre. Instead, these two films revealed a fundamental problem of effective communication, which I am coining "Story vs. Plot."

The plot of Terminator was, in my opinion, very well formed. Spoiler Alert: The behavior of Marcus, for instance, wherein he was executing Skynet's programming under the guise of free will, added great depth to the story line and caused the audience to see the events of the film on a more philosophical level, impressive for a sci-fi franchise. In fact, the entire plot was intricate in its detail, well-designed, and generally interesting. However, despite this great framework, when the credits began to roll, the entire theater was left speechless, and not in a good way. The film was completely unsatisfying. It had a great plot line and excellent special effects. Where did it go wrong?

The story. Terminator was a brilliantly executed plot that failed to tell a story.

For contrast, look at Star Trek. The overall plot was reasonably cliché for the franchise. Spoiler Alert: A vaguely scientific-sounding thing causes someone from the future to travel back in time, requiring the crew of the Enterprise to respond, saving the day just in the nick of time. Hmm, perhaps that wasn't much of a spoiler, just par for the series. Despite a modest and fairly typical plot, the film told an interesting story. Building from a basic foundation, Abrams showed deep human (and Vulcan) emotion and created a tale which would be interesting even without the multimillion dollar visual effects because he focussed on the story.

Terminator's undoing was that in the beginning, the human race, led by John Connor, was fighting the machines in an ongoing war in which the machines continually had the upper hand, whereas in the end, the human race, led by John Connor, is fighting the machines in an ongoing war in which the machines continually have the upper hand. Looking back, it seems as though the entire 2-hour film is irrelevant to the story of the Terminator universe. Despite a victory in the battle, humanity seems no better or worse off because of the movie. No story of importance was told, and so the character development and plot elements became nothing more than extraneous information.

In short, remember that to communicate well, you must tell a story which progresses from point A to point B. The plot line should only make the journey more enjoyable.