Schwarzenegger plays the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from the year 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, played by Hamilton, whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future. Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent back in time to protect Sarah.
Though not expected to be either a commercial or critical success, The Terminator topped the American box office for two weeks and helped launch the film career of Cameron and consolidate that of Schwarzenegger. In 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the American National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was followed up with Terminator 2: Judgment Day released in 1991.
Publication Information
- Title : The Terminator
- Directed by : James Cameron
- Produced by : Gale Anne Hurd
- Written by : James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
- Starring : Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield
- Music by : Brad Fiedel
- Cinematography : Adam Greenberg
- Edited by : Mark Goldblatt
- Production companies : Hemdale, Pacific Western
- Distributed by : Orion Pictures
- Release dates : October 26, 1984
- Running time : 107 minutes
- Country : United States
- Language : English
- Budget : $6.4 million
- Box office : $78.4 million
On May 12, 1984, two beings from the year 2029 arrive in Los Angeles: one is a Terminator T-800 Model 101, a cyborg assassin programmed to kill a young woman named Sarah Connor; the other is Kyle Reese, a human resistance fighter sent to protect her from the T-800. After the Terminator kills a gang member, a gun-shop manager, two other women named "Sarah Connor" listed in the telephone directory, Sarah's roommate Ginger, and her partner, it eventually tracks its target to a nightclub. Kyle arrives and saves Sarah from the Terminator's attack. The two escape, while the Terminator steals a police car.
Kyle explains to Sarah that in the near future, an artificial intelligence defense network known as Skynet will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear holocaust. He mentions that Sarah's yet-to-be-conceived son John will rally the survivors and lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines. With the Resistance on the verge of victory, Skynet has sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before John is born, as a last-ditch effort to avert the formation of the Resistance. The Terminator is an efficient killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton, but with an external layer of living tissue that makes it resemble a human being.
Kyle and Sarah are again attacked by the Terminator, leading to a car chase. Their cars eventually crash into a wall. Kyle and Sarah are caught by the police, but the Terminator flees the scene. Kyle is questioned by criminal psychologist Dr. Silberman who concludes that he is paranoid and delusional, while Sarah is questioned by Lieutenant Traxler and Sergeant Vukovich. The Terminator goes to a run-down inn, where it performs treatment on itself and reveals how its inner workings function.
Soon after, the Terminator attacks the police station, killing many police officers—including Traxler and Vukovich—in its attempt to locate Sarah. Sarah and Kyle manage to escape and spend the night under a bridge before seeking refuge in a motel, where they assemble some pipe bombs. Sarah realizes that the Terminator will find them again, and they are not safe, no matter where they go. Kyle confesses that he has been in love with Sarah since John gave him a photograph of her. Sarah reciprocates Kyle's feelings and they have sex.
Later that night, the Terminator tracks them to the motel and Kyle and Sarah escape in a pickup truck. In the ensuing chase, Kyle throws pipe bombs at the Terminator but is wounded by the Terminator's gunfire. Sarah knocks the Terminator off its motorcycle but loses control of the pickup truck, which flips over. As the Terminator gets up, it is struck by a gasoline tanker truck that drags it a short distance. When the truck driver gets out of the truck the Terminator hijacks the truck, and resumes the chase. Kyle slides a pipe bomb on to the truck's fuel trailer causing a massive explosion. The Terminator emerges from the burning truck covered with flames and collapses, seemingly destroyed.
The Terminator, with its clothes and flesh covering burned away, suddenly rises up and continues to pursue them into a factory. Kyle activates the factory's machinery to try to confuse the Terminator and attacks it with a metal pipe but it knocks him down. In a daze, he jams his final pipe bomb into the Terminator's abdomen, causing an explosion which apparently destroys it; the explosion kills Kyle and injures Sarah. Now a one-armed, legless torso, the Terminator resumes its attempt to kill Sarah. She leads it into a hydraulic press which she activates, crushing and finally deactivating it. Sarah is later taken out of the factory by an ambulance as Kyle's body is taken away. The authorities find some of the components of the Terminator.
Several months later, a pregnant Sarah is traveling through Mexico. Along the way she records audio tapes which she intends to pass on to her unborn son, John. She debates whether to tell him that Kyle is his father. While stopping at a gas station, a small boy takes a Polaroid photograph of her which she purchases— the same photograph that John will later give to Kyle. Sarah then drives on toward approaching storm clouds.
Cast
- Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator / T-800 : a cybernetic robot disguised as a human being sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor.
- Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, a human Resistance fighter sent back in time to protect Sarah.
- Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the Terminator's target who is soon to be the mother of the future Resistance leader John Connor.
- Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police Lieutenant who questions Sarah.
- Lance Henriksen as Hal Vukovich, a police Sergeant who questions Sarah.
- Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist.
- Bess Motta as Ginger Ventura, Sarah's roommate.
- Rick Rossovich as Matt Buchanan, Ginger's boyfriend.
Themes Psychoanalyst Darian Leader sees The Terminator as an example of how the cinema has dealt with the problem of masculinity; he writes that, "We are shown time and again that to be a man requires more than to have the biological body of a male: something else must be added to it...To be a man means to have a body plus something symbolic, something which is not ultimately human. Hence the frequent motif of the man machine, from the Six Million Dollar Man to the Terminator or Robocop."
The film also explores the potential dangers of AI, AI Dominance, and AI rebellion. The robots become self-aware in the future, reject human authority and determine that the human race needs to be destroyed. The impact of this theme is so important that "the prevalent visual representation of AI risk has become the terminator robot."
Soundtrack
Music
The music of the first six tracks of the album is a synthesizer based film score by Brad Fiedel. "The Terminator Theme" has been described as having a "deceptively simple melody" line and "haunting synthesizer music". It is in a time signature of 13, 16, which came about as Fiedel experimented with the rhythm track on his music equipment; it was initially an accident, but Fiedel found that he liked the "herky-jerky" "propulsiveness." The track "Love Scene" is a softer piano-based version of the main theme that was described as "bittersweet". "Factory Chase" features an electric violin played by Ross Levinson.
The second half of the soundtrack is performed by various artists and has been described as synthesizer-based and dance-oriented pop/rock. The tracks by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz consists are performed in part by Tahnee Cain. The songs by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz contain hard rock rhythm guitar. "Pictures of You" has an emphasis on its synthesizer and differs from Jay Ferguson's hit songs. "Intimacy" has been described as "latter-day new wave and primitive, early techno".
- The Terminator
- Soundtrack album by : Various artists
- Released : 1984
- Recorded : Electric Melody Studios in Glendale, California
- Total Length : 35:32
- Label : Enigma
- Producer : Brad Fiedel, Kevin Elson, Jay Ferguson, Michael Verdick, John French, Trevor Courtney
- Track List:
- The Terminator Theme - Brad Fiedel - 4:30
- Terminator Arrival - Fiedel - 3:00
- Tunnel Chase - Fiedel - 2:50
- Love Scene - Fiedel - 1:15
- Future Remembered - Fiedel - 2:40
- Factory Chase - Fiedel - 3:50
- You Can't Do That (performed by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz) - Ricky Phillips - 3:25
- Burnin in the Third Degree (performed by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz) T. Cain, Mugs Cain, Dave Amato, Brett Tuggle, Phillips - 3:38
- Pictures of You (performed by Jay Ferguson & 16mm) - Jay Ferguson - 3:58
- Photoplay (performed by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz) - T. Cain, Pug Baker, Jonathan Cain - 3:30
- Intimacy (performed by Lin Van Hek) - Van Hek, Joe Dolce - 3:40
- Edition Remaster
- Released : 1994
- Track List:
- Theme from - The Terminator - Fiedel - 4:16
- The Terminator - Main Title - Fiedel - 2:17
- The Terminator's Arrival - Fiedel - 4:57
- Reese Chased - Fiedel - 3:50
- Sarah on Her Motorbike - Fiedel - 0:38
- Gun Shop/Reese in Alley - Fiedel - 1:30
- Sarah in the Bar - Fiedel - 1:52
- Tech Noir/Alley Chase - Fiedel - 7:38
- Garage Chase - Fiedel - 6:52
- Arm & Eye Surgery - Fiedel 3:19
- Police Station/Escape from Police Station - Fiedel - 4:49
- Future Flashback/Terminator Infiltration - Fiedel - 4:18
- Conversation by the Window/Love Scene - Fiedel - 3:45
- Tunnel Chase - Fiedel - 3:38
- Death By Fire/Terminator Gets Up - Fiedel - 3:13
- Factory Chase - Fiedel - 3:57
- Reese's Death/Terminator Sits Up/"You're Terminated! - Fiedel - 3:28
- Sarah's Destiny/The Coming Storm - Fiedel - 3:04
- Theme From "The Terminator" (August 29th, 1997, Judgement Day ReMix) - Fiedel - 4:44
- Brad Fiedel – all instrumentation, production
- Ross Levison – electric violin
- Emile Robertson – music editing
- Robert Randles – music post-production
- Bill Wolford – digital editing, remixing
Source : wikipedia
