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The Terminator
(1984)
In James Cameron's tech-noir, action-packed, low budget,
beautifully-paced, original science-fiction film that
starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his breakout role - portraying an
invulnerable, ruthless, assassin-terminator cyborg:
- in the opening, a future-world of a dark, ruined
post-apocalyptic Los Angeles AD 2029 was
portrayed; AI machines ruled the
desolate world, led by a computer network called Skynet; massive
machines were programmed to hunt down humans in order to exterminate
the entire human race
- a title card explained: "The machines rose from
the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind
had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought
in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight..."
- in the next sequence, a time traveler materialized
in Los Angeles of 1984 - a "Terminator" (36
year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger); the crouching, muscle-bound, powerfully-strong
figure materialized nude; it was an indestructible android assassin
- a T-800 Series (Model 101); the robot was a muscular, 6 foot
tall, indestructible, intelligent, killing-machine (without a
moral conscience); it was humanoid-shaped with a human tissue
exterior and a cold chromium/metallic, skeletal interior, with
advanced X-ray vision
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Terminator's X-Ray Vision
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Terminator T-800 Cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger)
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- the fearless, relentless, villainous, and almost
wordless T-800 killing machine brutally murdered a group of three
young LA punks (Brad Rearden, Brian Thompson, and leader Bill Paxton)
in the film's opening moments that were confronted in the parking
lot of the Griffiths Observatory; the Terminator demanded their
clothing: ("Your clothes. Give
them to me, now!") and quickly dispatched with the group
- in a different, litter-strewn
downtown LA alley, a second time-traveling individual named Kyle
Reese (Michael Biehn), a soldier of the Tech-Com human Resistance
movement of the future (led by Resistance leader John Connor) that
was fighting against Skynet, was also teleported back
- both were on
a systematic search to hunt down a female named 'Sarah Connor' for
unspecified but different reasons; the 'real' Sarah Connor
(Linda Hamilton), a 19 year-old independent-minded brunette, was
introduced as a waitress at Big Jeff's Restaurant, who arrived
late at her place of work
- meanwhile, in the ALAMO Sport Shop that sold guns
and ammo, the Terminator inquired
about four specific weapons from the clerk (Dick Miller); the Terminator
loaded a 12-gauge shotgun with shells, and when the clerk objected:
("You can't do that!"), the Terminator blasted him to
death with a simple one word reply: "WRONG!", and then
took the other three weapons with him
- at first, the
killing machine mistook two other 'Sarah Connors' located in a Los
Angeles telephone book for the real one; a 35 year old mother of
two named Sarah Connor (Marianne Muellerleile) was targeted and
shot in the forehead in her Valley suburban home; soon after a
second Sarah Connor had been executed (off-screen) in Santa Monica;
when the 'real' Sarah Connor realized that she was the third Sarah
Connor listed in the phone book, she feared and suspected that
she was next
- at a construction site, Reese experienced
a brief flash-forward to the year 2029; he was fighting against
the machines as part of a Resistance movement
- after 11 pm on a Friday night, and worried about
her safety, Sarah ventured to the crowded Tech-Noir bar/night-club,
a grimy dance place a block away, noticing that she was being followed
by a sinister-looking figure in a long coat (Reese); back in her
apartment, Sarah's roommate Ginger Ventura (Bess Motta) and her
sex-obsessed boyfriend Matt Buchanan (Rick Rossovich) were both
brutally murdered by the Terminator
- afterwards, both Reese and the Terminator converged
there to pursue the innocent young Sarah Connor; during a shootout in the bar/nightclub, Reese saved
defenseless Sarah from being killed by blasting the Terminator backwards
with a sawed-off shotgun; as pandemonium mounted during a flurry of
shots, dead bodies and shattered glass were left in the wake of the
dueling time-travelers from the future
- Reese convinced Sarah that he was there to protect
her, and he grabbed her by the arm and offered her life: "Come
with me if you want to live"; they fled from the club to his stolen
vehicle followed by the Terminator in pursuit; the Terminator
lunged for their car through the flames and landed on their car's
hood and tried to grab Sarah through the windshield and strangle
her; when the android was thrown off the car and appeared injured,
police responded to a reported 'hit-and-run felony' and wrongly
assumed that the Terminator was the victim; he turned
on the responding police officer, killed him, hijacked his squad
car, and then imitated or mimicked the officer's voice on the radio
- during their escape Reese explained his mission
and the reason for the Terminator's quest to kill her; the Terminator
was an assassin - a Model 101 android (or cyborg) created by Cyberdyne
Systems; Reese had come back from 45 years into the future to protect
her; he tried to impress upon her that he wasn't
exaggerating about the Terminator's relentless stalking: "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!"
- Reese further explained what he knew about the grim
future - about how the AI computer Skynet (a network of defense computers) was responsible
for initiating a global nuclear holocaust intended to eliminate
the human race; to her surprise, he continued with a description
of one brave Resistance fighter-leader and rebel-soldier named
John Connor, Sarah's future unborn son, who would eventually
become a liberator and lead the revolt against the evil machines
to prevent the world from being annihilated; his quest, therefore,
was to rescue and save innocent Sarah's life
and ensure the conception and delivery of her son who would form
the resistance movement
- the Terminator slipped away as Reese and Sarah were
apprehended by police; the two were interrogated by criminal psychologist
Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen), who was astonished by Reese's incredulous
tale (the film's premise!); Silberman regarded Reese's complete
story as the paranoid, insane delusions of a psychopath; Reese
stressed what he knew for sure - the Terminator
would hunt down Sarah and kill her: ("That's what he does! That's
all he does! You can't stop him!")
- in a dingy hotel room, the Terminator performed
two gruesome surgeries upon himself (his left eye and his damaged
forearm) after the Tech-Noir shoot-out and after crashing the stolen
police vehicle
- to continue his assault on Reese and Sarah, the
Terminator approached the heavily guarded CENTRAL DIVISION
of the LA police department where the two were being held; he entered
the lobby and claimed: "I'm a friend of Sarah Connor" to
the desk sergeant Wright (Bruce M. Kerner); when denied entry, he delivered a
much-quoted, dead-panned and straight-faced promise to the police officer: "I'll
be back"; he briefly left and then rammed into the station
with his vehicle to initiate a vicious shoot-out sequence in which
he assaulted and completely destroyed the police station; the two
fugitives were able to flee in another stolen vehicle
- the two found brief moments of refuge and peace
in LA's economy-styled Tiki Motel where they rented a room (with
kitchenette); while assembling materials for creating pipe bombs,
Reese mentioned an old faded and torn picture of her that John
Connor had given him, and that he had vowed to come across time
for her; he boldly asserted his love for her: "I came across time
for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have"; in an affecting
love scene (to the accompaniment of piano music), they clenched
and held hands together - ultimately, their love-making conceived
and produced future liberator John Connor
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Romance Between Sarah and Reese - Resulting in Future Birth of Resistance
Leader John Connor
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- the Terminator located them, forcing the two to flee
from the hotel in a stolen pickup truck, while he pursued them on
a motorcycle; Sarah took over driving duties as Reese hurled the
pipe-bomb explosives at the T-800; when Reese was seriously-wounded
in the chest by a gunshot, Sarah hit the brakes, then abruptly swerved
the truck and violently rammed into both the Terminator's cycle and
the android - both skidded along the pavement as the truck flipped
over
- they watched as the Terminator was suddenly run over
by a massive JG Oil company tanker-truck; the two continued to be
pursued by the hijacked tanker-truck with the Terminator commandeering
it, until Reese was able to detonate the entire truck with one of
his bombs; it was blown up in a massive fireball, creating a fiery
inferno; the explosion burned the outer fleshy frame of the Terminator
down to his red-eyed exo-skeleton
- Kyle and Sarah watched in disbelief at the unstoppable
android's gleaming metal/chrome exo-skeletal frame (with glowing
red eyes) that rose up from the fiery debris and gazed directly back at them
- the film concluded inside a large factory building
filled with giant GMF robotic, hydraulic-powered machines; the two
crawled and scrambled through the maze of noisy machinery during
a tense chase, followed by the advancing metallic android
- Reese did not survive - he sacrificed himself when
he placed his last homemade pipe-bomb into the Terminator's open
rib-cage or torso, successfully blowing its lower half away - he
was the last victim (the 27th) of the Terminator's rampage; although
blown to bits, the upper-half torso of the battered but relentless
android survived and continued its pursuit of Sarah; she
escaped death by strangulation from the outstretched arm and hand
of the android, by luring it underneath a massive hydraulic press
and crushing it; as she pressed a red START button on a control box
to initiate the process of stamping out the robot, she yelled out:
"You're terminated, f--ker!"; the glowing red eyes of
the Terminator dimmed and extinguished as it was flattened; shortly
afterwards, Sarah was placed on an ambulance stretcher, and Reese
was zipped into a body bag
- in the film's short epilogue, a 6-months pregnant
Sarah audio tape-recorded her 7th tape of thoughts on November 10,
1984 (to preserve for her unborn son) as she drove in an open red
Jeep Renegade through a Mexican desert; at a gas station, she continued
her recorded narration - and spoke about her time with Kyle and the
love she had for him during their brief time together; she was startled
by the click of a Polaroid picture being taken of her by a young
Mexican boy (Anthony Trujillo) -- it was the same exact picture given
by Connor to Kyle Reese that he had carried with him and fallen in
love with; the circularity of the film's paradox seemed complete
Epilogue: Sarah's Polariod Picture
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Sarah's Last Words: "I know"
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- the young Mexican boy forecast an
impending storm, translated: "He said there's a storm coming
in." Before
driving off into the distance toward some mountains, Sarah replied: "I
know"
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Film's Prologue
The Terminator - Viewing the Lights of LA
Entrance of Resistance Fighter Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn)
Sarah Connor (at Big Jeff's Restaurant)
The Terminator's Murder of Gun-Shop Owner
The Terminator's Murder of First 'Sarah Connor'
Kyle Reese to Sarah Connor: "Come with me if you want to live"
Kyle's Words of Warning to Sarah: "It can't be bargained
with..."
Criminal Psychologist Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen)
Terminator's Damaged Eye
Self-Surgery
Terminator to Police Officer in Station: "I'll be back"
The Metallic Skeletal Frame of the T-800 After the Flesh Was Burned
Off
The Terminator's Crushing Ending by an Hydraulic
Press ("You're terminated, f--ker!")
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