The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day save mankind from extinction by a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future. Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received a credit for additional dialogue. Executive producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in financing and production.
In 1984 Los Angeles, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator arrives from 2029, where mankind is on the brink of extermination. Shortly afterwards, Kyle Reese, a human soldier sent back in time from the same year, arrives also. The Terminator begins systematically seeking to kill a woman named Sarah Connor, and finds addresses in the telephone directory for multiple women sharing that name. He tracks the final Sarah Connor to a nightclub, but Kyle rescues her. They steal a car and escape with the Terminator pursuing in a police car.
As they hide in a parking lot, Kyle explains to Sarah that an artificial intelligence defense network, named Skynet, created by Cyberdyne Systems, will become self-aware in the near future and initiate a nuclear holocaust. Sarah's future son John 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 is born to prevent the formation of the Resistance. The Terminator, a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, is an unstoppable killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton and an external layer of living tissue that makes it appear human. When Sarah asks if Kyle can destroy the cyborg, he replies that he is uncertain.
Kyle and Sarah are apprehended by police after another encounter with the Terminator. The latter attacks the police station, indiscriminately slaughtering police officers in his attempt to locate Sarah. Kyle and Sarah escape, steal another car and take refuge in a hotel, where they assemble pipe bombs and plan their next move. Kyle admits that he has been in love with Sarah since John gave him a photograph of her, and that he traveled through time to save her; reciprocating his feelings, she consummates their relationship.
The Terminator kills Sarah's mother and impersonates her voice in a phone call to Sarah, tricking Sarah into revealing her location. When they realize that the Terminator has located them, Sarah and Kyle escape in a pickup truck; he pursues them on a motorcycle. In the ensuing chase, Kyle is wounded by gunfire while throwing pipe bombs at the Terminator. Enraged‚ Sarah knocks the Terminator off his motorcycle but loses control of the truck, which flips over. The Terminator, now bloodied and badly damaged, hijacks a tank truck and attempts to run down Sarah, but Kyle throws a pipe bomb into the tanker's hose tube, causing an explosion that burns the flesh from the Terminator's endoskeleton. It pursues them into a factory, where they manage to evade the Terminator initially, but are finally cornered. Kyle tells Sarah to run and attempts to knock the Terminator's head off with a metal bar, but is unsuccessful, and the Terminator retaliates by striking Kyle across the face. As the Terminator crouches down to kill Kyle, he jams his final pipe bomb into the Terminator's abdomen, blowing it apart, injuring Sarah, and killing himself. The Terminator, despite its torso being heavily damaged, reactivates and pursues Sarah. She manages to lure it into a hydraulic press, activates it, and crushes the Terminator, finally destroying it.
Months later, a pregnant Sarah is traveling through Mexico, recording audio tapes to pass on to her unborn son, John. At a gas station, a boy takes an instant photograph of her, the same photograph that John will give to Kyle in the future, which she happily purchases. The boy's father approaches, and says there's a storm coming. Sarah simply looks on and says she knows, before driving down the road. The film ends as a dark storm cloud is seen in the distance.
Casting
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic android disguised as a human being sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor.
- Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, a human Resistance fighter sent back in time to protect Sarah.
- Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, a 19-year-old diner waitress and the Terminator's target, who is soon to be the mother of the future Resistance leader John Connor.
- Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police Lieutenant who tries to protect Sarah.
- Lance Henriksen as Vukovich, a member of the LAPD.
- Earl Boen as Dr. Silberman, a criminal psychologist.
- Bess Motta as Ginger, Sarah's roommate.
- Rick Rossovich as Matt, Ginger's boyfriend.
Additional actors included Shawn Schepps as Nancy, Sarah's co-worker at the diner; Dick Miller as a gun shop clerk; professional bodybuilder Franco Columbu as a Terminator in the future; Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson as punks who are confronted and killed by the Terminator; and Marianne Muellerleile as one of the other women with the name "Sarah Connor" who is shot by the Terminator.
