Review of The Terminator (1984) by Braxon F — 06 Dec 2015

Brought to us by the unmatched director James Cameron, The Terminator brings exactly what the classic Science Fiction buff wants to witness. We are talking time travel, car chases, humanity facing extinction, genocidal cyborgs, and of course the always huge, always chiseled, Arnold Schwarzenegger who's biceps alone make this film a must see.

In the year 2029 humanity is on the brink of extinction, as an artificial intelligence defense system, known as Skynet and its army of machines, has turned against humans, its creators and waged war to destroy all humans, leaving the world in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Humanity, or what is left of it, is now hiding in the shadows from Skynet their one shot, or better worded their "savior" is a man named John Connor, who has learned how to beat the machines, a character you never meet in the film, has the greatest importance to the survival of our race. James Cameron does a phenomenal job of giving us a captivating, seamless connection between the pas and future. In The Terminator, John Connor has given humanity hope to over come the Machines, and is the only man that can deliver us from this technological evil. Skynet realizes that in order to crush the humans they must crush Connor, and what better way to do that than send a killing machine or a "Terminator" back through time to kill John Connor before he is born.

Schwarzenegger and all his bulking mass plays the Terminator a cyborg that is disguised in human flesh to make it near unrecognizable to our human eye, sent to destroy Johns' mother Sarah Connor. Arnold is absolutely perfect for this role, I am a huge Arnold fan, that being said, I know he cannot act as well as Leonardo DiCaprio but to play and over 6 foot cyborg death machine, he knocks this out of the park. As Schwarzenegger goes through a phone book killing anyone in Los Angeles with the name Sarah Connor while also killing all those in his wake, Schwarzenegger had me convinced he was a cyborg built to kill.

One would think that all hope for humanity would be lost, what could stop a robotic Arnold whose only mission is to kill?? Well our deliverer, John Connor is one step ahead of Skynet, having learned their evil plot he sends his right hand man Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, to locate and protect his mother from the Terminator.

With now two beings from the future one trying to save her one trying to terminate her, Sarah Connor obviously struggles through the movie on the truth, trying to wrap her mind around the destiny of her son whom she has never met. Cameron puts together such an amazing plot and dialogue in the midst of car chases, gun slinging battles, and explosions all equally nail bitting and pull you to the edge of your seat. From car chase to car chase, shoot out to shoot out, the Terminator slowly loses its disguising flesh and we see step by step its inner Robotic exoskeleton which leaves a terrifying image in the viewers mind. Nothing seems to kill the terminator, bullets, explosions, getting hit by cars, in just stands menacingly back up and continues its hunt.

With such a fear of this machine I began to see the Vision that Cameron had for this movie, which shed such a great light onto the plot and dialogue. as the film takes place both in the movie and in reality in 1984, at a crucial time in technological development. Cameron is trying to give us a reality check in this SciFi film, is there such thing as technology that can be good but bring us to our demise? Skynet was designed to make humanity safe, to protect us, but when technology becomes too advanced how can we control it? A must see for any person that calls themselves a "movie lover" all pieces are there to reach just about every audience, but please, dont bring your kids. Bring your buddies for a wonderful ride into Cameron's blockbuster "The Terminator.".