Film review: The Terminator

The year 2024 does have one round number anniversary of its own to celebrate: 1984’s Terminator will be 40 years old by October, 2024. “40 years” is actually an uncanny number to think about with this one, as one line in the movie says that life-like cyborgs like the titular killing machine will not appear for about another 40 years. The line was said in fictional May, 1984 while I’m writing in real life June, 2024. Not too sure about human looking cyborgs among us but machine intelligence cable of deception is very real. See Deep Fake.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Allow me to start with a myth busting: made with 6 million us dollars in 1984, the Terminator was a low budget flick, but it ain’t that cheap. For starters, 6 mil is probably more than anything we schmucks will ever see in our bank accounts. Then there is a tale regarding Roger Corman: Terminator co-writer and producer Gale Anne Gurd turned to her old boss for the 6 million. Corman made his former protégé an offer of 2 million. No deal, so she turned to another former associate of Corman working at Orion Pictures, the studio ended up bankrolling the endeavor.

Orion would offer 6 million on one condition: their boy Arnold Schwarzenegger to be cast in the picture. The rest, more or less, is history. A movie made in 1984 with 6 million was a far cry from “the most expansive pictures” records Jame Cameron would keep breaking later into this career. The number was low compared to 10 million and more spent on flicks like Alien or the first Indiana Jones adventure. But it was still higher than any budget Hurd and Camreon had managed before. Luckily, they did make the most out of it.

Director

The year 2019 did have its attempt at celebrating the Terminator’s 35^th anniversary. It’s subtitled Dark Fate. Hyped as “the third Terminator flick with James Cameron’s involvement”, it turned out to be just another terrible sequel made in the 21^st century. It’s funny, while the first 2 and only good Terminator films were directed by James Cameron, co-writers contributed much as well. So, I guess there is no surprise that a Skynet with serial number filed off sequel into which post-Avatar Cameron had input on the script front, turned out lousy.

Back to the 1984 flick. It’s clearly a bodyguard versus assassin action thriller with a time travel bend. “Body guard versus assassin” is a winning formula for action flicks, just look at those 2 Chris Hemsworth action vehicles on Netflix. James Cameron once called a 1978 flick titled the Driver and its kinetic car chases in nigh city Los Angeles as inspiration. As for the time travel bit, Robert Heinlein’s All You Zombies, a twistedly plotted tale about “Go fuck yourself thus give birth to yourself”, played a big part according to Cameron himself. Of course, that story’s Ouroboros paradox regarding time travel also had more radical (Or expanded in spirit closer to the Heinlein short story) showcases such as Dark and Bodies on Netlfix, so the Terminator’s “son of a time traveler will save mankind” final reveal is weak sauce in comparison. Cameron cutting out the “Skynet would be built on tech from future” bit did not help either.

I had to respectfully disagree with former Giantbomb staff member Brad Shoemaker’s statement that the Terminator is a slasher flick. This is high-octane action through and through. When the leading lad and lass are forced to flee from the killer, car stunts are involved more often than not. Matt, the bit player who happened to date the leading lass’ roommate, was killed by the Terminator in a fashion involving stunt performers threw themselves around a room and against lots of objects. Let’s take a look at the killer.

Killer

Legend has it that neither Cameron nor Schwarzenegger was happy the first time they met. The actor was auditing for the protector part he was not too interested in and the director was just seeing the studio’s boy out of obligation, Then Schwarzenegger goofed and started to talk about how he thought the killer part should be played. Your truly can only imagine Cameron grinning ear to ear signaling “Oh, so now you are interested, motherfucker?” while Schwarzenegger admitted that he internally went “Ah, shit!” recognizing that he got the killer part. Thus, the process to make a sliver screen icon began.

Schwarzenegger was far from Cameron’s first pick for the titular Terminator, Lance Henriksen was. Given that Robert Patrick in Judgment Day and Gabriel Luna in Dark Fate are both more Henriksen than Schwarzenegger, I dare say Cameron never let his original idea go. Schwarzenegger is one Greek god looking motherfucker, not exactly ideal infiltrator in a not all that well-fed human population while the smaller frames of Henriksen, Patrick and Luna are more stealthy. But Orion’s boy was a professional and had good ideas. Schwarzenegger with all focus and no eye brew is more of a horror monster than H R Ginger’s dickhead monster and the queen dickhead Cameron would go on to create combined.

The Terminator being a killing machine knowledgeable in other killing machines, aka modern in 1984 fire arms is another aspect making it more terrifying than other slashers. In many ways, before 1985 put high body-count on the column of heroism, the Terminator’s police station shootout is more of a horror set-piece. I personally found Cameron being quite particular there. The leading lass is told that there were 30 cops there, and the final body count seemed to be exactly that many Only 11 deaths can be seen, first one being crushed to death by a car then the rest gunned down. Depends on the 16 assault rifle bursts, 2 shotgun blasts heard plus the fact that the Terminator turned its guns on a cop named Vukovich played by Henriksen, all 30 were accounted for. Well, maybe except that poor bastard our cuffed protector knocked out.

Protector

Micheal Biehn as Kyle Reese “was” on the cover of 1987’s Metal Gear. Given Reese’ sneaking, thieving, stalking and no killing way in the Terminator, he fits as the poster boy of the world’s first stealth action game. Science fiction writer Harlon Ellison was credited in the 1984 flick after he won a court case against Orion. Ellison thought the Terminator was ripping off his story titled Solider From Tomorrow, and I laughed my ass off after learning this. A Chinese title that can be translated back into English as “Solider From Future” was what I knew Terminator by. Guess that would have made Kyle Reese the titular character instead of the iconic killing machine.

Biehn was often told that there is something shady in his eyes. Personally, I think he is good looking enough of a guy, at least back then. Still, wearing that coat in May days of Los Angeles will raise eye brews. So much so that the lass he was assigned to protect called the cops not because she saw a tall killing machine charging at her but because she saw his supposed protector skulking behind her. And for the Ouroboros loop to work in this story, Reese was bound to become a kidnapper (I mean the way he laid ground rules for the lass sounds like a kidnapper. Not to mention the cops were cuffing him as a kidnap suspect during his time of being detained.) and probably a rapist…Fortunately, that sex scene was with the lass’ consent.

Biehn stated that his performance as Kyle Reese was based on studying Polish resistance during World War II, which does give the character a more survivor than killer vibe. Reese does not drop one body in the whole flick. The closet he got to was blowing the Terminator skeleton in half during a suicide attack. But then the woman he was assigned to protect had to finish off the machine monster by herself. Other than fruitlessly pumping led into the Terminator, Reese’s actions make him look like a pretty good thief. Stealing clothes and weapons because he cannot take anything with him during the time travel. Then he evades armed cops rather effortlessly. The flashback regarding his parts in the future warfare involves more evading from the Hunter-killer drones (A fate many poor Russian sods conscripted by the Putin admiration now face in Ukraine.), then he could not gun down one single Terminator. Funny how John McClane were considered a whimp in the first Die Hard while Reese was forced to run from anything he cannot kill.

Survivor

Imagine Leon S Kennedy dies during the final boss fight of Resident Evil 4, just as the final boss pulling out another invisible life bar out of its ass. Now playing as Ashley Graham, you have to pick up that rocket launcher, finish the boss off and maybe Ada Wong offers a ride home. Well, Sarah Conner played by Linda Hamilton went through something closer to that by the end of the Terminator. The lass is tougher than she looks as she shouted “On your foot, solider” into a wounded Reese’ ear.

It's very odd that the older Connor in Dark Fate would assume the new lass in Dark Fate would only give birth to the future human resistance leader rather than being a lead on her own. Cameron wrote Connor as someone ready to smother Skynet in its cradle in the first movie, did not have enough budget to shoot those scenes and saved it for a sequel.

In many ways, Connor was the one seeing and feeling Cameron’s nightmare that inspired this film. For Reese, Terminator’s metal frame in the fire is just one among many killing machines he had seen. For Connor, that’s the nightmarish unknown vision people of her time had.

As the R rated series, only this first installment has sexual contents. The story has an Ouroboros loop to close and Kyle Reese being the father of Connor’s unborn son is the only way to go. The sex scene before the final action set-piece with a gentle piano stroke version of the Terminator theme playing sure impressed my 15 years old when I first saw the movie. It’s likely that Bioware inserted sex scene before final missions of Mass Effect trilogy in the image of Terminator. Space travel is still time consuming in those games’ faster-than-light era, before the final fights always seem like a good time to shag.

The End, for now

Clocked at 107 minutes, the Terminator is undoubtedly the shortest Cameron flick and arguably his best. His efforts for the rest of the 1980s, Aliens and the Abyss are considered by some as too long for different reasons. But his 1984 flick sure convinced enough people that he can make a bigger, better sequel featuring Weaver and the dickhead monsters. Watching this one alone 2 years before I am supposed certainly made me go “Ah, so this is why Cameron is considered such hot shit.” In many ways, 2009 was worst possible year for Avatar to come out: for Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 reminding one of the leaner meaner style of Cameron making the Terminator, and it sure can mop the floor with a long-winded post-Titanic Cameron.

(To be concluded…)