The film that launched James Cameron’s career into
overdrive and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a global action star, The Terminator (1984) encompasses the
ultimate technological nightmare. An action movie about a cyborg sent from the
future to kill the mother of the man who would ultimately stop the rise of the
machines, the first film in the Terminator franchise is still as relevant and
thrilling today as it was 29 years ago. Over the past decades we have become
increasingly dependent on technology, so what if one day those machines became
sentient and decide to wipe out their creators? It was science-fiction in the
1980s, but today unmanned drones can fly in just about any airspace and wipe
out entire villages. Just how much artificial intelligence do these things need
before they get tired of taking orders from a man sitting in front of a
computer?
A megahit that would spawn three sequels (so far) and
a TV show, The Terminator was part of
popular culture in the 1990s. It came out before I was born, but the first
sequel would come out five years later and a few years after that my brother would
add it to his VHS collection, even though we had yet to see the first one. As a
boy barely in his teens, the level of violence and the unbelievable stunts blew
my mind, but I was definitely hooked into the franchise. When my brother and I
finally caught up on the very first film when it played on TV, I thought it was
scaled down in comparison to the second movie, but it is definitely worth
watching just to see how it all began. Plus, most of the special effects are
all practical creations by effects guru Stan Winston, which is refreshing with
today’s movies awash with computer effects.
Before Linda Hamilton would play Sarah Connor, one of
the most badass action heroines in Terminator
2: Judgement Day, she would play Connor as just an ordinary waitress in
1984 Los Angeles. While watching the news at work she becomes distressed when
realizing someone out there is killing everyone that has her name. Feeling
unsafe, she hides in a nightclub and calls the police, but it is too late. The
emotionless killer (Schwarzenegger) has tracked her down and is about to send
her to kingdom come when a young man called Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) intervenes
and barely manages to save her life.
While escaping the killer and later at a police
station, Kyle lays out the story. In the year 2029 sentient machines are trying
to wipe out what is left of humanity after a nuclear holocaust they have caused.
John Connor, Sarah’s unborn child, will rally the resistance and bring the
machines to the brink of defeat. In a desperate move the machines sent a
Terminator, an ultimate killing machine disguised as a human, back in time to
kill John before he is even born. The human resistance somehow also has time travel
technology so they sent Kyle to protect Sarah from the Terminator.
At the police station Lieutenant Traxler (Paul
Winfield), detective Vukovich (Lance Henriksen) and doctor Silberman (franchise
regular Earl Boen) are convinced Kyle is delusional and the so-called
Terminator is nothing more than a psychopath wearing a very effective bulletproof
vest. That is the most logical explanation until the Terminator comes crashing
through the station killing everyone in his path after uttering his signature
line: “I’ll be back.” Unfortunately he does come back, no matter how many times
the cops shoot him or with what. Sarah realizes that if she wants to live she
better come with Kyle.
The Terminator was
made with a small budget and Schwarzenegger has no more than 18 lines in the
entire movie, yet the film still holds up today and as a killer the Terminator
is a thing of nightmares. It has no mercy or compassion, feels no pain, and is
coldly calculated in his killing. When it kills women called Sarah Connor, it
is because it does not know which is the one it is looking for. It is
processing by order of elimination so to speak.
As it suffers more and more damage, Schwarzenegger
puts on more makeup to give the impression there is a machine under his tall muscular
frame. In the film’s final big fight there is no more fake skin left, only the
machine’s metallic skeleton and its red glowing eyes, which is even scarier.
Today this would be done with computer animation, but back in the 80s they had
to make do with stop-motion animation, which in my mind is even more effective
as it looks like an actual object is chasing Sarah and Kyle.
Under different hands The Terminator could have ended up being just an average cheesy
science-fiction movie, but James Cameron’s eye for action, Schwarzenegger’s
menacing presence, the acting by Hamilton and Biehn, and the iconic music by
Brad Fiedel keeps the tension sky-high throughout. The special effects and the
acting would increase ten-folds for the much better sequel, but this first
entry stands the test of time as a classic of the genre.
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