Terminator: the 40th Anniversary
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Sept. 15, 2024, 4 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
This year is the 40th anniversary of Terminator, one of the best-known science fiction and action movies of all time, and also the movie that established Arnold Schwarzenegger as a superstar, which led to one of the greatest media franchises in the western world.
Terminator was produced at a time when society was wary of advancing technology, worried that machines and computers would take away their jobs and possibly even kill them, and it even could be interpreted as a subtle criticism of the "greed is good" mentality of that era, in which giant corporations were becoming far more powerful under Ronald Reagan's presidency. The original film is not as action-packed as has been every subsequent film, making more of a suspense-thriller with some vague elements of science fiction, but that makes Sarah Connor's situation feel more personal and more intense; the audience can imagine themselves in her place, as she attempts to flee from an implacable assailant, who is stalking her relentlessly.
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger played the main antagonist of the movie, he was unquestionably the most memorable actor in it, so that movie was what established him as a major star in Hollywood, although Linda Hamilton certainly established a respectable career, from this movie, as well.
This movie's impact upon popular culture and media is very significant, as Schwarzenegger's role inspired many other actors to imitate his tough and badass persona, leading to an excess of overly masculine action heroes for the remainder of that decade, and the terminator's design of being a metallic skeleton inspired numerous heavy metal album covers, and, of course, the movie produced one of the most memorable lines in motion picture history with "I'll be back," which Schwarzenegger originally wished to say as "I will be back," as he felt that an emotionless cyborg would always use proper language.
The time traveling aspect of the movie led to a loop, since Kyle Reese warned Sarah Connor of the machines wishing to kill her, leading to her training her son, John, to lead the resistance, which then led to the machines wishing to kill her, which then made it necessary for Kyle to travel back in time to warn Sarah, but the convolutions of the timeline grew even more complicated as the franchise continued, although that is a discussion for a different conversation.
This movie is finally being released in 4K/UHD for its 40th anniversary, but I do hope that Fox (if they even still exist) does something more to celebrate this momentous milestone, as it is definitely worth celebrating, in my mind. What does everyone else say about this subject? How do you feel about this year being the 40th anniversary of the Terminator franchise?
I think the franchise passionately lost it's way after the first two films. The last good film in the franchise as far as i'm concerned was Terminator: Dark Fate. Everything in between felt like schlock. T3 - was forgettable, Terminator: Salvation was...weird, Terminator: Genesys? All I remember was the mother of dragons from Game of Thrones being a character and I quickly lost interest. That strange fox show The Sara Connor Chronicles? Outside of the prospect of seeing a hot robot dommy mommy I have no recollection of what that show was about. I think that the franchise is fraught with a lot of misguided cash-ins on the nostalgia of it's quickly dwindling audience.
Recently I just saw the Anime tie in: Terminator: Zero. I'm going to be honest here - I kind of hate it. The animation quality is good, character designs, setting, all that stuff is great and matches the tone of what i'd expect but what made me just frustrated was the character building and writing. I won't go into specifics, but none of the main cast felt as if they were written by human beings. Strange and bizarre choices riddle the logic of these characters - some slightly less so than others. But almost no one here acts normal - especially the ones you'd expect to be the most normal.
I felt like I was watching the writers forcing these characters to behave erratically to ensure a series of check boxes were met, not a family going through strife and struggle. At the end, there was hardly any reconciliation with the conflicts that happened between the main characters - it was just a "Whelp! That happened!" queue the laugh track and move on. After watching that - we can let Terminator die. I don't want any more if it's going to be like this.
September 17, 2024 7:44 a.m. Edited.
sergiodelrio says... #4
While T1 really delivered a certain rare vibe of western sci-fi action horror and more, I gotta give it to Robert Patrick in T2 bringing to life a much scarier Terminator in a more difficult context, since that movie as a whole had a slightly more lighthearted tone, or at least some lighthearted elements.
Schwarzenegger in T1 was more of an unstoppable heartless force of nature, while Robert Patrick delivered a vicious and at times seemingly sinister machine. T2 is almost like a Zombie movie that way. Anyway long story short I really like both those movies and both Arnie and R.P. did a great job each in their own unforgettable way.
September 17, 2024 7:45 a.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #5
The Terminator was a great film. It's a movie that will become increasingly relevant as we become more dependent on artificial intelligence.
I disagree with Schwarzenegger about how his iconic line was spoken. Considering his programming was meant to blend in, using contractions was very much in character for him. I especially liked how the Terminator had a whole list of responses when that cleaning guy was knocking on his door.
Though I sometimes wonder if Cameron should have played up the ambiguity of whether or not Schwarzenegger was really a machine. Lots of clues he is, but we the viewer end up ignoring them after Dr. Silberman and the cops explain everything away and then the cyborg rising from the fuel truck with only his endoskeleton intact being the twist that Reese wasn't crazy.
T2 is proof that sequels don't always suck. The brass music reserved for Skynet really built up the suspense and sense of terror. Personally, it should have ended with T2. Any further sequels just worked against the "no fate" philosophy.
T3 could have worked if they kept the 3 night, 2 day structure of the 1st 2 films, gave a better explanation than a resignation to the inevitable and played up the T-X as a crazy femme fatale. Only seen parts of T4:Salvation and the use of different actors for John(yet again) and Kate mostly turned me off from seeing the whole thing.
I haven't seen T5:Genysis, but from what I read of it the fact the war between Skynet and the Resistance has turned into a time war was an inevitable outcome of continuing the franchise.
The craziest thing about this series is it started out with a film that, under different hands would have ended up a cheesey B-Movie mercilessly eviscerated by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
September 18, 2024 8:56 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
Canonically there are actual explanations as to why the T-1000s were designed like what we see in the film.
The large, muscular bodies helped to hide and conceal the mechanics and hydraulics within the body.
The sunglasses were to cover the mechanical eyes. This is because, being an android, the systems would want to use the least amount of power as possible. Therefore they wouldn't blink, and their eyes could move and scan independently meaning both eyes were constantly observing independently from one another.
The deep, gravely voices were to conceal mechanical sounds such as reverberations.
And believe it or not, they did have to eat because their flesh was living tissue. But their mechanical stomachs could break down essentially anything. There was a scrapped scene in which Arnold ate a Snickers candy bar, wrapper and all.
September 20, 2024 12:22 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
TypicalTimmy, that is very fascinating! Where was that ever stated?
I definitely agree with everyone here that any films after the first two simply did not match their legacy (very similar to the Alien franchise, by coincidence), so I have no intention of ever watching those films, again.
September 20, 2024 8:44 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #8
It's states in the books, and director commentary for the film
FormOverFunction says... #2
This is maybe my favorite example of an action movie that truly feels like a horror movie. The dread of a relentless unstoppable pursuer (with a perfect soundtrack to boot) wraps up a Michael Meyers in a metal robot skeleton. A great cross-genre fusion!
September 16, 2024 4:05 p.m.