A great sci-fi flick. WARNING: SPOILERS

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2001)

Simply put, the trouble with most sci-fi flicks is that they are not very good. This James Cameron tour de force is an exception. The dark atmosphere, surreal tension (achieved by interspersing glimpses of a dystopic future and by proportional revelations of the characters' places in the scheme of things) and frenetic violence make for a brooding and at the same time tumultuous affair.

All of the actors from Schwarzenegger to Biehn to Hamilton shine, but the real star is the plot itself, which is clever, intricate and sinisterly plays on our dichotomous love/hate relationship with technology. The dialogue is similarly well-crafted and of course produced one of movie histories most oft-quoted lines, `I'll be back'.

One priggish minus however: The scene where the police are staking out Sara Connor's home and leave to take another call just as the terminator arrives was unrealistic. In such a sensationally developing case, they would have never left. It would have been better to show the killing-machine walking up to the front door with a shot of the cops he just killed in the background.