The Terminator (1984)

  I'm not talking about Terminator 2, which seems to be more 'popular.' Whenever I ask people why they liked it even more than the original, they always say it's because of all the amazing special effects. Special effects. Not the story, not the acting, but what they were able to do with computers.

A far superior movie is the original.

You probably know the basic story, since this movie has spawned 3 sequels as well as a TV series: in the future, an military artificial intelligence called Skynet causes a nuclear war, which kills most of mankind. Those who survive are hunted down and exterminated by 'cybernetic organisos,' sophisticated androids that look and smell human (except to dogs). One man rises to lead mankind to take back the planet: John Conner. He was so successful in this rebellion that ultimately Skynet was on the verge of defeat, its defense grid destroyed. In a last ditch effort, Skynet resorted to the one weapon it had left: sending a terminator back in time to blot out the problem before it even gets started.

This leads to a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger, in all of his Mr. Universal flexing glory, walking up to a group of punks and demanding, "Your clothes. Give them to me. Now." It's kinda awesome when he flings the 'Punk Leader' (Bill Paxton, center, who has been in several Cameron films) into that wall or when he marches into that bar to steal a page from the phone book. It's only after he knocks on a random woman's door and coldly shoves his way into her house to shoot her dead (after simply asking "Sarah Connor?") that we get how hard core and cold this person is. At this point we don't even know who (or what) he is, just that he is a cold blooded killer.

The mythology slowly unfolds throughout the film, revealed in little pieces. You don't get lame exposition disguised as 'discussion,' you just get answers to questions that could quite possibly come up in the course of events. "Honey, what's for dinner?" leads to a discussion of our hero's childhood. When our hero is interrogated by police, he explains why things are happening. Of course, they think he's suffering from paranoid delusions, but who wouldn't naturally come to that conclusion when someone's describing a killer cyborg from the future looking to destroy the mother of the future savior of the human race?

It's always struck me that Sarah's whole predicament could have been avoided if she'd just not called home to tell her best friend that she was freaking out about the Sarah Connors getting murdered. The terminator had just butchered them - not knowing that the man and woman it had just exterminated were Sarah's roommate, Ginger, and Ginger's boyfriend. It was about to go on to the next Sarah Connor on the list. That phone call told him that he had killed the wrong person.

Even more so, he wouldn't have been certain that this Sarah Connor was the right Sarah Connor, if Kyle Reece hadn't have saved her in the disco. But that happened, leading to one of the best lines: "Come with me if you want to live."


Part of what makes this movie great is, I will admit, the love story. Hearing our hero declare, "I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have." What woman wouldn't want to know that someone had fallen in love with her based on stories and her picture alone? It could be sappy. It's not. You don't get dorky moments with long lingering looks, where you take a time out from the action. It's just interwoven into the story, as Sarah comes to terms with the fact that she will give birth to and raise the savior of the future. It happens as the terminator keeps coming and coming and coming, or as Kyle Reece, declares during the movie: "You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her! That's what he does! That's *all* he does! You can't stop him! He'll wade through you, reach down her throat and pull her ******* heart out!"


And that's what makes this movie awesome. The terminator just keeps coming. No matter what. The music, the way it's filmed, everything contributes to the overall tone of foreboding and dread. No matter what happens, no matter how many times they seem to get away, Schwarzenegger just keeps coming. He loses an eye, is in a truck explosion, but he just keeps coming. And he won't ever stop until she's dead.

The climax of the movie is both heart wrenching and triumphant, as Sarah has a final showdown with her hunter. And unlike a lot of movies, or the movie's first sequel, the denouement provides a resolution for what might happen in the future.

When I try to list my favorite movies, this is one that quickly pops to mind. It's been my favorite since I saw it on television as a teenager. I've loved it so much that I've seen everything Terminator-related since, and it's why I absolutely despise 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.' (I like to pretend that one didn't happen, just like I like to pretend the sequels to 'The Matrix' didn't happen.)

The special effects for this movie were done by industry legend, Stan Winston, who later won Oscars for his work on 'Aliens,' 'Jurassic Park,' and 'T2.' Like those films, this one lived up to Winston's philosophy that special effects shouldn't be about technical wizardry but about storytelling. "It’s not about technology," he once said. "It’s about writers writing wonderful stories with fantastic characters and me being able to create a visual image that's beyond what you would expect." Winston died in 2008, but his contributions to this film and others (including 'Avatar') will never be forgotten.

One other interesting thing to note: This is the film where Schwarzenegger first uttered what would become his signature line: "I'll be back." He went on to say it, or a variation of it in Commando, The Running Man, Total Recall, and Last Action Hero. (He's also used it several times in his speeches while governor of California.) It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie because what happens next is completely unexpected.

My rating: 10/10

Related links:
IMDb
Transcript of Movie Dialogue
Obituary for Stan Winston