Today is November tenth, the day that Sarah Connor started recording for the future leader of the resistance John Connor. Given that, I decided that it is a good time to start listing the reasons why the original Terminator is still as good as it was when it was released. The sequel is probably better remembered for its action movie moments, but it wouldn’t even exist without the original masterpiece by James Cameron. I am also aware that as of late the series has not had the same love and attention, but that is a different conversation. So without further delay, let us list the five reasons terminator still holds up today.
1. It was James Cameron’s baby.
James Cameron is one of the greatest filmmakers ever who has left us with some of the greatest films. Terminator was a passion project that James worked on long before it was ever looked at by a studio. He worked on the story and the storyboard and brought it to the studio. When the studio picked the film up he maintained creative control and it showed throughout the film. By that same extent, he also knew when to change certain aspects of the film to improve upon his ideas. Originally Arnold Schwarzenegger auditioned for the role of Kyle Reese but he really wanted to play the terminator. Fortunately, the director saw reason and we have one of the most iconic characters ever created.
2. The casting was just right.
Speaking of casting and characters there is an overall feeling that every character was played by just the right person. Michael Bien and Linda Hamilton do a great job of creating characters that are sympathetic and vulnerable while maintaining the ability to survive. Arnold to his credit also created a character that we would have ingrained in our minds. The original concept had been that the terminator himself would be able to blend in everywhere. Obviously, they went in the direction of making him an unstoppable killing machine. I also have to briefly bring up the appearances by Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton. Their appearances are brief but it awesome to see them considering they would later appear in another James Cameron film, Aliens.
3. The effects are timeless(mostly)
The effects of this film still hold up to this day, and I’ll explain why. Firstly the miniature is well made with details that I continue to find every time I watch the film. The miniatures are then perfectly blended with the rest of the film so that you can not see the difference. I mean, I can visualize these effect in real life, those are some great effects. The only effect that I don’t think holds up is the terminator doll head that stands in for Arnold. The effects in terms of makeup and other practical effects still look great.
4. The writing holds up even better than the effects.
There is a timeless feel to the terminator looking back on it. Not that the eighties isn’t present in the film, because it is. it is instead that the film is set in the eighties rather than completely covered in it, thus allowing even today’s audience to watch the film without having to deal with too many references to the eighties. The one-liners used in the film are iconic today and still quoted with joy. The characters are written so that we can sympathize with them but still believe that they can win against the unstoppable killing machine. The suspense is so great that it still gives me goosebumps to this day.
5. It was the best
The Terminator film is a masterpiece in my opinion. It is perfectly paced with fantastic acting and score that still gets stuck in my head. The funny thing about this is that while this is an original creative idea, it uses ideas that predate it. Time travel existed long before this film came into being, dating back as far as H.G. Wells and beyond. The idea of a killer machine had also existed before, or at least the idea of one that could kill. A resistance that fights against an almost ever-present army with more resources and better technology but is saved by a special hero, sound familiar. The reason this works is that these previous themes and ideas were woven together in a new way that we hadn’t seen before.
This is just my opinion of course, but I really do think that this film is classic and will be just as impressive thirty years from now. if you want to check it out for yourself here is the link to amazon, The Terminator
The Multiverse Man 