Guest Post: James M’s movie review The Terminator

Hiya people, James McCormack the Crazy Video Gaming Wizard aka CrazyGamerHistorian1999 here today and I'd like to discuss something and do a little review. Yes, as you can see, I am here as a guest on my mum's blog to talk about the classic 1984 movie known as The Terminator starring our former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. I saw the movie months ago and it was really good, James Cameron did a good job and all the actors, Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Kyle Reese actor Michael Connell Biehn were incredible actors.

The idea for the Terminator all started when film maker Cameron, as you can guess, had a nightmare about a huge robotic being emerging from the fire with red eyes. Since that day, Cameron began working on a movie inspired by that. Well, fun fact, not only was the movie inspired by a dream, the other main inspiration was Outer Limits. Specifically, the episode Soldier and the episode Demon with a Glass Hand. Soldier was the inspiration more so due to the fact there was the whole soldiers from the future deal.

So whats the plot of the movie you may ask?
In the 21st century, Skynet, this evil computer system thing, saw humanity as a threat and instigated a nuclear war which devastated the planet. By 2029, Skynet and its robo-cyborg armies rule the planet and the survivors of the nuclear holocaust, with help from John Conner, have formed a resistance named TechCom and are fighting to defeat Skynet and its forces. With the Resistance smashing Skynet's defense grid and on the verge of victory, The supercomputer is left without a choice but to send a T800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to eliminate Sarah Conner, John's mum, before the man himself comes into existence

All of this, sending back the Terminator, was just as the Resistance captured the Time Displacement Machine lab. John sends Kyle back in time to intercept the Terminator and protect Sarah. Arriving in 1984, the T800 (its metal endoskeleton surrounded by human tissue) encounters a group of punks and, after demanding clothes, attacks them, actually ripping out a punk member's heart. Kinda gross and dark, I kinda would prefer people getting shot, stabbed, decapitated or knocked unconscious. But anyway, the Terminator obtains some clothes and manages to buy himself some guns from a gun store for its mission.

Meanwhile, Kyle Reese arrives and steals some pants from a homeless guy before getting some shoes and clothes as well as stealing a gun from the police. Sarah Connor? She lives in LA in the 80s so you can say Terminator boy and Kyle are in L.A. Not only that, she's near the end of her teens and is working as a waitress at a restaurant. The Terminator, looking for Sarah, actually uses a phonebook to try and find her, actually murdering two other people who share Sarah's name. The first is a Sarah Connor who is the mamma of two kids.

Eventually, after "terminating" Ginger, Sarah's roomate, and Matt, Ginger's boyfriend, the Terminator tracks down Sarah Connor to the Tech Noir nightclub and is about to shoot her down when Kyle Reese arrives in the nick of time, gets Sarah out of there and they escape the Terminator. Along the way, Kyle has to explain everything; where he's from, his mission, the Terminators and what happens 20 to 40 years after 1984 with Judgement Day. During the car chase with the Terminator, the police apprehend Kyle and Sarah and a battle damaged T800 (don't worry its the same model) escapes to repair itself. By repair itself, we mean do surgery on its arm (revealing the chasse underneath) and remove its broken human eye (also revealing its robotic eye).

Meanwhile, criminal psychologist Dr Silberman is brought in to question Kyle, who tells him everything, being a soldier from the future fighting for the resistance, Skynet and the Terminator. Just as Reese is deemed a nutcase and people doubt his and Sarah's accounts, good old Arnold walks into the police station, says to a guard "I'll be back", (after being denied entry) smashes down the front door with a car and attacks the station, gunning down multiple cops.
 Reese and Sarah escape during the chaos of the shootout and eventually take up residence in a motel. There, Kyle confesses his feelings for Sarah (eventually) and, yes, they actually have sex on-screen (unknowingly to them for now resulting in John's conception *spoilers*), but not before Sarah tries to call her mum, only for it to turn out the Terminator is impersonating the voice of Sarah's mum.

Not long after, the T-800 is now hot on her tail again, leading to another chase sequence which ends with an injured Kyle Reese and a Terminator with its flesh burnt off (thanks to an exploding truck), revealing its robo skeleton. The barely functional T-800 continues its pursuit of Sarah and Kyle into a Cyberdine factory where Reese ends up losing own life protecting Sarah as the Terminator gets its legs blown off by a bomb. Still alive, the freaking cyborg pursues Sarah a bit more until finally being crushed under a compactor thanks to Sarah herself. "You are Terminated."

Six months later, not only is Sarah on the run from society (for now), she has become six months at best prego with John Connor. During a road trip to Mexico and stopping for some gas, we see Sarah doing tape recordings to give to John when he's old enough and that she not only has a gun (to protect herself) but has a dog with her. Dogs can detect Terminators as demonstrated earlier in the movie at a few scenes.
During her stop by the gas station, the attendant's son snaps a photo of Sarah in the car and (guess what) its the same photo John gave Kyle in the future (or will give to Kyle.) ARGH, I HATE TIME TRAVEL PARADOXES! Anyways, the film ends with Sarah driving off as a storm looms in the distance, practically setting up the next movie.

Final thoughts:

Overall, The Terminator is a legend of its own time. Arnold Schwarzenegger was already made popular early on in his movie career. But after Terminator came out, Schwarzenegger was more popular than ever along with lines such as "I'll be back". The Terminator was well received by critics and was a box office success within the first two weeks of its release, grossing billions of dollars within the day it was released. The film was so successful it not only paved the way for sequels and a TV show years later, it paved the way for a franchise consisting of comics, novels and video games. Heck, in 2008, the film was selected by congress for preservation due to being the most significant in pop culture history.

Well, people, thats my review of the movie. When its good its really good, when the film gets dark and serious, it gets dark and serious. The film had very little cringe moments unless you call ripping out hearts cringe-worthy. If you have time, go watch it, on DVD or Cable.

Have a good day out there.
Peace out.

James M
CrazyGamerHistorian1999