The Terminator

So here we are on the verge of the release of another Terminator film.  I don’t know about you but even though I love this series I never expect them to make another one until they suddenly do and it surprises the shit outta me.  It’s also interesting because I would’ve thought the original would’ve been rebooted by now.  But I guess since 1-3, and it even looks like a good bit of this part 5, are pretty much the same fucking thing over and over Hollywood didn’t feel the need to. 

Anyway, I already talked about T2 (sorta) and T3 so to fill in the gaps here are some thoughts on T1.    

First of all this is a huge story packaged into a relatively small and intimate film.  Every time I go back to the original I’m always impressed with how close it is to T2 in terms of spectacular action and a knack for great set pieces.  But more importantly the premise was there fully formed.  Technically James Cameron didn’t need to make a sequel to smooth the rough edges out or add or take away any major plot elements.  This one is very nicely self-contained as is.       

One of the strongest scenes in the movie is the story Reese tells Sarah about John Conner.  It builds beautifully and the payoff about this whole time travel termination thing being about her unborn son is heavy as shit.  Even though I’ve seen this film a bunch of times and know the story very well I still get chills.  This tale that Reese weaves into our hearts hints at how big the Terminator universe is.  There’s the development of a super smart computer defense system, then a nuclear war, total machine takeover, human work camps, the rising up of the humans and finally a whole machine vs human war.  There’s so much crap going on in that backstory but it’s clear as day and compelling as shit. 

I also love that we don’t actually know why the terminator is after Sarah and why Reese needs to protect her until forty mins in when the scene I mentioned above happens.  It would’ve been so easy to have some scrolling text or narration at the beginning to fill us in (the opening text only tells us that there’s a war, nothing else) but it was much smarter to wait until the right time and build a serious amount of tension.  It was also smart to give this exposition while Sarah and Reese are hiding from the cops and the terminator.  They still need to be on guard and extremely careful which adds some weight to what could’ve easily been a dry slog that horribly interrupts the energetic flow.        

The original has more of the war torn future in it than the first three.  It’s really remarkable how they were able to do so many future war scenes on such a small budget.  A lot of that stuff is cardboard, half built models and a ton of smoke to conceal the cheapness but man it looks good. 

On a bit of a side note, I can see why Cameron didn’t want to have the bleak future be the main setting for part 2.  It would’ve been really tricky to make a convincing movie about a fake sci-fi war where humans fight machines with laser guns n’ shit.  Either it’s gonna turn out incredibly (but probably not so bad it’s laughably) cheesy or too grim to the point where it’s not that fun to watch.

Now this Terminator is probably the darkest of the bunch in terms of tone and those war scenes are definitely heavy contributors to that.  Cameron doesn’t go for too many laughs and keeps the situation pretty damn dire.  Sure he did throw in a love story (which T2 subverts completely interestingly) but I’ll give it a pass because we’re talking about John Conner’s parents here.  One is a dude who traveled across time to ensure the survival of humanity, and the other is a badass chick that also does her best to ensure the survival of the human race.  Sarah has to keep that shit up for decades too making her stronger and more vital then Reese.  

Having Arnie say almost nothing in the entire thing was a really smart move.  I think people wouldn’t have taken this character as seriously if he talked all the time (T2 is ok because the character was already established, plus they turned him good which completely changes the dynamic).  Just being a merciless and mostly silent killing machine takes restraint, especially in the 80’s when being over the top and tacky in action movies was the norm.

Overall this film feels like what it is, a genius filmmaker’s first rodeo (yes, yes I know Cameron directed Piranha II before this but really this is his first baby).  It’s shot pretty well, looks pretty good and has an awesome story.  You get the sense that if they gave this guy a bigger budget to work with and a script that’s at least just as good then he could do some nasty damage.  And he did.  It’s easy to look back now and see Cameron tighten and perfect his filmmaking skills on subsequent movies.  But I think you can totally recognize on The Terminator that this guy knew what he was doing and that it wasn’t a fluke. 

T2 tends to get all the glory and, ok, it certainly should get about 90% of it.  As a result we also tend to push the one that started it all aside.  Most people seem to have an attitude of “well we have T2, what do we need the first one for?  It’s just the same thing but worse”.  That’s not right.  This is a really fucking great movie that’s a must see for everyone.  It can stand on its own two feet and kicks so much ass.  The magic that this thing works makes the world go round, no shit.

One last thing, I just wanted to mention that Cameron has had some fantastic car chases in his movies, The Terminator included, and he doesn’t really get credit for that.  Good job Jim, I’ll be the first to say out loud that I like your car chases.