Terminator-a-Thon, Part 1 - The Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bien, Linda Hamilton, Lance Henricksen

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 107 minutes

In honor of the latest Terminator film, Terminator: Genisys, I have decided to revisit the entire Terminator cinematic franchise in order. It will give me a chance to rewatch both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, two of the most classic and iconic science fiction films of all time. The Terminator is a rare franchise that is consistently remembered by only its first two films. After all, they are as great as science fiction cinema comes. However, I am also using this franchise retrospective as a chance to see how both Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation hold up, as those two films tend to be the most derided within the franchise. Therefore, let's travel back in time to 1984 where it all began...and hope that no Terminator shows up to shoot me down if I write something bad about the series.

The Terminator is that rare little film that could, a low budget Orion picture that came out of nowhere and held number one at the box office for two straight weeks in 1984. I'm sure that James Cameron had no clue at the time that he was making a pop culture phenomenon. Nowadays, The Terminator is so iconic that one mention of the film's title conjures up thoughts of Arnold's robotic performance and memorable lines like "I'll be back" and "Come with me if you want to live!" The Terminator was such a landmark film that it solidified the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, jump started director James Cameron's film career, brought Linda Hamilton and Michael Beihn into the public consciousness, and certified Stan Winston as one of the all time great artists of special effects driven cinema. The Terminator is one of the definitive action pictures that along with Die Hard and First Blood defines the decade of 80s action.

Arnold stares down the sights of his awesome laser sight pistol.

I feel like pretty much everybody knows the mythos of The Terminator by heart. However, if you are one of those poor unfortunate souls who does not, than let me explain it to you and than schedule you for termination for waiting so long to watch The Terminator.

In the future, machines have taken over the world and waged war against man kind's only survivors. John Connor, the respected leader of the humans, has led to them to inevitable victory against the machines after years of death. Knowing their defeat is near, the machines make a desperate move and send a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a Terminator, back in time to 1984 in order to murder Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), John's mother. Therefore, if John's mother can be eliminated from existence, than he will no longer exist as well. John, having just missed the Terminator, sends Kyle Reese (Michael Beihn), a soldier, back in time to 1984 in order to protect Sarah from the Terminator and to ensure humanity's leadership under John in the future. Sarah quickly finds her world turned upside in 1984 as Kyle attempts to protect her at all costs against the unstoppable T-800, a cyborg immune to pain and emotion.

The Terminator is first and foremost an excellent science fiction film with an obvious message about the dangers of humanity putting their faith in the hands of advanced technology and machinery. As Kyle recounts, humanity's greatest mistake was allowing Cyberdyne systems to create SkyNet, a roboticized program whose purpose was to aid our military. When SkyNet became self aware, machines quickly took over the world and began exterminating humans one by one. Cameron's cautionary tale about a dangerous future run by militarized machines is classic science fiction at its best, both intelligent and entertaining. It is also important to mention that even though most movie fans know The Terminator mythos by heart, the film does not explicitly explain every detail of its complex mythos up front. Cameron tosses the viewer into the middle of the conflict and explains everything bit by bit as the film unravels.

Poor Dick Miller.

James Cameron is to be applauded for making his true debut film so many things at once. In under two hours, The Terminator incorporates elements of a slasher film, a post-apocalyptic film, a time travel film, a sci-fi noir, a monster movie, an action film, and even a romance. Cameron juggles all of these genres and tones perfectly while still managing to make the film as basic and straightforward as possible. When you get down to it, The Terminator is a basic chase picture in which one party chases another. Plain and simple. Cameron took a basic plot that anyone could have thunk up and dressed it as a science fiction film teeming with impressive ideas and details.

The Terminator owes much of its design to the slasher craze of the 80s. The film's main villain, the T-800, is a killing machine who slaughters everyone in his path. He is very much like a slasher villain because he racks up a massive kill count, kills people in varying ways, and wears a mask to disguise his true identity (his metallic endoskeleton). The film itself is also very horrific and terrifying in tone a-la a slasher instead of exciting and epic along the lines of its sequels. The Terminator also features other elements of the slasher genre besides its hulking villain. For example, the infamous 'sex leads to death' notion of slasher-dom is present early in the film when Sarah's friend Ginger has sex with her boyfriend and is mistakenly murdered by the T-800. While I theorize that Sarah herself is not a virgin, her missed opportunity at sex with her date ends up saving her life within the confines of the film's run time. And later on in the film, Sarah's eventual elopement with Kyle Reese leads to one of their unfortunate deaths. Case in point: sex leads to death. The film is also similar to a slasher franchise in that it spawned several unnecessary sequels, a television series, toys, comic books, and action figures to the point where "the Terminator" itself became a pop culture phenomenon.

While it is common knowledge to most, I must stress that The Terminator is one of the definitive action pictures of all time and of the 80s in general. Such elements of the 80s action film seen within The Terminator are as follows: the lead performance is played by a titan of action cinema (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the film sports numerous quotable lines and iconic pieces of dialog ("I'll be back," "Come with me if you want to live"), the film features a moderate to high body count (around 45, I believe), the film features a memorable variety of car chases and gun fights (Tech Noir shootout and police station shootout), and the film places character over plot.

While the 80s were mostly dominated by explosions and bullets, The Terminator is a rare example of 80s action that heavily relies upon special effects. In a sense, one could say that Cameron's blend of 80s action and impressive special effects heralded the age of special effects driven cinema that began in the 1990s and continued into today's action cinema. The Terminator is a true time capsule of the 80s if there ever was one. From the hair dos, to the fashion, to the Tech Noir club that Sarah hides in during the film's first act, to Brad Fiedel's synthesized score, to even Stan Winston's dated but charming practical effects. This. Is. The. 80s.

Kyle Reese blasts his way through the T-800.

The Terminator would be dead in the water were it not for its pitch perfect trio of lead performances. It is surprising to see Cameron, fresh off of the craptastic Piranha II, write characters so great and direct performances this well early in his career. It's obvious that Cameron's heart and soul is in this film. He clearly understood that character, not plot, drives great cinema.

If John Milius' Conan the Barbarian was just a warm up for Arnold, than The Terminator is the film that certified his arrival on the action scene. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives one of, if not the best performance of his career, as the iconic and unforgettable T-800, an unstoppable and emotionless killing machine that puts all slasher villains to shame. While some argue that Arnold is not a great actor, most people agree that Arnold's limitations as an actor fits the character of the T-800 perfectly. He also kicks major ass in the role; gunning down police officers as if they were nothing and spouting likes like, "F*** you asshole," and "I'll be back," as if they were orders. Arnold would go on to give equally excellent performances in action classics like Predator and Total Recall after The Terminator's release. However, the Terminator character will always be Arnold's calling card, regardless of what he or anyone else says.

Newcomers Linda Hamilton and Michael Beihn also give the performances that essentially made their careers. Hamilton plays Sarah Connor, a hard working but down on her luck young woman who works at a terrible restaurant and can't ever catch a break. However, her life turns around when Kyle Reese comes back in time to her and helps her transform into the warrior woman that she becomes in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Sarah experiences an explicit arc from passive everywoman to active protector of the future all within one film. 

Beihn also deserves much praise for his performance as Kyle Reese. Everyone seems to forget about his performance altogether beneath the shadow of Arnold's iconic performance. Beihn plays the role of the determined savior of the future who chooses to permanently reside within 1984 even though he has no way back to the past. Many people seem to forget that The Terminator is made all the scarier because Kyle, a human, is hopelessly outmatched by the T-800's invincible endoskelton and super strength. It has since become a franchise tradition for the T-800 to face off against another Terminator of superior make and model within each of the sequels. Therefore, The Terminator is made all the more special because one of its time travelers is a killing machine and the other is simply a human soldier with no edge over the Terminator. Talk about unfair odds.

Stan Winston's T-800 is still terrifying to this day.

The Terminator is an amazing action film because its set pieces dazzle and its performances nail the mark. Few action films live up to The Terminator's legacy and importance. It's a landmark action film that has since gone on to influence dozens of copy cats and inspire filmmakers the world round. It's also the film that put James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map forever and jump started a multi-million dollar franchise that has no end in sight. In all honesty, I don't even know what words to write in order to do the film justice. You probably already knew everything that I wrote regardless of whether you have seen the film ten times already or not. The Terminator is the reason why we keep watching action films and worshipping the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It comes as highly recommended as action films come. However, its sequel might be a film that I would recommend that much more...

Rating: 10/10 - A landmark science fiction film that defines a generation and a genre.

Franchise:

The Terminator (dir. James Cameron, 1984)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (dir. James Cameron, 1991)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (dir. Jonathan Mostow, 2003)

Terminator: Salvation (dir. McG, 2009)

Terminator: Genisys (dir. Alan Taylor, 2015)