Thoughts on The Terminator (1984) · 5:52am Dec 19th, 2023

I've watched this one previously, but still, it'd been a number of years since that first viewing.

(Rewatched August 14th, 2023.)

Still every bit as good as I remember it being from the first time.

It's hard to really say anything "new" with regard to the original Terminator. What can I say that other critics or other writers haven't?

I do find it interesting how much of a horror / suspense feel is in this movie, especially compared to the sequels. You have to piece together what is happening, as the movie progresses (yes, there is the opening text at the very start, but still, you don't readily know what the deal with Reese is, or just what Arnold's character is and how they both relate to Sarah Connor, until the movie deems it fit to explain).

I really appreciated the use of buildup here. In another movie, when the car chase ends and the cops arrive to arrest Kyle, one could imagine the Terminator's disappearance from the scene would lead to him immediately attacking again... but instead, no, he's escaped the scene, and we get the scenes with Dr. Silberman and the cops, as the Terminator prepares for the iconic assault on the precinct. It gives the viewer time to breathe, and time to brace for the next wave of the cyborg's attack.

(Seeing the Terminator's massacre at the police station, in this day and age, was particularly interesting. I didn't really spot it before on my previous watch, but Kyle's later memory of a Terminator massacring a resistance bunker clearly parallels the police station slaughter, down to the final result being the building in darkness, fires starting, and bodies everywhere. Skynet's creation is literally transforming the past into the future war it hails from. The scenes of the Terminator shooting up the Tech Noir nightclub, and the police station, do hit even harder in the age of mass shooters.)

It's hard to watch this and think of someone other than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. He really sells the eerie, menacing quality of the Terminator. Major props to both Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton as well. Biehn is great as the tense, future-war veteran Kyle Reese. And Linda Hamilton is superb as Sarah Connor; innocent waitress and student dragged into hell by the madness that tears through her life.

The sequels (particularly post-Judgment Day) may have hopelessly weighed down and muddled the impact of the original story here, but watching it again, I was impressed by just how well everything fit together. It's a perfect closed-loop of a time travel story.

Very highly recommended.