The Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton

Synopsis:
A soldier from the future must protect the mother of humanity's savior from a relentless killer cyborg.

Impressions:
This is the movie that put James Cameron on the map, kicked off Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise to superstardom and started one of the most influential scifi franchises in cinema. Particularly in light of the comparatively small budget, it was amazing what was accomplished. This is a taut action film brimming with suspense. Arnold is wonderfully menacing as the Terminator, Michael Biehn is solid as Kyle Reese and Linda Hamilton does a good job of playing Sarah Connor's arc from damsel in distress to Mother of the Future. The action set pieces are great and the finale is high octane excellence. Credit to Stan Winston's workshop for crafting the memorable Terminator design. Also worth giving nods to the smaller roles by Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen and Earl Boen. The synthesizer score by Brad Fiedel sounds a little cheesy, but I don't mind in the slightest. It's pure 80s and quite memorable. This is one of the greats and deserves a place of honor as such.

Rating:
Treasure It