Part 1: The Terminator

For those of you that have been living under a rock, The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg 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 plot of The Terminator

Two men arrive in 1984 Los Angeles, having time traveled from 2029. One is a cybernetic assassin known as the Terminator, programmed to hunt and kill a woman named Sarah Connor. The other is a human soldier named Kyle Reese intent on stopping it. They both steal guns and clothing. The Terminator systematically kills women bearing its target’s name, having found their addresses in a phone book. It tracks the last Sarah Connor, its actual target, to a nightclub, but Reese rescues her. The pair steal a car and escape with the Terminator pursuing them in a stolen police car.

As they hide in a parking lot, Reese explains to Sarah that an artificially intelligent defense network known as Skynet, created by Cyberdyne Systems, will become self-aware in the near future and trigger a global nuclear war in order to exterminate the human race. Sarah’s future son John will rally the survivors and lead a successful resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines. On the verge of the resistance’s victory, Skynet sent the Terminator back in time to kill Sarah and prevent John from being born. The Terminator is an efficient and relentless killing machine with perfect voice-mimicking ability and a powerful metal endoskeleton covered by living tissue that disguises it as a human.

Reese and Sarah are apprehended by police after another encounter with the Terminator. The Terminator attacks the police station, killing police officers and hunting for Sarah. Reese and Sarah escape, steal another car and take refuge in a motel, where they assemble pipe bombs and plan their next move. Reese admits that he has adored Sarah since John gave him a photograph of her, and that he traveled through time out of love. Reciprocating his feelings, Sarah kisses him and they have sex, conceiving John.

 

The Terminator locates Sarah by intercepting a call intended for her mother. She and Reese escape the motel in a pickup truck while it pursues them on a motorcycle. In the ensuing chase, Reese is wounded by gunfire while throwing pipe bombs at the Terminator. Sarah knocks the Terminator off its motorcycle but loses control of the truck, which flips over. The Terminator, now bloodied and badly damaged, hijacks a tank truck and attempts to run down Sarah, but Reese slides a pipe bomb into the tanker’s hose tube, causing an explosion that burns the flesh from the Terminator’s endoskeleton. It pursues them into a factory, where Reese activates machinery to confuse it. He jams his final pipe bomb into its midsection, blowing it apart at the cost of his life. Its still-functional torso grabs Sarah, but she breaks free and lures it into a hydraulic press, crushing and finally destroying it.

Months later, Sarah, pregnant with John, travels through Mexico, recording audio tapes to pass on to him. At a gas station, a boy takes a polaroid of her, Sarah buys the photo from the boy. It is the same photograph that John will one day give to Reese.

Coming soon ………..Part 2: The Terminator sequels.