Before Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California, he had a long career as an actor in action movies.  After a career in bodybuilding, he started to make movies.  The first several were smaller movies, though he started to get some attention for his part in the Conan movies.  I think The Terminator was his first really big movie.  I recently watched it again for the first time in many years.

In 2029, computers ruled the world and were determined to kill off most the humans that were left alive and use a few as slave labor.  They decide to send a Terminator, an indestructible cyborg, into the past to kill a woman.  The son that Sarah Connor had not yet had would become the leader of the resistance and man's best hope at defeating Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that had become self aware.  John Connor - Sarah's son - learned of Skynet's plan and sent Kyle Reese, one of the members of the resistance, back in time to protect Sarah.  

Even though the Terminator is a killing machine, Kyle has a slight advantage since he actually knows what Sarah looks like.  The Terminator only knows the name and sets out to kill every Sarah Connor in the phone book.  Kyle managed to find the right Sarah and get her away just in time, though she didn't believe what he told her at first.  It wasn't long before she was believing and they were on the run from the cyborg that they couldn't stop.

The Terminator started off by giving a brief look at what the world was like in 2029.  That was not a pleasant, happy looking future with the members of the resistance hiding from the Skynet machines while trying to ultimately defeat them.  Things were very bleak for humanity, but they kept fighting.  Later in the movie, after Kyle found Sarah and started telling about the future he was from, there were some more scenes of the future shown that provided more information about that time.  Skynet had developed the Terminators to be so realistic that they would sweat, so it was very difficult for humans to identify them.  Dogs could tell the difference though, so they were very helpful to the resistance.  The glimpses of the world of 2029 were interesting and helped to further explain certain things connected to what was going on.  It was always very clear when one of those scenes was happening because of how different everything looked.

Most of what happened in The Terminator took place over only a few days in 1984 after the Terminator was sent back to kill Sarah.  Since the movie had such a short time frame, the pace was rather fast, but it never felt rushed to me.  The movie was mainly focused on Kyle trying to keep Sarah alive while finding some way to stop the unstoppable cyborg.  A few things that happened were a bit predictable, but I didn't feel like the entire movie was predictable.  There were a few suspenseful moments throughout the movie that would be most effective to people who haven't seen the movie yet.  There was some resolution to what was going on while certain things were also left up in the air.  I have no idea if a sequel was always planned or not.

There was a lot of action throughout The Terminator.  Kyle and Sarah had to fight the cyborg several times.  They did come up with a few interesting ways of trying to deal with him since Kyle hadn't been able to bring any futuristic weapons back with him.  For whatever reason, only living things could travel through time, which was why both Kyle and the cyborg were naked when they arrived in 1984.  The cyborg was able to do it because the metal robotic parts were covered by living tissue.  The action scenes were done well.  Some of the scenes were rather violent or gory, like when the Terminator was fixing some of his injuries.  That scene really grossed me out the first time I saw the movie and I'm still not fond of it.  The movie was rated R because of the violence and definitely isn't a movie for young children to see.  Several characters also used a lot of profanity, including versions of the word that rhymes with luck, so people bothered by that type of language may have problems with the movie.

Special effects were used for different things throughout The Terminator without them distracting from the plot.  The effects were done well for the time, especially considering that the movie didn't have a huge budget to begin with.  Some of the effects do look slightly dated now, but they have held up well overall.  I honestly think that the music used for the score was more dated than the effects.  The machines shown in the clips of the future looked very realistic as did the cyborg when his internal machine parts were shown.  The cyborg was really creepy looking once the outer layer of skin and tissue was removed.  

Kyle and Sarah really didn't have a lot of time together during The Terminator.  They did end up quickly developing a strong bond.  Even barely knowing Sarah, Kyle said he loved her, though part of that was because John had told him so much about her and even gave him a picture of her.  Sarah quickly developed feelings for him as well and they ended up having sex.  The sex wasn't that long and didn't show that much, though some skin, including Sarah's bare breasts were shown.  That did add a tiny bit of romance to the movie without distracting from the main focus of the movie.

There were really only three characters that received much attention in The Terminator.  Sarah Connor was a single young woman working as a waitress before she was almost killed by a cyborg from the future.  She didn't believe what was going on at first, but it didn't take long for her to accept it.  She managed to stay fairly calm in dangerous situations and quickly became determined to survive.  Linda Hamilton handled the part well.

Kyle Reese was part of the resistance in 2029 and had been working with John Connor.  Kyle was chosen to travel back in time to try to protect Sarah.  He was very determined to make sure she survived.  He knew a lot about her and had already developed feelings for her when he traveled back in time.  He knew how to fight and seemed to be nice.  Michael Biehn did very well with the part.  

The Terminator was the cyborg that was sent back in time kill Sarah.  The cyborg didn't have any trouble passing for human.  It could take all sorts of damage and it kept going to try to kill Sarah.  It didn't have any feelings and didn't care about anything.  It was focused only on killing Sarah and it was willing to do anything to achieve that goal.  I thought that Arnold Schwarzenegger did a good job with the part.  He didn't say much, and the few lines he had were emotionless, but that worked since the character was a cyborg.  Something - I'm not sure if it was the makeup or just the lighting in some scenes - made his skin look a bit odd.  That, along with the way that Arnold turned his head or looked at things at times really helped to make it more believable that he was a machine instead of a person.  Arnold was in really, really good shape when he made this movie, and he showed off most of that physique when he was walking around naked at the beginning of the movie.  There were a few other characters, like Sarah's roommate, who turned up briefly without much to do.  One character, Dr. Silberman, only turned up in a short scene or two, but his character would be back in the later movies and even the television series.

Main Cast

Michael Biehn - Kyle Reese
Earl Boen - Dr. Silberman
Linda Hamilton - Sarah Connor
Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator

James Cameron - Director

DVD Information

There have been a few different DVD releases for The Terminator.  I recently added a copy to my DVD collection.  My copy has the widescreen version of the movie.  The only special features were things to be accessed by a DVD-ROM drive.  I haven't checked to see what they are.  I believe there are more special features on other versions of the DVD.  

The Terminator was a very well done, entertaining science fiction action movie that has held up well overall.  People that like this type of movie should definitely check it out.  

The Terminator ~ Terminator 2: Judgement Day ~ Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ~ Terminator Salvation ~ Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season ~

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD