James Cameron’s "The Terminator" is truly a spectacle of film-making. Working with an incredibly low budget of $6.4 million (compared to modern movie budgets that easily go into the hundreds of millions today) James Cameron manages to create a thrilling and incredibly put together film that would pave the way for action films for years to come. This film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton and Lance Henriksen in iconic roles they’ll be remembered for forever. It’s an action, time-travel movie which is usually an easy way to turn away a portion of your audience but the character work and effects of this movie are so crafty and articulate that this movie can be enjoyed by fans of any genre of film.
The story follows Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) who finds herself caught in a war between humans and machines, the actual war won’t take place for another couple years but due to technological advancements, the “true war” takes place in 1984. A model T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back by the machines to kill the mother of the human resistance leader, John Connor. The humans decide to send a soldier back (Michael Biehn) to protect Sarah Connor and ensure her survival so that John Connor can be born and lead the resistance that eventually holds an upper hand over the machines.
This movie handles time-travel in such a unique way that it has sparked countless debates and thousands of theories. The logistics of the time travel can make your brain hurt even though it’s presented very simply in this movie. It doesn’t follow "Back to the Future" rules, even though those are spelled out much more clearly in their movies... "The Terminator" takes a different approach: a time travel trope where everything that happens has already happened, actions by time travelers simply complete a loop which fulfills a destiny that has already been set in motion. I just confused myself typing that up, but the movie does an excellent job at filling the audience in.
The action and visual effects are stellar for a $6 million budget, each sequence is perfectly shot and utilizes various filmmaking techniques to get around their budget. Projection screens, stop motion, and puppets are all used so carefully that it helps complete a scene rather than try to enhance it. Most effects utilized in film nowadays are just ways to speed up the process and get the movie out in theaters quicker, I really miss the period of time in film history where a director actually had to just work with what he had and use true movie magic to make a scene believable.
Linda Hamilton’s character makes a brilliant transformation throughout this movie, going from scared innocent woman to bold determined hero in a manner of hours. Her character gets more depth and character development in the amazing sequel "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" but the seeds of that character are planted perfectly throughout this movie. She’s pretty much used as a stand-in for the audience to ask the important questions, every movie needs a character who knows as little as the audience does so that we have someone to attach to and learn relevant information from.
Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) plays such a believable “man out of time” and serves as a perfect hero to this story. He’s just a human going against an unstoppable killing machine but his wits and knowledge of the future give him an advantage to navigating the streets of 1984. There’s a point in time where you really sympathize with his frustration when nobody at the police station will believe his story about the Terminators or the future war against man and machines.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is such a badass in this movie that it’s almost disappointing what they do with the character of the Terminator in the sequel, but I’ll get into that once I write about T2. In this movie, he shows no remorse, no emotion and works only to get the job done. He has one initiative: terminate Sarah Connor. He’s a robot so he has no concept of social interaction or manners. He walks into buildings unannounced, pushes people away like they’re toys and grabs any item he may need to complete his task. His performance borders on very humorous while also being absolutely frightening at the same time.
"The Terminator" is an action film that still holds up today and should be watched by every fan of Arnold, James Cameron or the action genre. This movie will go on to inspire many others and for that reason alone is worth a solid recommendation. This movie balances character work, set design, visual and sound effects so perfectly and even then it led to one of the greatest sequels of all-time, which many will argue is better than the original.
“I’ll be back” next time for my review of "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" after its re-release in theaters the weekend of August 24th
