The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received an "additional dialogue" credit. Cameron devised the premise of the film from a fever dream he experienced during the release of his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), in Rome, and developed the concept in collaboration with Wisher. He sold the rights to the project to fellow New World Pictures alumna Hurd on the condition that she would produce the film only if he were to direct it; Hurd eventually secured a distribution deal with Orion Pictures, while executive producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in setting up the film's financing and production. Originally approached by Orion for the role of Reese, Schwarzenegger agreed to play the title character after befriending Cameron. Filming, which took place mostly at night on location in Los Angeles, was delayed because of Schwarzenegger's commitments to Conan the Destroyer (1984), during which Cameron found time to work on the scripts for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Aliens (1986). The film's special effects, which included miniatures and stop-motion animation, were created by a team of artists led by Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr. Defying low pre-release expectations, The Terminator topped the United States box office for two weeks, eventually grossing $78.3 million against a modest $6.4 million budget. It is credited with launching Cameron's film career and solidifying Schwarzenegger's status as a leading man. The film's success led to a franchise consisting of several sequels, a television series, comic books, novels and video games. In 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Sarah Connor? It's Lieutenant Traxler. Don't put me on hold. Don't transfer me to another department. I won't. Can you tell me where you are? - I'm in this bar called Tech Noir. - I know it. It's on Pico. - Are you all right? - Yeah, but I don't wanna leave. - I think there's a guy following me. - Now, listen carefully. You're in a public place so you'll be safe. Stay visible. Don't go outside. - I'll have a car there in a minute. - OK.
The Terminator
This is a mistake. I didn't do anything. No, but you will. It's very important that you live. This isn't true. How could that man just get up after you... It's not a man. A machine. A Terminator. Cyberdyne Systems model 101 . A machine? Like a robot? Not a robot. A cyborg - cybernetic organism. - No. He was bleeding. - Just a second. Get your head down.
The Terminator
Listen. The Terminator's an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine. Underneath it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis. Microprocessor controlled. Fully armoured, very tough. Outside it's living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs. - Look, Reese, I don't know... - Pay attention. I gotta ditch this car.
The Terminator
The 600-Series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him. Look, I am not stupid. They cannot make things like that yet. Not yet. Not for about forty years. Are you saying it's from the future? One possible future... from your point of view. I don't know tech stuff. Then you're from the future, too. Is that right? - Right. - Right.
The Terminator
Why does it want me? There was a nuclear war. A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone, just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. Nobody even knew who started it. - It was the machines, Sarah. - I don't understand. Defence network computers. New, powerful, hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart - a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat. Not just the ones on the other side. It decided our fate in a microsecond. Extermination. Did you see this war? No. I grew up after. In the ruins. Starving. Hiding from the H-Ks. - H-Ks? - Hunter-killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up. Put in camps for orderly disposal. This was burned in by laser scanner. Some of us were kept alive. To work. Loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out for ever. But there was one man who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name was Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.
The Terminator