The Terminator

 The Terminator

Back in 1984, two men were about to form a collaboration and partnership of sorts, that would span three decades. One of them was a young filmmaker, whose only directing credit to date was “Piranha 2: The Spawning”. James Cameron had been hard at work behind the scenes concieving an idea about a robot assassin from the future, and had a famous NFL player in mind to play him. The other man in this partnership was well-known body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger. Already a celebrity in his own right, but not in the world of movies, Schwarzenegger had built a successful career as an elite body builder and by age 33 had taken out the Mr Universe title 7 times. He had starred in a popular documentary as himself, called “Pumping Iron” and with a taste of movie stardom after the doco’s reasonable success, Schwarzenegger had Hollywood in his sights. 

Perhaps the pivotal turning point in this partnership was when James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger sat down to lunch one day. Cameron was preparing to film his movie about the killer robot. He had a small budget and would do most of the work himself with his hands-on approach to filmmaking. He wanted Schwarzenegger to play the part of Kyle Reese; a soldier, also from the future, travelling back in time to save the damsel in distress from the killer robot. Speaking of that important role, Cameron was adamant the part would be played by American Football great, O.J. Simpson. He had begun making a name for himself in movies, but of course it would be his behaviour off screen a decade later that would make him a household name. In their conversation over lunch, Schwarzenegger felt it his duty to describe how the character of The Terminator should be played; down to the finest detail behind how he walked, talked, loaded a gun, drove a motorbike, and so forth. In that moment, Cameron was being offered an alternative, although he hadn’t planned it and Schwarzenegger probably couldn’t imagine how the offer he was about to receive would change his life forever.

As the story goes, O.J. Simpson didn’t get the part, the character of Kyle Reese went to little known actor Michael Biehn, and Cameron had found his Terminator in the former bodybuilder with the thick accent and surname no one could spell correctly, let alone pronounce. It’s safe to say The Terminator had its work cut out for it, but as luck would have it, the film was produced on a low budget, released to the world and took it by storm.

The Terminator, the first in the series, is perhaps the most iconic of them all. For myself, I was introduced to the series through T2, which I saw shortly after it was released in the early 90’s. I had heard of The Terminator of course, but had never been allowed to watch it. It would be a few years before I got around to seeing the original, after watching the sequel numerous times. I can honestly say I wasn’t impressed by the first movie upon my initial viewing, as I was comparing it to the smashing action and special effects spectacle that was Judgement Day. But as I got older, a little wiser, and understood the intention of James Cameron when he made the Terminator, I realised he set out to introduce the character, and like a good storyteller always does, was saving his best tricks, twists and turns for future stories.

On that note, The Terminator plays more like a sci-fi thriller than a blockbuster action movie. It definitely has that smaller, independent look and feel about it, but despite it’s low budget, obvious special effects and shoddy acting by a couple of the cast, it pulled itself off well. Schwarzenegger was born to play The Terminator, and carried each of his scenes, from the ones that were only seconds long to a few minutes, with power and conviction. As he only utters 16  lines in the entire film, Arnie didn’t have much dialogue to work with, but when he did speak, you listened. His presence on screen was commanding and memorable. For a bodybuilder with such an enormous physique to be the star of a film was relatively unheard of at this time, so you could say Arnold paved the way for the many muscular and masculine tough guy actors who would appear on screen for years to come. Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson owe a lot of their success in movies to Schwarzenegger. 

What stands out most about The Terminator, is how it became so memorable without intending to be. James Cameron had envisioned a character that audiences loved, a premise that was wonderfully wild in it’s imagination and execution, and started a conversation amongst movies goers and other movies themselves, about the threat of technology, and how given enough time, it could become self aware and turn against us. Just look at how integrated technology is in our lives today. Sure, machines aren’t coming to kill us, but with the amount of gadgets we use and give our time and attention to on a daily basis, you could say the machines are running our lives. 

And of course, it all came down to one line from this film that cemented itself in movie history. The story behind it is an interesting one. In the script, a scene called for The Terminator to walk into a police station, as he continues to hunt down his target, Sarah Connor. He approaches the front desk, asks the police officer on duty if he can see her, but is quickly told he can’t as she’s giving a statement. The Terminator doesn’t argue with this – he doesn’t need to. He slowly surveys the room around him, then looks back down to the police officer, and says “I’ll be back”. In rehearsals, Arnie wanted to say “I Will Be Back” and pushed for this with his director. But as Cameron preferred the sound of “I’ll…” over “I Will…”, that’s the line that made it into the scene. And luckily it did, as it was delivered so naturally, eloquently and powerfully by Schwarzenegger it would become his calling card. The most quoted movie line in history would not only set up the sequel, but work it’s way into almost every Schwarzenegger movie that followed and become the actors calling card. No matter what Arnie did or where he went in life, he could take a break then come out with a new movie, or even a career change into politics, and utter the words “I’m back” then finish his appearance with “I’ll be back” and we all waited in anticipation until he did come back. Because with The Terminator under his belt, Schwarzenegger had secured the role of his life, and it would be a long seven year wait, but he kept his promise to be back. 

It was 1991 when The Terminator would appear on screen again, but reinvented for a new decade, with a new mission, new look and a whole new era in movie special affects and action that would change everything. 

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