Terminator-Lenticular (1984)

"Kineticism and suspense, combined with strongly conceived characters...  Glenn Kenny, Entertainment Weekly
"Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast...Terrific action picture never lets up for a minute...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"A tense, slickly executed thriller.  Mark Dinning, Empire
"Plenty of tech-noir savvy to keep infidels and action fans satisfied.  Richard Corliss, Time
"Exhilirating, explosive thriller.  VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever

Editor's Note James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR is one of the tightest, tensest sci-fi films ever made and a landmark in the genre. In the year 2029, battles rage between the superintelligent machines that rule the world and the last vestiges of humanity. In late-20th-century Los Angeles, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) suddenly finds herself stalked by an unstoppable killing machine--a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent from the future to kill her and her unconceived son, John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance. Sarah can rely only on Reese (Michael Biehn), a soldier sent from the future to protect her from the seemingly indestructible Terminator and save humanity. This low-budget masterpiece was the breakthrough film for director Cameron, who weds special effects, thrills, and understated romance to create one of the finest action films of the 1980s, which spawned many imitations but few equals. Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued over the film's similarities to his own works, especially the OUTER LIMITS episode "Demon with a Glass Hand," and won acknowledgement in the film's credits. Schwarzenegger will forever be known as the relentless Terminator, a heartless killing machine who returns (in a kinder, gentler form) in 1991's TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY.

	Arnold Schwarzenegger
	Bess Motta
	Bill Paxton
	Earl Boen
	Lance Henriksen
	Linda Hamilton
	Michael Biehn
	Paul Winfield
	Adam Greenberg - Cinematographer
	Brad Fiedel - Original Music By
	Gale Anne Hurd - Producer
	George Costello - Art Director
	James Cameron - Director
	James Cameron, et. al. - Writer
	John Daly - Executive Producer
	Mark Goldblatt - Editor

"I'll be back."----the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

New York Times
"...A B-movie with flair....Set forth engrossingly by [Hamilton and Biehn]..." 10/26/1984 p.C19

Variety
"...A blazing, cinematic comic book, full of virtuous moviemaking, terrific momentum, solid performances from the three leads, and a compelling story..." 10/31/1984

Entertainment Weekly
"...Kineticism and suspense, combined with strongly conceived characters....Made [Cameron] a talent to watch..." -- Rating: A- 01/13/1995 pp.66-8

Total Film
"...A nerve-bludgeoning, relentlessly exciting action movie masterpiece..." 04/01/2001 p.104

Premiere
"A model of economic storytelling....[It] raised the bar for movie action to a bionic level." 12/01/2003 p.13

Sight and Sound
"[It] has a seriousness and depth of feeling that belie initial expectations." 12/01/2005 p.91

Variety 9 of 10
"The Terminator is a blazing, cinematic comic book, full of virtuoso moviemaking, terrific momentum, solid performances and a compelling story...The clever script, cowritten by director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd, opens in a post-holocaust nightmare, A.D.2029, where brainy machines have crushed most of the human populace. From that point, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the cyborg Terminator is sent back to the present to assassinate a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) who is, in the context of a soon-to-be-born son and the nuclear war to come, the mother of mankind's salvation...A human survivor in that black future (Michael Biehn), also drops into 1984 to stop the Terminator and save the woman and the future...The shotgun-wielding Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast in a machine-like portrayal that requires only a few lines of dialog."

Reel.com 9 of 10
"Not many movies can claim to have changed the face of film, but The Terminator is one of them. Although its title sounds like another D-grade early '80s vigilante flick (The Exterminator), it is a landmark in the science fiction genre, owing more to the thoughtful work of Rod Serling than the fluffy escapism of George Lucas. Its surprising success -- nearly $40 million, which was an impressive sum in 1984 -- launched the careers of both co-writer/producer Gale Anne Hurd and writer/director James Cameron and transformed Arnold Schwarzengger from an obscure Austrian bodybuilder into Hollywood's most renowned action icon...Ironically, The Terminator itself would be the inspiration for two of the 1990's best science fiction films: its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and The Matrix, which also focused on humanity's battle against a race of evil robots." - Tor Thorsen