Study Guide for The Terminator
1. CITATION
The Terminator. Dir. James Cameron. USA: Orion, 1984. Gale
Anne Hurd, prod.
2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The film stresses the antipathy between humans and conscious machines, epitomized
by the Terminators: nearly indestructible killer robots of great efficiency
and fanatical perseverance. Cf. Fred Saberhagen's berserkers (killer machines
trying to eliminate all life). Rev. Jack Kroll, Newsweek, 19 Nov.
1984: 132, who notes that Terminator is "currently the country's
top-grossing movie." Discussed by Vivian Sobchack in ch. 4 of Screening
Space (see Sobchack's Index for Chapter 4; allow yourself plenty of time
if you try to read VS's ch. 4).
3. MAJOR CAST:
The Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Kyle Reese: Michael Biehn
Sarah Connor: Linda Hamilton
Lt. Traxler (head cop): Paul Winfield
Assistant to Lt. Traxler: Lance Henrikson
4. SETTING:
"Los Angeles 2028 A.D." and in 1984. Note well the mise en scene: all the
physical things we see in the setting. LA of 2028 is a mess, but LA in the
present is also pretty funky, and (also) the home of many machines. The
texture of Terminator (the dirty, dark, but highly complex world
we see) places this film with RoboCop, Alien(s), Blade Runner,
and other films showing a dark and littered future, as opposed to a future
that is (for good or ill) white, shiny, neat, and asceptic.
5. COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS:
A. First shots in 1984 LA: The machinery stopping is an SF flik cliche, used
here to signal the imminent "irruption" into our world of something alien and
of great power, and probably of great danger. And then artificial lightning, a
white flash, and der ARNOLD! arises from the mists, as a classic nude (The Discus
Thrower) but with a truck in the background and very ominous music on the
soundtrack. Then some graphic, classically macho violence and into the second
sequence, when Michael Biehn's Sgt. Kyle Reese arrives a bit less spectacularly.
Third sequence introduces Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor: our first picture of
someone in daylight. Connor is a waitress, and a fairly wimpy one. Recall
that later. It's a modern prejudice, but we tend to see the important people
in stories as the ones that change. Sarah changes, and this is Sarah's story.
Most SF fans will know fairly shortly into the film that Kyle will sire Sarah's
heroic son, and, generally, there's very little original about the film; its
excellence is in how well it does what it does. And, possibly, in having a
woman as hero. Allowing that people should be grateful for small favors and
that The Terminator does women a favor in having a woman as hero--still,
just how big a favor to women is Sarah Connor? In becoming SuperMom is she
still playing a male game by men's rules? (Real Question.)