TERMINATOR, THE

(October 1984, U.S.)

This is the story of my first seeing James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR back in 1984. Once upon a time..

That summer, when I went to see the Gene Wilder comedy THE WOMAN IN RED with my family, I also got to see the trailer for THE TERMINATOR (that was probably the better part of that movie experience). By this time, I was a soon-to-be-senior in high school, and like all others in my grade, we were practically stars at the top of our game (a year from now we’d be in college and right back at the bottom again). As young men, when we weren’t enjoying the pleasure of beer and girls at parties, we were enjoying the freedom of movies when we wanted and as late as we wanted. To finally be at an age when we could take in the last show of the night and come home very late without parental issues was just another step toward adult freedom. The bigger the movies, the better. The badder the movies, the better. Arnold Schwarzenegger playing an assassin cyborg was big and it was bad, and my friends and I couldn’t wait to see it (actually, it turned out to be just me and one friend, but that didn’t ruin anything because he was just as pumped as I was, and that sort of enthusiasm for a movie always helps the experience).

The movie poster’s tagline seemed to say it all. The present and the future, a killing machine that felt no pity, no pain and no fear. Having seen the trailers, I already had a pretty good idea of what I was in for. A tale of time travel in which Arnold as “the Terminator” goes back in time from the future to our present day of 1984 to kill a young woman named Sarah Connor and her unborn son who will one day become the leader of the resistance against the machines that have taken over our society in the future. A soldier from that same doomed future was sent back as well to protect Sarah from the terminator. From the moment the opening credits began, I was hooked. Not so much in the credits themselves, but rather in the way the movie title was forming from side to side and meeting in the middle. Like SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE when I was a kid, I was enjoying a great combination of credits and powerful music.

Not since BLADE RUNNER was I challenged with such a high concept in science fiction storytelling. This was my first Schwarzenegger movie since CONAN THE BARBARIAN and he seemed perfectly built for a role of a mindless machine who said very little. Perhaps that wasn’t saying too much for the man as an actor, but it seemed to be working, nonetheless. One of the first story elements of the movie I was impressed with was the Terminator’s systematic killing of every Sarah Connor he found in the Los Angeles phone book in order to be thorough in his mission. Impressive, yet scary, just the same. The Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton) he was really looking became terrified when she heard about the other ladies. The moment when she was almost killed in the dance club put a knot in my stomach because I couldn’t take my eyes of the red laser dot at the center of her forehead. Sure, I fully expected her to be saved because that’s what happens in the movies, but it was the notion of staring death in the face like that knowing that your killer absolutely would not miss that got to me. Her savior, the warrior and protector from the future, Kyle Reese (played by Michael Biehn), stopped the Terminator with his own firearm, but only momentarily. We needed to remember that the killer wasn’t a man, and would just stand up again and resume his hunt. Despite my preview understanding of what was taking place, Kyle’s explanation to Sarah was not only helpful, but entertaining to listen to. This wasn’t just a simple matter of the hunter and the hunted. This was a tale of an artificial intelligence defense network run by a corporation known as Skynet. In the future, machines controlling our nuclear weapons would become self-aware and launch a nuclear holocaust. Survivors would be enslaved and ruled by the artificial intelligent machines. Sarah’s future son, John Connor, would rise up and teach his people to fight against Skynet and its army of machines. With victory nearly won, the Terminator was sent back to change history and prevent the eventual resistance. Like I said, it was high concept and I was loving every bit of it.

As Sarah and Kyle continued to elude the Terminator and the police, they were (predictably) falling in love, too. During the explosive climax, I learned a new concept in surprise endings. First when we thought the Terminator was destroyed in an explosion, he rose again (without his human skin now) to complete his mission of killing his victims. When we thought he was destroyed again with the hydraulic press, what was left of him kept on coming to finish off Sarah once and-for-all. I knew of the concept of the ending that wasn’t quite the ending from the conclusion of ALIEN, but this was the first time I ever saw it happen more than once. Even when the Terminator was finally destroyed for good, the concept of "just when you thought it was over" still came back for one more round. Months later, Sarah was pregnant and driving through Mexico, making tape recordings for her unborn son. It was clear that Kyle was the father of her future son. High concept took a turn now into theories of time travel that I didn’t fully understand. I mean, if Kyle is John Connor’s father, and it was John who sent Kyle back in time in the first place, does any of what we just watched on screen ever really take place if Kyle didn’t even survive the year 1984? I left the movie puzzled, but I hardly cared. THE TERMINATOR was and still is one of the best action, sci-fi movies I’ve ever seen!

It’s unfortunate, however, that like so many other movie franchises that start off with high profile glory, the story of the THE TERMINATOR eventually fizzles out into too many overdone and overblown sequels, beginning with the third film of 2003. It’s fortunate, though, that I can clear my mind of all unnecessary film installments and remember just how good and original James Cameron’s vision of a dystopian future really is. It’s storytelling and performances are compelling and continues a trend in tech-noir filmmaking that began with Ridley Scott and BLADE RUNNER. As a special effects thriller, it’s not without its necessary gory treats, either. Right from the beginning of the film, the action and violence are given to us with a strong sense of suspense and tension while setting up the story at the right pace. Like a Dirty Harry movie meets THE ROAD WARRIOR meets grindhouse schlock, it’s high-powered guns blazing with apocalyptic science fiction and brutal horror blended in for good measure.

But even as we’re taking in all the action and fun, one cannot ignore the fascist statement behind the story and our possible future. Even in the 1980s, an era before the internet, the smart phone and social media, James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd recognized the dangers of computer technology and society’s dependence on the machines that govern our lives. If Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Disney’s TRON were merely light-hearted insights to human being’s relationship with artificial intelligence, then THE TERMINATOR (and its totally awesome 1991 sequel) reminds us that we’d better be damn careful about the direction we’re headed toward, and to be prepared for the destructive consequences we face if we’re not.

And they lived happily ever after...maybe.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Kyle Reese: "Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear...and it absolutely will not stop...ever...until you are dead!"