The Terminator
The Terminator
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2008.
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 "Come with me if you want to live."
— Kyle Reese
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The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future. Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent back in time to protect Connor. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received a credit for additional dialogue. Executive producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in the film's financing and production.
Plot
Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust. Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead the fight against them. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to escape.
Why It Terminates (in a good way)
- Each and every one of the actors gives great performances in this movie, especially Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800. Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese.
- The idea of making a killer cyborg time travel back to kill a civilian in order to break a timeline is pretty original.
- A bunch of awesome, well-executed and/or action-packed moments, such as when the Terminator fights off a street gang in an attempt to get their clothes, even killing one by ripping his heart out with his bare hands.
- Despite being the low-budget film, the special effects looked very well for the 1984 standards.
- Despite its low-budget, the very smooth stop motion animation for the T-800, looks very good.
- Likable and unforgettable characters, mainly the sympathetic and entertaining protagonist, Sarah Connor.
- Due to Arnold's thick accent, his performance as the Terminator has many memorable quotes such as the iconic "I'll be back" line.
- Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese share some amazing chemistry together.
- The T-800 is an entertaining antagonist with unpredictable moments and sometimes steals the show with its intimidating personality.
- Spawned many lines such as "Get out" and more famously, "F*ck you a**hole" & "I'll be back"
- Well-done character and story development.
- The scary scene in the final battle where the T-800's endoskeleton is revealed and chases Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese.
Bad Qualities
- Although the 5.1 audio remix sounds so good, it surprisingly had some issues.
- Due to low-budget, the original theatrical Mono mix, wasn't sounds so good.
- The special effects, while looks very good for the higher-budget standards, haven't aged well mostly due to the film's whole budget being only a bit above $6 million (even in 2020, around about $15-16 million) but the script called for effects that, in the following century, would use processes demanding ten times that budget. Cameron and his crew did their best to make it work with 1984 filming technology and a comparatively limited effects budget, but as the examples below demonstrate, they still ran into a lot of problems.
- The dummy Terminator head used in the "eye removal" and "Fuck you, asshole" scenes is very obvious (although good by '80s standards).
- The endoskeleton itself is considered as such by several people. Largely with the poorly animated, poorly composited stop-motion model. The SFX team built it out of steel, not realizing how difficult it would be to move and animate.
- Early in Kyle's nightmare, when Kyle and his squaddie are moving out to attack the machine tank, the "tank" beyond the cover is very obviously either composited behind the actors and the prop or is just outright a film projection during the shot itself; it's not even the same resolution or focal length as the rest of the scene.
- In the shot immediately before Kyle wakes up from his nightmare, it's quite obvious that the fire is superimposed over the shot.
- The relationship between Kyle and Sarah Reese claims to have been in love with Sarah ever since seeing her picture. Sarah is suspicious of him at first, but comes to trust him. Then, thanks to the fast pacing of the movie, they suddenly have sex, followed by them being too busy fighting the Terminator to develop their relationship for the rest of the movie.
- The Terminator wouldn't have found Kyle and Sarah if it wasn't for Sarah.
- When Sarah and Kyle are on the run, Kyle repeatedly informs Sarah not to contact anyone she knows because the Terminator will find a way to use that to track them down. Sarah is understandably worried about her mother and calls her anyway, vaguely warning her to get out of her house. But, that's not the dumb part; concern for her mother is natural. Where it becomes outright dumb is when Sarah calls her mother again and allows herself to be guilt-tripped into giving out the phone number of the motel she and Kyle are staying in. Then it turns out that the voice on the other end is the Terminator, and he immediately hangs up and calls the motel to get an address.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.83/10 based on 61 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "With its impressive action sequences, taut economic direction, and relentlessly fast pace, it's clear why The Terminator continues to be an influence on sci-fi and action flicks." The film also holds a score of 84/100 ("universal acclaim") on review aggregator website Metacritic, based on 21 reviews.
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