The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written

by Cameron and the film's producer Gale Anne Hurd, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael
Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. It was filmed in Los Angeles, produced by Hemdale Film
Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures. Schwarzenegger plays the Terminator,
a cyborg assassin sent back in time from the year 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, played by
Hamilton, whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future.
Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent back in time to protect Sarah.
Though not expected to be either a commercial or critical success, The Terminator topped the
American box office for two weeks and helped launch the film career of Cameron and consolidate
that of Schwarzenegger. In 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for
preservation in the American National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant".
The film's success led to four sequels: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines(2003), Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015).
Contents
[hide]

1 Plot

2 Cast

3 Production
o

3.1 Development

3.2 Pre-production

3.3 Production

3.4 Post-production

4 Release
o

4.1 Marketing

4.2 Home video

5 Reception and legacy

6 Themes

7 Soundtrack

7.1 Music

7.2 Release

7.3 Reception

8 See also

9 References

10 External links

Plot[edit]
On May 12, 1984, two beings from the year 2029 arrive in Los Angeles: one is a Terminator T-800
Model 101, a cyborg assassin programmed to kill a young woman named Sarah Connor; the other
is Kyle Reese, a human resistance fighter sent to protect her from the T-800. After the Terminator
kills a gang member, a gun-shop manager, two other women named "Sarah Connor" listed in the
telephone directory, Sarah's roommate Ginger, and her partner, it eventually tracks its target to a
nightclub. Kyle shows up, and saves Sarah from the Terminator's attack, and the two escape, while
the Terminator steals a police car.
Kyle explains to Sarah that in the near future, an artificial intelligence defense network known
as Skynet will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear holocaust of mankind, also explaining that he
was born after it. He mentions that Sarah's yet-to-be-conceived son John will rally the survivors and
lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines. With the Resistance on the
verge of victory, Skynet has sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before John is born, as a
last-ditch effort to avert the formation of the Resistance. The Terminator is an efficient killing machine
with a powerful metal endoskeleton, but with an external layer of living tissue that makes it resemble
a human being.
Kyle and Sarah are again attacked by the Terminator, leading to a car chase. Their cars eventually
crash into a wall. Kyle and Sarah are caught by the police, but the Terminator flees the scene. Kyle
is questioned by criminal psychologist Dr. Silberman who concludes that he is paranoid and
delusional, while Sarah is questioned by Lieutenant Traxler and Sergeant Vukovich about the events
that happened. The Terminator goes to a run-down inn, where it performs treatment on itself and
reveals how its inner workings function. Soon after, the Terminator attacks the police station, killing
many police officers, including Traxler and Vukovich, in its attempt to locate Sarah; however, Sarah
and Kyle manage to escape and spend the night under a bridge before seeking refuge in a motel,
where they assemble some pipe bombs. Sarah understands that the Terminator will find them again,
and they're not safe from it, no matter where they go. Kyle confesses that he has been in love with

Sarah since John gave him a photograph of her. Sarah reciprocates Kyle's feelings and they have
sex.
Later that night, the Terminator tracks them to the motel and Kyle and Sarah escape in a pickup
truck. In the ensuing chase, Kyle throws pipe bombs at the Terminator in an effort to destroy it. Kyle
is wounded by the Terminator's gunfire. Sarah manages to knock the Terminator off its motorcycle
but loses control of the pickup truck, which flips over. As the Terminator gets up, it is struck by a
gasoline tanker truck that drags it a short distance. When the truck driver gets out of the truck to see
what happened, the Terminator kills him, hijacks the truck, and resumes the chase. Kyle slides a
pipe bomb on to the truck's fuel trailer causing a massive explosion. The Terminator emerges from
the burning truck covered with flames and collapses, seemingly destroyed.
The Terminator, with its clothes and flesh covering burned away, suddenly rises up and continues to
pursue them into a factory. Kyle activates the factory's machinery to try to confuse the Terminator
and attacks it with a metal pipe but it knocks him down. In a daze, he jams his final pipe bomb into
the Terminator's abdomen, causing an explosion which apparently destroys it; the explosion kills
Kyle and injures Sarah. Now a one-armed, legless torso, the Terminator resumes its attempt to kill
Sarah. She leads it into a hydraulic press which she activates, crushing and finally deactivating it.
Sarah is later taken out of the factory by an ambulance as Kyle's body is taken away. The authorities
are also seen analyzing some of the components of the Terminator.
Several months later, a pregnant Sarah is traveling through Mexico. Along the way she records
audio tapes which she intends to pass on to her unborn son, John. She debates whether to tell him
that Kyle is his father. While stopping at a gas station, a small boy takes a Polaroid photograph of
her which she purchases the same photograph that John will later give to Kyle. Sarah then drives
on toward approaching storm clouds.

Cast[edit]

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator / T-800: a cybernetic robot disguised as a human

Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, a human Resistance fighter sent back in time to protect
Sarah.

Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the Terminator's target who is soon to be the mother of the
future Resistance leader John Connor.

Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police Lieutenant who questions Sarah.

Lance Henriksen as Hal Vukovich, a police Sergeant who questions Sarah.

Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist.

Bess Motta as Ginger Ventura, Sarah's roommate.

Rick Rossovich as Matt Buchanan, Ginger's boyfriend.

Additional actors included Dick Miller as the gun shop clerk; Shawn Schepps as Nancy; Bruce M.
Kerner as the desk sergeant; professional bodybuilder Franco Columbu (Schwarzenegger's friend
and workout partner) as a Terminator in 2029; Bill Paxton, Brad Rearden, and Brian Thompson as
punks who are confronted by the Terminator; and Marianne Muellerleile as one of the other women
with the name "Sarah Connor" who was shot by the Terminator.

Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In Rome, during the release of Piranha II: The Spawning, director Cameron grew ill and had a dream
about a metallic torso dragging itself from an explosion while holding kitchen knives. [3] "My
contemporaries were all doing slasher-horror movies," Cameron said. "John Carpenter was the guy I
idolized the most. He madeHalloween for $30,000 or something. That was everyone's break-in
dream, to do a stylish horror movie. [Cameron's nightmare] was a very slasher film type image. And
it really was the launching pad for the story."[4] When Cameron returned to Pomona, California, he
stayed at Randall Frakes' home where he wrote a draft forThe Terminator.[5] Cameron later stated
that his influences while writing the script were 1950s science fiction films and episodes of The
Outer Limits as well as contemporary films including The Driver and Mad Max 2.[6][7] To translate the
draft into a script, Cameron enlisted his friend Bill Wisher, who had a similar approach to storytelling.
[8]

Cameron gave Wisher the early scenes involving Sarah Connor and the police department scenes

to write.[8] As Wisher lived far away from Cameron, the two communicated script ideas by recording
tapes of what they wrote by telephone.[8]
Cameron's agent hated the idea for The Terminator and told him to work on something else. After
this, Cameron fired his agent.[8] The initial outline of the script involved two Terminators sent to the
past. The first was similar to the Terminator in the film, while the second was a liquid metal cyborg
that could not be destroyed with conventional weaponry.[9] Cameron could not think of a good way to
depict this robot, stating that he "was seeing things in his head that couldn't be done with existing
technology."[9][10] The story of the cyborgs in the film was cut down to a single robot idea.[10] The liquid
metal Terminator would be revisited with the T-1000character in the 1991 sequel Terminator 2:
Judgment Day.[11]

Gale Anne Hurd bought the rights to The Terminator from James Cameron for one dollar.[12]

Gale Anne Hurd, who had worked at New World Pictures as Roger Corman's assistant, showed
interest in the film project.[8]Cameron sold the rights for The Terminator to Hurd for one dollar with the
promise that she would produce it only if Cameron was to direct it. As a producer, Hurd had
suggested edits to the script and took a screen writing credit in the film. Cameron has stated that
Hurd "did no actual writing at all".[12] Cameron and Hurd had friends who worked with Roger Corman
previously and who were now working at Orion Pictures, now part of MGM. Orion agreed to
distribute the film if Cameron could get financial backing elsewhere. The script was picked up by
John Daly at Hemdale Pictures.[13]
Cameron wanted his pitch for Daly to finalize the deal and had his friend Lance Henriksen show up
to the meeting early dressed and acting like the Terminator.[13] Henriksen showed up at the office
kicking open the door wearing a leather jacket and had gold foil smothered on his teeth and fake
cuts on his face and then sat in a chair.[13] Cameron arrived shortly after which relieved the staff from
Henriksen's act. Daly was impressed by the screenplay and Cameron's sketches and passion for the
film.[13] In late 1982, Daly agreed to back the film with help from HBO and Orion. [13][14] The
Terminator was originally budgeted at $4 million and later raised to $6.5 million. [15]

Pre-production[edit]
"Casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as our Terminator, on the other hand, shouldn't have worked. The guy is supposed
to be an infiltration unit, and there's no way you wouldn't spot a Terminator in a crowd instantly if they all looked like
Arnold. It made no sense whatsoever. But the beauty of movies is that they don't have to be logical. They just have to
have plausibility. If there's a visceral, cinematic thing happening that the audience likes, they don't care if it goes
against what's likely."[16]
James Cameron on casting Schwarzenegger.

One of Cameron's first tasks was to find someone to play Kyle Reese. Orion wanted a star whose
popularity was rising in the United States but who also would have foreign appeal. Orion's cofounder Mike Medavoy had met Arnold Schwarzenegger and sent his agent the script for The
Terminator.[14] Cameron was dubious about casting Schwarzenegger as Reese as he felt he would

need someone even bigger to play the Terminator. The studio had suggested O. J. Simpson for the
role of the Terminator, but Cameron did not feel that Simpson would be believable as a killer.[17]
[18]

Cameron still agreed to meet with Schwarzenegger about the film and devised a plan to avoid

casting him. Cameron planned to pick a fight with him and return to Hemdale and find him unfit for
the role.[19]
Upon meeting with Schwarzenegger, Cameron was entertained by Schwarzenegger who would talk
about how the villain should be played. Cameron began sketching his face on a notepad and asked
Schwarzenegger to stop talking and remain still.[18] After the meeting, Cameron returned to Daly
saying Schwarzenegger would not play Reese but that "he'd make a hell of a Terminator".
[20]

Schwarzenegger was not as excited by the film; during an interview on the set of Conan the

Barbarian, an interviewer asked him about a pair of shoes he had (which were for The Terminator).
Schwarzenegger responded, "Oh some shit movie I'm doing, take a couple weeks." [21] He recounted
in his memoir, Total Recall, that he was initially hesitant, but thought that playing a robot in a
contemporary film would be a challenging change of pace from Conan The Barbarian and that the
film was low profile enough so that it wouldn't be a risk to his career if it were unsuccessful, also
admitting that "it took [him] awhile to figure out that Jim [Cameron] was the real deal" (i.e. a director
as talented as Spielberg, Hitchcock or Coppola). In preparation for the role, Schwarzenegger spent
three months training with weapons to be able to use them and feel comfortable around them.
[20]

Schwarzenegger speaks only 18 lines in the film, and less than 100 words. James Cameron said

that "Somehow, even his [Austrian] accent worked...It had a strange synthesized quality, like they
hadn't gotten the voice thing quite worked out."[22]
For the role of Reese, various other suggestions were made for the role including rock
musician Sting.[23] Cameron chose Michael Biehn for the role. Biehn was originally skeptical about the
part, feeling that the film was silly. After meeting with Cameron, Biehn stated his "feelings about the
project changed".[23] Hurd stated that "almost everyone else who came in from the audition was so
tough that you just never believed that there was gonna be this human connection between [Sarah
Connor and Kyle Reese]. They have very little time to fall in love. A lot of people came in and just
could not pull it off."[24]
In the first few pages of the script, the character of Sarah Connor is written as "19, small and delicate
features. Pretty in a flawed, accessible way. She doesn't stop the party when she walks in, but you'd
like to get to know her. Her vulnerable quality masks a strength even she doesn't know exists." [25] For
the role, Cameron chose Linda Hamilton, who had just finished filming Children of the Corn.
[26]

Rosanna Arquette had previously auditioned.[27] Cameron found a role for Lance Henriksen as

Detective Hal Vukovich, as Henriksen had been essential to finding finances for the film. [28] For the
special effects shots in the film, Cameron wantedDick Smith who had previously worked on The
Godfather and Taxi Driver. Smith did not take Cameron's offer and suggested his friend Stan
Winston for the job.[29]

Production[edit]
Filming for The Terminator was set to begin in early 1983 in Toronto. Production was halted when
producer Dino De Laurentiis applied an option in Schwarzenegger's contract that would make him
unavailable for nine months while he was filming Conan the Destroyer. During the waiting period,
Cameron was contracted to write the script for Rambo: First Blood Part II. He also used this time to
refine parts of The Terminator's script and meet with producers David Gilerand Walter Hill to discuss
a sequel to Alien.[28][30]
There was limited interference from Orion Pictures. Two suggestions Orion put forward included the
addition of a canine cyborg for Reese, which Cameron turned down, and the second was to
strengthen the love interest between Sarah and Reese, which Cameron accepted. [31] On creating the
Terminator's look, Winston and Cameron passed their sketches back and forth. They eventually
decided on a design that was nearly identical to the original one Cameron drew in Rome. [29][32]Winston
had a team of seven artists work for six months to create a puppet of the Terminator. It was first
molded in clay, then plaster reinforced with steel ribbing. These pieces were then sanded, painted
and then chrome-plated. Winston sculpted a reproduction of Schwarzenegger's face in several
poses out of silicone, clay and plaster.[32]
Both the sequences in 2029 and stop motion scenes in the film were developed by Fantasy II, a
special effects company headed by Gene Warren Junior.[33] A stop motion model is used in several
scenes in the film involving the skeletal frame. Cameron wanted to convince the audience that the
model of the structure was capable of doing what they saw Schwarzenegger doing. To allow this, a
scene was filmed of Schwarzenegger injured and limping away. This limp made it easier for the
model to imitate Schwarzenegger.[34][35]
One of the guns seen in the film and on the film's poster was an AMT Hardballer Longslide modified
by Ed Reynolds from SureFire to include a laser sight. Both non-functioning and functioning versions
of the prop were created. At the time the movie was made, diode lasers were not available, because
of the high power requirement, the helium-neon laser in the sight used an external power supply that
Arnold Schwarzenegger had to activate manually. Reynolds states that his only compensation for
the project was promotional material for the film.[36]
In March 1984, the film began production in Los Angeles.[32][37] Cameron felt that with
Schwarzenegger on the set, the style of the film changed, explaining that "...the movie took on a
larger than life sheen. I just found myself on the set doing things I didn't think I would do scenes
that were just purely horrific that just couldn't be, because now they were too flamboyant." [38][39] Most
of The Terminator's action scenes were filmed at night, which led to tight filming schedules before
sunrise. A week before filming started, Linda Hamilton sprained her ankle, leading to a production
change whereby the scenes in which Hamilton needed to run occurred as late as the filming

schedule allowed. Hamilton's ankle was taped every day and she spent most of the film production
in pain.[40]
Schwarzenegger tried to have the iconic "I'll be back" line changed because of language barriers. In
an October 1, 2012 interview on Good Morning America, he revealed that he had difficulty
pronouncing the word I'll properly. The actor also felt that his robotic character wouldn't speak in
contractions and felt that the Terminator would be more declarative. Schwarzenegger asked James
Cameron if he could change the line to: "I will be back", but Cameron refused. As a result,
Schwarzenegger worked to say the line as written the best he could. He would later say the line in
numerous subsequent films throughout his career.[41]

Post-production[edit]
After production finished on The Terminator, some post-production shots were needed.[42] These
included scenes showing the Terminator outside Sarah Connor's apartment, Reese being zipped into
a body bag, and the Terminator's head being crushed in a press.[17][37][42] The film's soundtrack was
synthesizer music composed by Brad Fiedel.[43] Fiedel described the film's music as being about "a
mechanical man and his heartbeat".[44] Almost all the music in the film was performed live.[8][44] The
Terminator's theme is played over the opening credits and is played in various points in the film in
sped up versions: a slowed down version when Reese dies, and a piano version during the love
scene.[45] Fiedel created music for when Reese and Connor escape from the police station that would
be appropriate for a "heroic moment". Cameron turned down this theme, as he believed it would lose
the audience's excitement.[44] The soundtrack to the film was released in 1984.[43]

Release[edit]

Schwarzenegger with President Ronald Reagan two months before The Terminator's premiere in 1984.

Orion Pictures did not have faith in The Terminator performing well at the box office and feared a
negative critical reception.[46] At an early screening of the film, the actors' agents insisted to the
producers that the film should be screened for critics.[17] Orion only held one press screening for the
film.[46] The film was premiered on October 26, 1984. On its opening week, The Terminator played at
1,005 theaters and grossed $4.0 million making it number one in the box office. The film remained at

number one in its second week. It lost its number one spot in the third week to Oh, God! You Devil.[47]
[48]

Cameron noted that The Terminator was a hit "relative to its market, which is between the summer

and the Christmas blockbusters. But it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than the other way
around."[49]
Writer Harlan Ellison stated that he "loved the movie, was just blown away by it", [50] but believed that
the screenplay was based on a short story and episode of The Outer Limits he had written, titled
"Soldier", and threatened to sue for infringement.[51][52] Orion settled in 1986 and gave Ellison an
undisclosed amount of money and an acknowledgment credit in later prints of the film. [51] Some
accounts of the settlement state that "Demon with a Glass Han