A movie that all modern sci-fi and horror films aspire to be like.

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2018)

Describing the 1984 classic, The Terminator is difficult for me because when I was young, I never saw it before due to being too young to watch it and so for a long time, it slipped under my viewing radar until late last year when I finally decided to give it a watch and after the end credits rolls, I was left in awe and wonderment at what I had just seen. From it's themes and dark and gritty feel to the directing and performances, The Terminator is truly a groundbreaker in terms of filmmaking.
The film begins in the distant future where a nuclear holocaust has wiped out much of the human race and those who have survived are engaged in a brutal war with machines known as Terminators. In order to stop the human resistance from ever winning the war, a Terminator is sent back to 1984 to kill a young woman named Sarah Conner so her son will never lead the human race to victory. Unbeknownst to them, the resistance sends a lone solider named Kyle Reese back in time to the same year to protect Sara. Upon arriving, both Reese and the Terminator obtain clothing and weapons, meanwhile The Terminator deliberately begins murdering all women named Sara Conner. After looking her up in a telephone book, both men track Sara to a nightclub and once there, the Terminator almost kills her but Reese saves her and the two make a quick getaway while the Terminator pursues them. Now, Conner and Reese must do what they can to avoid this robotic killer while trying to reset the future.
Upon viewing a couple movies by directors like Steven Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick, you begin to understand the way they approach certain elements of the film they're showing you, not just making the movie but also character interactions or small intricate details that help tell the story effectively. James Cameron is a fine example to use when describing this circumstance as he is a deeply talented director with a boundless disadvantage on what his filmmaking insight could be but with one high breakthrough with the Terminator and a whole other world opened for him. It's of little consequence if the director or writer doesn't makes sense of it, though some do such as Vincent Van Gogh who wrote about the creativeness he had passionately. Whichever way you choose to see it, when the movie viewing audience grasps a movie like The Terminator, the filmmaking world seems to alter as a film such as this shows both audiences and critics what can be done when a director puts his mind, heart and soul into a film and makes something truly special out of it.
Cameron is an absolute force when it comes to filmmaking and a infamous perfectionist when it comes to telling stories, but all that paid off handsomely as the film maintains its rewatchability without coming across as pretentious while Cameron is a master of the small details like the police officer at his disk working on his form-filling with a small pencil and stops in the middle of a sentence to look up and see a car crashing though the front doors. Since James co-wrote the script, that makes the story even more intimate rather than just a solid achievement in directing as he apparently got his idea from a dream where he was being pursued by a mechanical skeleton with a bright red eye but I wouldn't be surprised if Cameron also drew inspiration from several episodes of the Outer Limits when coming up with ideas for the movie while the entire movie seems to always have an immediate, brutal atmospheric feel and a placid sensibleness which is distinctive of a bad dream which only seems to highten the tension and dread as the Terminator hunts down Sarah and Kyle and it seems there are only a few small moments in the film that allow the viewer to catch their breath not to mention never is there a scene that just feels like it's trying to pad out the running time nor does it dumb it's subject matter down to the lowest common denominator which also makes the film more approachable for the viewer.
As for the filmmaking side of things, The Terminator certainly excels there too. The cinematography is to a very high standard with a dark, dirty and grungy look that makes the world Cameron has created feel much more lived in and believable while Stan Winston's stop-motion effects and Terminator endoskeleton is legendary in terms of their fluidity, movement and outright terror, but it's composer Brad Fiedel who deserves the most love: his pounding, techno-infused score is truly one of the finest film soundtracks of all time and perhaps even the best device Cameron has used in maintaining the movie's driving force. The score is astonishing, conflicting and grim all at the same time with a ceaseless bass line that keeps the movie appearing like it's not going to stop, not until the villain has be dealt with. One peculiar scene in the movie is a perfect representation of all these elements coming together under Cameron's masterful directing is the moment where both the Terminator and Kyle enter the Tech Noir club looking for Sarah. As the robot wanders though the place and advances towards the table where she is seated, the movie alternates into an unreal slow-mo as Conner drops a bottle on the floor and crouches to pick it long enough for the Terminator to forget her as he walks by. The 80s music now is faint due to the expansion of time as Brad's musical score comes into play, Sarah stands up and sees not the robot but Reese looking at her unaware that her pursuer is now circling back around and is nearly about to notice her but just when the slow-motion comes to its high point, Reese sees what Conner hasn't as the Terminator pulls a gun on her and is about to pull the trigger when Reese does the same and the viewer is suddenly thrown back into the here and now and all hell breaks loose. The amount of tension used in this one scene stays its course throughout the entirety of the movie which makes it one of cinema's most effective thrillers. Of course, the action in the Terminator shouldn't be overlooked as it's some of the finest out of any 80s action movie. The shoot out in the night club is a true masterstroke in terms of dread and tension as the Terminator and Reese duke it out and the robot takes the action up a level as he fires his gun as Kyle does the same. Once he's thrown though the glass, he gets up from the sidewalk and starts chasing Conner and Reese while the shoot-out at the police station is a perfect exercise in brutality as the robotic killing machine marches through the halls massacring everyone in sight while the scene of Sarah killing the Terminator is a benchmark of suspense and intensity.
As for the cast, they're all fantastic: Linda Hamilton was born to play Sarah Conner, portraying her as a more grounded, naÃ¯ve and defenseless character here rather than the battle-hardened badass we see in T2, yet it doesn't seem too mind-boggling she becomes that as the movie progresses and we see her grow as a character and begin to see the warrior side of her emerge practically at the end when she crushes the Terminator plus the chemistry between her and Biehn is prefect and any scene of them together is always a treat to watch. Michael Biehn is absolutely fantastic as Kyle Reese, portraying him as a scrawny, thin and realistic hero, so much so that the minute he's introduced, it's difficult not to see his helplessness when you see the scars across his body when he comes out of the portal and when he battles the Terminator, he is outclassed which allows the viewer to see his weaknesses as a character as does his willingness to give up his own life for his cause shows just how hopeless his situation is, something Jai Courtney failed to do in Genisys. Lance Henriksen is wonderful in his role as the police sergeant as is Earl Boen and even Bill Paxton pops up in a small role, but it's Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular villain who makes the movie so wonderful to watch. Even with his limited dialog, Arnie still is able to kick to tension up to 11 whenever he is on screen To declare that the Terminator had a foreboding presence on screen would be putting it mildly, he's absolutely terrifying as a villain due to his simple motivation of killing Sarah and nothing else which is what makes him such an effective villain and not your standard greedy bad guy with no motives we contently see now a days.
Honestly, is there anything else that needs to be said about the Terminator that others haven't said already? It's a must see movie even if you're not a fan of sci-fi or horror. Go watch it now.