In 1984, James Cameron released his sensational sci-fi thriller The Terminator: the story of a killer cyborg with human flesh encasing a metal robo-skeleton, sent back in time by sinister machine-tyrants to kill the mother of a future rebel chief.
On the strength of this picture, now on re-release, Cameron could stand toe to toe with Carpenter and Spielberg. Sadly, it spawned a string of pointless and inferior sequels, but the first Terminator – co-written and co-produced by Gale Anne Hurd – stands up tremendously well with outrageous verve and blistering excitement. T1 has such storytelling firepower you won’t worry about how “machines” have supposedly risen from the ashes of a future nuclear war, or how time travel has been invented, apparently available to both oppressor and rebel.
Getting the extraordinary physical specimen of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lead was a stroke of genius and a stroke of fortune. Each of his pecs is the size of a bull’s flank. It is a tremendous black-comic performance and, without Schwarzenegger, the movie is of course unthinkable. Linda Hamilton plays Sarah Connor, who is to have an intensely romantic relationship with Kyle (Michael Biehn) sent back in time to help her.
The final chase sequence can look a bit Harryhausen at times, but that final metal skull attached to one dismembered arm is tremendous – crawling like a demented insect-mutant with a wheezing hydraulic sound. Classic 80s action.
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