Directed by James Cameron. Written by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd.

Kyle Reese

• Come with me if you want to live.

• [Saying the message that John made him memorize] 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...You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist.

• John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know why at the time. It was very old - torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve. I came across time for you Sarah. I love you; I always have.

Sarah Connor

• Come on. Do I look like the mother of the future? I mean, am I tough, organized? I can't even balance my check book!

• [moving a wounded Reese] Come on, Reese! On your feet, soldier!

• [Recording a tape for her future son] The hardest thing is deciding what I should tell you and what not to. Well, anyway, I've got a while yet before you're old enough to understand the tapes. They're more for me at this point ... to help get it all straight. Should I tell you about your father? That's a tough one. Will it change your decision to send him here ... knowing? But if you don't send Kyle, you could never be. God, you can go crazy thinking about all this ... I suppose I'll tell you ... I owe him that. And maybe it'll be enough if you know that in the few hours we had together we loved a lifetime's worth.

Dialogue

Kyle Reese: The Terminator's an infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis - micro processor-controlled, fully armored. Very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs...The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new, they look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.

Sarah Connor: Look, I am not stupid, you know. They cannot make things like that yet!

Kyle Reese: Not yet, not for about 40 years.

Sarah Connor: [disbelieving] Are you saying it's from the future?

Kyle Reese: One possible future. From your point of view. I don't know tech stuff.

Sarah Connor: Then you're from the future too - is that right?

Kyle Reese: Right.

Sarah Connor: Right. [They struggle together and she bites his hand in her attempt to escape]

Kyle Reese: Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do. Don't do that again.

Sarah Connor: Just let me go!

Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

Dr. Silberman: Why didn't you bring any weapons, something more advanced? Don't you have, uh, ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.

Kyle Reese: You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.

Dr. Silberman: Why?

Kyle Reese: I DIDN'T BUILD THE FUCKING THING!

Dr. Silberman: Okay, okay. But this cyborg, if it's metal-

Kyle Reese: Surrounded by living tissue!

Dr. Silberman: Right. Now, why were the other two women killed?

Kyle Reese: Most of the records were lost in the war. Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. Her full name, where she lives. They just knew the city. The Terminator was just being systematic.

Dr. Silberman: Uh-huh. Okay, now let's get back to-

Kyle Reese: [interrupts] Look! You've heard enough! I have answered your questions! Now I have to see Sarah Connor!

Dr. Silberman: I'm afraid that's not up to me.

Kyle Reese: Then why am I talking to you? Who is in authority here?

Dr. Silberman: Please, I-

Kyle Reese: SHUT UP! [glares the camera] You still don't get it, do you!? He'll find her! That's what he does! It's all he does! You can't stop him! He'll wade through you, reach down her throat, and tear her fuckin' heart out!!

The Terminator: I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told she was here. Could I see her please?

Desk Sergeant: No, you can't see her she's making a statement.

The Terminator: Where is she?

Desk Sergeant: It may take a while. Want to wait? There's a bench over there.

The Terminator: [looks around, examining the structural integrity of the room, then looks back at him] I'll be back. [leaves]

Sarah Connor: Reese. Why me? Why's it want me?

Kyle Reese: There was a nuclear war. A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. Nobody even knew who started it. It was the machines, Sarah.

Sarah Connor: I don't understand.

Kyle Reese: Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, 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.

Sarah Connor: Did you see this war?

Kyle Reese: No. I grew up after. In the ruins... starving... hiding from H-K's.

Sarah Connor: H-K's?

Kyle Reese: Hunter-Killers: patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put into camps for orderly disposal.

[Pulls up his right sleeve, exposing a mark]

Kyle Reese: This is burned in by laser scan. Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah... your unborn son.

Sarah Connor: Tell me about my son.

Kyle Reese: He's about my height. He has your eyes.

Sarah Connor: What's he like?

Kyle Reese: You trust him. He's got a strength. I'd die for John Connor.

Sarah Connor: Well... at least now I know what to name him. I don't suppose you know who the father is, so I won't tell him to get lost when I meet him?

Kyle Reese: John never said much about him. I know he dies before the war...

Sarah Connor: Wait. I don't want to know.

Taglines

• The thing that won't die, in the nightmare that won't end.

• Your future is in his hands.

• In the Year of Darkness, 2029, the rulers of this planet devised the ultimate plan. They would reshape the Future by changing the Past. The plan required something that felt no pity. No pain. No fear. Something unstoppable. They created 'THE TERMINATOR'

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator
• Michael Biehn - Kyle Reese
• Linda Hamilton - Sarah Connor
• Paul Winfield - Lieutenant Ed Traxler
• Lance Henriksen - Detective Hal Vukovich
• Bess Motta - Ginger Ventura
• Earl Boen - Dr. Peter Silberman
• Rick Rossovich - Matt Buchanan

See also

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Terminator Salvation
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles