The Terminator

The Terminator; science-fiction action, USA, 1984; D: James Cameron, S: Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Bess Motta, Rick Rossovich

The year is 2029: after a nuclear war, intelligent machines and humans are fighting each other. In order to succeed, the machines send a cyborg, the Terminator, back in time, in Los Angeles in 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future rebel John Connor, before she gave birth to him. But the humans also sent their own agent, human Kyle Reese, to prevent the Terminator. Meanwhile, Sarah is just an average waitress, and is surprised when the Terminator attempts to kill her. Kyle saves her and the two of them spend the night together. The Terminator kills Kyle, but Sarah is able to crush the damaged cyborg in an automated factory. She leaves for Mexican soil, pregnant.

"The Terminator" 1 and 2 are two completely different films. "Terminator 2" is better, but it is still a typical Hollywood film with an optimistic message about hope in which the title hero is the good guy, while the original from 1984 is made entirely in anti-Hollywood way, in form of a dark existentialist techno-horror that seems as if it was written by a futuristic Franz Kafka. "The Terminator", the second film by director James Cameron, is a gritty (B) film with a minimal budget that has flaws, but whose execution pulled the maximum virtues out of the cliche, trashy plot. The best parts are actually small, subtle details: while Sarah is working as an waitress, a naughty little boy puts his ice cream scoop in her dress. Later, she returns to her apartment, which she shares with her friend Ginger, and answers a phone call—the one calling is Ginger's lover, talking intimate erotic details, not knowing Sarah has actually answered the phone. 

There is also an elegant association cut when Kyle in L.A. of the present observes a construction vehicle, and its continuous tracks "dissolve" to the one of a giant robot on wheels from the apocalyptic future, shooting at Kyle and his unit. The highlight: the 20-minute finale, in which the raw robotic exoskeleton is chasing Sarah, is especially intriguing, displaying a 'tour-de-force' energy, since the Terminator is confused from the noise of the machines in the factory where the heroine is hiding. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who speaks only 17 sentences, didn't film many excellent films, but by picking the role in this little unusual classic he had a lot of luck—his cyborg is the embodiment of pure evil, some irrational selfishness and extremism that cannot be reasoned with, and one of the clearest examples of that anxious feeling of persecution caught on cinema. The storyline is overstreched and the dialogue is thin, underwritten, sometimes even banal since everything was reduced to its essence, yet Cameron's enthusiasm and energy imbibed the film with new modern aesthetics, as well as some subconscious layers that enrich the action basics—the AI-human conflict and the time cycle paradox. "The Terminator" is a film that at first glance seems entirely irrespective and stupid, but a one that leaves an positive impression when watched due to the director's pure ingenuity.

Grade:+++