Terminator, The

The Terminator is an American feature film that combines elements of science fiction and action. Notable tropes used in the movie include robots and time travel. The film was written and directed by James Cameron and co-written by Gale Anne Hurd, with additional dialogue supplied by William Wisher. It was produced by Hemdale Film and Pacific Western and distributed through Orion Pictures. It was released theatrically in the United States on October 26th, 1984. A sequel film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released by Carolco Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1991.

The Terminator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a T-800 Terminator, which is a robot sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor - the mother of futuristic revolutionary leader John Connor, thus preventing his birth, and negating the possibility of Connor's defeat of the evil A.I. regime of the future. Playing the role of Sarah Connor is actress Linda Hamilton. Actor Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, who is the heroic time traveler sent back to not only save Sarah Connor, but also to impregnate her, thus solidifying John Connor's placement in the future. Other stars in the film include Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Dick Miller and Earl Boen.

Plot
The film opens with the depiction of the year 2029—a possible future where mankind has been oppressed by artificially intelligent machines, lead by the rebellious computer system Skynet. This computer became sentient and started a nuclear war by hijacking control of the United States' nuclear arsenal, launching the ICBM's in a devastating attempt to annihilate humanity. Now a post-apocalyptic war is raged in the future, where a small Resistance group of free humans try to win back their planet and survive the machine onslaught, lead by the heroic, influential General John Connor. Connor is the man responsible for the creation of the human resistance, and credited with rescuing mankind from extinction by rallying survivors to combat Skynet's forces.

A scroll appears on the screen, stating "The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged on for decades. But the final battle will not be fought in the future, it would be fought in our present...tonight." Though the year is not specifically mentioned, the "present day" of the movie starts in the year 1984, Los Angeles, and introduces the arrival of the Terminator, a Series 800 Model 101 Infiltrator unit sent back in time by Skynet to assassinate Sarah Connor, mother of the future savior of mankind (and Skynet's greatest enemy), before he is conceived by an unknown father the following year.

The Terminator arrives nude since the time machine is powered by organic matter, so that clothes, weapons, etc. can't be sent back. The cyborg assassin is able to travel due to it being a skeletal robot covered by living human skin, protecting the combat chassis and metal endoskeleton underneath. The T-800 steals clothing from three teenage reckless gangsters (one played by Bill Paxton). Since they refuse, the T-800 knocks one teenager unconscious, fatally stabs another and steals the clothing from the third one. After stealing a large amount of deadly weaponry, it begins to systematically hunt down and shoot every person listed as "Sarah Connor" in the phone book, in alphabetical order, to guarantee no mistakes with identity.

Meanwhile, in another part of Los Angeles, human resistance soldier Kyle Reese has arrived through time as well, tasked with protecting John Connor's mother from the Terminator, which was sent back as a last-second act of desperation by Skynet to eliminate its enemy's entire existence. He steals clothes from a poor homeless man and steals a shotgun from a police vehicle. The Terminator's systematic murder of the three women listed as “Sarah Connor” in the vicinity draws media attention and the notice of police Lt. Ed Traxler (Paul Winfield), and detective Hal Vukovich (Lance Henriksen). The real Sarah Connor, a hapless 19-year-old waitress with a dull life and living with her best friend and roommate Ginger Ventura, finds out about the murders on television, and, worried by the name connection, takes shelter in a local disco full of teenagers, TechNoir, to wait for police protection.

While there, the Terminator and Reese both arrive to acquire her, and thankfully Reese saves the innocent, defenseless Sarah from the murderous cyborg. The Terminator totally destroys the disco, killing six people. Fleeing in a stolen vehicle with the Terminator in pursuit with a hijacked police car, Kyle tells the terrified woman what is going on, to her initial disbelief. After an intense shootout between Reese and the attacking Terminator, the police arrive and arrest Reese and Sarah and bring them to West-Island police station. The Terminator escapes unseen, and breaks into a hotel room to perform self-repairs on its damaged eye and right arm, having to cover the damage with sunglasses.

At the police station, Sarah is reassured and interviewed by criminal psychologist Peter Silberman, who believes that Reese is an insane, delusional, a "loon." Reese's claims about the future and the advanced robot's mission are dismissed as those of a raving lunatic. They also have the "logical explanations" about the Terminator; they think he survived several bullets with a bullet-proof vest and that when he smashed through a windshield with his bare hands, he must have broken every bone in his arm. However, mere minutes later, the Terminator arrives at the station, and when denied access to see Sarah, casually utters to the desk sergeant "I'll be back", before driving a car right into the lobby, destroying it, killing the desk sergeant. The machine begins a one-man assault on the station, shooting down 17 police officers in its determined search, causing a power outage, setting a fire, and damaging the building in the shootout, which eventually collapses. Reese and Sarah are able to escape once again, and go into hiding in a cave. They then rent a free room at the Tiki Motel, where Reese begins teaching Sarah how to build homemade explosives.

During their night at the motel, Sarah and Reese discuss their feelings, where Sarah expresses her disbelief and feeling of shame at being the mother of mankind's only hope. She doubts Reese's account of Sarah being thought of as a legendary warrior in his future, and says he must be disappointed. He quietly denies this, saying that he was given a picture of Sarah by Connor himself for good luck, and that he fell deeply in love with the woman in the photo. Admitting his passionate feelings for Sarah, who is deeply touched, Kyle thinks he has made a fool of himself and tries to stay cool stating that he shouldn't have said it... until Sarah reciprocates his desire, and the two make intimate love.

Later, as Sarah and Kyle get dressed, they hear the sound of barking dogs; the Terminator has found them. Sarah and Reese flee in a truck as the T-800 chases on a motorcycle. During this chase Kyle is mortally wounded by a gun shot from the Terminator. In rage, Sarah rams the motorcycle, causing both her and the machine to get into a violent crash. The T-800 commandeers a massive tanker truck, and tries to drive over Sarah, while the injured Reese tosses a homemade pipe bomb into the exhaust of the vehicle. The resulting explosion destroys the tanker, and the Terminator limps through the rubble as its synthetic human flesh covering completely burns away, revealing the gleaming metal cyborg endoskeleton beneath. The monstrous cyborg continues to chase Sarah and Reese on foot into a hydraulics facility, where Reese, in a valiant effort to stop the machine, first struck it with a metal bar, receiving more fatal blows as the machine retaliated with a back-handed swipe. Kyle manages to blow apart the robot's torso by inserting another homemade pipe bomb among the hydraulic components in the abdomen, destroying the lower half and unintentionally killing himself and injuring Sarah in the leg due to debris from the blast.

The T-800's upper torso is still operational, and begins to crawl after Sarah, who was hampered by her injured leg. She climbs behind a metal slide-gate, which the Terminator tries to reach its arm through the bars to strangle her. With the T-800 distracted, Sarah then presses the button—she had lured the machine under a 1000 ton hydraulic press. As she reaches for the start button, Sarah taunts the Terminator with the phrase, "You're terminated, fucker!" The Terminator is crushed to oblivion by the press, which applied 1000 tons of pressure to crush the Terminator, and Sarah's life is saved.

The screen then jumps forward, showing the aftermath of the film's events. Sarah is now several months pregnant with a boy, revealing the movie's twist: by sending back a protector for his mother, John Connor actually inadvertently created his own existence. In their romantic night together, Reese had conceived a child with Sarah, paradoxically becoming John's father. She acknowledges this during a recording she has taped to later give to her son at the proper age.

Sarah then stops at a gas station in Mexico on November 10, 1984 (she has now become a fugitive from society), where she has a photograph taken of herself before departing. In a final twist of fate, the audience sees that this is exactly the same picture that Kyle Reese carries in the future. Sarah then drives off into the distance to train her son in preparation for his destiny. In the distance, storms are approaching over the mountains. The end credits start to roll as her Jeep disappears.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Terminator and The Terminator (1984) both redirect to this page.


 * Terminator is the 13,000 article created on.


 * Production on The Terminator began on February 8th, 1984. Principal filming concluded on May 12th, 1984.


 * In Rome, during the release of Piranha II: The Spawning director James Cameron grew ill and had a dream about a metallic torso dragging itself from an explosion while holding kitchen knives. When Cameron returned to Pomona, California, he stayed at Randall Frakes' home where he wrote a draft for The Terminator.


 * Cameron later stated that his influences while writing the script were 1950s science fiction films and episodes of The Outer Limits as well as contemporary films including The Driver and The Road Warrior.


 * Cameron's agent hated the idea for The Terminator and told him to work on something else. After this, Cameron fired his agent.


 * Bill Paxton is the only film actor who has the distinction of being killed by a Terminator, a Xenomorph from Aliens and a Predator in Predator 2.


 * Actor Anthony Trujillo, who plays a Mexican boy, is credited as Anthony T. Trujillo in this film.


 * Actor Norman Friedman, who plays a cleaning man, is credited as Norma Friedman in this film.


 * Actor David Hyde Pierce, who plays a tanker partner, is credited as David Pierce in this film.


 * Actor Greg Robbins, who plays a motel customer, is credited as Gregory Robbins in this film.


 * Actress Marian Green is uncredited for her participation in this film.


 * Actor J. Randolph Harrison is uncredited for his participation in this film.


 * Actor Darrell Mapson is uncredited for his participation in this film.


 * Actor John Stuart West is uncredited for his participation in this film.