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The Terminator
The 'classic' movie that started it all!
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Main info
The Terminator (1984), the first of the action-thriller saga films, is considered by most film reviewers to be a better-crafted
film than its more popular sequel T2 Judgment Day (1991); it is less dominated by special-effects and less pretentious.
Director James Cameron's
sleeper film (only his second feature film), co-written with producer Gale Anne Hurd, is an exciting,
well-paced action thriller with apocalyptic, monster, and adventure story elements. Stan Winston's special terminator and
visual effects, created by Fantasy II Film Effects, vividly and effectively present a film-noirish environment and realistic
stop-motion animation as the Terminator is transformed into a mechanical skeleton when his flesh and blood are stripped away
in the course of his unstoppable pursuit.
During the Terminator's mission, he delivers the oft-quoted, straight-faced line "I'll be back" to a desk clerk. He does
return, destroying the building by driving a monstrous vehicle directly into it.
This famous line would be repeated in slight different sentences throughout most of Arnold Schwarzenegger's
later movies. (...And we all love it! ;)
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James Cameron directs this science fiction thriller about a futuristic
killing machine called the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger),
which is sent back to the year 1984 to assassinate a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).
The cyborg comes from the year 2029, following a nuclear war which has devastated the better part of civilisation.
Computer defence mechanisms have turned on their creators, starting another war, in an effort to eliminate the human
race altogether. Man's valiant rebel leader is John Connor, Sarah's son. John is destined to help the human race win
this war, and the Terminator is the only thing standing in the way.
Sent back to the present, the cyborg must kill Sarah before John is born. It systematically eliminates every Sarah
Connor in the city of Los Angeles. But Sarah escapes with the man sent to protect her, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn),
before the Terminator can get to her. What follows is a massive chase which will eventually end in victory for
mankind.
Co-writer William Wisher, Jr. has a cameo as a police officer. This film marks Schwarzenegger's first big break in
movies.
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There was a minimum of actual interference from the movie's paymasters at Orion, partly because there was relatively
little money at stake. There are only two recorded creative suggestions from the financiers. The first was the addition
of a canine cyborg to accompany Reese, which Cameron turned down. The second was a strengthening of the love interest
between Reese and Sarah, which Cameron willingly accepted. This resulted in the film's one period of repose, in the
scenes in which the couple shelter first under the bridge and then in the motel, reminiscing, bandaging, making love
and manufacturing explosives.
Cameron already wanted a shape-shifting Terminator, but due to the special effects of that time, it was impossible.
The shape-shifting Terminator can be seen in T2 Judgment Day (the T-1000) and T3 Rise of the Machines (the TX).
In the treatment the Terminator uses the line "I'll come back" instead of "I'll be back."
In the versions of the script
the model of the Terminator is called 'Cyber Dynamics Model 101'. Later it was changed to 'Cyberdyne Systems Model-101'.
In the treatment Kyle tells the cops in the police station that he is "Reese, Kyle A., Control Sergeant, DN8675309".
In the treatment Reese tells Sarah that Cyber Dynamics would create "the 4800 Series 'Skynet' System, which would in
turn incinerate humanity". In the movie, Skynet is never mentioned as a Series System.
Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke only somewhere around 134 words (for example It's vs. It is, counted as one word) during the
entire movie, being;
- "Nice night for a walk."
- "Nothing clean, right?
- "Your clothes, give them to me."
- "The 12-gauge auto-loader."
- "The .45 long-slide, with laser sighting."
- "Phased plasma rifle, in a 40-watt range."
- "The Uzi 9-millimeter."
- "All."
- "Wrong."
- "Sarah Connor?"
- "(As 1L19) This is 1L19, west bound on Olympic, approaching Overland."
- "I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told that she's here. Could I see her please?"
- "Where is she?"
- "I'll be back."
- "Fuck you, asshole."
- "(As Sarah's mom) Oh, but honey, I need to know where I can reach you. You tell me to hide out up here at
the cabin like some fugitive, and, and you won't tell me what's going on? I am worried sick, dear."
- "(As Sarah's mom) Yes. Go ahead... Uh-huh... Uh-huh... I've got it. I love you too, sweetheart."
- "Give me your address there."
- "Get out."
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