Viewed in
2008, 2009, 2011
Formats
HDTV
Premise
A young lady (Linda Hamilton) is pursued by an unstoppable killer cyborg from the future (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Loved
Melding of science fiction with exciting action. The Terminator mythology.
Thoughts
Each re-watch, along with its equally great sequel, gets better and better. The well-written time-travel tie-ins between this and Judgment Day simply enhanced each other.
Arnold was born to play the Terminator. Granted there was some hilarity in the fact that he only had five lines that hid his lack of English back then. But his robotic, hulking, menacing presence hardly made him feel like the antagonist. Hamilton was solid as the everyday girl caught in the madness (though her character was cooler in the context of both films). Michael Biehn was perfect as the scrappy underdog against disbelieving cops and T-101.
Director James Cameron found the perfect balance of interesting time-travel/cyborg themes with entertaining car cashes and shootouts. While the special effects have become obvious and the sequel's action sequences blew this one out of the water, there were still memorable moments, thanks to makeup, animatronics, stop-motion animation and old school stunt work. The "I'll be back" scene still makes me giddy.
While I loved Brad Fiedel's unforgettable, pounding theme song, I always thought the overall score wasn't epic enough for the scope of the film. But I've kind of warmed up to them a bit third time around. After all it's dated synthesizers actually give a timeless periodic sound now.
The Terminator is quintessential to Arnold and Cameron's career. It is definitely a must-see, especially in conjunction with Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
What I would change
Nothing, other than the score.
Random
An undiscovered Bill Paxton as a blue-haired punk.
