Question: Why Is This Movie So Popular?

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2001)

Answer: Because The Terminator is one of the best science-fiction movies ever made. That's why.
The story is familiar to countless fans, so I won't go too deep into it. In the not-to-distant future, a war is being fought between humans and killer machines. The machines are on the verge of losing the war. So they desperately send a killer cyborg called a T-800 or a Terminator(Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill a woman named Sarah Connor(Linda Hamilton) who is destined to give birth to the leader of the human resistance, John Connor. The humans however, send a brave soldier back in time to intercept the Terminator. His name is Kyle Reese(Michael Biehn). Now only one question is left. Who will reach Sarah first: Reese or the Terminator?
This has to be one of the greatest sci-fi films to come out during the 1980's. It is also director James Cameron's second best film behind Aliens.
This movie has so many good action scenes, my favorite being the police massacre scene because it shows just how cold and relentless the Terminator is in pursuit of something it wants.
This is definitely Arnold Schwarzenegger's best role yet. He has yet been able to top it off. His performance in T2 was alright but it wasn't typical Schwarzenegger. Michael Biehn probably gives his best performance here also. His role in Aliens was pretty awesome, too. He did take a turn in The Abyss by playing a bad guy. Linda Hamilton, an extremely underused actress plays probably her most convincing role of her career. Her performance in T2 was great, but it's sad that she won't be appearing in the T3.
One final note about the Special Edition DVD. The many special features it has like the "Terminated" scenes and stuff is cool, but the sound quality of the remastered version is poor. The reason why I probably hate the remastered version so much is probably because I'm used to watching an old unmastered version of the movie that my dad taped off of Cinemax or HBO or something like that.
The Terminator gets a 10/10.