The Terminator is a 1984
science fictionScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
action filmAction film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
directed by
James CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
, co-written by Cameron and
William Wisher Jr.William H. Wisher Jr. is an American screenwriter. He is best known for his work with long-time friend James Cameron on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day...
, and starring
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
,
Michael BiehnMichael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
, and
Linda HamiltonLinda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
. The film was produced by
Hemdale Film CorporationHemdale Film Corporation, known as Hemdale Communications after 1993, was an independent film production company and distributor founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company by actor David Hemmings and his manager, John Daly. Hemdale was initially founded as a talent agency that helped launch...
and distributed by
Orion PicturesOrion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
, and filmed in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Schwarzenegger plays the Terminator, a
cyborgA cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
assassin sent back in time from the year 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, played by Hamilton. Biehn plays
Kyle ReeseKyle Reese is the primary character in the first Terminator film, the posthumous father of John Connor, and the love of Sarah Connor. He is played by Michael Biehn in the first Terminator films, Jonathan Jackson in the television series, and played as a teenager by Anton Yelchin in Terminator...
, a soldier from the future sent back in time to protect Sarah.
Though not expected to be either a commercial or critical success,
The Terminator topped the American box office for two weeks and helped launch the film careers of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2008, it was selected by the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
for preservation in the United States
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In a post-apocalyptic 2029,
artificially intelligentArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
machines seek to exterminate what is left of the human race. Two beings from this era
travel back in timeTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
to 1984 Los Angeles: One is a Terminator (
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
), a cyborg assassin programmed to kill Sarah Connor (
Linda HamiltonLinda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
); the other is
Kyle ReeseKyle Reese is the primary character in the first Terminator film, the posthumous father of John Connor, and the love of Sarah Connor. He is played by Michael Biehn in the first Terminator films, Jonathan Jackson in the television series, and played as a teenager by Anton Yelchin in Terminator...
(
Michael BiehnMichael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
), a human resistance fighter sent to protect her. After killing two other Sarah Connors listed in the telephone directory, the Terminator tracks its target to a nightclub. Kyle saves Sarah from the Terminator's attack and the two make an escape.
Kyle explains that in the near future an artificial intelligence network called
SkynetSkynet is the main antagonist in the Terminator franchise—an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators...
will become self-aware and initiate a
nuclear holocaustNuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of the near complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars....
of mankind. Sarah's yet-unborn son
JohnJohn Connor is a character appearing in the American science fiction Terminator franchise and he serves as the series main protagonist. Created by writer and director James Cameron, the character is first referred to in the 1984 film The Terminator and first appears portrayed by teenage actor...
will rally the survivors and lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines. With the Resistance on the verge of victory, Skynet has sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before John can be born, as a last-ditch effort to avert the formation of the Resistance. The Terminator is an emotionless and efficient killing machine with a powerful metal
endoskeletonAn endoskeleton is an internal support structure of an animal, composed of mineralized tissue. Endoskeleton develops within the skin or in the deeper body tissues. The vertebrate is basically an endoskeleton made up of two types of tissues . During early embryonic development the endoskeleton is...
, but with an external layer of living tissue that makes it resemble a human being.
Kyle and Sarah are again attacked by the Terminator, leading to a car chase and their arrest. Lieutenant Ed Traxler (
Paul WinfieldPaul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....
) and Detective Hal Vukovich (
Lance HenriksenLance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
) tell Sarah that Kyle is insane. Kyle is questioned by psychologist Dr. Silberman (
Earl BoenEarl Boen is an American actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series...
), who concludes that he is paranoid and delusional. The Terminator attacks the police station and kills many police officers, including Traxler and Vukovich, in its attempt to locate Sarah, but she and Kyle escape and seek refuge in a motel. Kyle confesses that he has long been in love with Sarah, having been given a photograph of her by her son John. Sarah reciprocates Kyle's feelings and they have sex.
The Terminator tracks them to the motel and wounds Kyle. In the ensuing chase the Terminator is caught in the blast of an exploding gasoline tank truck. With its external flesh burned away, it pursues Sarah and Kyle into a factory. Kyle jams a
pipe bombA pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
into its abdomen, blowing off its legs and one of its arms, but Kyle himself is killed. Still partially functional, the Terminator drags itself toward Sarah by its remaining arm. She leads it into a
hydraulic pressA hydraulic is a machine using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalenta mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England. He invented and was issued a patent on this press in 1795...
and crushes it, causing it to deactivate.
Later, a pregnant Sarah is traveling through Mexico. Along the way she records audio tapes which she intends to pass on to her unborn son, John. She debates whether to tell him that Kyle is his father. A young Mexican boy takes a photograph of her which she purchases—it is the photograph that John will later give to Kyle. She drives on towards approaching storm clouds.
Cast
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
as The Terminator, a cyborgA cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor. Schwarzenegger only speaks 18 lines in the film. James Cameron said that "Somehow, even his accent worked...It had a strange synthesized quality, like they hadn't gotten the voice thing quite worked out."
- Linda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
as Sarah Connor, the Terminator's target.
- Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
as Kyle ReeseKyle Reese is the primary character in the first Terminator film, the posthumous father of John Connor, and the love of Sarah Connor. He is played by Michael Biehn in the first Terminator films, Jonathan Jackson in the television series, and played as a teenager by Anton Yelchin in Terminator...
, a human Resistance fighter sent back in time to protect Sarah.
- Earl Boen
Earl Boen is an American actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series...
as Dr. Silberman, a police psychologistPsychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
.
- Paul Winfield
Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....
as Ed Traxler, a police Lieutenant who questions Sarah.
- Lance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
as Hal Vukovich, a police Detective who questions Sarah.
Additional actors included
Bess MottaBess Motta is an American actress, singer, choreographer, and exercise demonstrator who appeared in the Canadian produced television series, The :20 Minute Workout which aired for two seasons in 1983 and 1984....
as Ginger Ventura;
Rick RossovichRick Rossovich is an American actor.Rossovich was born Frederic Enrico Rossovich in Palo Alto, California. His brother, Tim Rossovich, is a former professional football player and also an actor.-Career:...
as Matt Buchanan;
Dick MillerRichard "Dick" Miller is an American character actor who has appeared in over 100 films, particularly those produced by Roger Corman, and later in films of directors who started their careers with Corman, including James Cameron and Joe Dante, with the distinction of appearing in every film made...
as the gun shop clerk; Shawn Schepps as Nancy; Bruce M. Kerner as the desk sergeant; Schwarzenegger's friend and workout partner, professional bodybuilder
Franco ColumbuFranco Columbu is an Italian actor, former bodybuilder and World's Strongest Man competitor.-Bodybuilding:Columbu was born in Ollolai, Sardinia . Starting out his athletic career as a boxer, Columbu progressed into the sport of Olympic Weightlifting, powerlifting and later bodybuilding, winning...
as a Terminator in 2029; and
Bill PaxtonWilliam "Bill" Paxton is an American actor and film director. He gained popularity after starring roles in the films Apollo 13, Twister, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic...
, Brad Rearden, and
Brian ThompsonBrian Thompson is an American actor. His distinctive square-jaw profile, powerful voice, and imposing stature has led him to be typecast as a villain in many action films and TV series, and a some comedies: Joe Dirt, The Three Amigos, Weird Science, Key West, and Life Stinks.-Career:Thompson has...
as punks who are confronted by the Terminator.
Development
In Rome, during the release of
Piranha II: The SpawningPiranha II: The Spawning, also known as Piranha II: Flying Killers, is a 1981 horror film, the sequel to the 1978 low-budget film Piranha, and the feature film directorial debut of James Cameron.-Plot:...
director James Cameron grew ill and had a dream about a metallic torso dragging itself from an explosion while holding kitchen knives. When Cameron returned to Pomona, California he stayed at
Randall FrakesRandall Frakes is a film and science fiction writer primarily known for his work with long-time friends, Bill Wisher, and James Cameron on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day....
' home where he wrote a draft for
The Terminator. Cameron later stated that his influences while writing the script were 1950s science fiction films, episodes of
The Outer LimitsThe Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
as well as contemporary films including
The DriverThe Driver is a 1978 crime film directed by Walter Hill and starring Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, and Isabelle Adjani. Based upon similarities in plot elements, it is heavily influenced by Jean-Pierre Melville's film Le Samouraï...
and
The Road Warrior. To translate the draft into a script Cameron enlisted his friend Bill Wisher who had a similar approach to storytelling. Cameron gave Wisher the early scenes involving Sarah Connor and the police department scenes to write. As Wisher lived far away from Cameron, the two communicated script ideas by recording tapes of what they wrote by telephone. Cameron's agent hated the idea for
The Terminator and told him to work on something else. After this, Cameron fired his agent. The initial outline of the script involved two Terminators sent to the past. The first was similar to the Terminator in the film, while the second was a liquid metal cyborg that could not be destroyed with conventional weaponry. Cameron could not think of a good way to depict this robot, stating that he "was seeing things in his head that couldn't be done with existing technology." The story of the cyborgs in the film was cut down to a single robot idea. The liquid metal Terminator would be revisited with the
T-1000The T-1000 is a fictional nanomorph mimetic poly-alloy assassin and the main antagonist in Terminator 2: Judgment Day controlled by the series main antagonist Skynet. The T-1000 is portrayed primarily by Robert Patrick; however, being a shape-shifter, the T-1000 is played by other actors in some...
character in the 1991 sequel
Terminator 2: Judgment DayTerminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr.. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong...
.
Gale Anne HurdGale Anne Hurd is an American film producer and screenwriter.-Early life:Hurd was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Lolita and Frank E. Hurd, an investor. She grew up in Palm Springs, California and graduated from Stanford University with a B.A...
, who had worked at New World Pictures as
Roger CormanRoger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's assistant showed interest in the film project. Cameron sold the rights for
The Terminator to Hurd for one dollar with the promise that she would produce it only if Cameron was to direct it. As a producer, Hurd had suggested edits to the script and took a screen writing credit in the film. Cameron has stated that Hurd "did no actual writing at all". Cameron and Hurd had friends who worked with Roger Corman previously and who were now working at
Orion PicturesOrion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
. Orion agreed to distribute the film if Cameron could get financial backing elsewhere. The script was picked up by John Daly at
Hemdale PicturesHemdale Film Corporation, known as Hemdale Communications after 1993, was an independent film production company and distributor founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company by actor David Hemmings and his manager, John Daly. Hemdale was initially founded as a talent agency that helped launch...
. Cameron wanted his pitch for Daly to finalize the deal and had his friend
Lance HenriksenLance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
show up to the meeting early dressed and acting like the Terminator. Henriksen showed up at the office kicking open the door wearing a leather jacket and had gold foil smothered on his teeth and fake cuts on his face and then sat in a chair. Cameron arrived shortly after which relieved the staff from Henriksen's act. Daly was impressed by the screenplay and Cameron's sketches and passion for the film. In late 1982 Daly agreed to back the film with help from HBO and Orion.
The Terminator was originally budgeted at $4 million and later raised to $6.5 million.
Pre-production
One of Cameron's first tasks was to find someone to play Kyle Reese. Orion wanted a star whose popularity was rising in the United States but who also would have foreign appeal. Orion's co-founder Mike Medavoy had met
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
and sent his agent the script for
The Terminator. Cameron was dubious about casting Schwarzenegger as Reese as he felt he would need someone even bigger to play the Terminator. The studio had suggested
O. J. SimpsonOrenthal James "O. J." Simpson , nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate and professional football player, football broadcaster, and actor...
for the role of the Terminator, but Cameron did not feel that Simpson would be believable as a killer. Cameron still agreed to meet with Schwarzenegger about the film and devised a plan to avoid casting him. Cameron planned to pick a fight with him and return to Hemdale and find him unfit for the role. Upon meeting with Schwarzenegger, Cameron was entertained by Schwarzenegger who would talk about how the villain should be played. Cameron began sketching his face on a notepad and asked Schwarzenegger to stop talking and remain still. After the meeting, Cameron returned to Daly saying Schwarzenegger would not play Reese but that "he'd make a hell of a Terminator". Schwarzenegger was not as excited by the film; during an interview on the set of
Conan the Barbarian, an interviewer asked him about a pair of shoes he had (which were for
The Terminator). Schwarzenegger responded, "Oh some shit movie I'm doing, take a couple weeks." In preparation for the role, Schwarzenegger spent three months training with weapons to be able to use them and feel comfortable around them.
For the role of Reese, various other suggestions were made for the role including rock musician Sting. Cameron chose
Michael BiehnMichael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
for the role. Biehn was originally skeptical about the part, feeling that the movie was silly. After meeting with Cameron, Biehn stated his "feelings about the project changed". Hurd stated that "almost everyone else who came in from the audition was so tough that you just never believed that there was gonna be this human connection between [Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese]. They have very little time to fall in love. A lot of people came in and just could not pull it off." In the first few pages of the script, the character of Sarah Connor is written as "19, small and delicate features. Pretty in a flawed, accessible way. She doesn't stop the party when she walks in, but you'd like to get to know her. Her vulnerable quality masks a strength even she doesn't know exists." For the role, Cameron chose
Linda HamiltonLinda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
, who had just finished filming
Children of the CornChildren of the Corn is a 1984 horror film based upon the 1977 short story of the same name by Stephen King. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the film stars Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton...
.
Rosanna ArquetteRosanna Lauren Arquette is an American actress, film director, and producer.-Early life:Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi" , an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Her paternal...
had previously auditioned. Cameron found a role for Lance Henriksen as Detective Hal Vukovich, as Henriksen had been essential to finding finances for the film. For the special effects shots in the film, Cameron wanted Dick Smith who had previously worked on
The GodfatherThe Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
and
Taxi DriverTaxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
. Smith did not take Cameron's offer and suggested his friend
Stan WinstonStanley Winston was an American visual effects supervisor, makeup artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man, Edward Scissorhands, and Avatar...
for the job.
Production
Filming for
The Terminator was set to begin in early 1983 in
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Production was halted when producer
Dino De LaurentiisAgostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
applied an option in Schwarzenegger's contract that would make him unattainable for nine months while he was filming
Conan the DestroyerConan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
. During the waiting period, Cameron was contracted to write the script for
Rambo: First Blood Part IIRambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...
. He also used this time to refine parts of
The Terminators script and meet with producers
David GilerDavid Giler is an American filmmaker who has been active in the motion picture industry since the early 1960s.He started his career as a writer, providing scripts for television programs such as Kraft Suspense Theatre and The Man from U.N.C.L.E....
and Walter Hill to discuss a sequel to
AlienAlien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
.
There was limited interference from Orion Pictures. Two suggestions Orion put forward included the addition of a canine cyborg for Reese which Cameron turned down and the second was to strengthen the love interest between Sarah and Reese which Cameron accepted. On creating the Terminator's look, Winston and Cameron passed their sketches back and forth. They eventually decided on a design that was nearly identical to the original one Cameron drew in Rome. Winston had a team of seven artists work for six months to create a puppet of the Terminator. It was first molded in clay, then plaster reinforced with steel ribbing. These pieces were then sanded, painted and then chrome-plated. Winston sculpted a reproduction of Schwarzenegger's face in several poses out of silicone, clay and plaster. Both the sequences in 2029 and stop motion scenes in the film were developed by Fantasy II, a special effects company headed by Gene Warren Junior. A stop motion model is used in several scenes in the film involving the skeletal frame. Cameron wanted to convince the audience that the model of the structure was capable of doing what they saw Schwarzenegger doing. To allow this, a scene was filmed of Schwarzenegger injured and limping away. This limp made it easier for the model to imitate Schwarzenegger.
One of the guns seen in the film and on the film's poster was an
AMT HardballerThe AMT Hardballer is a clone of the .45 ACP Colt M1911, although some components of the action are not interchangeable with other M1911s. It was made by Arcadia Machine & Tool, commonly known as AMT, from 1977. The Hardballer was the first entirely stainless steel 1911 pattern pistol...
Longslide modified by Ed Reynolds from
SureFireSureFire, LLC. is a Fountain Valley, California company whose primary products are flashlights, headlamps, weapon mounted lights and laser sights. In addition, Surefire also manufactures knives, sound suppressors, Picatinny Rails and batteries. The company is a major supplier of flashlights to the...
to include a laser sight. Both non-functioning and functioning versions of the prop were created. Due to cost considerations, the laser sights used an external
power supplyA power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy to electrical energy...
that Arnold Schwarzenegger had to activate manually. Reynolds states that his only compensation for the project was promotional material for the film.
In March 1984, the film began production in Los Angeles.
Cameron felt that with Schwarzenegger on the set, the style of the film changed, explaining that "...the movie took on a larger than life sheen. I just found myself on the set doing things I didn't think I would do – scenes that were just purely horrific that just couldn't be, because now they were too flamboyant." Most of
The Terminators action scenes were filmed at night, which led to tight filming schedules before sunrise. A week before filming started, Linda Hamilton sprained her ankle, leading to a production change whereby the scenes in which Hamilton needed to run occurred as late as the filming schedule allowed. Hamilton's ankle was taped every day and she spent most of the film production in pain.
Post-production
After production finished on
The Terminator, some post-production shots were needed. These included scenes showing the Terminator outside Sarah Connor's apartment, Reese being zipped into a body bag, and the Terminator's head being crushed in a press. The film's soundtrack was synthesizer music composed by
Brad FiedelBrad Ira Fiedel is an American movie music composer. Raised in the Village of Bayville, on Long Island's tony North Shore, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School in upstate New York....
. Fiedel described the film's music as being about "a mechanical man and his heartbeat". Almost all the music in the film was performed live.
The Terminators theme is played over the opening credits and is played in various points in the film in sped up versions: a slowed down version when Reese dies, and a piano version during the love scene. Fiedel created music for when Reese and Connor escape from the police station that would be appropriate for a "heroic moment". Cameron turned down this theme, as he believed it would lose the audience's excitement. The
soundtrack to the filmThe Terminator is a soundtrack album by Brad Fiedel, featuring the score to the film, The Terminator. It was released in 1984 through Enigma Records and reissued in 1991 through DCC Compact Classics ; a remastered edition was reissued as The Definite Edition in 1994 through Edel Music, containing...
was released in 1984.
Release
Orion Pictures did not have faith in
The Terminator performing well at the box office and feared a negative critical reception. At an early screening of the film, the actors' agents insisted to the producers that the film should be screened for critics. Orion only held one press screening for the film. The film was premiered on October 26, 1984. On its opening week,
The Terminator played at 1,005 theaters and grossed $4,020,663 making it number one in the box office. The film remained at number one in its second week. It lost its number one spot in the third week to
Oh, God! You DevilOh, God! You Devil is a black comedy/fantasy film starring George Burns, Ted Wass, Ron Silver and Roxanne Hart.Directed by Paul Bogart and produced by Robert M. Sherman...
. Cameron noted that
The Terminator was a hit "relative to its market, which is between the summer and the Christmas blockbusters. But it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than the other way around."
Writer
Harlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
stated that he "loved the movie, was just blown away by it", but believed that the screenplay was based on an episode of
The Outer LimitsThe Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
he had written, titled "Soldier". Orion gave Ellison an undisclosed amount of money and an acknowledgment credit in later prints of the film. Some accounts of the settlement state that "
Demon with a Glass Hand"Demon with a Glass Hand" is an episode of The Outer Limits television series, the second to be based on a script by Harlan Ellison, which Ellison wrote specifically with actor Robert Culp in mind for the lead role...
", another
Outer Limits episode written by Ellison, was also claimed to have been plagiarized by the film, but Ellison has explicitly stated that
The Terminator "was a ripoff" of "Soldier" rather than "Demon with a Glass Hand".
Cameron was against Orion's decision and was told that if he did not agree with the settlement, they would have Cameron pay for any damages if Orion lost Ellison's suit. Cameron replied that he "had no choice but to agree with the settlement. Of course there was a gag order as well, so I couldn't tell this story, but now I frankly don't care. It's the truth. Harlan Ellison is a parasite who can kiss my ass."
Marketing
Around and shortly after
The Terminator's release in theaters, a number of merchandise items and media were released and sold to coincide with the film.
Shaun HutsonShaun Hutson is a writer of novels including horror novels and dark urban thrillers. A native of Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, England, Hutson now lives and writes in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire....
wrote a novelization of the film which was published in 1984. In September 1988,
NOW ComicsNOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comics books....
released a comic based on the film.
Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
published a comic in 1990 that took place 39 years after the film. Several video games based on
The Terminator were released between 1991 and 1993 for various Nintendo and Sega systems. A soundtrack to the film was released on 1984 which included the score by Brad Fiedel and the pop and rock songs used in the club scenes.
Home video
The Terminator was released on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and
BetamaxBetamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
in 1985. The film performed well financially on its initial release.
The Terminator premiered at number 35 on the top video cassette rentals and number 20 on top video cassette sales charts. In its second week,
The Terminator reached number 4 on the top video cassette rentals and number 12 on top video cassette sales charts.
In March 1995,
The Terminator was released as a letter boxed edition on Laser Disc. The film premiered on DVD on September 3, 1997.
IGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
referred to this DVD as "pretty bare-bones...released with just a mono soundtrack and a kind of poor transfer." A special edition of the film was released on October 2, 2001 which included documentaries, the script and advertisements for the film. On June 20, 2006, the film was released on
Blu-rayBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
.
Reception and legacy
Positive reviews of
The Terminator focused on the action and thrilling scenes.
VarietyVariety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the film, calling it a "blazing, cinematic comic book, full of virtuoso moviemaking, terrific momentum, solid performances and a compelling story...Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast in a machine-like portrayal that requires only a few lines of dialog."
Richard CorlissRichard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of
Time magazineTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
said that the film has "Plenty of tech-noir savvy to keep infidels and action fans satisfied."
Time placed
The Terminator on its "10 Best" list for 1984.
The Los Angeles Times called the film "a crackling thriller full of all sorts of gory treats...loaded with fuel-injected chase scenes, clever special effects and a sly humor." The
Milwaukee JournalThe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is the primary newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state...
gave the film 3 stars, calling it "the most chilling science fiction thriller since
Alien." A review in
Orange Coast magazine stated that "the distinguishing virtue of
The Terminator is its relentless tension. Right from the start it's all action and violence with no time taken to set up the story...It's like a streamlined
Dirty Harry movieDirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood...
–no exposition at all; just guns, guns and more guns." In the May 1985 issue of
CinefantastiqueCinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
it was referred to as a film that "manages to be both derivative and original at the same time...not since the Road Warrior has the genre exhibited so much exuberant carnage" and "an example of science fiction/horror at its best...Cameron's no-nonsense approach will make him a sought-after commodity". In the United Kingdom the
Monthly Film BulletinThe Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...
praised the film's script, special effects, design and Schwarzenegger's performance.
Other reviews focused on the film's violence and story-telling quality.
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
opined that the film was a "B-movie with flair. Much of it...has suspense and personality, and only the obligatory mayhem becomes dull. There is far too much of the latter, in the form of car chases, messy shootouts and Mr. Schwarzenegger's slamming brutally into anything that gets in his way." The
Pittsburgh PressThe Pittsburgh Press is an online newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, currently owned and operated by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Historically, it was a major afternoon paper...
wrote a negative review, calling the film "just another of the films drenched in artsy ugliness like
Streets of FireStreets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...
and
Blade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
."
The Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars, adding that "at times it's horrifyingly violent and suspenseful at others it giggles at itself. This schizoid style actually helps, providing a little humor just when the sci-fi plot turns too sluggish or the dialogue too hokey." The
Newhouse News ServiceAdvance Publications, Inc., is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse, Jr. It is named after the Staten Island Advance, the first newspaper owned by the Newhouse family...
called the film a "lurid, violent, pretentious piece of claptrap".
The film won three Saturn Awards for
Best Science Fiction FilmThe Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film is a Saturn Award given to the best film in the science fiction genre by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.-Winners:-External links:*...
,
best make-upThe following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Make-up:...
and
best writingThe following is a list of people who have won the Saturn Award for Best Writing.-Multiple Winners:*James Cameron - 3 awards*Christopher Nolan - 3 awards*William Peter Blatty - 3 awards-External links:* http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html#writing...
.
In 1991,
Richard SchickelRichard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
of
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
reviewed the film giving it an "A" rating, writing that "what originally seemed a somewhat inflated, if generous and energetic, big picture, now seems quite a good little film" and called it "one of the most original movies of the 1980s and seems likely to remain one of the best sci-fi films ever made."
Film4Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
gave the film five stars, calling it the "sci-fi action-thriller that launched the careers of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger into the stratosphere. Still endlessly entertaining."
TV GuideTV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
gave the film four stars referring to it as an "amazingly effective picture that becomes doubly impressive when one considers its small budget...For our money, this film is far superior to its mega-grossing mega-budgeted sequel."
EmpireEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
gave the film five stars calling it "As chillingly efficient in exacting thrills from its audience as its titular character is in executing its targets." The film database Allmovie gave the film five stars, saying that it "established James Cameron as a master of action, special effects, and quasi-mythic narrative intrigue, while turning Arnold Schwarzenegger into the hard-body star of the 1980s." The film holds a 100% "Certified Fresh" rating and a score of 84/100 ("universal acclaim"), respectively, on the
review aggregateA review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
websites
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
The Terminator has received recognition from the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
. The film ranked 42nd on AFI's
100 Years... 100 ThrillsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 heart-pounding movies in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 12, 2001, during a CBS special hosted by Harrison Ford....
, a list of America's most heart-pounding films. The character of the Terminator was selected as the 22nd greatest movie villain on AFI's
100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
. Arnold's catch phrase "
I'll be back"I'll be back" is a catchphrase associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which he first used in his role as the title character from the 1984 science fiction thriller film The Terminator. In the original shooting script, the line was written as "I'll come back". On 21 July 2005, it was chosen as #37...
" was voted the
37th greatest movie quotePart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
by the AFI. In 2005,
Total FilmTotal Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
named
The Terminator the 72nd best film ever made. In 2008,
EmpireEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine selected
The Terminator as one of
The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Empire also placed the
T-800In the Terminator film series, a terminator is an autonomous robot, typically humanoid, originally conceived as a virtually indestructible soldier and assassin, as well as an infiltrator....
14th on their list of
The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. In 2008,
The Terminator was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
External links