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The Terminator (1984)
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, and Lance Henriksen. Cinematography by Adam Greenberg. Edited by Mark Goldblatt. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd. Written by Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher Jr., and James Cameron. Directed by James Cameron.
In the year 2029 the world is a barren wasteland of nuclear destruction. The battle is literally man versus machine. Cyberdyne Industries has become an autonomous being and has waged war on the small human resistance that has survived. The machines have always had the upper hand on the humans until recently. In an act of desperation, Skynet (the central intelligence of the system) sends a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 (also known as a Terminator) back in time to the year 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the insurgence. The humans are also able to send back their own weapon; a battle hardened combat solider named Kyle Reese, who has sworn to protect her. Reese finds Sarah just as the Terminator does and the hunt is on.
Cameron was stuck in Rome in the early eighties editing Piranha II: The Spawning; a film that he was not even supposed to be working on. During the late nights in the editing room Cameron started to dream of an image of a robotic skeleton emerging from a massive explosion. He took that idea home with him and while waiting for his paycheck from Piranha II, he developed a story around the image. From that story he wrote a forty five page treatment that he and his future wife Gale Anne Hurd started shopping around to movie studios. The studios were indeed interested in the story, but were not at all interested in keeping the relatively inexperienced Cameron and Hurd on the project. After being rejected time and time again, they turned the treatment into a full length screenplay themselves. After a bit more fishing they finally found what they were looking for in Hemdale Film Corporation. Hemdale allowed Cameron to direct the project and the rest is movie history.
The Terminator is a rare film of the genre to receive financial as well and critical success. The film cost almost nothing to make and earned its budget back nearly six times over in its US theatrical run. It went on to make another thirty million dollars in video rentals and has continued to succeed with the advent of DVDs. It was praised by film critics upon its release and even earned a spot on Time magazine’s top ten films of 1984 list. It’s a smart and exciting film that is as impressive today as it was when audiences first saw it.
Budget: $6,400,000
Total US Gross: $38,019,031
Genre: Science Fiction
Runtime: 108 Minutes
US Release Date: 10/26/84
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Awards: none
Tagline: In The Year Of Darkness, 2029, The Rulers Of This Planet Devised The Ultimate Plan. They Would Reshape The Past. The Plan Required Something That Felt No Pity. No Pain. No Fear. Something Unstoppable. They Created… The Terminator.
Quote: “You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her. That's what he does. That's all he does! You can't stop him. He'll wade through you, reach down her throat, and pull her fucking heart out!”
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