In a post-apocalyptic future where intelligent machines have enslaved humanity, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator is sent back in time to 1984 Los Angeles. His mission: to kill Sarah Connor, a waitress whose unborn son is destined to lead the human resistance against the machines. Her only hope for survival is Kyle Reese, a human soldier sent back from the future to protect her from the unstoppable killing machine.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States United Kingdom |
Premiere date |
October 26, 1984 |
Running time |
107 minutes |
Genre |
Sci-Fi Action |
Budget |
$6,400,000 |
Box Office |
$78,371,200 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
James Cameron |
Produced by |
Gale Anne Hurd |
Written by |
James Cameron Gale Anne Hurd |
Music by |
Brad Fiedel |
Cinematography |
Adam Greenberg |
Edited by |
Mark Goldblatt |
Production Co. |
Hemdale Pacific Western Productions Cinema '84 |
Distributed by |
Orion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #01 in The Terminator Collection
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The Plot
The War of 2029
The film opens with a grim depiction of the year 2029, a desolate future where humanity has been all but crushed under the heel of artificially intelligent machines led by the rebellious computer system, Skynet. Having achieved sentience, Skynet initiated a global catastrophe by hijacking the United States' nuclear arsenal and launching ICBMs to annihilate mankind. In the aftermath of this nuclear fire, a post-apocalyptic war rages between the machines and a small, determined Resistance group of free humans fighting to reclaim their planet. Leading this resistance is the heroic and influential General John Connor, the man credited with rescuing humanity from extinction by rallying survivors to combat Skynet's relentless onslaught.
A scroll appears, setting the stage for the conflict: "The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged on for decades. But the final battle will not be fought in the future. It would be fought in our present...tonight."
Arrival in Los Angeles
The narrative shifts to the "present day," specifically 1984 in Los Angeles. The silence of the night is broken by the arrival of the Terminator, a Series 800 Model 101 Infiltrator unit sent back in time by Skynet. Its mission is to assassinate Sarah Connor, the mother of the future savior of mankind, before John can be conceived by an unknown father in the coming year. Because Skynet's time displacement equipment can only transport organic matter, the cyborg assassin arrives completely nude; its robotic metal endoskeleton combat chassis is concealed beneath living organic skin, allowing it to pass through the time field.
Understanding the need to maintain cover to infiltrate society, the T-800 seeks clothing immediately. It approaches three punk rockers—played by Bill Paxton, Brian Thompson, and Brad Rearden—who are drinking near an observation telescope at the Griffith Observatory. After a brief verbal confrontation where the punks pull switchblades, the Terminator violently engages them. It shoves one punk aside, hurls the second into a steel gate with enough force to damage his spine and kill him, and brutally tears the heart out of the third punk with a bare-handed punch through the ribcage. The surviving punk, terrified by this muscle-bound psychopath, surrenders his clothes. Fully dressed, the Terminator steals a cache of deadly weaponry from the Alamo Sport Shop, killing the owner, and uses a phone book to locate three women listed under the name "Sarah Connor."
Simultaneously, in a different part of the city, Kyle Reese, a soldier from the human Resistance, arrives through time. He has been sent back as a desperate last measure to protect Sarah from the Terminator. Arriving in pain and disoriented, Reese steals pants from a homeless man and engages in a scuffle with a police officer to acquire a pistol. Desperate to know the date, he demands the year from the confused officer before being forced to flee. Reese breaks into a department store to steal an overcoat and a pair of Nike sneakers, then later steals a shotgun from an unattended police vehicle. Like the machine he is hunting, Reese finds a phone book and begins his search for Sarah Connor.
The Systematic Elimination
The Terminator begins its methodical hunt, mercilessly killing the first Sarah Connor listed in the phone book at her home. The second Sarah Connor meets a similar fate shortly after. This pattern of systematic murders draws the attention of the media and the LAPD, specifically Lt. Ed Traxler and Detective Hal Vukovich. The third and final Sarah Connor, a hapless 19-year-old waitress leading a dull life with her roommate Ginger Ventura, sees a news report about the murders while at work. Terrified by the connection and the sensation that she is being followed, Sarah seeks refuge in a local club called TechNoir.
While Sarah tries to contact the police from the club, the Terminator arrives at her apartment. Finding only Ginger and her boyfriend Matt Buchanan, the cyborg kills them both. While inspecting the scene, the Terminator hears a panicky message from Sarah on the answering machine, revealing she is not home. It searches the apartment and finds Sarah's university picture ID. Having overheard the name of the club on the message, the Terminator departs to hunt her down at TechNoir.
Shootout at TechNoir
At the club, Sarah finally connects with Lt. Traxler on the phone, who instructs her to stay put until a squad car arrives. Reese, who has been tracking her, sits at the bar, waiting for the machine to make its move. When the Terminator enters and raises its weapon to execute Sarah, Reese intervenes, blasting the cyborg with his stolen shotgun. A chaotic firefight ensues, during which the Terminator kills six people. Reese eventually blasts the machine through a plate-glass window, knocking it to the sidewalk where it lies stunned, rebooting its systems.
To Sarah's horror, the Terminator rises, seemingly unharmed, and continues its pursuit. Reese grabs Sarah, and they flee in a hotwired car, with the Terminator giving chase in a hijacked police cruiser. During the escape, Kyle explains the terrifying reality: the man she saw is a cybernetic organism, a robot encased in human tissue, programmed solely to terminate her. He reveals the history of Skynet, the nuclear war that nearly wiped out humanity, and the role of her unborn son, John, who rallied the survivors to defeat the machines. Skynet sent the Terminator back to 1984 to erase John's existence by killing her.
"I'll Be Back"
The Terminator locates them again, leading to another high-speed chase involving an exchange of shotgun fire. The pursuit ends when the police arrive, arresting both Reese and Sarah. As she is handcuffed, Sarah glimpses the Terminator escaping, despite having taken heavy shotgun fire from Reese. They are taken to the West-Island police station, where Sarah learns of Ginger and Matt's murders. Meanwhile, the Terminator retreats to a hotel room to perform grisly self-repairs on its damaged eye and arm, covering the injuries with sunglasses.
At the station, Sarah is interviewed by criminal psychologist Peter Silberman. He dismisses Reese as a "loon," characterizing his story of future wars and cyborgs as paranoid delusions. The police rationalize the Terminator's resilience as the result of body armor and PCP-induced strength. However, the station's security is shattered when the Terminator walks in and asks to see Sarah. When denied, he casually tells the desk sergeant, "I'll be back." Moments later, the cyborg drives a car through the front lobby, crushing the sergeant. Armed with an AR-18 carbine and a SPAS-12 shotgun, the Terminator massacres 17 police officers, plunging the station into darkness and chaos. Amidst the slaughter, Reese escapes his cuffs, rescues Sarah, and they flee the burning building in another stolen car.
A Moment of Respite
Seeking shelter under a highway overpass, Sarah tends to a wound Reese sustained during the escape. Reese relays a message John Connor gave him for her, emphasizing the gravity of her role and the necessity of her survival. As Sarah drifts off, she asks about the future. Reese describes a grim existence where humans hide from Hunter-Killers (HKs) and struggle for food.
A dream sequence depicts Reese's time in the future: his squad infiltrates an underground outpost after evading an HK. Inside, starving children and ragged survivors huddle together. Reese looks at an old Polaroid of Sarah, his only source of comfort. The sanctuary is suddenly breached by a Terminator Infiltrator that massacres the inhabitants. Reese wakes from the memory as the photo burns in the ensuing explosion. Sarah wakes up, realizing the vision was her own nightmare.
The Tiki Motel
The pair hitchhikes to Northern California and checks into the Tiki Motel in Silicon Valley. While Reese gathers supplies, Sarah showers and calls her mother at Big Bear Lake. Unbeknownst to her, the Terminator has already murdered her mother and impersonates her voice on the phone to extract Sarah's location. Sarah inadvertently reveals the motel's phone number.
Reese begins teaching Sarah how to manufacture pipe bombs using household items like ammonia and corn syrup. As they work, Sarah expresses doubt about her ability to be the legendary mother of the future's savior. Reese comforts her, revealing that John gave him the Polaroid of her and that he traveled through time not just for the mission, but because he had fallen in love with the woman in the picture. Touched by his confession, Sarah reciprocates his feelings. The two embrace and make love, their intimacy serving as a stark contrast to the cold violence hunting them.
The Final Chase
Their peace is short-lived as barking dogs alert them to the Terminator's arrival. Reese and Sarah flee in a stolen pickup truck, with the Terminator pursuing on a motorcycle. A high-speed chase through a tunnel ensues, with Reese handing the wheel to Sarah so he can throw pipe bombs at the cyborg. The Terminator shoots Reese, wounding him severely. In a desperate move, Sarah rams the motorcycle, causing both vehicles to crash. The Terminator is run over by a semi-truck but survives, killing the driver and hijacking the tanker to run Sarah down.
Reese manages to jam a pipe bomb into the tanker's tubing as Sarah runs for cover. The resulting explosion obliterates the truck, seemingly destroying the machine. However, from the burning wreckage, the Terminator emerges—now stripped of its flesh, revealing the terrifying metal endoskeleton beneath.
The Factory Showdown
The skeletal machine chases them into a hydraulics facility (implied to be Cyberdyne Systems). Reese attempts to fight the machine with a metal bar but is struck down by a back-handed blow. With his last ounce of strength, Kyle lights a final pipe bomb and wedges it into the Terminator's ribcage. The explosion blows the cyborg apart, killing Reese and leaving Sarah with a severely injured leg.
As Sarah weeps over Reese's body, the Terminator's severed torso reactivates and begins to crawl after her. Dragging her injured leg, Sarah retreats through a metal slide-gate. The machine reaches through the bars, attempting to strangle her. Taunting it with the words, "You're terminated, f**ker," Sarah activates a hydraulic press, crushing the cyborg into oblivion. The red light in its eye fades, signifying its final destruction. Sarah is later loaded into an ambulance, watching sadly as Reese's body is bagged.
The Cycle Continues
Some months later, a pregnant Sarah Connor is shown driving a Jeep through Mexico. She records audio tapes for her unborn son, John. The twist of the film is revealed: by sending Kyle Reese back to protect her, John Connor ensured his own conception, as Reese is his father. At a gas station, a young boy takes a Polaroid picture of Sarah—the very same photo Reese will carry in the future.
As the attendant warns her of an approaching storm, Sarah looks toward the horizon and replies, "I know." She drives off toward the mountains to prepare for the coming war, accepting her destiny as the mother of the resistance.
