The Terminator

Science fiction set in Los Angeles in 1984. Two arrive at night. One is a machine, the other a soldier, and both come from the future. The machine's task is to kill a woman. Sarah Connor waits tables at a diner and does not know why she is being looked for. Reese finds her. He pulls her by the arm in a car park and gets her into a car, and can only explain afterwards. From there the film is a chase. A club, a police station, a motel and a factory. The machine does not tire. It does not speak, does not bargain, and becomes more frightening as it takes damage. What the narrative is interested in is not the future but transformation: Sarah begins the film running and ends it deciding, and the whole series will be built on that change. There is also a closed loop. What happens between Reese and Sarah is the very thing that makes the future. It was made on a small budget. The machine's skeleton was produced as a model shot frame by frame, and the close-ups were done with a mechanical head; the limited means forced the film into night and darkness, which suited the tone. The idea came out of an image the director saw while ill. He handed over the script for a token sum in order to keep the right to direct it. A writer claimed the film drew on his own stories; the dispute was settled and an acknowledgement was added to later copies. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and Paul Winfield are in the cast. James Cameron directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants low-budget, hard, direct science fiction. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the scale of the sequel; this film is smaller, cheaper and much darker.