“The machines rose from the ashes of a nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here in our present … tonight.”
The idea for The Terminator came to James Cameron in a feverish dream as he was struggling and about to get fired from Piranha II: The Spawning. He was overworked and stressed and ended up in bed. He immediately wrote a treatment with then-wife Gale Ann Hurd, and they approached Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly to make sure they retained control over the property. Eventually he lost it anyway, and that’s why so many franchise films that were out of his control.
Where were you on Judgment Day?
If you don’t know what the original Terminator film is about by know, I’ll still tell you. If you haven’t seen the film, for some reason, drop everything right now and go watch. Anyhow, the original Terminator sees our old California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger staring in the main role as the evil, villainous Terminator. The Terminator has been sent back to the year 1984 with one goal in mind. He must eliminate, at all costs, one Sarah Connor so she can’t give birth to the eventual leader of the rebellion against the machines, her son John Connor. Luckily for Sarah, and unfortunately for the Terminator, a protector has also been sent back. Kyle Reese (Michael Bien) is sent back to stop this villainous figure, all while trying to convince Sarah that he means no harm.
As the Terminator searches for Sarah Connor, Kyle must be careful as to how he approaches Sarah. As Sarah quickly learns, someone is out to get her, as she finds out that another woman, by the name of Sarah Connor, has been killed. Sarah decides to go out by herself and ends up at a club called TechNoir after seeing someone following her (this happens to be Kyle, who wants to protect her). The Terminator, naturally always one step ahead of Kyle and Sarah, has already found out where she is when Sarah calls her roommate Ginger (who the Terminator killed thinking it was Sarah). The TechNoir club scene has one of the most skillful scenes in an action film. Sarah is waiting at the club for the police to arrive. When Sarah drops a cup and bends down to pick it up, Cameron slows down the action to see that the Terminator was, literally, a few steps away from Sarah. Talk about a scary and convincing scene.
Looking more and more into the film, I found it interesting how stars like O.J. Simpson were once considered for the role of the Terminator. Even Michael Bien was billed as the villain, but once Cameron met the towering Schwarzenegger one day at lunch, he knew he had his villain placed out. This was the film that launched Schwarzenegger’s American career. Schwarzenegger has a scary, tall, deathly look that he brings to this machine. As he walks around, he never changes his facial tone, rarely speaks, and always seems to evoke a terror in the audience. I remember originally seeing the film in the early 90s when I was five or six. Schwarzenegger was very terrifying and convincing as this villain. If you need to be convinced that Schwarzenegger was a great actor at one point in his life, see films like this or The Predator for more evidence.
The Terminator is the prime example of a fine action sci-fi film. The film has an excellent haunting score by composer Brad Fiedel, fine direction by James Cameron, good acting on all parts, incredible, tense action scenes, and a pretty interesting story. If you haven’t seen this film, slap yourself for not doing so, and then run to your local store and don’t rent, but immediately buy a copy of this classic.
Video
Terminator is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 75 mbps. Of course, this was shot on film and so is native 4K. It looks better than anything I recall. The opening scene stands out as so much tighter in contrast that allows the machines and skulls to stand out in the darkness. Beautiful shadow definition. The grain remains enough to create a nice organic nature to it all. Some of the stop-motion work is dated today, but I’m completely fine with that. Textures come out to play here, and the transfer brings back a lot of memories for someone who was there at the box office in 1984 to watch it for the first time.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. Anything more would ruin the atmosphere of the original film. It would be a mistake to try to expand the audio field. I’m OK with how the field is not expanded. There’s some nice background things like the sound of machinery moving. The subs are much better than on the Blu-ray, and that adds depth to dialog and score as well as the many explosive moments. You can still hear it in the mono 2.0 that the film was released with, but I’m solid with the upgrade.
Special Features
There is only the single UHD disc and the extras are all ported from earlier features.
Final Thoughts:
This is the film that put James Cameron on the map. Fans of The Abyss, Titanic, or the Avatar films owe The Terminator a dept of gratitude. Cameron was part of Roger Corman’s machine, and after a shaky start getting to direct and produce in his own right, this is where the Cameron empire starts. T2 was arguably a better film, but this is still the origin for all of it. I think it’s disappointing to him to see what has come since and have little to zero control over the property. Judgment day. It all starts right here, and now it’s FINALLY made it to home 4K release. “Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear.”
