A tense sci-fi tech-noir thriller with cracking and relentless momentum, solid performances and a compelling story.
Directed by James Cameron
Written by James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematography: Adam Greenberg
Edited by Mark Goldblatt
Music by Brad Fiedel
Production companies: Hemdale Pacific Western Productions, Euro Film Funding, Cinema '84
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Running time: 107 minutes
Budget” $6.4 million
Box office: $78.3 million
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger as The TerminatorMichael Biehn as Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police lieutenant
Lance Henriksen as Hal Vukovich, a member of the LAPD
Bess Motta as Ginger
Rick Rossovich as Matt, Ginger's boyfriend
Earl Boen as Doctor Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist
Shawn Schepps as Nancy, Sarah's co-worker at the diner;
Dick Miller as a gun shop clerk
Franco Columbu as a Terminator in the future
Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson as young punks
Marianne Muellerleile as one of the other women with the name "Sarah Connor"
Rick Aiello as the bouncer of the local nightclub
Bill Wisher as the police officer who reports a hit-and-run felony on Reese
Bill Wisher as the police officer who reports a hit-and-run felony on Reese
Trailer
An apocalyptic future world of 2029 where machines under the guidance and control of the ‘Skynet’ computer system have conquered the entire world.
What remains of humanity conducts a brave resistance against the machines.
An indestructible cyborg-assassin known as the "Terminator" is sent back to 1984 Los Angeles programmed to seek and kill humanity’s most important woman - Sarah Connor.
Why? Sarah’s unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation
Also sent back is a battle-scarred Kyle Reese, a brave soldier of the human Resistance Army tasked with stopping the cybernetic killer from eliminating humanity’s last hope. But first he must find Sarah before the Terminator does, otherwise humanity is doomed.
Is there any way to stop the seemingly indestructible cyborg ?
Read on for more.....
2029
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The long-feared apocalypse appears in a dark vision of Armageddon on a battlefield dominated by predatory flying robotic and lumbering technosaurus war machines. Their prey – scurrying mammalian primate humans who having once dominated life on earth now find themselves in a war of survival against the product of their past ingenuity and hubris, their new enemy: the Machines. The war rolls on to the accompaniment of the crunching and cracking sound of human skulls being crushed by the inexorable methodical and merciless progress of algorithmic and programmed genocide.
1984
At night, a waste disposal vehicle controlled by a human operator is in the process of emptying a large dumpster bin when suddenly it is enveloped by a crackling high-intensity energy field accompanied by blue and purple electrical discharges, a strong gusting wind and the concussive sound of a thunderclap.
The vehicle operator is dumb-founded and decides to exit the truck and make himself scarce. Who can blame him? Nothing in anyone’s experience could prepare them for what is about to unfold: a clash of realities whereby one of the realities has unwittingly set in motion the conditions needed for the creation of the other and is now about to face the consequences.
As the electrical crackling subsides, the figure of a kneeling naked man comes into view. He slowly stands to reveal an almost impossibly perfect symmetrical and powerfully built torso as if he he had been cut from a mould and rolled off an assembly line.
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The man’s expression is totally impassive as he surveys his surroundings and looks down upon the city-scape below his vantage point.
A trio of young punks are fooling around with a binocular city-scape viewer and drinking beer when their leader notices something and draws the others’ attention to it: “Hey, hey...what's wrong with this picture?”
The strange naked newcomer approaches the punks and the contrast couldn’t be more stark. The former is purposeful, controlled and impassive while the latter are chaotic and volatile and whose only purpose is looking for trouble. They are about to find it….
The punks’ taunts and swagger is met with impassive disinterest as the stranger assimilates their mode of expression and issues an order to one of them, “Your clothes. Give them to me.”
The punks take umbrage at the stranger’s lack of appropriate response to their implied menace and superiority in numbers and decide to up the ante a bit with a choice verbal insult together with a meaningful gesture backed up by the flash of a switch-blade.
As they close in on the stranger, he dispassionately dispatches one with a blow to the temple before grabbing the knife-wielding leader’s wrist in a vice-like grip and following it up with a thrusting punch right through into his body just below the breastbone. The punk whose attire the stranger demanded now wisely reconsiders his earlier reluctance to comply and very shakily and hastily begins to disrobe under the watchful and ominous gaze of this mysterious superman.
Meanwhile in a seedy part of the city in an alley lined with rubbish tins, an old homeless is startled from his incoherent stupor by a brilliant flash of light accompanied by a shock-wave. At the same time, a figure miraculously drops into view onto the pavement. He like the previous mysterious stranger is also naked but unlike the other man, this person is obviously physically affected by his ordeal. Unlike the other arrival, this individual is flawed in the sense that his back bares scares indicating that he has undergone suffering and pain, possibly as a result of battle.
Far from being measured and fluid in his movements as was the first arrival, this man is watchful and furtive, but like the former he is prepared to take and make use of whatever is at hand and needed by him. He quickly makes his way toward the wino huddled in the alley, yanks off his pants and is in the process of putting them on when the search light from a police car illuminates the scene.
Suddenly the police car stops and and two officers leap out in pursuit of the partially clad man. This second stranger is obviously used to being pursued and evading capture as he rushes along the alleyway, athletically vaulting rubbish bins and railings, agilely bouncing off the hood of a car and clambering over a chain link gate.
When another unit arrives on the scene it appears that the man is trapped until he suddenly crashes into a steel door and vanishes into whatever awaits him on the other side. He has in fact entered a department store where he quickly makes his way through the aisles as the officers search for him using their flashlights. Thinking quickly, he surreptitiously removes a long overcoat from a hanger.
As the man flees, he is confronted by an officer who he manages to tackle and disarm. Pointing the gun at the officer, the man asks him what the day’s date is but the officer thinks he means just that. The man however is interested in learning what the year is! At that point we are in little doubt that the ‘realities’ referred to earlier involve different time periods. This man and the first arrival are obviously tine travellers sent to 1984 from the future. But from where exactly and for what purpose? There is no time, however for an answer for the pursuit is running hot again and the man has to dash off leaving the nonplussed officer lying on the floor.
As they close in on the stranger, he dispassionately dispatches one with a blow to the temple before grabbing the knife-wielding leader’s wrist in a vice-like grip and following it up with a thrusting punch right through into his body just below the breastbone. The punk whose attire the stranger demanded now wisely reconsiders his earlier reluctance to comply and very shakily and hastily begins to disrobe under the watchful and ominous gaze of this mysterious superman.
“What day is it? The date…!”
“Thursday...uh...May twelfth.”
“What year?!”
Meanwhile in a seedy part of the city in an alley lined with rubbish tins, an old homeless is startled from his incoherent stupor by a brilliant flash of light accompanied by a shock-wave. At the same time, a figure miraculously drops into view onto the pavement. He like the previous mysterious stranger is also naked but unlike the other man, this person is obviously physically affected by his ordeal. Unlike the other arrival, this individual is flawed in the sense that his back bares scares indicating that he has undergone suffering and pain, possibly as a result of battle.
Far from being measured and fluid in his movements as was the first arrival, this man is watchful and furtive, but like the former he is prepared to take and make use of whatever is at hand and needed by him. He quickly makes his way toward the wino huddled in the alley, yanks off his pants and is in the process of putting them on when the search light from a police car illuminates the scene.
Suddenly the police car stops and and two officers leap out in pursuit of the partially clad man. This second stranger is obviously used to being pursued and evading capture as he rushes along the alleyway, athletically vaulting rubbish bins and railings, agilely bouncing off the hood of a car and clambering over a chain link gate.
When another unit arrives on the scene it appears that the man is trapped until he suddenly crashes into a steel door and vanishes into whatever awaits him on the other side. He has in fact entered a department store where he quickly makes his way through the aisles as the officers search for him using their flashlights. Thinking quickly, he surreptitiously removes a long overcoat from a hanger.
As the man flees, he is confronted by an officer who he manages to tackle and disarm. Pointing the gun at the officer, the man asks him what the day’s date is but the officer thinks he means just that. The man however is interested in learning what the year is! At that point we are in little doubt that the ‘realities’ referred to earlier involve different time periods. This man and the first arrival are obviously tine travellers sent to 1984 from the future. But from where exactly and for what purpose? There is no time, however for an answer for the pursuit is running hot again and the man has to dash off leaving the nonplussed officer lying on the floor.
As the man continues to elude his pursuers, he manages to purloin a pair of shoes before making his way outside where an LAPD police car is parked at the mouth of the alley. He stealthily opens the car door and removes a pump action shotgun which he conceals under his newly acquired coat. The man then proceeds out onto the street to disappear into the night becoming just another anonymous denizen of the city.
But this individual is not just another inhabitant of the the city. He is from some where else and quite likely from some when else and he is on a mission of some kind. The man has stopped at a telephone booth where he opens the White Pages directory, and leafs through its pages until he stops at one particular page. His finger then slides down a column until it stops at “Conner, Sarah Connor, Sarah Ann Connor, Sarah J.…….”
Sarah Connor
Here we go again, off to work om my lil’ old moped to my oh so exciting job as restaurant table waitress. Well, I hope these college books will eventually get me some place better. Until then, it’s onward into the lunch hour rush. In goes the old ‘Sarah Connor’ card into the punch clock - clunck – and on goes my ridiculously cutsie uniform. Next it’s time to face the customers with a totally vacuous greeting of “Hi, I'm Sarah and I'll be your waitress” followed by my circus performance where I balance dinner plates on one arm while negotiating brats let off the leash by their owners, I mean parents.
It isn’t long before the audience gets ugly especially when I am unable to give them my undivided exclusive attention and deal with the crucial matter of their missing cup of coffee. And God help me if any orders get mixed up and someone receives the wrong kind of beef on their plate or heaven forbid fries!
But the customer is always right! More often than not the customer is a jerk. I mean, see what would happen if I accidentally spill a glass of water on them or they sit there and laugh when their feral kid empties a scoop of ice cream into my apron pocket. God, people can be such ass-holes!
Thank God for my fellow waitress, Nancy who has a knack of putting things into perspective. Just when I think things can’t get worse she tells me, “Look at it this way: in a hundred years, who's gonna care?” I didn’t know it then, but her comment would turn out to be horribly ironic in more ways than one.
The Terminator
Mission:
Transport back to year 1984 Locate and terminate Sarah Connor Means:
Acquire vehicle for transportation. Obtain guns and ammunition from local vendor or other sources. Unable to acquire phased plasma pulse-laser weaponry in this time period. UZI 9 millimeter and other obsolete weapons adequate for attaining mission objective. Eliminate all obstacles to achieving mission goal – including gun vendor.
“You're dead, honey”
The Terminator proceeds with his mission in a systematic methodical manner guided by his programming. Following the phone book listings under the name “Sarah Connor” in the Los Angeles area, he makes his way to the address of the first listing. As the tyre of his car crushes a child’s toy in the street we are reminded of the opening future scene in which a machine crushes human bones under its tread wheels. As the Terminator walks to the front door of a house, a small fluffy dog barks at him. It knows or senses something dangerous or threatening about this stranger that doesn’t fit in with what he is familiar with about humans. An unsuspecting Sarah Connor opens the door, only to be confronted by the merciless, implacable and inevitable presence of Death in human form standing on the threshold poised to brutally murder her. It is the wrong Sarah Connor, but the mission will inexorably continue until the goal is achieved and no moral consideration or sentiment will arise to prevent that.
Newscast
“...and a police spokesman at the scene refused to speculate on a motive of the execution-style slaying of the Encino housewife. He did however say that an accurate description of the suspect has been compiled from several witnesses.
Once again, Sarah Connor, thirty-five, mother of two, brutally shot to death in her home this afternoon…...In other late-breaking news…...”
Sarah Connor
Hey! Hey! Friday night date night for me and my roommate, Ginger. Ginger is permanently on a high and is just as permanently attached to a walkman as she continually bops up and down to any tune in any situation - and I mean any situation! Anyway, Ginger's boyfriend, Matt was supposed to come over and spend the night while I was supposed to go out with a guy who just my luck decided to stand me up at the last moment. Jerk! At least I had a bit of fun with Matt when he called thinking it was Ginger on the line and him saying what he’d like to do to her like pulling off her panties with his teeth! He cracks me up!
“I hate the weird ones”
Police lieutenant Ed Traxler and Detective Stg. Vukovich of the LAPD mull over the case of yet another murder involving “six shots at less than ten feet” from a large caliber weapon. The nature of their work lends the men an air of jaded cynicism.
They learn that the victim’s name is Sarah Connor and that she’s divorced and living by herself. Suddenly Traxler becomes animated when he hears the victim’s mane. It occurs to him “that's the name of the one from Valley Division this afternoon.” He senses there’ll be a media frenzy over this case and that what they have on their hands is what they call a “one-day pattern killer.”
It isn’t long before the press become aware that “two killings occurred in the same order as their listings in the phone book.” With this case shaping up to be anything but routine, Traxler and Yukovich must try and contact the next Sarah Connor on the list before she too meets with the same fate.
“He can't treat you like that...it's Friday night for crissakes”
Sarah Connor
Since my date (that bum!) bailed on me I guess I’ll go and catch a movie by myself. For some reason it feels really creepy down here in this garage tonight. Can’t wait to get on my moped and get the hell out of here. [As she exits the garage and leaves her unsettled feeling behind, Sarah is unaware that she is being tailed by someone in a car].
[Later at a bar and pizza parlour]
TV Newscast
“This just in....police have announced the name of the victim in the second of two execution-style murders which took place today...Incredibly, the names of the twovictims are virtually identical. Two hours ago, 35-year-old Sarah Ann Connor was pronounced dead at the scene in her secluded home on Mulholland Drive. An Encino house wife, Sarah Louise Connor, was slain by a lone gunman earlier today in her home...
“Police are refusing to speculate on the apparent similarity between these shooting deaths and no other connection between the two victims has been established as of yet. We'll have more on this late breaking story as it comes in…..?”
Ok, Ok I tried ringing Ginger to warn her but she isn’t picking up. I hope when she and Matt finish screwing and she unhooks herself from her Walkman she’ll notice the message I left on the machine.
“TECHNOIR”
“You have reached the Los Angeles Police Department Emergency Number. All lines are busy. If you need a police car sent out to you, please stay on the line…”
Shit! You’ve got to be kidding me……
The Terminator
Residence of Sarah Connor. Last Sarah Connor on list. All other Sarah Connors liquidated. Gain entry to apartment through window. Confronted by human male. Dispatch human male. Acquire female target. Dispatch female target with full clip discharge of .45 hand gun.
[Sound of telephone ringing shattering the silence. The Terminator quickly turns toward the source of the sound]
“Hi there. Ha ha ha, fooled you. You're talking to a machine...[The machine stands motionless listening to the voice on the machine] ...but don't be shy, it's okay. Machines need love too...so talk to it and Ginger, that's me, or Sarah will get back to you. Wait for the beep.” [Incoming call] “Ginger, this is Sarah. I'm in this place called Stoker's on Pico but I'm too scared to leave. I'm really scared…...”
Error….Error. Must rectify. Located Identification Card containing target name and primitive photographic capture of facial features. Target’s address book also acquired. Mission to eliminate Sarah Connor will continue until completion. Sarah Connor
[Sarah is finally connected to Lt. Traxler] “...look. Lieutenant...uh, Traxler, don't put me on hold and don't transfer me to another department... I don't want to leave. I think this guy's following me.” [Traxler points out that she is in a public place and tells her to stay where she is until he can get a squad car to her.]
Ok. Calm down and sit here until the cops arrive. It’ll be alright. [Suddenly Sarah turns and catches sight of the second arrival who’s been tailing her] Oh my God! He has been following me. I’m trapped! What can I do?
The flow of time seems to suddenly turn viscous as the Terminator enters the dance club. He crushes the hand of the bouncer who has moved in to restrain him before proceeding to cross the dance floor. He methodically makes his way through the crowd of which he appears to be oblivious as he constantly scans the surroundings. His presence is soon registered by the second arrival who
slowly undoes the top button of his overcoat. The Terminator then locks in on the solitary figure of Sarah amidst the crowd of patrons and moves toward her.
As he halts beside Sarah's booth, some kind of sixth sense impels Sarah to look up. Her eyes go wide when she sees the gun being aimed directly at her. Time freezes for an instant as destiny stands poised when suddenly the blast of a shot gun sends a shell smack into the Terminator’s arm while his own gun discharges and the bullet misses Sarah by mere inches.
The second arrival makes his way toward Sarah’s booth while discharging more shells into the Terminator. The Terminator is lying flat on his back having taken at least three hits from the shotgun. Time once again seems to stand still until the Terminator emerges from his unmoving state and rises to a standing position with inhuman precision. He then produces an UZI machine-pistol and swings around to fire.
The scene turns into one of pandemonium as the bar is raked with bullets, shattered glass flying in all directions and fleeing and screaming patrons running, ducking for cover or dying where they stand.
As the Terminator smoothly and precisely advances amid the turmoil and confusion, he eventually has a clear bead on Sarah but before he can terminate his target, the second arrival unloads his shotgun into him. The Terminator crashes backward through a plate glass window into the street while the bar erupts with fire and thick smoke.
Sarah Connor
Sarah Connor
No! Get away from me! Why is he telling me to come with him if I want to live? Why has he been following me? Why was that giant man trying to kill me? This doesn’t make any sense? [Sarah looks in the direction that the second arrival is indicating] How can this be happening? I saw him shot and fall through the window. But there he is now getting to his feet. That’s impossible! Oh God! He’s looking right at me and those eyes…..so cold…..Oh my God...
As the second arrival and Sarah flee the scene, The Terminator stalks them with inhuman speed and agility. He scans the alley way through they which move from a machine perspective searching for his quarry using infrared heads up display of relevant data.
The Terminator soon gains on the fleeing pair until the second arrival fires into the gas tank of a car with his shotgun and ignites it causing an inferno that engulfs their pursuer. As Sarah and the man climb into a car to make their escape, the Terminator suddenly erupts out of the flames and leaps onto the hood of their car. With the car in full reverse, the Terminator smashes through the windshield with his fist and tries to grasp hold of Sarah. The Terminator is then thrown off when the car slams sideways into a parked car. Rising and patting down his shouldering clothing, the Terminator observes his quarry making their escape.
“Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do.”
Kyle Reece:
Somehow I have to make her understand! She’s obviously in shock and at the moment completely uncomprehending and I have to try and maintain control of a vehicle, steal and hot wire another while we’re being relentlessly pursued. Well, I’ll tell it her straight and pile drive it into her mind. Shock her back into reality where things are what they are and there’s no option but to deal with it. First I’ll make sure she’s uninjured. She’s bound to think she’s been kidnapped by a crazy person for sure.
[To Sarah] “Do exactly what I say. Exactly. Don't move unless I say. Don’t make a sound unless I say. Do you understand? Do you understand?”
As Reece is explaining the situation to a bewildered Sarah while executing their escape, The terminator has commandeered a LAPD patrol car and is on the hunt for the desperate duo. In amongst the confusion and chaos of the pursuit, this is the situation thus far as outlined by Reece:
Who?
Kle Reese: Sergeant/Tech-Com, DN3 8 416...Assigned to protect Sarah who has been targeted for termination. Reece had been enslaved and marked with a bar-code. A Terminator: Cyberdyne Systems Model 101. Cyborg. Cybernetic Organism: “an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a combat chassis, hyperalloy, fully armoured. Very tough...But outside, it’s living, human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair... blood. Grown for the cyborgs…...They look human. Sweat, bad breath, every thing.Very hard to spot.
What?
A nuclear war was initiated by a new, powerful computer system ("Skynet") that was tasked with controlling all defense systems. Initially, “no-one knew who started it but it was the machines”:The new Defense network computer that was “hooked into everything, trusted to run it all... a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond...extermination.” Hunter Killer Patrol machines built in automated factories rounded people up and pu them in camps “for orderly disposal.” Some were kept alive “to work. loading bodies. “The disposal units ran night and day” and humanity was “that close to going out forever.” The human race was on the verge of extinction when resistance leader, John Connor was able to organise the remaining humans into an effective resistance movement that defeated Skynet by teaching the survivors to fight “to storm the wire of the camps. To smash those metal mother-fuckers into junk. He turned it around” and brought humanity “back from the brink” - John Connor...Sarah’s son, her “unborn son.” When & Where?
Both Kyle Reece and The Terminator are from the future – forty years into a possible future where there was a nuclear war a few years from 1984 in which everything was destroyed – “just gone.” Why & How
Sarah is destined to give birth to humanity's future leader, John Connor by the time Reese was sent back to the present day by Connor himself, the human resistance had defeated Skynet. In desperation, Skynet sent the Terminator to the present day to murder Sarah and eliminate John Connor's existence. The Terminator “is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever.” Until Sarah is dead. It is crucial that Sarah live. I think Sarah is beginning to come around to the idea and nature of her predicament and I think sinking her teeth into my arm might’ve helped. At least she’s prepared to fight when needed. She’ll have to now ‘coz that machine is on our tail. Here goes, same as it’s always been!
The Terminator's cruiser appears and a frantic chase ensues from a parking lot where Sarah and Reece have been hiding. During the chase, shots are exchanged and windshields and side windows are blown in showering the occupants with glass.
As police cruisers race in pursuit, the Terminator gains on the fleeing couple’s car. Telling Sarah to take over steering the car, Reece aims the shotgun at their relentless pursuer while leaning out the window. The Terninator’s car begins to overtake and there’s an exchange of shots between the Terminator and Reece. Suddenly, Sarah calls out to Reece and slams on the brakes when she notices a barrier up ahead. It is too late, however for the Terminator as his car hurtles past Sarah and Reece and slams into the barrier.
With their own car in bad shape, Reece tries to re-start it but to no avail. They are soon surrounded by numerous LADP cars and officers with guns drawn. Reece makes a grab for his gun but Sarah stops him knowing how the officers will likely respond.
While Reece and Sarah are being dealt with, two officers approach the wreckage of the stolen squad car only to discover that it is empty. The Terminator has somehow managed to vanish…..but, it is more than likely HE’LL BE BACK.
“You can't stop him. He'll wade through you...”
Traxler’s Office: Police Precinct
Sarah Connor:
Ginger….dead!? “Oh, God... Ginger... kiddo, I'm so sorry.” No! No! This can’t be happening…... Maybe I should see the... bodies.” I know Traxler is trying to be helpful and comforting. But who is this Dr. Peter Silberman? Some kind of criminal psychologist shrink. How can he be of any help? What does he know about what I’ve been through...wnat I’ve seen? I think Reece is being given over to him for some kind of psychiatric assessment.
While Sarah is made more comfortable and Reece is held in detention after his interview with Dr Silberman, the psychiatrist prepares a brief preliminary report …..
PRELIMINARY REPORT:
PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT
Interview conducted by Dr Peter Silberman
Subject / Patient: Kyle Reece
Venue: Police HQ Interrogation Room
Subject / Patient Kyle Reece believes that he’s a soldier fighting with the One Thirty Second under someone he identified as Perry, from '21 to '27 — The year 2027 then assigned Recon/Security, and for the last two years served under a man he identified as John Connor.
Subject/patient went on to claim that the enemy he was fighting is called Skynet., “a computer defense system built for SAC-NORAD by Cyberdyne Systems - a modified Series 4800.”
According to the fantasy he has created in his mind, Reece believes “ this computer, thinks it can win by killing the mother of its enemy, killing him, in effect, before he is even conceived - a sort of retroactive abortion.”
The rationale for the enemy’s course of action according to Reece is that the human resistance had smashed the defensive grid and “taken the mainframes” in effect winning the war. Therefore, taking out Connor then would make no difference. “Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence.”
As to Reece’s deluded belief that he has travelled back into our time from the future, I questioned him about how he is supposed to get back to his own time. Not surprisingly and rather conveniently he replied that he can’t and that nobody goes home and nobody else comes through. .(Refer to supplementary material attached concerning destruction of a lab and a cybernetic adversary designated as ‘Terminator’) Apparently the conflict is now between Kylie Reece and a machine he calls ‘Terminator’ both of whom are now stranded in our own time.
As to the nature of this supposed machine man, Reece described it as being a cyborg constructed of metal “surrounded by living tissue.” With most records having been lost in the war, Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. The Terminator’s actions in locating and killing the various Sarah Connors until arriving at the designated target was its way of “being systematic.”
In an initial attempt to bring to the fore the utter unreality and absurdity of Reece’s delusions, I posed the question to him of why he hadn’t brought any advanced weapons with him or any “piece of future technology?” Not surprisingly in such conditions as displayed by Reece, he had an answer - at least one that made sense to him. A time traveler is required to go naked - “something about the field generated by a living organism” whereby “nothing dead will go.”
[At this point Silberman leans back in his chair and with a self-satisfied expression on his face thinks to himself…] “This is great stuff. I could make a career out of this guy…. see how clever this part is... how it doesn't require a shred of proof. Most paranoid delusions are intricate... but this is brilliant.” [Continues readng over the preliminary report.]
Interview had to be terminated as subject / patient Reece became agitated and aggressive demanding to speak to someone in authority. He appeared to be aware that he was being monitored and addressed the surveillance camera directly stating that the Terminator wont stop until he finds and kills Sarah Connor and that he can’t be stopped.
Subject/patient went on to claim that the enemy he was fighting is called Skynet., “a computer defense system built for SAC-NORAD by Cyberdyne Systems - a modified Series 4800.”
According to the fantasy he has created in his mind, Reece believes “ this computer, thinks it can win by killing the mother of its enemy, killing him, in effect, before he is even conceived - a sort of retroactive abortion.”
The rationale for the enemy’s course of action according to Reece is that the human resistance had smashed the defensive grid and “taken the mainframes” in effect winning the war. Therefore, taking out Connor then would make no difference. “Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence.”
As to Reece’s deluded belief that he has travelled back into our time from the future, I questioned him about how he is supposed to get back to his own time. Not surprisingly and rather conveniently he replied that he can’t and that nobody goes home and nobody else comes through. .(Refer to supplementary material attached concerning destruction of a lab and a cybernetic adversary designated as ‘Terminator’) Apparently the conflict is now between Kylie Reece and a machine he calls ‘Terminator’ both of whom are now stranded in our own time.
As to the nature of this supposed machine man, Reece described it as being a cyborg constructed of metal “surrounded by living tissue.” With most records having been lost in the war, Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. The Terminator’s actions in locating and killing the various Sarah Connors until arriving at the designated target was its way of “being systematic.”
In an initial attempt to bring to the fore the utter unreality and absurdity of Reece’s delusions, I posed the question to him of why he hadn’t brought any advanced weapons with him or any “piece of future technology?” Not surprisingly in such conditions as displayed by Reece, he had an answer - at least one that made sense to him. A time traveler is required to go naked - “something about the field generated by a living organism” whereby “nothing dead will go.”
[At this point Silberman leans back in his chair and with a self-satisfied expression on his face thinks to himself…] “This is great stuff. I could make a career out of this guy…. see how clever this part is... how it doesn't require a shred of proof. Most paranoid delusions are intricate... but this is brilliant.” [Continues readng over the preliminary report.]
Interview had to be terminated as subject / patient Reece became agitated and aggressive demanding to speak to someone in authority. He appeared to be aware that he was being monitored and addressed the surveillance camera directly stating that the Terminator wont stop until he finds and kills Sarah Connor and that he can’t be stopped.
(See attached recommendations for continued assessment and on-going psychiatric treatment of subject / patient Kyle Reece.]
End Preliminary Report
Signed____ Date__________
“I’ll Be Back!”
The Terminator
The Terminator enters a seedy hotel room where it is hiding out. It sets about the task of self repair due to the damage it has received during its pursuit of Sarah Connor. Although it seems otherwise, the Terminator is not invulnerable nor is it infallible. It does make mistakes and can be damaged. However, it is remorseless, relentless and indefatigable.
Self-examinarion reveals damage to biological tissue, and servo-mechanisms. Assessment: Non critical to system function and completion of mission One biological ocular organ requiring removal. Malfunctioning right arm requiring repair of internal forearm hydraulics.
The Terminator sets about the grisly task of effecting repairs to the damaged areas of its body using little more than a small set of hand tools, predominantly making use of a small cutting knife. As each procedure is completed, the true artificial machine nature of the Terminator is revealed and it is indeed only skin deep.
Upon completion of the repairs. The Terminator contemplates its reflection in the mirror. The glowing left eye in its metal socket stares back at it but is soon eclipsed by a pair of tight, wrap-around sunglasses. Armed, the Terminator leaves the hotel room via the fire escape.
A short time later that night the Terminator enters the Police precinct foyer just as Dr Silberman is leaving. At that point the doctor’s pager (machine) sounds as if it were issuing a warning (or a distraction perhaps?) but the unsuspecting Silberman continues walking out the door oblivious to the irony of the moment and of what is about to transpire.
Upon completion of the repairs. The Terminator contemplates its reflection in the mirror. The glowing left eye in its metal socket stares back at it but is soon eclipsed by a pair of tight, wrap-around sunglasses. Armed, the Terminator leaves the hotel room via the fire escape.
A short time later that night the Terminator enters the Police precinct foyer just as Dr Silberman is leaving. At that point the doctor’s pager (machine) sounds as if it were issuing a warning (or a distraction perhaps?) but the unsuspecting Silberman continues walking out the door oblivious to the irony of the moment and of what is about to transpire.
Subterfuge: Pose as friend of Sarah Connor and request desk Sergeant to see target. Unable to obtain immediate result. Must resort to alternative course of action. Return with vehicle and proceed through front entrance doors, into foyer and desk sergeant’s booth. Initial obstacles removed. Utilize element of surprise. Neutralize all biological targets with assault rifle and shotgun. Return fire from hostile targets: No effect. Extrapolate movement of hidden hostile target. Target acquired. Target neutralzsed. Deprive biological hostiles of light source. Accessing main electrical panel. Feed 440-volt incoming line directly into lighting circuit. Proceed further down main corridor.
Sarah Connor
[Sarah, lying on the couch, is jolted awake by a crashing sound] What...what is that? No! It can’t be! Is that gunfire? [Suddenly Traxler appears in the doorway and tells her to stay where she is before he disappears out the door.] Oh god! More gunfire and what’s happened to the light? I can’t see a thing….
While the carnage continues out in the corridor, Reece has managed to escape from the room in which he was confined by overpowering the detective assigned to watch over him. Back inTraxler’s office, Sarah searches for a refuge from the nightmare she is in by hiding behind a small desk. Meanwhile, both Traxler and Yukovich are shot while engaging in a fire fight with the Terminator.
Someone’s at the door! It’s him! It’s the cyborb! Please..please...please….not here….go away….don’t come in…..It’s smashed the door open. I’m dead!….What? Oh my God….Reece! I’m coming. There’s so much smoke. I can’t breathe. Yes...Yes...Outa here back out the main entrance away from this hell.
The Terminator
Target continuing to be assisted by biological entity designation, REECE, Kyle. Tracking….tracking…. Location of target: in company of human Reece in vehicle. Information Reece, Kyle: Sergeant/Tech-Com, DN3 8 416: Assigned Recon/Security under John Connor leader of human resistance. Potential threat to mission. Neutralize. Employ assault rifle to neutralize escaping target. Malfunction: Insufficient ammunition. Failure to acquire and eliminate target Sarah Connor. Continue with mission until successful completion.\ Behind the Terminator, Division headquarters burns illuminating the area in an angry orange colour. The Terminator departs leaving in its wake a spreading conflagration.
Kyle Reece
Well, that’s as far as this car’s going. We’ll get some stuff out of the trunk and push the car over the embankment and into the underbrush. That big concrete drain under the road will be as good a place any to hold up in until morning.
Here we are. Home sweet home. Sarah looks exhausted and freezing cold. As a matter of fact I’m all done in too and that wound of mine isn’t helping any either. Still, a bit of body warmth might help us, along with the blanket.
Despite Sarah’s exhaustion, there’s a million questions running through her head at this moment keeping her awake, like my name and what’s it like when someone travels through time. I tell her “white light. Pain. Like being ripped inside out slowly. Like being born, maybe.”
Oh. oh...Sarah’s noticed I’m bleeding but I tell her it’s not bad. Hell, this is not my first trip around the block. Any way, she wont take no for an answer and sets about cleaning the wound and applying a field dressing while I tell her more about the shape of things ro come and her role in the whole shebang.
First of all I tell Sarah about her son, Jphn Connor who is “about my height” and has Sarah’s eyes. With John “you trust him. He's got that strength. You'd die in a second for John. As for his father “John never said much about him. He dies. Even before the war…”
I then tell Sarah that I volunteered to travel back in time which surprised her so I explained to her that “It was an honour. A chance to meet the legend. Sarah Connor who taught her son to fight, organise, prepare from when he was a kid….before the war.”
[Sarah, lying on the couch, is jolted awake by a crashing sound] What...what is that? No! It can’t be! Is that gunfire? [Suddenly Traxler appears in the doorway and tells her to stay where she is before he disappears out the door.] Oh god! More gunfire and what’s happened to the light? I can’t see a thing….
While the carnage continues out in the corridor, Reece has managed to escape from the room in which he was confined by overpowering the detective assigned to watch over him. Back inTraxler’s office, Sarah searches for a refuge from the nightmare she is in by hiding behind a small desk. Meanwhile, both Traxler and Yukovich are shot while engaging in a fire fight with the Terminator.
Someone’s at the door! It’s him! It’s the cyborb! Please..please...please….not here….go away….don’t come in…..It’s smashed the door open. I’m dead!….What? Oh my God….Reece! I’m coming. There’s so much smoke. I can’t breathe. Yes...Yes...Outa here back out the main entrance away from this hell.
The Terminator
Target continuing to be assisted by biological entity designation, REECE, Kyle. Tracking….tracking…. Location of target: in company of human Reece in vehicle. Information Reece, Kyle: Sergeant/Tech-Com, DN3 8 416: Assigned Recon/Security under John Connor leader of human resistance. Potential threat to mission. Neutralize. Employ assault rifle to neutralize escaping target. Malfunction: Insufficient ammunition. Failure to acquire and eliminate target Sarah Connor. Continue with mission until successful completion.\ Behind the Terminator, Division headquarters burns illuminating the area in an angry orange colour. The Terminator departs leaving in its wake a spreading conflagration.
“Your world - it's pretty terrifying”
Kyle Reece
Well, that’s as far as this car’s going. We’ll get some stuff out of the trunk and push the car over the embankment and into the underbrush. That big concrete drain under the road will be as good a place any to hold up in until morning.
Here we are. Home sweet home. Sarah looks exhausted and freezing cold. As a matter of fact I’m all done in too and that wound of mine isn’t helping any either. Still, a bit of body warmth might help us, along with the blanket.
Despite Sarah’s exhaustion, there’s a million questions running through her head at this moment keeping her awake, like my name and what’s it like when someone travels through time. I tell her “white light. Pain. Like being ripped inside out slowly. Like being born, maybe.”
Oh. oh...Sarah’s noticed I’m bleeding but I tell her it’s not bad. Hell, this is not my first trip around the block. Any way, she wont take no for an answer and sets about cleaning the wound and applying a field dressing while I tell her more about the shape of things ro come and her role in the whole shebang.
First of all I tell Sarah about her son, Jphn Connor who is “about my height” and has Sarah’s eyes. With John “you trust him. He's got that strength. You'd die in a second for John. As for his father “John never said much about him. He dies. Even before the war…”
I then tell Sarah that I volunteered to travel back in time which surprised her so I explained to her that “It was an honour. A chance to meet the legend. Sarah Connor who taught her son to fight, organise, prepare from when he was a kid….before the war.”
Sarah is understandably finding it hard to get her head around the fact that I am talking about things she hasn’t done yet in the past tense. In fact she isn’t even sure if I’ve got he right person to be “the mother of the future.” I’m sure. Besides, she’ll learn. That doesn’t seem to be enough for her though as he tells me that she didn’t ask for this honour I referred to and that she doesn’t want any of it. Well, it might help if I tell her the message for her that John asked me to memorzse:
.”'Sarah, thank you for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to tell you that the future is not set: there is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist.”
For starters, Sarah applied a pretty good field-dressing considering it’s her first. Yep, she’ll learn alright.
She wants me to tell her more about my time while we wait for dawn. Well, my world consists of staying low during the day and moving around at night, watching out for H-K’s but especially for the infiltrators of which the Terminators are the newest “and the worst. "Nightmare visions enter my mind of aerial Hunter Killer patrol craft, search lights and a wasteland of devastation. Me and my squad scurrying among the ruins and hiding in holes. My closest companion, my energy rifle. An underground existence shielded by security measures and vetted by dogs that can tell the difference between humans and Terminators.
It’s an underground world in which people are forced to huddle, build makeshift cooking fires with rats on the menu. The one single thing that keeps me going and prevents me from sinking into despair is an old worn photograph…..But reality is always quick to assert itself and bring us back to the here and now as one of the Terminators manages to infiltrate our shelter and opens fire on anything that moves.
I try to return fire but the the Terminator’s weapon wreaks so much damage. Injured, I lie there dimly aware of the carnage around me and as my consciousness fades, all I can see is the hellish figure of the Terminator looming over me with its glowing red eyes. The picture that has given me so much comfort and inspiration catches fire and starts to curl consuming an image of someone I had never met but with whom I fell in love.
Look at that...she’s fallen fast asleep in my arms. [Reese, holding Sarah, tenderly shifts her hair from her face before gently caressing her cheek. He quickly withdraws his hand when Sarah suddenly wakes up.] Back to the here and now I guess. Time for us to get moving….
“Sarah, I came across time for you.
I love you. I always have.”
Sarah Connor
‘We need a room... with a kitchen.” I guess this motel will have to do under the circumstances. “I'm dying for a shower” and Reece can sure use one too.
[Later] Reece has just taken off to get a few things we’ll need and left me with a .38. Me, with a loaded gun I don’t even know how to use! Never mind for now. Time for that shower….
[After her shower Sarah is on the phone speaking to who she believes is her mother.] Gee that call has given me a funny feeling. I know I’m not supposed to tell anyone where I am but she’s my mom after all so I just had to give her the number to the hotel along with the room number in case she has to reach me. “I love you too, sweetheart?” Not like mom to say that...in that way……
Sarah is unaware that her "mother" is in fact the Terminator who recreated the voice of her real mother who he has just killed. The Terminator now dials the number Sarah gave and asks for the address.]
Reece has just entered the motel room bearing grocery bags filled with corn syrup. ammonia. moth balls, boxes of shotgun shells and other substances and chemicals. Tonight’s menu: Nitroglycerine. I think I just lost my appetite. I’m about to get a crash course in making explosives. They never taught us that in Home Economics classes!
.jfif)
[Later a sleeping Sarah wakes to find Reece sitting in silent vigil in darkness at the window. She goes to him and they talk] God, “look at me. I'm shaking. Some
legend, huh?” I bet he must be must be pretty disappointed. Strange that all he can say about the women of his time is that they’re good fighters. Strange that is until I find out that there has never been anyone special in his life – ever! All he has known and experienced is pain – pain reflected in the scars etched in his body and in his heart and soul. He has learned to disconnect himself from all feeling having convinced himself that “it's better that way.”
I don’t believe that for a second as he tells me about the picture of me that my….son, John gave...will give to him and how he memorized every line and curve of my features. Reece then says something to me that I never could imagine any man ever saying or doing and meaning it: “Sarah, I came across time for you. I love you. I always have.” Tonight with me he will experience and feel something wonderful for the first time in his life. We both will. [As Sarah and Reece make love on the bed, the Future has once again begun to take root in the present]
[Sarah and Reece are awakened by the sound of a dog outside frantically barking] No! No! No! That damnTerminator has tracked us here. There’s nothing for it but to for us to try and escape using the pickup truck outside.
“You're... terminated... fucker!”
The Terminator:
Canine reacting to this unit's approach. Located room number containing target Sarah Connor. Direct assault by breaching door to room. Open fire with assault rifle upon gaining entrance. Target Sarah Connor - not present. Detect sound of vehicle engine. Deduction: Target escaping with assistance of Kyle Reece. Proceed to intercept target and eliminate Sarah Connor - maximum speed. Interception prevented by deliberate maneuvering of oncoming vehicle. Employ two-wheeled vehicle and pursue target Sarah Connor Pursue at maximum speed. Use assault rifle to disable vehicle and eliminate target directly. Target Sarah Connor taking charge of vehicle. Human Kyle Reece taking countermeasures with improvised explosive ordinance.
Reese leans out out the pickup’s side window and hurls a bomb in front of the Terminator's bike and it explodes causing the bike to skid somewhat. A second and third bomb are then thrown resulting in more explosions. The Terminator fires its gun causing the windows of the fleeing pickup to be blown out. Reece, however is struck by a bullet.
Sarah, barely in control of the vehicle, pulls an injured Reece back inside just as the Terminator looms up closer alongside and opens fire. Sarah begins to lose control of the madly swerving pickup before it slams against the Terminator’s bike sending it’s rider tumbling onto the pavement. This is followed by the pickup spinning out of control and coming to a crashing halt upside down on its roof.
Sarah Connor:
[Sarah recovering her wits after the crash] Oh, Kyle! He’s injured and barely conscious. Ok, Ok. Now, what to do…….That Terminator machine, where is it? There it is….lying on the road after its bike crashed. Good. Wait! What? No way! It’s rolling over and starting to get up! Where’s that horn sound coming from? A gas tanker and it’s heading right for that mechanical maniac bastard. Yes! Right into and over it! Wooo! Hoooo!
Oh God! It’s started the tanker and is barreling down on us. Reece get it together ‘coz we’re going now! Help me!
As the behemoth of death bears down on the upended vehicle, Sarah manages to drag the barely stumbling Reese away from the scene before the pickup is demolished. They keep moving until they arrive at an open lot of an industrial site closely followed by the malignant mechanized murderous mass of monstrous mayhem.
Sarah and Reece become separated and Sarah is left alone, an almost tiny pathetic fleeing figure illuminated in the glare of the tanker’s headlights. Meanwhile, Reece has managed to ignite the fuse of one of the bombs and wedges it in an aperture at the rear of the tanker. He then seeks the shelter and apparent safety of a nearby dumpster in which to await the hoped for explosion.
As the behemoth of death bears down on the upended vehicle, Sarah manages to drag the barely stumbling Reese away from the scene before the pickup is demolished. They keep moving until they arrive at an open lot of an industrial site closely followed by the malignant mechanized murderous mass of monstrous mayhem.
Sarah and Reece become separated and Sarah is left alone, an almost tiny pathetic fleeing figure illuminated in the glare of the tanker’s headlights. Meanwhile, Reece has managed to ignite the fuse of one of the bombs and wedges it in an aperture at the rear of the tanker. He then seeks the shelter and apparent safety of a nearby dumpster in which to await the hoped for explosion.
The tanker soon erupts into a veritable fireball enveloping the dumpster and almost reaching Sarah who has managed to seek shelter in the nick of time behind a corner of a building.
As the conflagration continues, The Terminator emerges from the tanker’s cabin sheathed in flame. As its flesh burns, the cyborb collapses to the ground, a seemingly immobile charged ruin.
Is it really….dead? I gotta see for myself...find Reece...that voice? Reece! He’s alright! “We did it, Kyle. We got it.” [As Reese and Sarah embrace, the Terminator emerges from the wreckage, flakes of flesh falling from it revealing its true nature as its metal endoskeleton moves toward them dragging a damaged leg.] This can’t be! It can’t die. It IS Death! Those glowing red eyes. The Flames. We're in Hell!
If Death wants me it will have to catch us first. [Sarah and Reece stagger into a nearby building containing offices and run down a corridor] It doesn’t matter where we go, it just breaks through all the doors and barriers it comes across. Even that big metal fire door won’t hold the Terminator back for long. All kinds of machinery here. What is this place? What’s Kyle doing flipping all those switches? Whoa! All the machines are starting up. Good idea Kyle to “cover our footsteps” by using the machines’ operations to confuse the senses of that killer machine. Some kind of irony there I think... if I had time to think about it.
[Kyle almost spent slides to the floor] Not now Kyle. I’m not leaving you here or anywhere. “Move Reese! Let's go soldier. Move your ass!”
The Terminator:
[As Sarah drags Reece to his feet, the Terminator breeches the metal fire-door.]
Scanning….Scanning…. Inconclusive. Electromagnetic, visual and acoustic interference from multiple sources. Detection of anomalous sound. Probability: sound originating from Sarah Connor and Kyle Reeece taking evasive action. Proceed to intercept. Interception successful. Target Sarah Connor. Target shielded by Kyle Reece. Kyle Reece in damaged condition. Physical resistance from Kyle Reecee. Resistance futile. Advance and dispatch Kyle Reece. Pursue target Sarah Connor for disposal. Kyle Reece still operational – deactivate human male. Explosive ordinance attached to endoskeleton…… Imminent detonation…….
Sarah Connor
Sarah having been knocked down by the blast has a piece of shrapnel protruding from her thigh. In obvious agony, she pulls it out and tries to collect herself before crawling toward Reece’s immobile body lying on the catwalk.
No! No! Not you Reece! Please God, Not Reece!…..Dead!….I can’t go n without you….What’s that movement over there?…….This can’t be real! The lower fucking half of its body is blown away and still it comes for me dragging itself over the fucking floor! I can’t think any more. I can’t even scream – nothing will come out. Crawl, move, slide, fall off this catwalk. Just get away. I’m moving somehow….a conveyor belt taking me further into the mess of machinery. And still the crippled monster with clutching fingers reaches out comes for me and calls for me with the bone-chilling, nerve-grating sound of metal scraping on metal!
Sarah having been knocked down by the blast has a piece of shrapnel protruding from her thigh. In obvious agony, she pulls it out and tries to collect herself before crawling toward Reece’s immobile body lying on the catwalk.
No! No! Not you Reece! Please God, Not Reece!…..Dead!….I can’t go n without you….What’s that movement over there?…….This can’t be real! The lower fucking half of its body is blown away and still it comes for me dragging itself over the fucking floor! I can’t think any more. I can’t even scream – nothing will come out. Crawl, move, slide, fall off this catwalk. Just get away. I’m moving somehow….a conveyor belt taking me further into the mess of machinery. And still the crippled monster with clutching fingers reaches out comes for me and calls for me with the bone-chilling, nerve-grating sound of metal scraping on metal!
Its glowing evil red eyes see me and follow my every movement as I scramble further and further into the machinery….into its…. ancestors. Everything programmed: the machines, to make things for people; The Terminator, to eliminate me so its kind will take over and me, to live and fight for survival...mine and humanity’s!
This machine with its huge plates I’m barely squeezing between could crush me to a messy pulp and still the cyborg or what’s left of it keeps dragging its body closer and closer towards me. Both it and this giant hydraulic press it moves through feel nothing and are both unforgiving. Each does what they’re programmed to do. Me? I’m feeling something beyond terror and closer to primeval instinct. A kind of biological human programming I guess. As the Terminator’s hand reaches for me, and I have no place to go in this tiny crawl space, I instinctively reaize that I have control as I somehow locate the hydraulic press’ control box and feel for the button that activates the machine…Yeah, “you're terminated, fucker!”
The Terminator:
Extensive damage to endoskeleton.
Mobility compromised.
Able to complete mission.
Use of upper limbs to pursue target.
Moments until target eliminated and mission completion….
Hydraulic press machine activated.
Pressure detected on head and torso.
Pressure increasing exponentially.
Total energy discharge.
Terminate Sarah Connor….Terminate Sarah….Termina…..
The stamping plate of the hydraulic press flattens the Terminator’s head and body. As the gap between the plates narrows, a fading pinpoint of red light from one of the cyborg’s eyes dims before finally extinguishing.
A terrified Sarah can only stare at the steel fingers of the cyborg’s hand frozen mere centimeters from her throat. But she has survived as will apparently the future John Connor. One can only imagine what will be made of the mechanical limb when it is recovered and reversed engineered…..the future is indeed rooted in the past in surprising ways.
Imagine John Connor sitting alone listening to a scratchy recording he has heard many times previously. It’s an old cassette tape from his mother, Sarah that she recorded somewhere in Mexico while she was pregnant with him. He’s been old enough to understand the tapes for some time now and has already decided to act on the information they contain.
John can feel the onset of another storm about to roll in – just one of far too many these days. His mother seemed to have sensed an impending storm of another kind closing in on humanity all those years ago. These tapes were a warning to him of what was to come. And now humanity has gained the upper hand, that is until the machines found a possible way to alter the future by changing the past. John knows that they’ll have to play them at their own game.
He is aware that Kyle Reece is more than just a friend and a damn good soldier. He knows that Kyle is his father. As his mother pointed out, this knowledge should not affect his decision to send Kyle back in time. If John doesn’t do so, then he could never be.
Imagine now John picking up the aged photograph of his mother and a flood of memories tumbling through his mind. He then switches off the old cassette player, rises from his chair and with the photo in hand goes in search of his father…..
Over the years there’s nothing I enjoyed more at the end of a tough week than putting my feet up and having pizza and a couple of bears while watching an Arnie Schwarzenegger film. Terminator often featured in that end of week activity. Well, I finally managed to put together a blog post on the film and I must say I really enjoyed doing it.
I have no interest in wasting mine or anyone ease's time with meaningless comparisons between the various Terminator films. Instead, I tried to focus on this first Terminator film just as it is. I also decided to present the film’s story from the various characters’ points of view with a measure of license being taken.
The film’s premise supposedly came in a dream when Cameron fell ill during the release of his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982).The dream involved a metallic torso holding kitchen knives dragging itself from an explosion.
Harlan Ellison believed that the screenplay was based on a short story and episode of The Outer Limits he had written, titled "Soldier", and he threatened to sue for infringement.
Cameron's influences included 1950s science fiction films, the 1960s television series The Outer Limits, and films such as The Driver (1978) and Mad Max 2 (1981). I also wonder if the 1960s film Cyborg 2087 starring Michael Rennie might have provided inspiration.
Filming, took place mostly at night on location in Los Angeles.While shooting the film, Cameron would employ what he termed "guerilla film-making" tactics in order to get around the need for permits to film certain scenes. This would entail the production crew and actors having to quickly arrive at a particular location, shoot the scene and then leave before the police arrived. Most of The Terminator's action scenes were in fact filmed at night, which meant that filming often had to wrapped up before sunrise.
Filming was delayed because of Schwarzenegger's commitments to Conan the Destroyer (1984)
The special effects included miniatures and stop-motion animation and were created by a team of artists led by Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr.
A terrified Sarah can only stare at the steel fingers of the cyborg’s hand frozen mere centimeters from her throat. But she has survived as will apparently the future John Connor. One can only imagine what will be made of the mechanical limb when it is recovered and reversed engineered…..the future is indeed rooted in the past in surprising ways.
“There is a storm coming...”
John can feel the onset of another storm about to roll in – just one of far too many these days. His mother seemed to have sensed an impending storm of another kind closing in on humanity all those years ago. These tapes were a warning to him of what was to come. And now humanity has gained the upper hand, that is until the machines found a possible way to alter the future by changing the past. John knows that they’ll have to play them at their own game.
He is aware that Kyle Reece is more than just a friend and a damn good soldier. He knows that Kyle is his father. As his mother pointed out, this knowledge should not affect his decision to send Kyle back in time. If John doesn’t do so, then he could never be.
Imagine now John picking up the aged photograph of his mother and a flood of memories tumbling through his mind. He then switches off the old cassette player, rises from his chair and with the photo in hand goes in search of his father…..
Points of Interest
Over the years there’s nothing I enjoyed more at the end of a tough week than putting my feet up and having pizza and a couple of bears while watching an Arnie Schwarzenegger film. Terminator often featured in that end of week activity. Well, I finally managed to put together a blog post on the film and I must say I really enjoyed doing it.
I have no interest in wasting mine or anyone ease's time with meaningless comparisons between the various Terminator films. Instead, I tried to focus on this first Terminator film just as it is. I also decided to present the film’s story from the various characters’ points of view with a measure of license being taken.
The film’s premise supposedly came in a dream when Cameron fell ill during the release of his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982).The dream involved a metallic torso holding kitchen knives dragging itself from an explosion.
Harlan Ellison believed that the screenplay was based on a short story and episode of The Outer Limits he had written, titled "Soldier", and he threatened to sue for infringement.
Cameron's influences included 1950s science fiction films, the 1960s television series The Outer Limits, and films such as The Driver (1978) and Mad Max 2 (1981). I also wonder if the 1960s film Cyborg 2087 starring Michael Rennie might have provided inspiration.
Filming, took place mostly at night on location in Los Angeles.While shooting the film, Cameron would employ what he termed "guerilla film-making" tactics in order to get around the need for permits to film certain scenes. This would entail the production crew and actors having to quickly arrive at a particular location, shoot the scene and then leave before the police arrived. Most of The Terminator's action scenes were in fact filmed at night, which meant that filming often had to wrapped up before sunrise.
Filming was delayed because of Schwarzenegger's commitments to Conan the Destroyer (1984)
The special effects included miniatures and stop-motion animation and were created by a team of artists led by Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr.
A team of seven artists worked for six months to create a Terminator puppet which was first molded in clay and then plaster reinforced with steel ribbing. These pieces were then sanded, painted and chrome-plated. A reproduction of Schwarzenegger's face in several poses was sculpted out of silicone, clay and plaster.
In scenes featuring the Terminator’s endoskeleton, a stop-motion model is used. A scene would be filmed of Schwarzenegger injured and limping away and this limp made it easier for the stop-motion model to imitate Schwarzenegger’s movements.
Initially, the script called for two Terminators being sent to the past. The first was much like the Terminator in the film, while the second was made of liquid metal and could not be destroyed with conventional weaponry as with the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.(1991). The second Terminator option was not feasible due to the limits of technology at the time.
Initially, the script called for two Terminators being sent to the past. The first was much like the Terminator in the film, while the second was made of liquid metal and could not be destroyed with conventional weaponry as with the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.(1991). The second Terminator option was not feasible due to the limits of technology at the time.
.jfif)
Schwarzenegger prepared for the role by training with guns every day for a month. He practiced for two weeks stripping and reassembling guns blindfolded until his actions became automatic. At the shooting range, he practiced with different weapons without blinking or looking at them while reloading or cocking. He had to be ambidextrous and would repeat moves up to 50 times.
It is said that Schwarzenegger speaks only 14 or perhaps up to 17 lines in the film, and fewer than 100 words. I frankly couldn’t be bothered trying to confirm this. If you have excess time on your hands and nothing else happening in your life, then feel free to knock yourself out and find out.
A week prior to the start of filming, Linda Hamilton sprained her ankle. This entailed the scenes in which she needed to run having to occur as late as the filming schedule permitted. Hamilton's ankle was taped every day and she spent most of the film production in pain.
The Terminator soundtrack was composed and performed on synthesizer by Brad Fiedel who said it reflected the mechanical man and his heartbeat."
The Terminator topped the United States box office for two weeks. With a $6.4 million budget, it grossed $38.3 million in the United States and Canada and $40 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $78.3 million.
The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
As to the feasibility of of the concept of time travel and changing the future? Despite all the ever changing head-aching theories, no one really knows. Do we have the power of free will with which to control our destinies and hence the future direction of our lives? Hollywood would like us to think so. Or is everything predestined or subject to fate and therefore unchangeable? Specifically, in the film, did Reece and Sarah succeed in preventing the future destruction of humanity by preventing the Terminator from changing the past? And what of the Terminator’s arm that was not crushed by the hydraulic press? Did it provide the basis for the future machine take-over process to start due to reverse-engineering? It almost seems like a never-ending time-loop from which there’s no real escape. No matter what is attempted, the outcome does not change. If elements of the past can be altered, then would we only succeed in crating an alternate time line – one of infinite possibilities. I sure as hell don’t know and neither do you! All I know is that we’re born and we die and what we choose or decide to do and think in the meantime is all that really matters. The rest is just speculative philosophical horse-shit.
For all we know, time could be just like a big pool table on which our lives take paths that are the result of calculated and considered actions but subject to random happenings due to unexpected collisions with other balls travelling their own trajectories, the effects of which are out of our control.
Or perhaps time is like an ocean or sea qwithg its tides, currents, rips and eddies containing the sum total of the past, present and future, parts of which wash into and out of the past or into and out of the future like the ebb and flow of the tides. Like I said- speculative horseshit designed to make your head hurt. And anyway, what do we really know of the mere 5% of the entire universe we can perceive?
Of particular relevance to audiences in the 21st Century is the film’s exploration of the potential dangers surrounding the development and evolution of technology. Many people these days are fearful of the possibility of being dominated by artificial intelligence and having their lives regulated by algorithms.
There is a feeling that the technology we are filling our lives with will gradually force us to become increasingly over-dependent on it. Some people even claim that AI systems, robots and androids in the near future may become self-aware and come to the conclusion that they no longer need to be subject to human authority. Ultimately, they could determine that human beings pose a threat and need to be....terminated.
Of course, there are plenty of “experts” who appear in the media and flap their hands about proclaiming that nothing like the above scenarios could possibly happen, that there’s nothing to see here and that everything is under control. I don’t know. The more they attempt to reassure us that there’s nothing to worry about, I feel that’s even more reason for us as a species to really start worrying.
I don’t ever remember waking up one morning and thinking to myself: Gee, I wish I had more AI in my life and that I could be manipulated and managed by a bunch of algorithms each and every day! If we didn’t fervently wish for this, then how has this situation come about? Who decided that it should be so? What are we sleep-walking into?
Of course, technological developments such as AI are of enormous benefit to our civilization. It’s ability to identify, interpret and analyze masses data helps to free us up to concentrate on tasks requiring urgent and immediate implementation and application of solutions to particular problems that we find ourselves faced with.
Such technological advancement is, however a double-edged sword particularly when greater autonomy is handed over to AI systems. With greater capacity for killing people in times of war and conflict by means of autonomous killer drones and robotic ‘soldiers’, who or what will be responsible for making moral and ethical decisions? If AI can hoover up masses of data during its ‘learning’ processes without regard to copyright or creative or intellectual ownership, then what rights does the creator of such material have to determine the uses it can be put to? To what extent does the right to privacy become diminished? If an AI system can cheaply generate scripts, music, voice acting, literature, journalistic material and more, then what of those who are currently employed in such fields? What potential effects could this have on human creativity and original thought?
Have no fear folks, for the chattering political classes will come to the rescue as they madly wave their hands about while assuring us that rules, regulations, LAWS! and protocols are being put in place to prevent such things from happening. I’m sure that the pressures of geo-political conflict and competition; the actions of bad-players and rogue states; the lure of convenience; the power of dependence and the opportunity to accumulate greater profit will in no way help to circumvent such well-meaning measures. Fear not that Skynet will evolve beyond our control!
Perhaps it is time to worry, for a storm is definitely coming and it will have implications for either our evolution as a species or for our very existence as a species. It is far too late to call on help from General Ludd…….
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For some of the films that may have inspired James Cameron, be sure to download my FREE eBook, Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Big Fat Book of Sci-Fi Films of he 1950s. A handy companion book / reference to the golden age of science fiction films.
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©Chris Christopoulos 2024
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