Set a standard in sci-fi action films that has rarely been beaten and has endured for many years

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2015)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In the year 2029, mankind is in a desperate battle with The Machines, that have risen from the ashes of the last war. Through a time travelling portal, exceptional soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) has travelled back in time to the year 1984, to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who will be the mother of John Connor, the leader of the Resistance. But Skynet, the computer defence system that set the machines on the world, has sent its own agent along, in the shape of The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a robotic soldier fitted with human flesh that is programmed to complete its mission at all costs.
Re-released (in selected theatres) earlier this year to coincide with the release of the far inferior, effects driven Terminator: Genysis, fans of the franchise were taken back to where it all began, the rollicking roller-coaster ride, with breath taking special effects (for the time), pulse pounding action sequences and a far fetched, but conversely intelligent and elaborate story that no doubt played a big part in making it stand the test of time. In 1984, The Terminator was simply unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, and today could serve as an abject lesson to the effects-over-substance brigade.
For anyone who never got in to the Conan films, this was the film that presented Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Mr. Universe champion turned actor, to the world. While not exactly oozing with what you'd call traditional acting talent, here his expressionless demeanour and cold, thick Austrian voice suited the skin of a cold blooded killer perfectly. He's no psychopath, though. He knows exactly what he's doing. Or, rather, what he's been programmed to do. And either him or his prey will have to be dead by the end for it to end. Sarah Connor's slow, dawning realization that her life is in danger is brilliantly orchestrated, after two women with the same name and the same age have already been dispatched and she becomes suspicious of everyone around her.
It all builds to an explosive (literally) finale, where the killing machine is stripped to its bare bones and pursues his already worn down assailants inside a factory. Although its one of many effects that look a bit sub par now, somehow the tension and terror is no less palpable. And Arnie's "I'll be back" line is still somehow cool and as welcome in pop culture circles as ever. *****