The TerminatorThey say that the past is a blueprint for the future; what if it worked in reverse? This is the fundamental conceit in The Terminator, the science-fiction/action blockbuster which made lead actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger--who plays the titular "terminator cyborg"--virtually a household name, cementing his place forever as a superstar. It might seem strange that a relatively unknown actor gets top billing in this film--especially considering he plays not the hero, but the villain--but as director and co-writer James Cameron is credited with saying, "this movie is not about the hero. It's about The Terminator".
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The Terminator begins with a brief introduction to a desolate wasteland, Los Angeles circa 2029--a future where humanity has been all but annihilated, accompanied by a title to set the stage. The machines rose up--past tense--to destroy us; and the final battle to come will take place not in the future, but in our present. To ensure total victory against the lingering vestige of humanity, which future warrior, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), indicates will triumph against their cybernetic oppressors, a towering figure is sent back in time amid an explosive entrance, heralded by fog and lightning--the imposing, unnamed being played by Schwarzenegger. The terminator sets right into his mission of systematically eliminating every "Sarah Connor" in the L.A. white pages, leaving Reese hot on his heels trying to save the one Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) who must survive, so that she can train her as-of-yet conceived son, John Connor, to lead the rebellion against the machines. Sarah may lead a mundane life in Los Angeles in the year 1984, but she's fortunate enough to catch a key broadcast--foisted by the police to draw her into safety--that the other two Sarah Connors have been killed in brutal fashion. The threat of the terminator itself is not immediately apparent; at first, Sarah is suspicious of Kyle when she catches him stalking her into a night club. She is even suspicious--at least rightfully terrified--following the terminator's foiled assassination attempt on her, thwarted by Kyle, who is at least the most familiar with the reality of the threat posed by the deceptive T-800. Kyle's presumed schizophrenia proves to be a misdiagnosis when the terminator storms the L.A.P.D. by force, and Sarah has no choice but to "follow him if she wants to live". At a glance, one might presume that her attachment to Kyle is akin to a form of Stockholm Syndrome--since her earlier interactions with Kyle appear as a kidnapping--but her gradual acceptance of the harsh truth he delivers is a more terrifying prospect than the terminator itself. Kyle manages to operate as a bodyguard for Sarah, his training in guerrilla warfare honed by years of fighting ruthless enemies which feel no humanity, no sympathy; he even delivers one of many memorable lines to Sarah, describing the terminator as a being without pity or remorse. And Kyle is far from alone in getting some of this sci-fi/action film's quotable dialogue; Schwarzenegger himself gets to utter what would become his "calling card" here for the first time...I'm sure you know it. The Terminator also represented a turning point for director and co-writer, James Cameron; his career would flourish in light of the success of this film, and he would go on to become the creator of some of Hollywood's most profitable blockbusters.
The machines of The Terminator represent a fundamental threat to humanity because they are an inorganic disconnect with nature. This thought is alluded to during moments when Kyle sees how dependent our modern society is on the machinery surrounding them, and the power they contain in form and function. Contemporary Los Angeles in The Terminator is a neon-drenched garbage heap, where automatic weapons can be acquired from local dealers, and most of the action takes place at night. This style has come to be referred to as tech noir, a name which is derived from a bar in this very same movie, filled with the resounding kind of synth-heavy music and 80's pop which permeates The Terminator. And while most of the film is set in our time, periodic glimpses into the future are a display of monstrous treads rolling over skulls, the laser blasts of pulse rifles, and the blinding searchlights of airborne hunter-killers, alongside the theme music sounding like metal clanging against metal. The pervading message of The Terminator is that a problem is best resolved before it becomes one; it is a mindset shared not only by the future resistance represented by Kyle Reese, but more so by the machines, who initiated the operation to send a robot killer over forty years into the past to assure their victory, even at the risk of compromising the space-time continuum. Kyle tells Sarah that when the nuclear devastation due a few years from their present comes, it will be as a result of the machines, deciding in their form of artificial intelligence that humanity is too great of a risk factor, eliminating them preemptively; their theory: prevention is the largest part of the cure. In The Terminator, Kyle alludes to his future being one of many possibilities; but of course this begs the question if the future to come sends an agent into the past with the intention of altering events, would that future even begin to begin with? I believe that this paradox is resolved because in The Terminator, time is something of a closed loop. Reese comes back to save Sarah--a woman he knows by reputation and her legacy via her son who will lead them to eventual victory--but she ends up developing her legendary wisdom and other gifts as a result of Kyle's intervention. One could speculate as to what the future would be if Kyle and the terminator were never sent back in time, but they were, thus validating the future to come as an inevitability.
Recommended for: Fans of a highly popular part of science fiction and action movie history, a benchmark for a style of film which would spawn imitators and numerous sequels, even decades later. The dialogue is instantly quotable, and the theme song will no doubt get stuck in your head.
The machines of The Terminator represent a fundamental threat to humanity because they are an inorganic disconnect with nature. This thought is alluded to during moments when Kyle sees how dependent our modern society is on the machinery surrounding them, and the power they contain in form and function. Contemporary Los Angeles in The Terminator is a neon-drenched garbage heap, where automatic weapons can be acquired from local dealers, and most of the action takes place at night. This style has come to be referred to as tech noir, a name which is derived from a bar in this very same movie, filled with the resounding kind of synth-heavy music and 80's pop which permeates The Terminator. And while most of the film is set in our time, periodic glimpses into the future are a display of monstrous treads rolling over skulls, the laser blasts of pulse rifles, and the blinding searchlights of airborne hunter-killers, alongside the theme music sounding like metal clanging against metal. The pervading message of The Terminator is that a problem is best resolved before it becomes one; it is a mindset shared not only by the future resistance represented by Kyle Reese, but more so by the machines, who initiated the operation to send a robot killer over forty years into the past to assure their victory, even at the risk of compromising the space-time continuum. Kyle tells Sarah that when the nuclear devastation due a few years from their present comes, it will be as a result of the machines, deciding in their form of artificial intelligence that humanity is too great of a risk factor, eliminating them preemptively; their theory: prevention is the largest part of the cure. In The Terminator, Kyle alludes to his future being one of many possibilities; but of course this begs the question if the future to come sends an agent into the past with the intention of altering events, would that future even begin to begin with? I believe that this paradox is resolved because in The Terminator, time is something of a closed loop. Reese comes back to save Sarah--a woman he knows by reputation and her legacy via her son who will lead them to eventual victory--but she ends up developing her legendary wisdom and other gifts as a result of Kyle's intervention. One could speculate as to what the future would be if Kyle and the terminator were never sent back in time, but they were, thus validating the future to come as an inevitability.
Recommended for: Fans of a highly popular part of science fiction and action movie history, a benchmark for a style of film which would spawn imitators and numerous sequels, even decades later. The dialogue is instantly quotable, and the theme song will no doubt get stuck in your head.