The Terminator

Composite Score: 84.8

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Bess Motta, and Earl Boen

Director: James Cameron

Writers: James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

MPAA Rating: R

Box Office: $78.37 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                The Terminator is the first film in the film franchise of the same name from writer/director James Cameron about Sarah Connor, aided by Kyle Reese (a future soldier), facing off against a cyborg assassin from the future sent to kill her to prevent humanity’s victory over the machines in the year 2029. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg killer, Linda Hamilton in her career-defining role as Sarah Connor, and Michael Biehn as Sarah’s protector from the future Kyle Reese. Grossing more than $78 million on a nearly $6 million budget, the film launched James Cameron’s career as a successful writer director and launched the Terminator franchise on a trajectory that would produce multiple more movies and spin-offs and hundreds of millions of dollars. The film is considered a classic of the sci-fi action genre and one of the defining films of the 1980s, complete with its punk extras, massive shoot-outs, and nearly dystopian nighttime in downtown Los Angeles.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                When it comes to The Terminator, its strength of originality soon wears off in the face of its shortcomings. For starters, its sequel surpasses it in almost every way, but that’s something that couldn’t happen without this film existing in the first place, so we won’t dwell on that. Also though, most other films in its genre do what it’s trying to do better or at least with better effects. The Alien films of the 1980s (one of which was directed by Cameron) do sci-fi horror better, though Terminator should be credited with solid original character design with the Terminator skeleton. Back to the Future does the weird time travel stuff better. There’s an argument to be made that Predator’s VFX with the infrared were more interesting and made more sense than the overlays from The Terminator. While all of these films owe credit to The Terminator to some extent, I think it’s okay to also admit that they might be better films all-around than The Terminator (excepting The Predator, maybe…).

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Where The Terminator earns its reputation is in its originality. For anyone watching this film in a vacuum, it is almost immediately clear that the writers (Cameron and his producer Gale Anne Hurd) put in massive amounts of effort in their worldbuilding and creating a fiction for their story to exist within, whether any sequels ever happened or not. This is one of those science fiction films filled to the brim with unique lingo, teases of additional lore, and a world that is not entirely our own. With all the sequels and other derivative work that has come after, much of that teasing and worldbuilding has become clearer (sometimes not for the better), and the film might suffer a bit for that, but on its own, this is a fantastic achievement of creativity and originality in sci-fi filmmaking that you rarely see anymore outside of Cameron’s Avatar franchise and possibly a Nolan film here or there. The setting of the film (1980s downtown Los Angeles) lends itself to the otherness of Cameron’s story in that he characterizes the whole place as a near-dystopia itself – overrun with punks, teens, and heavily armed, inept police, none of whom seem too distressed by the many car chases and massacres occurring around them beyond typical news frenzies. It’s an excellent (if questionable in terms of spin) choice on the part of Cameron that ties the whole film in this otherworldly landscape, destined for eventual destruction and already well on its way.

                The Terminator is a classic of the sci-fi/action/thriller genre, introducing us to James Cameron’s world of cyborgs, artificial intelligence, time travel, and Sarah Connor in satisfyingly original fashion, anchored by a portrayal of 1980s L.A. that cements its place in dystopian stories and gives it a spot among the greats. The film suffers a bit in direct comparison to the films in its genres that came after and often drew inspiration from it, but the originality and creativity of the original are hard to deny. It is currently streaming on Max for anyone who needs to give it another run in the near future.