The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Directed by
James Cameron

Writing credits
James Cameron &
Gale Anne Hurd ...

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tagline: In the Year of Darkness, 2029, the rulers of this planet devised the ultimate plan. They would reshape the Future by changing the Past. The plan required something that felt no pity. No pain. No fear. Something unstoppable. They created 'THE TERMINATOR'

Plot Outline: A cyborg is sent from the future on a deadly mission. He has to kill Sarah Connor, a young woman whose life will have a great significance in years to come. Sarah has only one protector - Kyle Reese - also sent from the future. The Terminator uses his exceptional intelligence and strength to find Sarah, but is there any way to stop the seemingly indestructible cyborg ?

User Comments: One of the scariest movies ever made

User Rating: 7.9/10 (59,858 votes) top 250: #214

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arnold Schwarzenegger	....	The Terminator
Michael Biehn	....	Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton	....	Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield	....	Lieutenant Ed Traxler
Lance Henriksen	....	Detective Vukovich
Bess Motta	....	Ginger Ventura
Earl Boen	....	Dr. Peter Silberman
Rick Rossovich	....	Matt Buchanan
Dick Miller	....	Pawnshop Clerk
Shawn Schepps	....	Nancy
Bruce M. Kerner	....	Desk Sergeant
Franco Columbu	....	Future Terminator
Bill Paxton	....	Punk Leader
Brad Rearden	....	Punk
Brian Thompson	....	Punk

Also Known As:
Terminator (USA) (trailer title)
Runtime: 108 min
Country: USA
Language: English / Spanish
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Mono
Certification: Argentina:16 / Australia:M / Canada:13+ (Quebec) / Canada:18A (Alberta) (re-rating) (1999) / Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) / Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) / Chile:18 / Finland:K-16 / France:U / Ireland:18 / Japan:R-15 / Norway:18 / Peru:18 / Poland:15 / Singapore:M18 / Spain:18 / Sweden:15 / UK:15 (re-rating) / UK:18 (1984-2000) / USA:R / West Germany:18 (JK/SPIO)

Trivia: Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous debut line 'I'll be back' was originally scripted as 'I'll come back'.

User Comments:

6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful:-
One of the scariest movies ever made, 15 January 2001
Author: Griff (griffmovieblah@hotmail.com) from Bristol, UK

"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." That's the best line in The Terminator, and the main reason it works so well. Having events wrenched out of your control is, like being tortured or falsely imprisoned, a basic fear that the movie plays on very effectively. The villain is completely without conscience, and has only one thing on his mind � to track down Sarah Connor and kill her � and he keeps on coming, no matter what. The Terminator is a scary character, and watching him gun down various innocent people in the relentless pursuit of his quarry gives the film a take-no-prisoners quality that grounds it in reality, while also working as an impressively complete time travel story.

The movie opens with a brief glimpse of a horrific future, one in which machines have taken over the planet and driven humans almost to the point of extinction. From this future, two men have travelled back through time to 1984 - the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a cyborg sent to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will lead the human resistance against the machines; and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a soldier who has to stop the Terminator from succeeding in his mission. At first, the movie is careful not to make you too sure which of them is the real bad guy or exactly what they're up to, and part of its success lies in the slick exposition, which keeps the film tight and exciting. Director and co-writer James Cameron displays an economy that would not be a feature of his later films - at the outset, the film introduces the three main characters efficiently, and from then on no time is wasted; the script is tightly structured, the pacing is sure and the story builds carefully.

It's easy to forget, especially with the megabucks sequel, that this wasn't a particularly expensive film. The visual effects are rough round the edges, and the stop motion animation effects have dated, but the endoskeleton scenes are still fantastic, and I'll take slightly obvious model shots over bad CG any day. The future war sequences, with huge tanks rolling over human skulls, might not be too slick, but they still have an impact. These scenes were better realised in T2, but they do the job. Brad Fiedel's score is pretty low-tech too; it sounds synthesised, but works in the same way as John Carpenter's score for Halloween � simple and effective. Some of the music pushes along with a cold, ominous, rhythmic repetition that perfectly suits the Terminator's methods.

The violence in the movie isn't too bloody, and it certainly isn't gratuitous; a lot of people die, but as part of the story and in the context of the scene. For instance, the most chilling scene in the movie comes when Sarah and Reese have been taken to a police station, and the Terminator turns up at the front desk. He hasn't been created for subtle negotiation, so he crashes through the doors in a car, then proceeds to walk calmly through the building, shooting anyone who gets in his way. The neutral expression on the Terminator's face as he systematically guns down cop after cop is really quite unsettling, and you're left in no doubt that what Reese has said is true: he will never stop coming after you, until he's done what he came to do. To him, these people aren't even being sacrificed; they're just in his way and need to be dealt with.

The title character is Schwarzenegger's best role, and good use is made of his imposing physical presence without him having to act too much, which was never such a good thing in his early movies. Kudos to Cameron though, for not relying on Arnie's massive frame to make him an effective villain, but making his programmed determination to carry out his orders the frightening thing. As Reese, Biehn also gets the best role of his career; he's strong but not obviously heroic, and he convinces as a battle-worn soldier. Hamilton, an underused actress whose only memorable roles have been this and Catherine in the excellent Beauty and the Beast series, makes the most of her part, toughening up believably over the course of the film but staying vulnerable enough for us to care about her.

While the three leads are taking care of the serious stuff, much of the humour in the film comes from the supporting cast, like Paul Winfield and Lance Henrikson as cops, and Earl Boen as the police psychiatrist. Their interaction and morbid jokes sketch in a bunch of likeable characters. (There's humour elsewhere, like the great bit where a landlord knocks on the door of the Terminator's borrowed apartment; on the cyborg's POV, a selection of choice comments appear, from which he selects "F*** you, a*****e.") Biehn and Henrikson are Cameron favourites � and Bill Paxton also appears early on as a punk. The cast is roundly solid, fun to watch and believable.

The Terminator works because it takes on a gritty tone, places the action in a realistic setting and is heartless with its characters. It's one those movies that, like Die Hard, takes its characters and puts them through the wringer. This is one of those movies that has you walking carefully out of the room when it's over, checking round corners even though you know there's nothing there. It's that unquestioning Terminator stare as he steps over various bodies in his pursuit that gives the movie much of its effect, though. Near the start of the movie, since he doesn't know which Sarah Connor he's looking for, he shoots his way through the names in the phone book until he finds the right woman. Cameron has made better films, but he's never recaptured the efficient simplicity of this one.

UPC 027616854735