THE TERMINATOR

RANK 

RELEASED 11 January 1985

The film that launched two huge careers. Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron both made such an impact with this sci-fi movie that twenty-four years later, the fourth movie in the series has gone back and taken key elements from it in a failed attempt to push the franchise forwards. It’s amazing how sometimes an actor can just be born to play a role, and Schwarzenegger will always be the ultimate Terminator (T-800, model 101, for you techies). He barely has any lines in the film (sixteen), kills 30 people, and when he says ‘I’ll be back’ in the police station, you’d never imagine it would become one of the most famous movie quotes of all time.

The basic plot sees Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) sent back from a nuclear-devastated future to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son John will become the leader of the resistance against the worldwide computer network known as Skynet. Skynet has sent a machine called the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) through time to kill Sarah, which would stop John ever being born, and thus crushing the remains of a leaderless humanity.

‘The Terminator’ is a great story from one of cinema’s greatest action directors. And the late Stan Winston should also receive huge credit for the memorable Terminator Endoskeleton design that still looks superb today. With all time-travel movies, the central conceit seems to be a slight problem (John Connor is Kyle Reeses son, so if John send him back in time, doesn’t that indicate that this scenario must have happened before?), but it isn’t so questionable that it ruins the film.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE