In honor of Terminator Salvation, I will be taking a look back at the three Terminator films as this is a franchise I’ve known since I could crawl and love deeply. Each day we’ll bring you a review of all three films before capping it off with my full review of Terminator Salvation. The piece begins with the film that started it all; The Terminator.

THE TERMINATOR

The Terminator probably shouldn’t have worked like it does. What we have is essentially a B-Movie premise with no name actors (at the time) outside of Schwarzenegger and up until this the man hadn’t done anything with depth. No one saw this film being the cultural phenomenon that it now is back before the fall of 1984. James Cameron was unknown, as was Gale Anne Hurd, and the budget barely cracked $6 million dollars. Hell, even Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t fully taken off even though he’d had a Conan movie under his belt. From that perspective, it should have been another run-of-the-mill science fiction film with a character that would be selling action figures in a toy line today.

The Terminator has deservedly earned it’s reputation. What separates it from most films in it’s genre (and some films in general) is it puts story and characters first. Yes, that silver skeleton and glowing red pupils are no doubt one of the most memorable things about the film and have become culturally significant. Yet when one thinks The Terminator scenes such as the T-800′s decimation of an entire police station come to mind. We’re told countless times throughout the film that this thing is unstoppable and all we’ve seen til this point is the title character take some damage to his arm and eye. One cinematic classic catchphrase later and we’re shown why the T-800 is unbeatable. Sarah Connor is in a place she feels safe and is assured multiple times that she’s going to be OK in there. Yet this machine waltzes in only to maim and murder every cop in the building. At least thirty officers have M-16s and the T-800 takes every shot like it’s nothing before spraying them down with everything he’s got and all of them fall to their death. In any other movie this might be a fun scene to watch and applaud the man plowing through the police. It’s a terrifying sequence and one of the best examples of how to use action to advance a story and build a character.

While it features a ton of violence, it gives us time to get to know it’s complex characters. Most films of this ilk would have opted to give us generic characters and let the monster and action be why it’s remembered. The Terminator is smarter than that and presents believable characters from a very conceivable future. Sarah Connor’s change from naive, stupid girl to tough super woman is poetry. She only curses once and that’s at the end of the picture when she terminates the T-800. She’s never once annoying as Linda Hamilton is golden as a girl who thinks she’s worthless, but ends up responsible for mankind’s salvation. It’s interesting to watch Terminator 2 and see her do an incredible job as a tough woman in Sarah Connor then come back to this one and see her just as spectacular as a naive girl. Michael Biehn isn’t a slouch either as Kyle Reese. Much like the title character, he’s on a mission and will not fail. Kyle is the viewers connection to the desolate future as many times the movie shows us how he’s haunted by that horror. Cameron doesn’t glorify this future as a place you’d want to take battle in, but creates a world that’s as ghastly as Reese dreams it to be. These sequences don’t show Reese as a hero who takes out eight Terminators with one explosive or a phaser. People die, and much like the 1984 in this film, you’re always in fear of the Terminator. Another small nuance either added by Cameron or Biehn but Reese never turns on the headlights to any of the cars he drives. I like to think it’s because he’s accustomed to hiding from Hunter Killers and would not want to attract attention.

Then of course this leaves Arnold as the title character. Originally he was to play Kyle Reese (with O.J. Simpson, and then Lance Henriksen as the T-800) but after a meeting with James Cameron, the King of the World knew he had his villain. Cameron himself assured Arnold, “you’re going to be a mega star after this.” He was right, as it’s impossible to find someone who hasn’t seen much less knows about this film. The filmmakers chose to shoot Schwarzenegger from low angles to give the feeling of dominance and it works. A nice subtle touch on the part of Arnold though is how he holds and acts when he has a weapon in his hand. The scene that sticks out the most is when he whips out an Uzi in Tech-Noir and has a field day blasting away at Kyle Reese behind the counter. His body language and facial expression communicates a true marksman wanting to terminate it’s target. It’s not glorified nor does it come off as awesome like it would in say Commando. Special mention needs to be given to Paul Winfield as Lt. Ed Traxler. It’s a very subtle performance as his character may be the only one who believes Reese about The Terminator. The deleted scenes give more depth to Traxler coming around and believing Reese and actually he’s the reason Kyle has the pistol toward the end of the picture. These should have stayed in the film because they wouldn’t have slowed the pacing down at all and actually given a nice arc for Traxler. Even though we don’t hear or see John Connor in this installment, one still feels they know him due to what we’re told and how Kyle perceives him. It might also have to do with the fact he’s the reason the Terminator wants to kill his mother, but it’s a testament to the film to create and make us care for a character that it doesn’t show us.

For a film that’s roughly $6 million dollars, the film looks like it was shot with a considerably higher budget. One of Cameron’s strength’s is that he’s always been able to make sure every dollar of production is pumped out on screen (say what you will about Titanic, but you can’t deny how great the effects are and put some of today’s pictures to shame.) While the effects are starting to show their age, it’s still a marvel to witness and they have yet to lose their effectiveness. The animatronics are still believable enough to not make the T-800 lose his edge nor take the viewer out of the movie. Maybe the biggest achievement is the future war scenes. The Terminator effects could be achieved by such a budget (yet might not look as good) but the scenes 2029 are where the visuals glow. Again Cameron and his team make these machines come to life and fearful. Phaser blasts fly across the scene and even the first shot is of an HK flying across the screen and it operates as one would expect a machine to. Where films today would over-CG the crap out of a desolate world and show us hordes machines, The Terminator relies more on the fear of the machines by showing us very few HKs and only one Terminator while they give us the results of their damage. Cameron would later use the same tactics in Aliens where he had only six Xenomorph suits but makes it feel like six thousand.

The Terminator should be a lesson to anyone trying to make a film on a small budget due to how well made and well scripted it is. It birthed arguably the most iconic character in cinema while also maintaining complex characters and a terrific story. While Cameron would go on to do better work (partially due to his growth as a director), this film would be influential and generate a whole new genre. The Terminator deserves it’s spot in any collection and has earned it’s status as one of the best films of all-time.

Rating: ★★★★½