The Terminator Franchise is the only sci-fi/action series to get into the 21st Century with its dignity intact. Terminator Salvation may have its detractors, but it’s no Alien vs. Predator, a film that managed to kill two proud franchises in one foul swoop.
There’s certainly enough fuel for articles discussing the resurrection of the Alien and Predator franchises (Your plot for the next Alien vs. Predator film: a Predator vessel crashes onto an Alien planet and the two races fight for 90 minutes!) or their possible replacement (the logical replacement for the Alien Franchise? Halo), but with Terminator Salvation having garnered mixed reviews, it’s time to look back over the Terminator franchise; its hits and misses and its big discussion points.
I’ve been a huge Terminator fan since I was old enough to watch the films, and can talk about it for hours on end. Given that, I’ve broken this retrospective down into three parts, with this one covering the original film, the second covering its sequel and some brief notes on the spin-offs over the following years, and finally the third film and the recently canceled TV series.
Part One “ Come With Me If You Want to Live
I wasn’t allowed to watch The Terminator at a young age for one scene; where the Terminator repairs itself. It was considered too gory for my fragile little mind.
The Terminator really is a humble origin for such a well regarded franchise. It was a cheap film to make, bordering on low budget piece of crap territory in a lot of ways. For example, the final shot of the Terminator endoskeleton being crushed was two painted pieces of foam crushing some tin foil and a red light, whilst Stan Winston blew cigarette smoke across the shot! What made the film work were the talent involved in the production, James Cameron, Stan Winston, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn; all fairly early into their careers.
An innocuous start, a huge naked muscley man.
The movie’s horror movie roots as opposed to the action movie it became still shine through; the original idea of an 80s style slasher film killer stalking Sarah Connor and being revealed to be a robot is clearly still there. Lance Henrikson was originally meant to be cast depicting the Terminator as an average but creepy looking man in dark glasses with metal teeth. Somehow Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to get the role; maybe it was because he could punch through a car window without grimacing? Either way, he made the Terminator a hulking, unrelenting force, and a Cinema Icon was born.
Interestingly, the iconic look of the Terminator; the leather jacket, dark sunglasses and the spiked hair; doesn’t really happen until halfway through the film, after the Terminator gets his original jacket damaged and his fringe and eyebrows burnt off! He uses the large Ëœ80s sunglasses to cover his missing eyebrows¦and naturally the robotic eye that was exposed in a car accident!
One scene that I’ve not seen directly paid homage or parodied until recently (though I’m sure it’s been done before) is the Terminator procuring weapons in a gun store. Naturally, being a gun merchant is a bad cinematic occupation. This scene is paid homage to perfection by Stephen King in his second Dark Tower novel, The Drawing of the Three. If there’s more, especially in movies and television, let us know!
Michael Beihn and Linda Hamilton, 80's hair all the way.
Michael Biehn’s battle-scarred but compassionate time displaced soldier Kyle Reese is a much more subtle icon. While John Connor is a shadowy influence whose impact is felt in The Terminator as much as The Computer’s (the name Skynet would not be bestowed upon the machine intelligence until Terminator 2), it is Kyle Reese that haunts the remainder of the franchise so heavily. It’s a great performance by Biehn, a sadly underrated actor, who manages to convey Kyle’s bravery and compassion so well. The script also doesn’t let Kyle make common time-traveller mistakes; for all his protestations that he doesn’t know tech-stuff, he isn’t confused by the fact that people he talks to have no idea what is going on and that he has to explain things to them. He only loses his temper when he realises time is running out and that the law enforcement officials are being more obtuse than he thought they’d be.
Oddly, he does refer to the Terminator as him. Sarah later only refers to the Terminator as it.
Another important contribution Kyle’s character gives the franchise is the flash forwards. They’re used well to show us the post-apocalyptic future that Kyle is from in the first film, and they resonate later in the series as well and beyond it; the grungy, grey and dirty view of the future that Kyle and director James Cameron provides us is pretty much the definitive Cinematic Post Apocalypse, though the contributions of the earlier Mad Max and Escape from New York have to be taken into account as well. These flash forwards are used to shorthand Kyle telling Sarah Connor about the future he’s from, which moulds her into the Mother of the Future that she is destined to become.
The Endoskeleton of a T-101 cyborg. Awesomeness personified.
Kyle really should have been the last casualty of the war between The Computer and the Resistance, but it’s his involvement that ramps the conflict up in a way that can’t really be described properly until later. As for the whole Grandfather Paradox surrounding his relationship to John Connor; I’ve been told for the time being to leave that one alone!
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor is for the most part, not made remarkable until later events in the franchise. Sarah here is portrayed as young and carefree, and it’s not until the final act that we see the strength in her that allows her to become The Mother of the Future. You could argue when exactly this happens, but for my money’s it when she screams On your feet soldier! to a severely wounded Kyle Reese to motivate him to flee the approaching Terminator.
The original 1984 poster.
Her final scene in the film also had far reaching resonance; making tapes for her future son to guide him in his life as she drives to go into hiding; the photo capturing this moment will become crucial throughout the series’ many incarnations from here on out. Sarah is a much less carefree and more serious woman, seemingly having shouldered her burden if not comfortably, but adequately, as she drives into the oncoming storm. It’s a pity it couldn’t last; sometime in the next 10 years, Sarah Connor clearly went (understandably) crazy¦
There are three minor characters worth a mention as well. Ed Traxler and Hal Vukovich lend an air of the police procedural to the movie as they try to track down and protect Sarah Connor from something they cannot understand or ultimately fight. They put a human face to the butcher’s bill paid at the police station that night when it’s mentioned in Terminator 2. Hal Vukovich also proves that Lance Henrikson never looked young!
Finally, Earl Boen’s Dr. Silberman definitely needs a mention. Again, he’s fairly unimportant in this first film; it makes sense for a psychologist to be there to explain Kyle Reese’s arguments and try to get a handle on the man (from the police perspective) hunting Sarah down, but he provides a necessary link between the first two films. More interesting things are done with this character later in the franchise, though it’s interesting to note that he misses the massacre at the police station by seconds.
The image that started it all, a metal skeleton emerging from the flames.
By modern standards, whilst the story of The Terminator remains intact as a well constructed piece that kicked off the franchise, the technical aspects of the film haven’t aged as well. Whilst Brad Fiedel’s musical genius is clearly on display here, aside from the iconic drumbeat, much of the film’s score is 80’s synth-tastic, clearly dating it. The special effects don’t hold up so well either; ground breaking for the day, but now they’re rubbery heads and clumsy stop motion. That being said, this is a movie that created many clichés and tropes we almost take for granted today, and for that it’s more than worthy of your time if for some reason you haven’t managed to see it.
If you disagree, agree or have something else to add to all of this, comment below or send in some feedback, we’d love to hear from you.
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Great review magnus, nicely put together and well written, can’t wait to put together parts 2 and 3.
will you be covering things like salvation? or looking into any of the spinoff comics? ie Terminator Vs Robocop? or will we be leaving well enough alone?
its a joy putting these out, finding the trailers and images. coz these are generally such cool films. (though when we talk about number 3 i may change my tune)
Great article, really looking forward to the others. The Terminator franchise is easily one of the greatest action franchises ever made, due largely to the bigger ideas and concepts integral to the series (though somewhat screwed with in T4). Keep up the good work!