Classic Movie Pick: AI Before it was Cool…The Terminator

Sticking with this week’s theme of AI, my classic pic takes us back to an early edition of artificial intelligence, I’m not going all the way back to 1927’s Metropolis, but I will go back to 1984s The Terminator, a film that predicted AI would eventually take over the world 41 years ago, it hasn’t quite happened yet but the movie does seem like a harbinger. If you haven’t seen this iconic early Arnold Schwarzenegger film about a cyborg assassin who travels to the past to kill the woman responsible for giving birth to the man who will defeat AI and save the world, well pop some popcorn and get your looking balls ready to be dazzled.

The Terminator has a creepy feel to it due in part to the cinematography and the nativity of unassuming residents of Los Angeles who go about their life not knowing that an AI killing machine is walking amongst them. Very few Angelenos find out what kind of monster the future has sent except for those who get pulled into the middle. Linda Hamilton plays Sarah Connor, a waitress and the mom to be of John Connor who squares off against AI in the future. I mean, let’s be honest, if you can send someone back in time to wipe out a problem, wouldn’t you? Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, the human resistance fighter John Connor sends to protect his mother Sarah, who does her best to comprehend what is happening.

Reese is overmatched against the terminator but he’s crafty and does his best to keep Sarah alive. Just an aside about cast, it seems like every week Bill Paxton pops up in my classic movie pics with a bit part. You can see him in this film as one of the first to stand up to Schwarzenegger’s character. It does not go well for Billy P. Paxton. Paxton was an extra in last week’s classic Stripes.  

The Terminator was directed by Hollywood legend James Cameron. This was not Cameron’s first time in the director’s chair but it did put him on the map. The Director had made his directorial debut with 1982’s Piranha 2: The Spawning. The film received a 5% positive critics reception on Rotten Tomatoes and a 13% audience score. Hard to believe such a successful director whose films have gone on to make billions could’ve been part of such a fiasco. In Cameron’s defense, the Piranha producer fired him and made his own cut. Cameron spent years trying to get his name taken off the Piranha 2 and considers The Terminator to be his feature film directorial debut. 

How did Cameron come up with this idea in 1984 before AI was on our radar? He can thank the aforementioned Piranha 2: The Spawning. After he had been replaced as director, Cameron used his own money to travel to Rome hoping to be involved with post production on the film. While there, he got sick and went to bed with a high fever one night and dreamed of a metal endoskeleton figure emerging from flames while holding kitchen knives. The Director immediately sat down and made a drawing of his vision then wrote a script working backwards. Cameron knew that if the film ever got made and he was allowed to direct it, it would not have an extravagant budget that would allow him to shoot something futuristic. So he did what great artists do. He got creative and decided to bring the future to the present, thereby saving millions of dollars on a budget he knew he could never get. Most people consider Terminator 2, where Schwarzenegger is the good guy, a better movie than the original. But The Terminator was so unique and original at the time it would definitely get the nod in my opinion as a better film, especially when you learn how the whole idea was conceived. The original also includes this iconic line I’ll be back which was originally I’ll Come Back. I don’t see those words standing the test of time like I’ll Be Back. Enjoy this absolute thriller of a classic. Why not make it a double feature with Terminator 2 and decide for yourself which is the better movie?

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