The Terminator
Being an 80s kid and 90s teenager, The Terminator (1984) has been on rotation so many times. The quintessential 1984 sci-fi killer cyborg movie, its only rival back in my day was RoboCop (1987).
*****
Come with me if you want to live.
I guess every Terminator fan has that key scene emblematic to their natural experience which just seems to resonate the most. For me it is the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) emerging with his gun, its laser scope pointed right at Sarah Connor, in a club within the smoky, trash-street urban LA of '84 called Tech Noir. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a soldier from a distant future where there was devastating nuclear war and a rise of machine intelligence that saw human life as fit for extermination, was waiting for the cyborg to show itself in the steely-eyed, unemotional form of muscled bodybuilder Schwarzenegger. Taking clothes from a punk who no longer resisted after seeing his boozing bros annihilated in quick order, the Terminator now no longer naked can walk among the human LA denizens undetected. So in Tech Noir, Kyle reads it and intercepts the cyborg before it can kill the mother of the human leader of a resistance that defeats the Terminator. A time machine sends a cyborg and Kyle to the past, 1984, and eventually there's the expected showdown between the two with the life of Sarah (Linda Hamilton) at stake.
Of course there are a number of key scenes gleaned from this masterpiece that might come to mind. The police station massacre (Paul Winfield and Lance Henricksen are cops who interrogate Kyle and try miserably to keep Sarah safe, with their entire force, including them, executed in one fail swoop), Kyle evading the police when he first found himself in 1984 LA (taking pants from a homeless alleycat and securing a pair of Nikes from a department store), Arnold naked as a jaybird as he approaches the punks (two of them played by Bill Paxton with a colorful Mohawk and a barely recognizably insignificant Brian Thompson, known for menacing heavies, quite easily dispatched in his minor part opposite Schwarzenegger) looking for clothes, Kyle recollecting the harsh environs of a dark, unforgiving world as tanks crush skeletons and skulls of the many dead under them, those who survive (for however long) starving and filthy, and Terminators disguised as human infiltrating their hiding areas, & the repairs Arnold must make to his arm and the look-see of his damaged eye as director Cameron wows with help from the late, great special effects wizard Stan Winston.
A hurdle one might consider a bit difficult is the development of a hurried romance over the course of maybe twenty four hours or so between protector Kyle and protectee, Sarah. Their lovemaking produces a child later targeted for termination. So can such a union form so quickly? Is it doomed due to the Terminator coming after them? As far as the limited time together and immediacy of eventual intimacy, I chalk that up to what they experience together, the chemistry shared between them, his bravery and openness to her, the way peril and terror can bring two people from totally different worlds (space and time) together, and their mutual attraction and respect developed over this short span.
I think "The Terminator" gets it right if just because it's lean, mean, and keeps the time traveling angle as simple as possible (not true of later sequels/prequels) without a bloated running time and convoluted storyline to break the intellectual bank trying not to logically implode while contemplating the uprising of miriad plot complications. You have a human warrior who has seen every awful thing imaginable sent backward to halt the efforts of Skynet Rebel Computer Network Rogue T-800 Terminator and a 19 year old waitress key to the future of the human race's existence. Anyone in 1984 who gets in the way, inadvertently or purposely, is in deep shit.
My first recollection of seeing this was on network television. I seem to recall the "eye" scene being cut but knew this was a film that would be ideal entertainment pivotal in its endurance as a favorite. I still think the stop motion work by Winston's team is impressive to this day. It might be regarded as inferior to the computer animation so prevalent today, but the movement of the substitute Arnold face with the eyeball gone and red light peering out in a straight line remains a breakthrough to be admired even if raw and rough around the edges. The metal, skeletal cybernetic "hunter-killer" absent the "human disguise" remains an iconic character that I'm fond of. It is creepy and menacing, an extension of the icy, soulless Arnold shell that covers in order to assimilate with the people.
I'll be back.
Arnold came into my radar when I was over my cousin's house one late Friday evening. On HBO was "Conan, the Destroyer" (1984), the childish, sanitized PG sequel to the adult, violent, and quite R-rated Barbarian from two years prior. As a kid I hadn't seen the 1982 Conan, so this was the film I linked Arnold to. I had so much to learn! Grace Jones and Wilt Chamberlain (every bit the stilt) pale in comparison to James Earl Jones. And Sandahl Bergman is sorely missed. All that said, it has the adventurous sensibilities that charmed the kid I once was, with the likes of Mako and Tracey Walter offering amusing clowns as a counterpoint to Arnold's serious performance. It caused me to give him attention, later seeing The Terminator and Commando which secured my fandom. With all his faults, and I certainly have mine, he is still one of the action heroes of my youth...it accounts for something.
After the Conan movies, it was quite a big deal he would lose himself into the role of a killing machine shooting unarmed women who answer the doorbell/knock or are rocking to their Walkman cassette while getting some grub from her refrigerator. His face turns and blank stares are deliberate and robotic, Arnold gets it down and he's got the determined walk as well. He needs to convince us that underneath the skin is a cybernetic machine...he succeeds!
Michael Biehn, all that controlled pain and drive to keep Hamilton safe, left such a mark with me. I remember really thinking he was just the coolest in Aliens, bringing a courage and doggedness to see his mission succeed no matter the cost to him personally to Kyle. There was an anguish buried deep I found vital to the role...Biehn also posits a willingness to show a vulnerability to only Sarah. It just seemed easy for me to respond to him than other incarnations. He was full of energy and youth then, not undermined by life's problems which might have cost him a career as a lead actor.
Hamilton, for her part, was so fresh faced and young, equipped with a marvelous character who was not quite prepared for what lied ahead but far stronger than she might have imagined. Losing her roommate/friend to the Terminator, being pursued and endangered, learning how to make plastic explosives, using her wits to put a stop to the Terminator, and ultimately realizing her child will need a parental guidance in order to know just how to combat and lead when the world goes all to hell, Sarah had to grow up quickly. She would have to transition from a cute and bubbly sweetheart in order to just make it out of the movie alive.
What a history this film has. The serendipity of how the casting and production came about and how it's legacy has lasted because of all the talent involved (including Brad Fiedel's music) is the stuff of movie lore. It most specifically speaks to Cameron's passion for seeing as close to the desired result as possible.
*****
Come with me if you want to live.
I guess every Terminator fan has that key scene emblematic to their natural experience which just seems to resonate the most. For me it is the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) emerging with his gun, its laser scope pointed right at Sarah Connor, in a club within the smoky, trash-street urban LA of '84 called Tech Noir. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a soldier from a distant future where there was devastating nuclear war and a rise of machine intelligence that saw human life as fit for extermination, was waiting for the cyborg to show itself in the steely-eyed, unemotional form of muscled bodybuilder Schwarzenegger. Taking clothes from a punk who no longer resisted after seeing his boozing bros annihilated in quick order, the Terminator now no longer naked can walk among the human LA denizens undetected. So in Tech Noir, Kyle reads it and intercepts the cyborg before it can kill the mother of the human leader of a resistance that defeats the Terminator. A time machine sends a cyborg and Kyle to the past, 1984, and eventually there's the expected showdown between the two with the life of Sarah (Linda Hamilton) at stake.
Of course there are a number of key scenes gleaned from this masterpiece that might come to mind. The police station massacre (Paul Winfield and Lance Henricksen are cops who interrogate Kyle and try miserably to keep Sarah safe, with their entire force, including them, executed in one fail swoop), Kyle evading the police when he first found himself in 1984 LA (taking pants from a homeless alleycat and securing a pair of Nikes from a department store), Arnold naked as a jaybird as he approaches the punks (two of them played by Bill Paxton with a colorful Mohawk and a barely recognizably insignificant Brian Thompson, known for menacing heavies, quite easily dispatched in his minor part opposite Schwarzenegger) looking for clothes, Kyle recollecting the harsh environs of a dark, unforgiving world as tanks crush skeletons and skulls of the many dead under them, those who survive (for however long) starving and filthy, and Terminators disguised as human infiltrating their hiding areas, & the repairs Arnold must make to his arm and the look-see of his damaged eye as director Cameron wows with help from the late, great special effects wizard Stan Winston.
A hurdle one might consider a bit difficult is the development of a hurried romance over the course of maybe twenty four hours or so between protector Kyle and protectee, Sarah. Their lovemaking produces a child later targeted for termination. So can such a union form so quickly? Is it doomed due to the Terminator coming after them? As far as the limited time together and immediacy of eventual intimacy, I chalk that up to what they experience together, the chemistry shared between them, his bravery and openness to her, the way peril and terror can bring two people from totally different worlds (space and time) together, and their mutual attraction and respect developed over this short span.
I think "The Terminator" gets it right if just because it's lean, mean, and keeps the time traveling angle as simple as possible (not true of later sequels/prequels) without a bloated running time and convoluted storyline to break the intellectual bank trying not to logically implode while contemplating the uprising of miriad plot complications. You have a human warrior who has seen every awful thing imaginable sent backward to halt the efforts of Skynet Rebel Computer Network Rogue T-800 Terminator and a 19 year old waitress key to the future of the human race's existence. Anyone in 1984 who gets in the way, inadvertently or purposely, is in deep shit.
My first recollection of seeing this was on network television. I seem to recall the "eye" scene being cut but knew this was a film that would be ideal entertainment pivotal in its endurance as a favorite. I still think the stop motion work by Winston's team is impressive to this day. It might be regarded as inferior to the computer animation so prevalent today, but the movement of the substitute Arnold face with the eyeball gone and red light peering out in a straight line remains a breakthrough to be admired even if raw and rough around the edges. The metal, skeletal cybernetic "hunter-killer" absent the "human disguise" remains an iconic character that I'm fond of. It is creepy and menacing, an extension of the icy, soulless Arnold shell that covers in order to assimilate with the people.
I'll be back.
Arnold came into my radar when I was over my cousin's house one late Friday evening. On HBO was "Conan, the Destroyer" (1984), the childish, sanitized PG sequel to the adult, violent, and quite R-rated Barbarian from two years prior. As a kid I hadn't seen the 1982 Conan, so this was the film I linked Arnold to. I had so much to learn! Grace Jones and Wilt Chamberlain (every bit the stilt) pale in comparison to James Earl Jones. And Sandahl Bergman is sorely missed. All that said, it has the adventurous sensibilities that charmed the kid I once was, with the likes of Mako and Tracey Walter offering amusing clowns as a counterpoint to Arnold's serious performance. It caused me to give him attention, later seeing The Terminator and Commando which secured my fandom. With all his faults, and I certainly have mine, he is still one of the action heroes of my youth...it accounts for something.
After the Conan movies, it was quite a big deal he would lose himself into the role of a killing machine shooting unarmed women who answer the doorbell/knock or are rocking to their Walkman cassette while getting some grub from her refrigerator. His face turns and blank stares are deliberate and robotic, Arnold gets it down and he's got the determined walk as well. He needs to convince us that underneath the skin is a cybernetic machine...he succeeds!
Michael Biehn, all that controlled pain and drive to keep Hamilton safe, left such a mark with me. I remember really thinking he was just the coolest in Aliens, bringing a courage and doggedness to see his mission succeed no matter the cost to him personally to Kyle. There was an anguish buried deep I found vital to the role...Biehn also posits a willingness to show a vulnerability to only Sarah. It just seemed easy for me to respond to him than other incarnations. He was full of energy and youth then, not undermined by life's problems which might have cost him a career as a lead actor.
Hamilton, for her part, was so fresh faced and young, equipped with a marvelous character who was not quite prepared for what lied ahead but far stronger than she might have imagined. Losing her roommate/friend to the Terminator, being pursued and endangered, learning how to make plastic explosives, using her wits to put a stop to the Terminator, and ultimately realizing her child will need a parental guidance in order to know just how to combat and lead when the world goes all to hell, Sarah had to grow up quickly. She would have to transition from a cute and bubbly sweetheart in order to just make it out of the movie alive.
What a history this film has. The serendipity of how the casting and production came about and how it's legacy has lasted because of all the talent involved (including Brad Fiedel's music) is the stuff of movie lore. It most specifically speaks to Cameron's passion for seeing as close to the desired result as possible.
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