Released: 1984
Directed By: James Cameron
Written By: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Micheal Biehn
Rating: R
Rent or Buy?: BUY
�The Thing That Won�t Die, In the Nightmare That Won�t End�
In the year 2029 humans have discovered a time displacement system and that a terminator has been sent back in time to kill the mother before he is born yet. A lone warrior goes through to protect her, a human from the future named Kyle Reese. The Terminator arrives in the past first and takes clothing from a punk. Kyle then arrives and takes pants from a homeless man and is chased by police into a department store where he steals a trench coat, a t-shirt and a pair of shoes and sneaks out unnoticed by the police and takes a shotgun from one of their patrol cars. The Terminator the next morning goes to a gun store and takes a Uzi 9mm, an automatic shotgun, Colt .45 with laser sighting, and an AK-47 and kills the shop owner and starts hunting down the Sarah Connors in the phone book. Kyle is then shown sawing off the butt of the shotgun and also starts looking for the Sarah Connors in the phone book. The Terminator then kills the first Sarah Connor from the phone book by shooting her once in the head and five times in the chest. Lt. Traxler and Detective Vukovich start to discover that two Sarah Connors are dead as the same listing they have in the phone book. They try reaching Sarah several times but only her room mate Ginger is home. The Terminator goes to Sarah's home and kills Ginger and her boyfriend thinking that it is Sarah. The Terminator then hears a message from Sarah on the answering machine saying she is at a club called Tech Noir and needs her and Matt to pick her up because she thinks Kyle (who has been following her) is a stalker.
The Terminator goes to the club and just as it is about to shoot Sarah, Kyle is able to shoot him several times, the Terminator then pulls out his Uzi and the two start tearing up the place shooting at each other. Kyle and Sarah escape and the Terminator pursues them and eventually jumps on the hood of the car and punches through the windshield trying to get Sarah, he is then flung off the hood and steals a police car. Kyle and Sarah hide out in a parking garage and take another car and Kyle explains to her what happened and what is happening in the future and why the Terminator is there. Police then find the car Kyle ditched and say where it is over the radio, the Terminator hears this and races to the garage. He finds them in the garage and him and Kyle get into a high speed shootout and they both eventually crash into a wall. Kyle and Sarah are taken into custody but when Sarah looks back at the car the Terminator is missing.
At the station, Kyle is interrogated by Dr.Silberman where he questions him about the future and how he got there. It is then shown that the Terminator was shot in the wrist and eye, after fixing his wrist and eye he takes the AK-47 and auto shotgun and heads for the police station. The Terminator arrives at the police station and crashes through the front door and starts shooting cops searching for Sarah. Kyle escapes from the interrogation room retrieving a police pistol and the keys for his cuffs by knocking out a police officer. He then finds Sarah and the two start escaping, during their escape Lieutenant Traxler and Detective Vukovich and killed by the Terminator. Kyle and Sarah escape and the Terminator sees them and starts firing shots but runs out of ammo. Kyle and Sarah then hide out underneath a bridge for the night and Sarah bandages up a gunshot wound Kyle got in their escape. Kyle tells Sarah more about the future and has another flashback.
The next day the Terminator looks through Sarah's address book and goes to her mother's house and waits for her to call. Kyle and Sarah then go to the Tiki Motel and while Kyle is out shopping for items to make homemade bombs, Sarah calls her mother and even though she isn't suppose to gives the phone number for the place but it is shown she is actually talking to the Terminator who is duplicating Sarah's mother's voice. The Terminator then calls the motel and asks for their address. Kyle returns and him and Sarah start making the homemade bombs and then have sex making Kyle the father of Sarah's baby. The Terminator then arrives and a dog starts barking at it, Kyle and Sarah hears this and start to leave. The Terminator then pursues them on a motorcycle. Kyle then starts throwing the homemade bombs at the Terminator but Kyle is shot by the Terminator and Sarah crashes the truck they are in into the Terminator who falls off the motorcycle and is then hit by a 18-wheel truck.
The Terminator kills the driver and starts walking with a limp and takes the truck and start chasing after Kyle and Sarah who are on foot now, Kyle hides by a dumpster and Sarah keeps running but Kyle has placed one of the homemade bombs on the back of the truck and it eventually explodes. The Terminator's body is then seen getting out of the truck but falls to the ground, Sarah and Kyle then hug thinking they killed the Terminator, but out of the fire its endo-skeleton gets up and starts chasing after the two and they go into a computer company (Cyberdyne) where the Terminator follows.
Kyle eventually starts fighting the Terminator hitting it with a steel pole. The Terminator retaliates by hitting him across the face but Kyle lights the last home made bomb and places it in the Terminator's chassey blowing it in half. Sarah is hit by some of the shrapnel in the leg and goes over to help Kyle, but he has died from shrapnel and losing too much blood. Sarah then starts to cry and the Terminator gets up even though it has been blown in half and has only one arm it still crawls after Sarah. Sarah then climbs through a pressing machine and locks the Terminator inside of it. The Terminator reaches through the gate trying to strangle Sarah but she pushes the button to make the press go down on the Terminator. Sarah is then taken to the hospital and Kyle is shown being carted away in a body bag.
Kyle Haight's Review:
I was traumatized by this movie at a young age. There, I said it. The concept of an indestructible killing cyborg isn�t a story fit for young children. In addition, the apocalyptic dark future is sure to send chills up down your spine. For nearly five years I was paralysed by this movie. But soon after I read the novelization and discovered it�s not so bad. Trauma aside, this is a cool story which could have been so much more had the budget for the film been bigger. Even with �cheesy-looking� SFX by our standards today, it must have been eye-popping back in 1984. The
music by Brad Fidel is very electronic. Typical for a 1980s movie. This is the movie that made Arnold Schwarzenegger famous with his catch-phrase �I�ll be back� (originally scripted as "I'll come back.") Great acting by Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor who is sceptical at first of the Terminator sent from the future to kill her, but she grows strong by the end of the movie and crushes the thing sent to kill her. Micheal Biehn as Kyle Reese is a cool character only outmatched by his successor, the Terminator himself in �Terminator 2: Judgment Day.� All in all, one of the greatest movies of all time, though most will say that �T2" is better.
* * * 3/4/4 stars
Justin Whittaker's Review:
This was such an excellent movie, probably one of James Cameron's best movies back before he made fruity movies like "Titanic." Although "The Terminator" is not quite as good as its sequel, it still offers alot of amazing shootouts. Schwarzenegger plays an excellent bad-guy Terminator and Biehn plays a great human protector trying to adapt to living in the past and also kudos to Hamilton on playing the average waitress SWF. This was such an excellent movie for its time and is probably one of my favourites.
* * * 3/4/4 stars
OVERALL: * * * 3/4 STARS OUT OF 4 STARS
Hilarious/Memorable Quotes:
The Terminator: I�ll be back.
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Detective Traxler: How do I look?
Detective Vukovich: Like shit boss.
Detective Traxler: Yo mama.
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Gun Store Owner: (seeing The Terminator loading a rifle in his store) Hey, you can�t do that.
The Terminator: Wrong. (Shoots him)
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Mexican Gas Station Owner: He says there�s a storm coming.
Sarah Connor: He�s right.
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Kyle Reese: It will never stop! Ever! Until you are dead!
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Kyle Resse: (after being bitten by Sarah) Terminators don�t feel pain. I do. Don�t do that again.
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Motel Manager: (to The Terminator through the door) Hey buddy! You got a dead cat in there?
The Terminator: (looks at possible responses in his "mind.") Fuck you, asshole.
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Sarah Connor: (crushing The Terminator with a hydraulic press) You're terminated, fucker!