Franchise Flashback: A Look Back at “The Terminator” (1984)

One of the best sequels of all time, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” will be celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and also showing on select screens nationwide. Since I have never seen all of the films in this franchise, I decided to start up a little “Flashback Franchise” series and go through all six films! I will likely do other reviews for the “Flashback Franchise” but every now and then.

So, to kick things off, let’s go back to where it all started with the 1984 film “The Terminator.”

Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor. Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese, who divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust.

Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead to fight against them. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to escape.

When “The Terminator” was initially released in October 1984, audiences were completely blindsided by how gripping and intense the film ended up being. It had very little pre-release promotion and was widely expected to be just another cheap, forgettable B-movie. Instead, it became a massive word of mouth sensation and spawned an entire franchise.

One of the biggest stand outs of this film is obviously Arnold Schwarzenegger and, honestly, I can’t see anyone else portraying this iconic character. His massive physical presence, iconic deadpan delivery, and imposing silence turned the character into an instant horror/action icon.

Another thing that I really like about the 1984 classic is that “The Terminator” isn’t just a standard action flick; it’s also like a slasher horror wrapped up in a sci-fi time travel story. The T-800 functions like an unstoppable killer - akin to horror icons Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees - relentlessly hunting its victim, which gave the film plenty of high-stakes action.

Unlike many 1980's action flicks driven by invulnerable male heroes, the emotional anchor for this film is easily Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. While watching the film, you can easily root for Sarah’s transformation from an overwhelmed individual into a resilient survivor, as well as the tragic, time-transcending romance between her and Reese. The film’s visual effects and practical puppet work looks really great for a low budget production, even though there are a few shots of The Terminator where a mechanical puppet is obvious.

Throughout the film, there are several sequences that really stand out. There is a suspenseful, slow motion confrontation inside the crowded, neon-lit Tech Noir nightclub where the film really shifts into high gear. As the Terminator draws his weapon on Sarah, Kyle Reese steps out and delivers the now iconic line “Come with me if you want to live.”

There’s also the unstoppable Terminator rampage at the police precinct where we hear for the first time “I’ll be back,” the infamous bathroom eye repair that reveals the glowing red robotic eyes and the legendary visual reveal of the Terminator’s metallic exoskeleton rising out of a fire after a tanker truck explodes, which looks really incredible.

The overall response to James Cameron’s 1984 classic “The Terminator” was overwhelmingly positive. Critics and audiences instantly connected with the film’s relentless adrenaline and high-stakes tension.

Modern audiences revisiting the film via streaming platforms continue to praise how well the story holds up. While some stop-motion visual effects show their age, the character arcs and clever world-building remain highly influential.

MPA: Rated R   (runtime 107 minutes)

Initial release date: October 26, 1984

Streaming services: HBO Max/various PVOD services  (as of working on this review)

https://youtu.be/nGrW-OR2uDk?si=COYJQyaksj7lsyTl

• Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with guns every day for a month to prepare for the role. The first two weeks of filming he practiced weapons stripping and reassembly blindfolded until the motions were automatic, like a machine. He spent hours at the shooting range and practicing with different weapons without blinking or looking at them when reloading or cocking. He also had to be ambidextrous. He practiced different moves up to 50 times. He wound up garnering a compliment in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine for his realistic handling of the guns on camera (whereas the magazine usually lampoons movies for their inaccurate depictions of weapons use).

• While shooting this film, James Cameron often resorted to what he called "guerilla filmmaking" as a way of getting around acquiring permits needed to film certain scenes. This involved the production crew and actors quickly arriving at a specified location, shooting the scene and leaving before the police arrived. As a result, some of the people seen in a few shots are actual everyday citizens completely unaware they're in a movie. This was also used for re shoots with Cameron even calling and waking Arnold Schwarzenegger once at 3 am to meet him at a location already in full costume to quickly re-shoot a scene. Cameron also used this tactic to film the very last scene where Sarah drives off into the desert. Waiting for the heat to rise to the point that ripples could be filmed a highway patrolman appeared. Producer Gale Anne Hurd convinced him they were working on a UCLA film project and he allowed them to finish.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to avoid Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn as much as possible since the Terminator was trying to kill them, not form connections.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally being considered to play Kyle Reese because the producers were thinking of O.J. Simpson to play the Terminator. The bodybuilder-turned-actor had made something of a name for himself in The Long Goodbye (1973), Pumping Iron (1977) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), and when Orion Pictures executive Mike Medavoy met the actor at a party, he sent him the script for consideration. However, James Cameron had envisioned Reese as a non-bulky and more sensitive man, so he was less than enthusiastic about casting a former Mr. Universe in the pivotal role. Largely on Medavoy's insistence, Cameron went out to meet and have lunch with him anyway; he later admitted that he had planned to pick a fight with Schwarzenegger so that he could claim that the actor was impossible to work with. But against his expectations, they got along just fine, and Schwarzenegger showed great enthusiasm for the script, especially its dark antagonist character. Schwarzenegger talked at length about how this Terminator should behave, like always scanning the surroundings and handle weapons without looking at them. It was then that Cameron had a change of heart, and offered Schwarzenegger the title role of the Terminator. Schwarzenegger initially declined, saying that he didn't want to play the bad guy, and because the character had fewer than 20 lines, but Cameron told him that "this movie is not about the hero. It's about The Terminator," and promised him that he wouldn't need lines to have a presence. Schwarzenegger then gladly accepted, even overruling his agent who advised him against playing villains. Cameron and Schwarzenegger have been good friends ever since.

• The beginning of production was postponed for nine months, due to Arnold Schwarzenegger's commitment to Conan the Destroyer (1984). During this time, James Cameron wanted to be working but didn't have the time to do a whole other film. He had a discussion with some producers at 20th Century Fox who liked his screenplay for THE TERMINATOR, and gave him a writing assignment; this turned out to be Aliens (1986). On the same day, he was also asked to write a script for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). While handling these two assignments, he also did additional work on his Terminator screenplay, writing each script at night at a different desk, in order to keep the projects apart. He calculated how many pages he had to write each night, by dividing the total number of pages by the number of waking hours per night. He said that he accomplished that by drinking lots of coffee, a habit that he finally kicked after completing Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

• The puppet of Arnold Schwarzenegger's face took six months to create.

• The teaser trailer for this film was narrated by Peter Cullen, best known to fans as the voice of the robotic hero Optimus Prime from Transformers (1984).

• Paramount was one of the studios that wanted to produce this film, but they stipulated that James Cameron could not direct it, since he hadn't proven his talent with a successful film yet. As this was Cameron's pet project at the time and he wanted to direct the film himself, he turned down their offer. Paramount would later be the main studio behind the fifth film of the franchise, Terminator Genisys (2015) (which was not directed by James Cameron).

• Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't think much of the initial screenplay and was only going to do this for the money and because he felt a contemporary film would be beneficial to his career.

• (at around 59 mins) The movie's line "I'll be back" was voted as the #37 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100), and as #95 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine in 2007.

• The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2008 for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".