Check out our video on TERMINATOR 2 here - th-cam.com/video/iBmbnu5TL7M/w-d-xo.html Unfortunately StudioCanal have blocked the video everywhere outside of the US so please use a VPN if you can't see it.
For anyone confused with the Terminator's designation, the endoskeleton is a T-800 and the outer skin design is Model-101, so you can have a T-800 with a different model number.
The "phased plasma ryefl in da fohty-watt rainch" bit is actually brilliant. Reese said that the records were lost after the war. The Terminator had no idea what was available for weaponry back in 1984. It asks for a plasma rifle to test whether or not the technology was even available. It also is unsure as to what humans would have, which is why it flees from the cops after it crashes the car chasing Sarah and Reese. It isn't quite sure if it's chances in the event the police have weaponry capable of defeating it especially with it being damaged in the crash. When it ascertains that humans just have ballistic weapons it opts to go full on assault at the police station as it's timetable is shrinking. The flesh over the endoskeleton is deteriorating and it's cover will be gone soon.
@@MrZackavelli When it asks the gun store owner. His reaction is one of puzzlement rather than "we don't have any in stock right now but I can get some later." Even so, the Terminator is smart about it's chances so it chooses to run away rather than risk an attack on the police until it has time to fix itself after the crash from the chase. With its skin covering starting to rot and knowing Sarah will be put into hiding, it attacks the police station since it is running out of time. The police don't have any weapons capable of doing substantial damage so it no longer cares about being subtle.
Records of Sarah Conner were lost. Not all records. I think it would still have access to military and government records. It’s possible the plasma rifle existed at that time just not to the public. Maybe a prototype or limited production due to cost.
@andystegall7407 I agree with you on the second part, that he's mechanically damaged so he has to go fix himself, but I just find 2 things wrong; if his skin has been compromised and now he has a narrower time window, why would he run from the police? Why would he want to take more time going away and coming back to kill Sarah later instead of just killing her then? And if the Terminator found out that the humans don't have plasma rifles, then he had this information right after he leaves the gun store. He didn't really have Eureka moment in the time between the car crash and the police station assault. If he had, say, found a gun on one of the dead punks when he first got his clothes, then went after Sarah with it at Tech Noir and used all the ammunition, therefore having to stop by a gun store in the time between the car crash and police station assault, and *then* learning that humans don't have plasma rifles, then it would make more sense. Again, I think the explanation that the Terminator was malfunctioning mechanically and just had to run away to go fix himself before getting back to his mission is all the explanation that the film needs.
@@MrZackavelli The novelization goes into depth saying that the Terminator isn't sure it can win the fight against the cops in that instance. Yes, it's damaged. But yhe impact of the crash actually knocks it out and forces the operating system to reset as well. It runs rather than not be at full fighting strength since it isn't certain of its chances.
You mention the people watching the fire in the TV and finding it funny. It’s actually very close to reality. In the army we’d use small camp stoves and hexi blocks were what we’d use as fuel. Whether it was exhaustion or just a moment to relax, we’d often find ourselves staring transfixed at the small flame. We called it hexi TV.
And who remembers the Christmas season tv channel with the loop of a yule log burning for folks to watch if they didn’t have a real fireplace? So funny to see a real fire in the tv!
When I watched the movie as a kid, I used to think that scene was funny too, when I was older, I realized since these kids were born after Judgement Day, they wouldn't even know what television is. To them it was just a coinvent object for holding a fire.
People stare at fires in chimneys all the time, but that isn't funny I guess. When we had been kicked out of our houses during organized crime raids in Mexico and had to live outside in the cold, that was the only way to forget or at least try in order for us to not break down.
You forgot to mention one my favorites things abouth this movie. The fact that Kylee always wanted to know what was Sarah thinking in that photo, cause she looked sad, and you descover that she was actually thinking about him! That blows my mind! It's so romantic and incredible. This is by far my favorite movie of all times.
The only thing about all that is, that Reese wasn’t John’s father prior. He spoke with John and gave him the pic, sent him back to protect her. In doing so Reese becomes the Father and dies.
@@sprinkleddonuts6094 Bro... You got the movie all wrong... All is linked, even the skynet only exists because the arm of the terminator. Read the original script and you'll see it bro.
Easily explained: you are a different person from, and do not share a brain with, the people behind this channel. They didn’t “forget” what you wanted to add.
What I always loved about this movie was the correspondence through time between Reese and Connor. Reese fell in love with the picture of Sarah, and was always wondering what she thought about. At the end of the movie Sarah, Connor was thinking about Reese when the child took her picture. Always moved me.
You have a good eye for art. Thats very clever that you noticed that wait a minute you just read Tom Harringtons post and just wrote down exactly what he said
It’s the best written live story with one tastefuly done live scene that could be taken out but is dynamic in the story so… but the greatest at so many genres at once.
Glad to see Franco Columbo mentioned. It's one of my favorite pieces of trivia. Him and Arnold have quite a history together in bodybuilding and business. Arnold talks about him a lot in his autobiography. Sadly Franco passed away a few years ago.
@@hectorlopez1069 uh, yeah, that's mentioned in the video, and exactly what the comment you replied to wad about... Did you bother to watch the video at all??
I’ve commented on other videos on the Terminator, and I had Really hoped you would have mentioned it, but alas no such luck. One of the best elements of the writing of this movie is that Kyle tells Sarah that she looked a little sad in the picture and that he often wondered what she was thinking about. When the picture is taken it is immediately after she says “I will tell you about him [Kyle], I owe him that much. For what it’s worth, in the short time we had together, we loved a lifetimes worth”. At that point the connection between them comes full circle and their love across time is fulfilled. One of the best love stories ever told.
Yeah she's thinking about him when the picture is taken and the reason why she looks sad is because she misses him. Its such a good little detail to add to it.
I saw The Terminator in the cinema the year it was released. Went in not really expecting much, walked out completely blown away. Amazing film, infinitely quotable too.
Me too. It was a Tuesday night and I think Arnold was why. Just a bit of curiosity based on Conan. My friend and I looked at each other wondering what we just saw. Mind, Repo Man came out that same year.
I just like to point out that James Cameron is a decent artist. Not only does he draw that picture of the Terminator, based off of his dream, but he also does all of the artwork in Titanic that is supposed to have been drawn by Jack (i.e. in the character's sketch book). When Rose is being drawn in the famous scene it is actually James Cameron doing it and because he is left-handed he is also doing it with his non-dominant hand because Jack is right-handed.
@@christheghostwriterBecause language evolves, and depending on the intended mood of the sentence, one may have the preferred rhythm and rhyme. Only prescriptivists argue that phrases and words should not be used in accordance with contemporary and colloquial usage and definitions, but rather in accordance with rules that were mostly created in the 19th century. For example, there is nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition, and that rule was made up in the 1800s to help people avoid ending a sentence with an open preposition (nothing being referenced,) which is wrong. No one says, "from where did you come?"
@@litigioussociety4249 I am a prescriptivist, to some degree. That said, you're comparing two different things (sentence structure and word choice). In my view, "based off of" is analogous to "could of" or "would of." It's patently incorrect. Things are based ON other things. It's literally in the word "base." You wouldn't put a statue off of a base. You would put it ON a base. When movies introduce their narrative with "based off of a true story," I'll acquiesce to your arguments about the evolution of language. Until then, I'll stick with the prescriptivist position that incorrect words are incorrect words.
@@christheghostwriterI don't understand why PC Nimrods (such as yourself) always feel the need to "educate" others in a TH-cam comment section. You should get a job and be a productive member of society instead of caring about people's grammar.
This movie is a masterpiece! Cameron did so much with so little (lack of today’s CGI, small budget, time constraints). But the story is tight as a drum, the pacing is superb. the acting, atmosphere, and original score by Brad Fiedel truly made this move unforgettable.
Yeah, they got hella lucky to get such a great score from a (truly no offense meant) composer who was fairly prolific but didn't really have any other scores that were remarkable.
I love how this movie subtely shows technology is already betraying humanity, the Terminator is using the police radio, Sarah's friend didn't hear the Terminator killing her boyfriend because she had headphones on and the Terminator found out Sarah was at the night club because of an answering machine
The only thing I felt you missed was during the Tech-Noir scene, you can see a few frames just as Reece jumps out and initially shoots the Terminator that he hits his arm, deflecting it just as the pistol discharges forcing him to miss Sarah. This is later seen directly with the Terminator having to fix the damage to his arm.
Sarah has a dog at the end of the film as a precautionary means to detect any terminators. Think about it: she's been attacked by one once, who's to say it won't happen again while she's pregnant? She obviously remembered Reese mentioning that dogs were used to spot them.
I was at a gun show in the USA (of course) and I made it my mission to ask vendors for a "phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range" to see how many people would catch on and no one did. LOL The reactions were priceless. "I don't know what that is."
@@paulgordon6949 I had the same thought. "Older movies? Pff - it's not _that_ old. I remember when . . . when . . . when it first came out. Oh no . . . " We're the old men Ace.
One thing worth mentioning was the scene where Kyle is talking about the picture John gave him, of Sarah. He comments that Sarah looked kind of sad in the picture, and that he always wondered what she was thinking at that moment. Then, of course, at the very end we learn that she was sad because she was thinking of Kyle Reese, how she loved him, that he died. It was a really cool little add on by Cameron.
@@matrixinterface LOL...no. Kyle sends him back because his mom told him he sent Kyle Reese back. In the actual T2 script (not the shooting script), Cameron had a whole scene at the beginning of T2 where they locate the time travel equipment (that John Connor knew existed...for obvious reasons) and send Kyle Reese back. After he's sent back, one of Connor's men turns to him and asks, "so what happened to him?" Connor says, "he accomplishes his mission...and dies." The guy says, "He was a very brave man." Connor looks at him and says, "yes...and my father." Then the astonished guy gives an order for the soldiers with him to prepare to destroy the time travel equipment, but Connor cuts him off and says, "not yet...there's one more that we need to send through..." The T800, obviously. Cameron cut the scene for cost and pacing....it was never actually filmed. What makes the opening scene with Connor so cool, is that when you see Connor walking with the battle still going on, you realize (or should) that he knows everything. He knows Skynet will be defeated. He knows they are going to go the central location and find the time travel equipment, and he knows exactly who he is going to send back.
Very important detail in this film (which Cameron repeats in the second film as well). When T-800 is about shoot Sarah in Technoir, Reese actually shoots quicker (by a tiny margin) moving Terminator's hand away from Sarah and at that very moment its gun goes off. A master class of a scene.
In regards to the Terminator making a batman exit after he's crashed the car, I often had similar thoughts of why he wouldn't just finish the job then and there but I'd always thought that perhaps it has done a damage assessment and calculated the situation as unfavorable. He is seen repairing himself from the damage caused by the car crash, the damage included an eye (affected targeting?) and the mechanical wrist tendons that would be needed to pull the trigger on a firearm. It's a little bit of a stretch of the imagination but it does make sense.
I think there's a couple different possible explanations. Mostly I think it just comes down to the Terminator isn't sure what kind of capabilities the police would have and there's just too many unknown variables for a computer to make an aggressive decision. Now that he knows what she looks like he can find her again. When he approaches the police station later he is a lot more informed as to what kind of weapons they have, he knows how large the building is and how many people are probably in it, and now he has the element of surprise on his side. He also knows that it is going to be difficult for her to run away in that situation. If he had attacked her earlier she might have escaped while the police held him off. We really don't know how much he would know about police procedures and how that would affect his decision. If he knew as much about police as you and I do, he would also know that they were most likely going to arrest the two characters and put them in police station where he could find them easily. But I'm not sure if he would understand things that well or not. Like I said, there's a lot of potential reasons. At the end of the day it might not be the strongest part of the script, but I'm okay with that because it's a pretty amazing script and even it's weakest spot is superior to most anything else.
The Terminator went to lengths to disguise himself until the writing was on the wall. Mainly because there were many witnesses who saw him take 6 volleys at point blank range of the shotgun and had the police managed to shoot him up further his skin would be completely compromised and had he escaped there would have been an indestructible man on the loose and a girl whom the police were looking for an an emaciated man with strange scars, who would be on no database anywhere and a laser barcode on his forearm. There would be an inevitable manhunt for the Terminator with rotting skin with nowhere to hide. It would have made Reese's story ever so slightly plausible to the cops. So the Terminator got out patched himself up knowing he could easily track her to the police station which he did. Had it been any other way the authorities would have called in the army to destroy the terminator and Reese would accurately describe The Terminator, The wars to come. Enough smart people would figure out with his working knowledge of Norad, proposed weapon systems that would have been only theory, major players of the resistance who would be alive in the military in 1984 there was no other way. They'd have to believe Reese. Stop the building of Cyberdyne systems or anything similar. There would be no other way. Hence the Terminator would have completely failed.
@@gordonferrar7782 This is how I always viewed it as well. The crash caused it visual damage (one eye was damaged/inoperative, which would throw off it's tracking, and aim), and it's hand/arm was damaged, so, while it may not have been reduced to 50% capacity, it was diminished enough it may have calculated it's odds of potential failure were too high. While it may not have determined the police present would be able to destroy it, they could have damaged it significantly to where it would be unable to blend in and pursue Sarah should she escape. It may also have factored in the police would be able to slow it enough that she could either flee, or be escorted away by police. Kyle had slowed it down alone, so numerous cops with superior firepower as well as multiple vehicles for attack or escape. But, moreover, as you alluded, the Terminator also has a secondary objective...discretion. It's primary goal is to destroy/prevent John Connor (via killing Sarah), but not be caught. While, ironically, it's destruction planted the seeds of it's own creation, Skynet did not factor this in. If it was discovered, as you said, it could lead to the prevention of it's own creation/Skynet's creation. Therefore, it would have been potentially disastrous to be destroyed or captured by police there. Where it had repaired itself (eye and arm), it realized it'd sustained such damage that it's ability to pose as human was deteriorating rapidly, so it kind of forced it to be more aggressive at the police station, as it was growing desperate. But it still studied the structure and made calculated decisions, such as crashing through the front desk with a car, rather than, as soon as he know's Sarah's there, just going right in after her. So, it's decision to flee after the car crash is consistent and not a plot hole.
You missed one small but interesting moment. In the bar shootout when the terminator attacks Reese, the terminator uses his system to predict the target's actions, which we saw later in the police station in the terminator's first person perspective when he shot a cop through the wall. However, Reese knows how the T-800 works and doesn't try to hit it at this point.
Well done, but you failed to mention that Kyle Reece was able to easily elude the police, while clothes shoppimg, which shows how skillful the human resistance fighters were. I absolutely love this detail, as it legitimizes why they chose Kyle to go back.
Complete commando. Skillful in improvisation and guerrilla tactics. Just watched again last night and it showcases how Kyle as a seasoned AI war veteran can out maneuver some average cops.
@@gobucs3146 yes and it *HAD* to start with Kyle. As a matter of fact go back to the first film and listen to Sarah as she’s recorded the tapes for John and she says “you HAVE” to send Kyle or you can never be.
Maybe the Terminator calculated a percentage of mission success was low due to being damage and having low ammo. So by regrouping back to the hotel to repair and restock up on weapons, he would have a higher missions success. The terminator knew the police would have them at police stations, which he can find out easy and take them on in a fight. That's what I think the reason why Terminator left after the car crash scene.
The problem was that the police were arriving in force, alert and ready and they'd likely be in a position to call for backup and for some of them to get away if the fight went against them which it likely would. This would pose an unacceptable risk of being exposed for what it was, which could potentially change history in wildly unpredictable ways. Skynet couldn't take that risk, and would have programmed the machine to avoid situations that would blow its cover.
@@darthmeow1370 Imho He ran away from the crash because he was not yet aware how dangerous and armed the cops would be. He is not invincible so he did not want to risk them having a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range or some other dangerous to him weapon. That was my take since I was a kid. Him asking for the phased plasma rifle shows he is not actually super sure what tech and other specifics that time period had due to their terrible records
My thoughts exactly. The T-800 had achieved damage to one of its main appendages as well as 50% of its visual input (i.e. one of its eyes) As far as I know, it doesn't have any radar/lidar/sonar capabilities, so my guess would be it decided that the best course of action was to disperse, assess damage, repair, and then continue the mission according to the parameters given to it.
Given a bullet travels faster than a car and the damage had broken its arm the calculation was that with that many cops and that much firepower they could damage the unit more in it’s already damaged state. Also if it noted that Kyle didn’t drive off right away meant that the police would take them into custody and they would be trapped in a known location the best chance of success would be to go back to its base of operations, repair any damage and re-arm it’s self for the assault on the police station. Logical when you think of it.
Nothing better than the movies made during this time. Growing up as a child in the 90's these are always favorites and take me back to the good times: Terminator, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Home Alone, Karate Kid, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Ghost Busters, Jakie Chan, Blood Sport, Rambo, Total Recall, Predator, Judge Dredd, ET, Short Circuit, Rocky, and Coming to America.
23:10 I've always believed that the terminator "ran away at that point" because he was already seriously damaged (with one eye all wonky, and one of his arms not fully functional), as we learn from the next scene (while Sara's in the police station) he had to make some pretty significant repairs to himself just to be fully functional again. Going against an entire precinct of police officers that were involved in the chase, most of which were armed with shotguns, flash-bang grenades (which could affect and impair his already damaged optics), and other high caliber equipment , could potentially damage him even further. Not to mention that he would've had to stay contending with THEM, while Sarah and Kyle could potentially escape again amongst the firefight, leaving him even MORE damaged, and further away from the target. Letting the police take them in, at least assured him of WHERE they'd be later, after making the much needed repairs (to be fully functional again).... Not trying to nitpick, but I'VE always wondered "why he ran" too,, and after asking enough people, that's the explanation that I've received that actually makes the most sense. GREAT VIDEO BTW!! It was MUCH ENJOYED!! (THANK YOU for the upload!!)👍
Indeed. In addition, the T101 doesn't have its full arsenal of weaponry in the stolen car. Further more, if spotted and revealed as a cyborg, it could put the authorities on Sarah's side- making it impossible to achieve its mission, and likely ending Skynet's development instantly. Even if successful in taking out Sarah, only one or two officers getting away could mean an entire new threat to the very existence of The Machines, and mission failure. The reason he annihilates the whole precinct is probably to ensure any information passed on by Kyle and Sarah never makes it out of the building. Only 1 person does so, the Doctor, and it is pure fluke that he was facing away from the Terminator as they pass, as the T101 would likely have killed him immediately on reading his ID tag and realising he was not just a civilian who happened to be leaving the reception area.
@@LeviticusStroud I agree with this assessment. The Terminator was damaged and could be spotted as a cyborg making him the primary target the cops would go after and enabling Sarah to escape anyways. Then having a lot more people know of his existence it would make it less likely his mission would be completed. So he chose to remain in stealth.
Yeah, there's no real question about this, and I don't know hoe the narrator here missed this. Leaving the eye aside, the right hand is definitely not working until Arnold cuts it open and clears away the material interfering with the actuators.
Former gun store manager here. The thought that a customer may decide to load a gun on the counter and shoot me didn’t ever come to mind. If someone wished to rob us they almost certainly would’ve already had a loaded gun on them anyway. Also, I’ve yet to meet a firearm’s salesman/saleswoman that didn’t carry their own loaded pistol on the job and wasn’t an enthusiast with more hours on the range than most cops have. Gun store robberies are extremely rare due to the insanely high risk of being shot and guarantee of being on camera. Banks are far more lucrative targets because the tellers don’t have a Glock 17 on their hips and a Springfield XDS in their pockets.
True. I can't think of one gun store I've been to where every employee wasn't armed. Not counting the ones that you don't see that's in an office somewhere. It's probably a wet dream of every employee for someone to come in starting shit. A robber would be absolutely roasted. Only a psychotic, delusional, suicidal maniac would attempt to rob a gun store.
I vividly remember watching this as a small child and I was so creeped out when the Terminator lost the human skin and is coming marching at the door right before Sarah and Reese got it closed. Even though it doesn't look realistic, the walk, the red eyes and overall look of that machine got to me. Haha. I recently found your channel and now have a ton of stuff to watch, so thanks! It's so nice finding a new channel with a large library. Anyway keep up the great content!
So, the Harlon Ellison lawsuit thing: the creator/ founder of the old sci-fi 80's magazine Starlog Norm Jacobs had conducted an interview right around the release of Terminator where he has the audio and Cameron is on record very affably and charmingly talking about the inspiration behind The Terminator. Remember the often retold story that Cameron shares about how he conceived of The Terminator from a fever dream, woke up and immediately scretched down the image he had of the cybernetic killing machine? Well, in the original interview, Cameron out-right says matter of factly he wanted to write a movie he could direct after the Piranha 2 debacle so drank a bunch of beer, stayed up all night jotting ideas and 'watched a bunch of old Outer Limits episodes where in a marathon session cranked out a huge bulk of what would be the finished script.' He then sketched out a few ideas what the Terminator would look like afterwards to get a visual concept and reference point for inspiration. Shortly after this interview, Orion pictures and eventually Cameron himself both pleaded with Jacobs to take out the portion of the interview where Cameron mentioned Outer Limits. That magazine issue with that interview was set to go to print already locked in. Orion agreed to cover the added expense to halt production of the publication in order to remove the Outer Limit reference, reformat the layout and resubmit to the printing press. This sudden emergency panic course of action came about from Harlon Ellison's lawyers contacting Orion to inform them they were threatening lawsuit for plagiarizing. This portion of the story has successfully been buried subsequently since, but Jacobs has been on record about this so there is documentation this did occur from the people involved. Also of interest to note is that nowhere in the article is there any mention of a fever dream. Only that he rendered drawn concept art of The Terminator after he watched Outer Limits episodes to get inspired for something he could wtite and then ultimately direct. However, immediately after the lawsuit had been settled and Cameron saw Ellison would get co-credit along side with him, suddenly Cameron did a flurry of interviews talking about the making of Terminator and starts bringing up it was the result of a fever dream after being fired from Piranha 2 like some mystical magical destined thing, which sounds like a self fulfilling myth perpetrated by a piss and vigor filled young buck artist wanting to preserve his good name and rep in the industry and public preception. Now, those Outer Limits episodes by Ellison: Soilder and Demon With A Glass Hand are interesting to watch. I watched them both with an unsuspecting friend who just loved old Lmits and Twilight Zone episodes, but I wanted to see if eyes not looking for it along with mine who were and see if we would spot any Terminator similarities. Five minutes into one of those shows, my friend says outloud, 'Hey, this reminds me of The Terminator!' Which it did to me too. However, after that first initial set up, nothing else did. I mean, this thing had a telepathic cat communicating with the time traveling soldier for Christ's sake. Thank God Cameron didn't Bogart that. I think if this happened now there wouldn't have even been the threat of a lawsuit in a post Tarentino world where recontextual artists are accepted as common place and rap sampling becoming a common part of the creative process as well.
"I think if this happened now there wouldn't have even been the threat of a lawsuit"? 🤔 Harlan Ellison would definitely still sue today and take it to court if necessary.😄 Ellison 's entire "brand" was being a bare-knuckle fighter if he thought he was in the right. That man was not to be messed with!🤕
I loved the mystery about the original Terminator. You don't know what the plotline is until half way into the film when Kyle Reese finally gets Sarah Connor in the parking garage told tell her what's going on. Also Arnie as a bad guy was really cool.
For sure. Many of JC’s work remain timeless largely because every scene intends on leaving a certain feeling and impression on the viewer. It may surprise viewers to realize how little “special effects” may matter when they are viewing characters they care about and moments that make an audience feel.
well eaven in 2023 terminator makes me on edge feeling the adrenaline rush and i dont think of the special effects as old or bad as its sometimes looks better to the point off real compared to new movies that is almost entirely just computer animated with real bad grafix.
Awesome review, good work mate! One nitpick though.. Watching a burning fire on TV? No, they're watching a fire IN the TV. You expect the light on their face to be from a working tv with a show playing but the reveal of it being a simple vessel for a real fire lets you know exactly how dire a situation humanity is in.
I am 43 and this has been my favourite film since I was 10. I still have the videotape somewhere, with the film recorded off BBC 1, complete with the swearing, some violence edited out, from 1991.😂 I just Love seeing videos like this, years later offering newer perspectives and insights to the film, relating and foreshadowing scenes to the immortal T2. Well Done, mate. I love this.
Remember the original gun sounds from the VHS? 😁 I'm yet to find the English audio track with the original sounds in. I know it's in some of the foreign releases of it but not in English. I've watched this film so many times in my life I see it in my sleep, it's crazy 😂😂
I've got an extra 10 years on you, I can remember it being on the kids TV program 'screen test' ( a sort of observation contest on films with kids as the panelists), it was the scene in Tech Noir that they showed
great analysis and breakdown. This movie came out when I was 12 years old, and immediately became a video rental staple along with the rest of the 80s sci fi canon: Aliens, Road Warrior, Escape from New York, Wrath of Khan, etc. When it came out it was seen as little different from the other cheesy sci fi movies of the period, but it quickly became obvious that Arnie was a superstar. Terminator still totally holds up today, it's a tightly written, smart, action-packed work of art. Even the jankiest special effect, the stop motion of the Terminator skeleton, still looks creepy and weird and robotic, and fits perfectly with the aesthetic. Its unfortunate that it had one great sequel and then a lot of crap that wasted the franchise potential
I was 13 when this came out and it blew my mind! This movie along with Aliens 1986 remain my all time favorites. Even with watching Terminator repeatedly for all those years, your excellent video really grabbed me with all of the Easter eggs and scene breakdowns. Super job and thank you!
The first time I watched this as a kid back in the 80s it felt like a horror film , the terminator was genuinely chilling, the relentless nature of his pursuit was perfect and as a grown man now I still worry this is what they will eventually do to us when we create real robots 😂.
"relentless nature of his pursuit" That is exactly what I find lacking in all the movies after T2. Partly because we know how the Terminators work but also because they never take time to build up the tension, fear, exhaustion and despair that someone would feel if they were hunted by a nigh unkillable cyborg.
As with all tides the poor feel the water first. Killer robots is not the future to them, they are being bombed by AI drones right now, and have been for a while.
@@rappscallion3238In the first two Terminators, when a Terminator is in a location/scene, ppl are going to die in that location very soon. After T2, the terminators became your regular dumb, slow, movie monsters who threw ppl around instead of killing them.
The most amazing thing about Sarah and Kyle's love story is he was not chosen to protect her, he volunteered all due to falling in love with a picture. Love like that is hard to find. Kind of reminds me of the scene in City Slickers when Curly is talking about seeing a woman across a field putting laundry on a clothes line and she's the love of his life without his ever going and talking to her.
My watchlist of movies that ive missed out on has matched up SO WELL with these classic movie reviews and it makes me so happy. Blade Runner, Terminator, RoboCop, 2001, and on to more. THANK YOU FOR DOING THESE
And we could argue that T2 again reinvigorated certain parts of cinema and threw down the gauntlet again, possibly to even greater effect. Cameron’s influence is so underrated
Most people say T2 was best but for me The Terminator is the best of the series. The first time i watched it, it shocked me. I even expected the terminator to win at the end because he was unstoppable. Fantastic cinema. Thanks for this video, I learnt a few things.
This is one of the best paced films I have ever seen. Funny thing is that by the terminator asking for a plasma rifle indicates that those weapons were actually invented by humans and the machines are unclear when in time that invention was made. 23:06 the terminator runs away because he doesn't have his weapons, he goes home, fixes himself and grab his weapons and then goes to the police station, it is a nice contrast between him infiltrating to locate Sarah and him launching a full attack after locating her.
Time-travel movies can never avoid paradoxes and The Terminator has one of my favourites; the second the T-800 arrives in the present day it knows it has failed its mission because if it succeeded it wouldn't have been sent back in time because there have been no need. It also creates a bootstrap paradox because Skynet is created due to the arm/chip from the T-800, so the technology has no actual origin.
@@MorliHolect as mentioned in another video that the terminator movie we look at is the third loop of the time line starting with sarah as an ordinary waitress just mess with the first truck driver that comes by and that starts the loop of kyle and later john.
unsure. i mean the fact that the T800 failed because it made the timetravel. Skynet migjt have calculated that the elimination of Sarah and John Connor might result in an alternate timeline in which skynet wins. Pretty much the same as Biff goes back in time to hand the sports almanach to the younger Biff. with that he creates an alternate timeline and in the deleted scene he fades out from reality (well … the whole timeline will get deleted)… Since timetravel is a bit of a lottery, skynet might hoped that their timeline might be a lost cause but they could create an alternate one where they win. however the movie goes with the idea of you cant change the past you can only contribute to it for the future to happen as is. my point is: skynet and t800 might believe that they are creating a new timeline therefore they are not aware of the failure they are representing.
I LOVE your deeper dives into all time classic films. Thanks dude for these and all of your content. You have been top three favorite TH-cam content providers for years now. Please keep up the amazing work!!
It took me about 30 years to get the real genius of this movie. As a kid first seen it scared the hell out of me. Saw it about 10 times from 1990-2010, and finally i understood how unbelieveable realistic and in a strange way science based it was. An all time classic for sure
I always thought there were a number of factors that caused the Terminator to run from the cops in that scene. One is that, as you pointed out, he was damaged and facing many cops. The other is that he may have calculated that the cops were about to capture Reese, leaving Sarah vulnerable and an easy target once he repairs himself. To a machine, these are just "weights" and the Terminator made the decision that would increase his chances of killing Sarah after calculating out all the weights of various scenarios.
One of my favorite movies of all time. T-1 and T-2 are the only Terminator movies for me. I was a little kid when this came out and in 1984 so many other groundbreaking movies were made at that time to include Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins.
This was one of the very few movies where the sequel was just as good. Less thriller, but one of the greatest action movies ever made. This as a thriller is truly incredible. Just an unstoppable machine
The Terminator was used for many years by UCLA film school as an example of a "perfect film", because stylistically and in terms of movie "mechanics", it is flawless, plot development, character arcs, three act structure, etc are all perfect. Pretty impressive for a novice director.
Seriously, is your name James Cameron? Perfect? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Do you need to be informed of the ridiculous plot holes and stupidity in this movie. Perfect Bullshit.
I believe this Terminator is a Cyberdyne Systems model 101 in the version T-800. While the number of models are in binary the type of version is in decimal. So the model number in decimal would be a 5. Other models are the hunter killer or the hydrobot for example. It's the first time I noticed, that the left hand of the endoskeleton was blown away after the detonation of Reeses final dynamit stick. Gladfully I recognized that detail in the clip I haven't seen before, although I watched it estimately 800 times and learnt to speak the dialogues by heart. It's amazing what a closer look on footage can show you even 30 years after the Terminator-franchise had become a personal epiphany.
Great video! I'm glad you pointed out that the line that the punk says to the Terminator is the same line he repeats to the custodian later. The reason the Terminator fled after the car crash was because he damaged his trigger finger on his right hand. I'm assuming that he couldn't see out of his left eye when it was damaged, which was why he removed it. Also, Sarah gave the Terminator the hotel number when she talked to it. This is such a great movie. It's really one of my favorites. It's like James Cameron got inside of my brain and made a movie just for me.
14:05 The initials JC in John Connor also happen to belong to James Cameron. Given it was originally himself being chased in his dream by a flesh covered robot that sparked the entire franchise, it seems pretty obvious it's a loose analogue for himself as well.
Rob Ager's a don! His Tech Noir scene analysis is mind blowing. Thank you for a great breakdown. Ive learned new things about this iconic movie. The first of the franchise and the best by light years
Watching fire burn is actually nice. But especially if you're cold and have to be by the fire and have nothing else to do, trust me, you'll be gladly watching the fire burn.
yeah, its what we did/will do, go camping and see what you look at, well, you have to turn off yer phone of course, fire is a great TV :) (yes I am an old f**k)
Tech-Noir is definitely not "Detective Noir" shortened. No "h" in detective for one thing, the tech part is clearly short for "technology" and noir refferring to film noir. The genre of this film is tech noir.
A small detail I've never heard anybody else point out : Arnold of course trained with guns to play the part, but he had a terrible "flinch" whenever he fired one. As a bit of a gun enthusiast myself, I noticed that when he murdered the first Sarah Conner he couldn't stop himself from blinking every time he fired a shot - something that many new shooters have to train themselves NOT to do.
@@yoursafeplace8476 Rewatch the segment of this video where the Terminator kills the first Sarah Conner (the housewife in the suburbs), but look carefully at Arnold's eyes when he fires that .45 Colt. You can clearly see that he blinks every time the gun fires. This is called a flinch, and is a sign of an inexperienced or untrained shooter.
@@marcusmoonstein242 Yea that scene gets pointed out a lot but far as I remember he managed to not blink for the other shooting scenes. Granted some of those he's wearing the iconic shades so it's a thing.
@@marcusmoonstein242you mean the AMT Hardballer? Yes, it fires .45 ACP and is q replica of a 1911 but was not manufactured by colt. It was made by Arcadia Machine & Tool
This T-800 was definitely a prototype, or at best a very early model. Skynet was still trying to get the Terminator right, but had run out of time because the humans were winning the war. The stuff about Arnold slightly flinching whenever he gets off a round from his laser sighted pistol is relevant, also I would add in his limited English, reduced language options and broken accent. Whereas in T2 he is a far more systematic, knowledgable and refined killing machine, though now rendered “obsolete” by the T-1000.
Somebody may have already mentioned this. "Last-call return" (*69) was not widely available in the US in 1984. Sarah Connor actually gives the Terminator the name of the motel, the phone number, and the room number before hanging up.
Definitely my favorite action movie. This was an amazing breakdown and even though I've seen the movie many times, you've point out details that I either missed... Or only subconsciously acknowledged.
The two Terminators played by Arnold in the original two films were both designated as a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". The CSM-101 was a model in the T-800 series. The Terminator unit portrayed by Franco Columbo was obviously a T-800 model as well, given how it matched the description of the 800 series given by Reese, though no other designation for it was specified. The accepted fan theory is that "Model 101" refers specifically to the "Arnold" appearance mold while the Columbo one would have been a different model number in the T-800 series.
This movie had a profound effect on me as a younger, I used to pretend I was a Terminator in the school playground lol. Great movie on too many levels to list, way ahead of its time
I see Paul release a new video and I have to click it. I love these breakdowns of classic movies. The Terminator is one if my all-time favorites and I’m still learning more about it the more I watch. Thanks for bringing all this great content, Paul, it’s greatly appreciated. Take care of yourself and we’ll see you on the next one.
Something I've not seen mentioned elsewhere is the double meaning of the title. The Terminator refers to the machine, but also symbolically to mankind's destiny, as the "terminator" also refers to the hoirzon at which point the light meets the dark. The film ends with Sarah driving off toward the horizon, toward the terminator, as it were, also in a nod to old Westerns where the hero rides off into the sunset. Cameron appears to ask with this film about mankind's destiny with his technology. A question as relevant in 1984 with nucelar weapons as it is today with AI. Will mankind destroy himself or control his impulses to go too far? Given that it's Kyle's love for Sarah that drives his mission, which results in John's conception, and eventually the machine's defeat, Cameron seems to suggest human capacity for love and compassion for one another is what will save the day. The Terminator is truly a great film--arguably a perfect--with so many layers, and Cameron is an absolute genius. I count myself fortunate that I got to see this film as a kid on VHS when it was only a few years old. And like T2, it hasn't aged at all. Great breakdown as well.
To be fair on the model. “Reese says the 600 series had rubber skin, we spotted them easily but these are different.” Then it part 2 Arney says “cyberdyne systems model 101.” So he was from the 800 series and model 101 as in all 101 models have the arney look.
About the Terminator leaving the scene of the car crash. I always viewed it that the Terminator just got damage to it's arm and eye, severely reducing efficiency. So it made a tactical decision to retreat and regroup since it felt like it could lose its target in the chaos of the incoming police. It also knew that the police will take Sarah to a known secure location and also separate her from her protector. So it retreated to repair itself, and load up a full stock of arms.
I feel like the Terminator's actions in the parking garage vs the police station are explainable. After the parking garage fight, he's obviously taken some damage and is probably running low on ammo. At that point in the flick, he's still trying to accomplish his mission without revealing what he really is, so damaged and low on resources, it's better to make a tactical retreat and do some repairs, since he knows they'll likely take Sarah to the police station. Taking on all those police + Kyle and Sarah with too many routes for escape is too risky. At the station, full up on ammo and with a fully operational arm and eye + cornered Sarah + jailed Reese + the element of surprise, he just goes to town.
Completely certified true. Because Cameron kept control, had more experience and had a lot more resources to work with. Piranha made T2 great, indirectly.
One thing I never see mentioned yet I always assumed everyone knew. Was that Kyle fell in love with Sarah from looking at that picture but said she always looks sad an he never knew why. In the ending it’s obviously revealed she’s sad because of his death (and also the heavy burden she now has) so in a way he is intrinsically connected to this photo in the future when he owns it but also in the past when he basically inspires it’s emotions that are captured.
Brilliant analysis and brilliantly written. I love thinking about that. Reese inthe Future War, his only look into a dream world is the photo of Sarah, lost in a moment. His imagination creates the love he develops for her, but does he "know" that he ultimitly creates Sarahs emotion in the photo via his death in the past? I love that the film raises questions like that.👍
I can recite this movie 99% every single line! I was born in 1986 and loved this movie as a kid. I always felt it was more of a horror movie at first. The Technoir scene still gives me chills!
It could be argued that the terminator wasn't the first type of unstoppable pursuing villain and that could actually be the Gunslinger from West World in 1973.
The reason the t101 ran away from the "high alert" cops after the chance is he is a stalker, he knew precisely where he could find Sarah, while also to keep his identity a secret after minor damage. The clueless public would underestimate him, and will preserve the success of the Mission. Success in strategy has many parts, so he retreated to have better functional body, element of "surprise", and better gear under his mattress.
This film is amazing without a doubt However, the reason Arnold has always been most known as The Terminator is not only due to the movie’s quality, but the fact that it was his first breakout role. This is what ‘made’ him as an actor, and then obviously he played the character again in the sequel.
Fun thing I always notice in the TechNoir scene is in the slow motion part when Arnie finally sees Sarah at the table he makes his way through the people dancing. One is a girl in an orange dress with a blonde bob hairstyle. When the camera cuts to Sarah at the table looking up at Arnie, there’s two people at another table in background and the girl sitting on the left as we look at it is the orange dress blonde hair girl!😄 Once noticed it can never be unseen. Sorry!
The cool thing about Arnie asking about the plasma rifle is that he knew it was already invented that year - but wasnt aware it was likely a government secret
This is the first time I've heard someone other than myself mention the teeth. I always assumed they were just prosthetic but the thought of Skynet having machines out there harvesting human remains for them is creepy as hell.
They could have been prosthetic. Or harvested. Or even grown. Reese says Skynet was able to grow blood, tissue, hair, skin, etc. for cyborgs so it's likely they could also grow teeth. You wonder why they would need to grow hair when they could easily use synthetic hair or take hair from dead humans. Who would know the difference in a normal encounter? They think like machines so maybe they want their cyborgs to look as realistic as possible because they think it'll improve their chances of success.
@@1pcfred I mentioned the future war like what was in T1 & T2. Further along into the conflict, not early on like Salvation. Although it did have some good moments
@@David-1216 I know what you mean. Salvation doesn't seem like those scenes expanded on. But that's what it is. It just doesn't look like it. They took a different visual perspective on things. Then they added plot too. A story if you will. Characters. All of that definitely got in the way of what could have been.
Check out our video on TERMINATOR 2 here - th-cam.com/video/iBmbnu5TL7M/w-d-xo.html Unfortunately StudioCanal have blocked the video everywhere outside of the US so please use a VPN if you can't see it.
I cant see T2 video on Finland, why is that :) can you change it so that I can see :)
seems as if the video got removed by TH-cam, which is a shame as I would've been eager to watch it right after I had finished this one
Yo, what's this about you not making it available in my country?
T2 vid taken down. 😢
really cool video man
For anyone confused with the Terminator's designation, the endoskeleton is a T-800 and the outer skin design is Model-101, so you can have a T-800 with a different model number.
Just about to say the same myself.
@@adamcadwell4560 me too.
Yeah, the model 101 is the Arnold's look of a T-800.
@@livingbeing1113 MSgt. Candy*
This is correct. Only model 101 of the 800 series looks like Arnold.
The "phased plasma ryefl in da fohty-watt rainch" bit is actually brilliant.
Reese said that the records were lost after the war. The Terminator had no idea what was available for weaponry back in 1984. It asks for a plasma rifle to test whether or not the technology was even available. It also is unsure as to what humans would have, which is why it flees from the cops after it crashes the car chasing Sarah and Reese. It isn't quite sure if it's chances in the event the police have weaponry capable of defeating it especially with it being damaged in the crash. When it ascertains that humans just have ballistic weapons it opts to go full on assault at the police station as it's timetable is shrinking. The flesh over the endoskeleton is deteriorating and it's cover will be gone soon.
Yeah but when exactly does The Terminator ascertain that humans only have ballistic? There's nothing in the film that really indicates that.
@@MrZackavelli When it asks the gun store owner. His reaction is one of puzzlement rather than "we don't have any in stock right now but I can get some later."
Even so, the Terminator is smart about it's chances so it chooses to run away rather than risk an attack on the police until it has time to fix itself after the crash from the chase.
With its skin covering starting to rot and knowing Sarah will be put into hiding, it attacks the police station since it is running out of time. The police don't have any weapons capable of doing substantial damage so it no longer cares about being subtle.
Records of Sarah Conner were lost. Not all records. I think it would still have access to military and government records. It’s possible the plasma rifle existed at that time just not to the public. Maybe a prototype or limited production due to cost.
@andystegall7407 I agree with you on the second part, that he's mechanically damaged so he has to go fix himself, but I just find 2 things wrong; if his skin has been compromised and now he has a narrower time window, why would he run from the police? Why would he want to take more time going away and coming back to kill Sarah later instead of just killing her then? And if the Terminator found out that the humans don't have plasma rifles, then he had this information right after he leaves the gun store. He didn't really have Eureka moment in the time between the car crash and the police station assault.
If he had, say, found a gun on one of the dead punks when he first got his clothes, then went after Sarah with it at Tech Noir and used all the ammunition, therefore having to stop by a gun store in the time between the car crash and police station assault, and *then* learning that humans don't have plasma rifles, then it would make more sense.
Again, I think the explanation that the Terminator was malfunctioning mechanically and just had to run away to go fix himself before getting back to his mission is all the explanation that the film needs.
@@MrZackavelli The novelization goes into depth saying that the Terminator isn't sure it can win the fight against the cops in that instance. Yes, it's damaged. But yhe impact of the crash actually knocks it out and forces the operating system to reset as well. It runs rather than not be at full fighting strength since it isn't certain of its chances.
You mention the people watching the fire in the TV and finding it funny. It’s actually very close to reality. In the army we’d use small camp stoves and hexi blocks were what we’d use as fuel. Whether it was exhaustion or just a moment to relax, we’d often find ourselves staring transfixed at the small flame. We called it hexi TV.
And who remembers the Christmas season tv channel with the loop of a yule log burning for folks to watch if they didn’t have a real fireplace? So funny to see a real fire in the tv!
Thank you for your service.
When I watched the movie as a kid, I used to think that scene was funny too, when I was older, I realized since these kids were born after Judgement Day, they wouldn't even know what television is. To them it was just a coinvent object for holding a fire.
People stare at fires in chimneys all the time, but that isn't funny I guess. When we had been kicked out of our houses during organized crime raids in Mexico and had to live outside in the cold, that was the only way to forget or at least try in order for us to not break down.
@@albertoandrade978 Oh my gosh! Does that really happen in Mexico? Could you eventually return to your home?
You forgot to mention one my favorites things abouth this movie. The fact that Kylee always wanted to know what was Sarah thinking in that photo, cause she looked sad, and you descover that she was actually thinking about him! That blows my mind! It's so romantic and incredible. This is by far my favorite movie of all times.
That's my favorite part, too! I watch it every valentines, best romance ever
The only thing about all that is, that Reese wasn’t John’s father prior. He spoke with John and gave him the pic, sent him back to protect her.
In doing so Reese becomes the Father and dies.
@@sprinkleddonuts6094 Bro... You got the movie all wrong... All is linked, even the skynet only exists because the arm of the terminator. Read the original script and you'll see it bro.
Chicken, egg.
Easily explained: you are a different person from, and do not share a brain with, the people behind this channel. They didn’t “forget” what you wanted to add.
What I always loved about this movie was the correspondence through time between Reese and Connor. Reese fell in love with the picture of Sarah, and was always wondering what she thought about. At the end of the movie Sarah, Connor was thinking about Reese when the child took her picture. Always moved me.
I’m so happy my neighbor showed me Terminator 1 & 2 when I was 10 years old. Such classic movies
You have a good eye for art. Thats very clever that you noticed that wait a minute you just read Tom Harringtons post and just wrote down exactly what he said
@@seansullivan7928 what are you talking about?
It’s the best written live story with one tastefuly done live scene that could be taken out but is dynamic in the story so… but the greatest at so many genres at once.
@Eclipse538 no thepost was made 4 months before he made the comment pretty much word for word writtenon the video this video recommends to watch
Glad to see Franco Columbo mentioned. It's one of my favorite pieces of trivia. Him and Arnold have quite a history together in bodybuilding and business. Arnold talks about him a lot in his autobiography. Sadly Franco passed away a few years ago.
Franco Columbo was the terminator in Sarah's dream when she and Kyle find a place to sleep.
uh...it's clearly Columboo hahaha
@@hectorlopez1069 uh, yeah, that's mentioned in the video, and exactly what the comment you replied to wad about... Did you bother to watch the video at all??
He became a chiropractor. I worked with a chiropractor that knew him. He said Franco was a great guy.
He was also the bare chested scout in the beginning of Conan.
I’ve commented on other videos on the Terminator, and I had Really hoped you would have mentioned it, but alas no such luck. One of the best elements of the writing of this movie is that Kyle tells Sarah that she looked a little sad in the picture and that he often wondered what she was thinking about. When the picture is taken it is immediately after she says “I will tell you about him [Kyle], I owe him that much. For what it’s worth, in the short time we had together, we loved a lifetimes worth”. At that point the connection between them comes full circle and their love across time is fulfilled. One of the best love stories ever told.
I never realized that. T1 is my favorite Terminator film, seen it many times and never thought of that. Good insight.
Yeah she's thinking about him when the picture is taken and the reason why she looks sad is because she misses him. Its such a good little detail to add to it.
And like they say ...a picture says 1000 words... Would be even better if it was 101 words 😂
If you read the other comments, a few people mentioned it already. We know
"one of the best love stories ever told"
If u say so
I saw The Terminator in the cinema the year it was released. Went in not really expecting much, walked out completely blown away. Amazing film, infinitely quotable too.
Absolutely. I've always loved the "Get out." line delivered to the other truck driver after the T-800 gets hit. lol
Me too. It was a Tuesday night and I think Arnold was why. Just a bit of curiosity based on Conan. My friend and I looked at each other wondering what we just saw. Mind, Repo Man came out that same year.
@@SlapthePissouttayew the 'get out' line is also used by the T1000 when he takes the helicopter (or semi trailer? I forget) in the second movie.
I just like to point out that James Cameron is a decent artist. Not only does he draw that picture of the Terminator, based off of his dream, but he also does all of the artwork in Titanic that is supposed to have been drawn by Jack (i.e. in the character's sketch book). When Rose is being drawn in the famous scene it is actually James Cameron doing it and because he is left-handed he is also doing it with his non-dominant hand because Jack is right-handed.
Based on, not based off. I don't know why so many people have started using "based off of," but it's awful and no one should do it
@@christheghostwriter Why are you deepthroating Merriam-Webster?
@@christheghostwriterBecause language evolves, and depending on the intended mood of the sentence, one may have the preferred rhythm and rhyme. Only prescriptivists argue that phrases and words should not be used in accordance with contemporary and colloquial usage and definitions, but rather in accordance with rules that were mostly created in the 19th century. For example, there is nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition, and that rule was made up in the 1800s to help people avoid ending a sentence with an open preposition (nothing being referenced,) which is wrong. No one says, "from where did you come?"
@@litigioussociety4249 I am a prescriptivist, to some degree. That said, you're comparing two different things (sentence structure and word choice). In my view, "based off of" is analogous to "could of" or "would of." It's patently incorrect. Things are based ON other things. It's literally in the word "base." You wouldn't put a statue off of a base. You would put it ON a base.
When movies introduce their narrative with "based off of a true story," I'll acquiesce to your arguments about the evolution of language. Until then, I'll stick with the prescriptivist position that incorrect words are incorrect words.
@@christheghostwriterI don't understand why PC Nimrods (such as yourself) always feel the need to "educate" others in a TH-cam comment section. You should get a job and be a productive member of society instead of caring about people's grammar.
This movie is a masterpiece! Cameron did so much with so little (lack of today’s CGI, small budget, time constraints). But the story is tight as a drum, the pacing is superb. the acting, atmosphere, and original score by Brad Fiedel truly made this move unforgettable.
Yeah, and then he killed off young John in Dark Fate (it was his idea).
Yeah, they got hella lucky to get such a great score from a (truly no offense meant) composer who was fairly prolific but didn't really have any other scores that were remarkable.
Agreed. Like, I know the score used popular elements (synth sounds) of 1980s action movies, but it doesn’t feel “dated”
hey you can't do that.
Without a doubt one of James Cameron’s greatest films in his career
Yes, and besides piranha 2, the cheapest film to produce.
Aliens is James Cameron’s greatest
@@sqgysqgy7551 yes it is bro
Sophia Stewart
Best film ever
I love how this movie subtely shows technology is already betraying humanity, the Terminator is using the police radio, Sarah's friend didn't hear the Terminator killing her boyfriend because she had headphones on and the Terminator found out Sarah was at the night club because of an answering machine
They were all Skynet's pawns. Even in the 1980s.
Where do you buy your weed from?
The only thing I felt you missed was during the Tech-Noir scene, you can see a few frames just as Reece jumps out and initially shoots the Terminator that he hits his arm, deflecting it just as the pistol discharges forcing him to miss Sarah. This is later seen directly with the Terminator having to fix the damage to his arm.
Ah nice catch
Sarah has a dog at the end of the film as a precautionary means to detect any terminators. Think about it: she's been attacked by one once, who's to say it won't happen again while she's pregnant? She obviously remembered Reese mentioning that dogs were used to spot them.
And passes the information back to John.
Then is this the dog at John’s foster parents house in T2? Max?
@@anthonytriola437
Possibly, yeah. Interesting.
Good eye!
That never occurred to me.
@@stickiedmin6508 no it isn't. big dogs barely ever live that long
@@bern9642
Ten to twelve years isn't that long dude.
I was at a gun show in the USA (of course) and I made it my mission to ask vendors for a "phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range" to see how many people would catch on and no one did. LOL The reactions were priceless. "I don't know what that is."
You're serious? Wow! I mean I'd at least expect the official response - "look, just what you see here pal" 😂
"You can't do that"
@@cs8712 WRONG
The terminator may have asked that to ascertain if they yet existed
Its just what you see, pal
I LOVE the break downs of these older movies! I hope you keep them going.
Older? It's from 1984, that's not old. Oh, wait a minute.
@@paulgordon6949
I had the same thought.
"Older movies? Pff - it's not _that_ old. I remember when . . . when . . . when it first came out. Oh no . . . "
We're the old men Ace.
One thing worth mentioning was the scene where Kyle is talking about the picture John gave him, of Sarah. He comments that Sarah looked kind of sad in the picture, and that he always wondered what she was thinking at that moment. Then, of course, at the very end we learn that she was sad because she was thinking of Kyle Reese, how she loved him, that he died. It was a really cool little add on by Cameron.
I also like that one of the main reasons he sends Kyle back is because Kyle actually knows what Sarah looks like.
@@matrixinterface LOL...no. Kyle sends him back because his mom told him he sent Kyle Reese back. In the actual T2 script (not the shooting script), Cameron had a whole scene at the beginning of T2 where they locate the time travel equipment (that John Connor knew existed...for obvious reasons) and send Kyle Reese back. After he's sent back, one of Connor's men turns to him and asks, "so what happened to him?" Connor says, "he accomplishes his mission...and dies." The guy says, "He was a very brave man." Connor looks at him and says, "yes...and my father." Then the astonished guy gives an order for the soldiers with him to prepare to destroy the time travel equipment, but Connor cuts him off and says, "not yet...there's one more that we need to send through..." The T800, obviously. Cameron cut the scene for cost and pacing....it was never actually filmed. What makes the opening scene with Connor so cool, is that when you see Connor walking with the battle still going on, you realize (or should) that he knows everything. He knows Skynet will be defeated. He knows they are going to go the central location and find the time travel equipment, and he knows exactly who he is going to send back.
It's jaw dropping that he gets to see a time after he died many times in the run up to time travelling. Like watching your own funeral.
Very important detail in this film (which Cameron repeats in the second film as well). When T-800 is about shoot Sarah in Technoir, Reese actually shoots quicker (by a tiny margin) moving Terminator's hand away from Sarah and at that very moment its gun goes off. A master class of a scene.
In regards to the Terminator making a batman exit after he's crashed the car, I often had similar thoughts of why he wouldn't just finish the job then and there but I'd always thought that perhaps it has done a damage assessment and calculated the situation as unfavorable. He is seen repairing himself from the damage caused by the car crash, the damage included an eye (affected targeting?) and the mechanical wrist tendons that would be needed to pull the trigger on a firearm. It's a little bit of a stretch of the imagination but it does make sense.
I think there's a couple different possible explanations. Mostly I think it just comes down to the Terminator isn't sure what kind of capabilities the police would have and there's just too many unknown variables for a computer to make an aggressive decision. Now that he knows what she looks like he can find her again. When he approaches the police station later he is a lot more informed as to what kind of weapons they have, he knows how large the building is and how many people are probably in it, and now he has the element of surprise on his side. He also knows that it is going to be difficult for her to run away in that situation. If he had attacked her earlier she might have escaped while the police held him off.
We really don't know how much he would know about police procedures and how that would affect his decision. If he knew as much about police as you and I do, he would also know that they were most likely going to arrest the two characters and put them in police station where he could find them easily. But I'm not sure if he would understand things that well or not. Like I said, there's a lot of potential reasons. At the end of the day it might not be the strongest part of the script, but I'm okay with that because it's a pretty amazing script and even it's weakest spot is superior to most anything else.
Also, and it's a minor point, they are all in cars. They could for example ram him at high speed ( I know I'm reaching a bit) 😂
@@davesmith3023 "Installing updates. Do not turn off your terminator."
The Terminator went to lengths to disguise himself until the writing was on the wall.
Mainly because there were many witnesses who saw him take 6 volleys at point blank range of the shotgun and had the police managed to shoot him up further his skin would be completely compromised and had he escaped there would have been an indestructible man on the loose and a girl whom the police were looking for an an emaciated man with strange scars, who would be on no database anywhere and a laser barcode on his forearm.
There would be an inevitable manhunt for the Terminator with rotting skin with nowhere to hide.
It would have made Reese's story ever so slightly plausible to the cops.
So the Terminator got out patched himself up knowing he could easily track her to the police station which he did.
Had it been any other way the authorities would have called in the army to destroy the terminator and Reese would accurately describe The Terminator, The wars to come.
Enough smart people would figure out with his working knowledge of Norad, proposed weapon systems that would have been only theory, major players of the resistance who would be alive in the military in 1984 there was no other way.
They'd have to believe Reese.
Stop the building of Cyberdyne systems or anything similar.
There would be no other way.
Hence the Terminator would have completely failed.
@@gordonferrar7782 This is how I always viewed it as well. The crash caused it visual damage (one eye was damaged/inoperative, which would throw off it's tracking, and aim), and it's hand/arm was damaged, so, while it may not have been reduced to 50% capacity, it was diminished enough it may have calculated it's odds of potential failure were too high. While it may not have determined the police present would be able to destroy it, they could have damaged it significantly to where it would be unable to blend in and pursue Sarah should she escape. It may also have factored in the police would be able to slow it enough that she could either flee, or be escorted away by police. Kyle had slowed it down alone, so numerous cops with superior firepower as well as multiple vehicles for attack or escape. But, moreover, as you alluded, the Terminator also has a secondary objective...discretion. It's primary goal is to destroy/prevent John Connor (via killing Sarah), but not be caught. While, ironically, it's destruction planted the seeds of it's own creation, Skynet did not factor this in. If it was discovered, as you said, it could lead to the prevention of it's own creation/Skynet's creation. Therefore, it would have been potentially disastrous to be destroyed or captured by police there. Where it had repaired itself (eye and arm), it realized it'd sustained such damage that it's ability to pose as human was deteriorating rapidly, so it kind of forced it to be more aggressive at the police station, as it was growing desperate. But it still studied the structure and made calculated decisions, such as crashing through the front desk with a car, rather than, as soon as he know's Sarah's there, just going right in after her. So, it's decision to flee after the car crash is consistent and not a plot hole.
You missed one small but interesting moment. In the bar shootout when the terminator attacks Reese, the terminator uses his system to predict the target's actions, which we saw later in the police station in the terminator's first person perspective when he shot a cop through the wall. However, Reese knows how the T-800 works and doesn't try to hit it at this point.
Awesome detail, never noticed this before!
Scary to think we're only 6 years away from 2029, the year the film begins.
And 2030 is when they plan to do another plandemic... so things my be very close to that reality by then.
And all they talk about today is A.I.
Well done, but you failed to mention that Kyle Reece was able to easily elude the police, while clothes shoppimg, which shows how skillful the human resistance fighters were. I absolutely love this detail, as it legitimizes why they chose Kyle to go back.
Complete commando. Skillful in improvisation and guerrilla tactics. Just watched again last night and it showcases how Kyle as a seasoned AI war veteran can out maneuver some average cops.
Kyle was chosen because he was John’s father. If he did not send Kyle John could never be.
Agreed
@@da_hitmanhart6650but the loop started somewhere.
@@gobucs3146 yes and it *HAD* to start with Kyle.
As a matter of fact go back to the first film and listen to Sarah as she’s recorded the tapes for John and she says “you HAVE” to send Kyle or you can never be.
Maybe the Terminator calculated a percentage of mission success was low due to being damage and having low ammo. So by regrouping back to the hotel to repair and restock up on weapons, he would have a higher missions success. The terminator knew the police would have them at police stations, which he can find out easy and take them on in a fight. That's what I think the reason why Terminator left after the car crash scene.
The problem was that the police were arriving in force, alert and ready and they'd likely be in a position to call for backup and for some of them to get away if the fight went against them which it likely would. This would pose an unacceptable risk of being exposed for what it was, which could potentially change history in wildly unpredictable ways. Skynet couldn't take that risk, and would have programmed the machine to avoid situations that would blow its cover.
@@darthmeow1370 Imho He ran away from the crash because he was not yet aware how dangerous and armed the cops would be. He is not invincible so he did not want to risk them having a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range or some other dangerous to him weapon.
That was my take since I was a kid. Him asking for the phased plasma rifle shows he is not actually super sure what tech and other specifics that time period had due to their terrible records
My thoughts exactly. The T-800 had achieved damage to one of its main appendages as well as 50% of its visual input (i.e. one of its eyes) As far as I know, it doesn't have any radar/lidar/sonar capabilities, so my guess would be it decided that the best course of action was to disperse, assess damage, repair, and then continue the mission according to the parameters given to it.
I think avoiding the authorities is one of the terminators' mission parameters as its mentioned in T2.
Given a bullet travels faster than a car and the damage had broken its arm the calculation was that with that many cops and that much firepower they could damage the unit more in it’s already damaged state. Also if it noted that Kyle didn’t drive off right away meant that the police would take them into custody and they would be trapped in a known location the best chance of success would be to go back to its base of operations, repair any damage and re-arm it’s self for the assault on the police station. Logical when you think of it.
Nothing better than the movies made during this time. Growing up as a child in the 90's these are always favorites and take me back to the good times: Terminator, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Home Alone, Karate Kid, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Ghost Busters, Jakie Chan, Blood Sport, Rambo, Total Recall, Predator, Judge Dredd, ET, Short Circuit, Rocky, and Coming to America.
It was a rare time in filmmaking that we'll likely not see again, a great list of movies!
23:10 I've always believed that the terminator "ran away at that point" because he was already seriously damaged (with one eye all wonky, and one of his arms not fully functional), as we learn from the next scene (while Sara's in the police station) he had to make some pretty significant repairs to himself just to be fully functional again. Going against an entire precinct of police officers that were involved in the chase, most of which were armed with shotguns, flash-bang grenades (which could affect and impair his already damaged optics), and other high caliber equipment , could potentially damage him even further. Not to mention that he would've had to stay contending with THEM, while Sarah and Kyle could potentially escape again amongst the firefight, leaving him even MORE damaged, and further away from the target. Letting the police take them in, at least assured him of WHERE they'd be later, after making the much needed repairs (to be fully functional again).... Not trying to nitpick, but I'VE always wondered "why he ran" too,, and after asking enough people, that's the explanation that I've received that actually makes the most sense. GREAT VIDEO BTW!! It was MUCH ENJOYED!! (THANK YOU for the upload!!)👍
Indeed.
In addition, the T101 doesn't have its full arsenal of weaponry in the stolen car.
Further more, if spotted and revealed as a cyborg, it could put the authorities on Sarah's side- making it impossible to achieve its mission, and likely ending Skynet's development instantly.
Even if successful in taking out Sarah, only one or two officers getting away could mean an entire new threat to the very existence of The Machines, and mission failure.
The reason he annihilates the whole precinct is probably to ensure any information passed on by Kyle and Sarah never makes it out of the building.
Only 1 person does so, the Doctor, and it is pure fluke that he was facing away from the Terminator as they pass, as the T101 would likely have killed him immediately on reading his ID tag and realising he was not just a civilian who happened to be leaving the reception area.
@@LeviticusStroud That's a great point! 👍
That's my theory, too. :)
@@LeviticusStroud I agree with this assessment. The Terminator was damaged and could be spotted as a cyborg making him the primary target the cops would go after and enabling Sarah to escape anyways. Then having a lot more people know of his existence it would make it less likely his mission would be completed. So he chose to remain in stealth.
Yeah, there's no real question about this, and I don't know hoe the narrator here missed this. Leaving the eye aside, the right hand is definitely not working until Arnold cuts it open and clears away the material interfering with the actuators.
Former gun store manager here. The thought that a customer may decide to load a gun on the counter and shoot me didn’t ever come to mind. If someone wished to rob us they almost certainly would’ve already had a loaded gun on them anyway. Also, I’ve yet to meet a firearm’s salesman/saleswoman that didn’t carry their own loaded pistol on the job and wasn’t an enthusiast with more hours on the range than most cops have. Gun store robberies are extremely rare due to the insanely high risk of being shot and guarantee of being on camera. Banks are far more lucrative targets because the tellers don’t have a Glock 17 on their hips and a Springfield XDS in their pockets.
True. I can't think of one gun store I've been to where every employee wasn't armed. Not counting the ones that you don't see that's in an office somewhere. It's probably a wet dream of every employee for someone to come in starting shit. A robber would be absolutely roasted. Only a psychotic, delusional, suicidal maniac would attempt to rob a gun store.
Yeah. Exactly, right. Today or 1984.
I just chalked this up to him being in the UK and his high ignorance on such things.
You got that butter knoife loicence mate?
Excellent comment.
@machfront he's a basically indestructible cyborg tf is anything in 1984 going to do
I vividly remember watching this as a small child and I was so creeped out when the Terminator lost the human skin and is coming marching at the door right before Sarah and Reese got it closed. Even though it doesn't look realistic, the walk, the red eyes and overall look of that machine got to me. Haha. I recently found your channel and now have a ton of stuff to watch, so thanks! It's so nice finding a new channel with a large library. Anyway keep up the great content!
So, the Harlon Ellison lawsuit thing: the creator/ founder of the old sci-fi 80's magazine Starlog Norm Jacobs had conducted an interview right around the release of Terminator where he has the audio and Cameron is on record very affably and charmingly talking about the inspiration behind The Terminator. Remember the often retold story that Cameron shares about how he conceived of The Terminator from a fever dream, woke up and immediately scretched down the image he had of the cybernetic killing machine? Well, in the original interview, Cameron out-right says matter of factly he wanted to write a movie he could direct after the Piranha 2 debacle so drank a bunch of beer, stayed up all night jotting ideas and 'watched a bunch of old Outer Limits episodes where in a marathon session cranked out a huge bulk of what would be the finished script.' He then sketched out a few ideas what the Terminator would look like afterwards to get a visual concept and reference point for inspiration. Shortly after this interview, Orion pictures and eventually Cameron himself both pleaded with Jacobs to take out the portion of the interview where Cameron mentioned Outer Limits. That magazine issue with that interview was set to go to print already locked in. Orion agreed to cover the added expense to halt production of the publication in order to remove the Outer Limit reference, reformat the layout and resubmit to the printing press. This sudden emergency panic course of action came about from Harlon Ellison's lawyers contacting Orion to inform them they were threatening lawsuit for plagiarizing. This portion of the story has successfully been buried subsequently since, but Jacobs has been on record about this so there is documentation this did occur from the people involved. Also of interest to note is that nowhere in the article is there any mention of a fever dream. Only that he rendered drawn concept art of The Terminator after he watched Outer Limits episodes to get inspired for something he could wtite and then ultimately direct.
However, immediately after the lawsuit had been settled and Cameron saw Ellison would get co-credit along side with him, suddenly Cameron did a flurry of interviews talking about the making of Terminator and starts bringing up it was the result of a fever dream after being fired from Piranha 2 like some mystical magical destined thing, which sounds like a self fulfilling myth perpetrated by a piss and vigor filled young buck artist wanting to preserve his good name and rep in the industry and public preception.
Now, those Outer Limits episodes by Ellison: Soilder and Demon With A Glass Hand are interesting to watch. I watched them both with an unsuspecting friend who just loved old Lmits and Twilight Zone episodes, but I wanted to see if eyes not looking for it along with mine who were and see if we would spot any Terminator similarities. Five minutes into one of those shows, my friend says outloud, 'Hey, this reminds me of The Terminator!' Which it did to me too. However, after that first initial set up, nothing else did. I mean, this thing had a telepathic cat communicating with the time traveling soldier for Christ's sake. Thank God Cameron didn't Bogart that.
I think if this happened now there wouldn't have even been the threat of a lawsuit in a post Tarentino world where recontextual artists are accepted as common place and rap sampling becoming a common part of the creative process as well.
"I think if this happened now there wouldn't have even been the threat of a lawsuit"? 🤔 Harlan Ellison would definitely still sue today and take it to court if necessary.😄 Ellison 's entire "brand" was being a bare-knuckle fighter if he thought he was in the right. That man was not to be messed with!🤕
I loved the mystery about the original Terminator. You don't know what the plotline is until half way into the film when Kyle Reese finally gets Sarah Connor in the parking garage told tell her what's going on. Also Arnie as a bad guy was really cool.
The Terminator is a classic example of how a film's directing style and screenwriting can overrule its special effects.
For sure. Many of JC’s work remain timeless largely because every scene intends on leaving a certain feeling and impression on the viewer. It may surprise viewers to realize how little “special effects” may matter when they are viewing characters they care about and moments that make an audience feel.
well eaven in 2023 terminator makes me on edge feeling the adrenaline rush and i dont think of the special effects as old or bad as its sometimes looks better to the point off real compared to new movies that is almost entirely just computer animated with real bad grafix.
An art form (storytelling) that seems mostly lost today. Or at the very least, overshadowed by visuals.
Absolutely love this film, definitely a career defining role for Arnold .
Awesome review, good work mate! One nitpick though..
Watching a burning fire on TV? No, they're watching a fire IN the TV. You expect the light on their face to be from a working tv with a show playing but the reveal of it being a simple vessel for a real fire lets you know exactly how dire a situation humanity is in.
I am 43 and this has been my favourite film since I was 10. I still have the videotape somewhere, with the film recorded off BBC 1, complete with the swearing, some violence edited out, from 1991.😂
I just Love seeing videos like this, years later offering newer perspectives and insights to the film, relating and foreshadowing scenes to the immortal T2.
Well Done, mate. I love this.
Remember the original gun sounds from the VHS? 😁 I'm yet to find the English audio track with the original sounds in. I know it's in some of the foreign releases of it but not in English. I've watched this film so many times in my life I see it in my sleep, it's crazy 😂😂
@@colintx800you mean with the pistol that sounds like a shotgun? VHS version has it
I've got an extra 10 years on you, I can remember it being on the kids TV program 'screen test' ( a sort of observation contest on films with kids as the panelists), it was the scene in Tech Noir that they showed
I remember that! It was shown on BBC either the day before or after when T2 was released 16th August 1991.
Along with John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Terminator is my favourite film of all time. An absolute masterpiece of a film. Great video!
The casting was golden too.
great analysis and breakdown. This movie came out when I was 12 years old, and immediately became a video rental staple along with the rest of the 80s sci fi canon: Aliens, Road Warrior, Escape from New York, Wrath of Khan, etc. When it came out it was seen as little different from the other cheesy sci fi movies of the period, but it quickly became obvious that Arnie was a superstar. Terminator still totally holds up today, it's a tightly written, smart, action-packed work of art. Even the jankiest special effect, the stop motion of the Terminator skeleton, still looks creepy and weird and robotic, and fits perfectly with the aesthetic. Its unfortunate that it had one great sequel and then a lot of crap that wasted the franchise potential
I was 13 when this came out and it blew my mind! This movie along with Aliens 1986 remain my all time favorites. Even with watching Terminator repeatedly for all those years, your excellent video really grabbed me with all of the Easter eggs and scene breakdowns. Super job and thank you!
The first time I watched this as a kid back in the 80s it felt like a horror film , the terminator was genuinely chilling, the relentless nature of his pursuit was perfect and as a grown man now I still worry this is what they will eventually do to us when we create real robots 😂.
Remember, anything you post, an A.I. can and will find it. Just saying......
that's because it WAS a horror film
"relentless nature of his pursuit" That is exactly what I find lacking in all the movies after T2. Partly because we know how the Terminators work but also because they never take time to build up the tension, fear, exhaustion and despair that someone would feel if they were hunted by a nigh unkillable cyborg.
As with all tides the poor feel the water first. Killer robots is not the future to them, they are being bombed by AI drones right now, and have been for a while.
@@rappscallion3238In the first two Terminators, when a Terminator is in a location/scene, ppl are going to die in that location very soon. After T2, the terminators became your regular dumb, slow, movie monsters who threw ppl around instead of killing them.
The most amazing thing about Sarah and Kyle's love story is he was not chosen to protect her, he volunteered all due to falling in love with a picture. Love like that is hard to find. Kind of reminds me of the scene in City Slickers when Curly is talking about seeing a woman across a field putting laundry on a clothes line and she's the love of his life without his ever going and talking to her.
It is kinda creepy. Stalkerish really
@OutrageIsNow if you're talking about Curly, it's not. He didn't talk to that woman and had no intention of it.
The phone book details about the 2 fingers and finding John Conner at the same time as Sarah was awesome! That just blew my mind!
Its is mind blowing and annoying at the same time since he should be focusing on Connor and not Conner
yes that is a great spot, I’ve seen the film 30+ times and never noticed it at all
It's crazy to think after decades. We're still learning things about this great film.
My watchlist of movies that ive missed out on has matched up SO WELL with these classic movie reviews and it makes me so happy. Blade Runner, Terminator, RoboCop, 2001, and on to more. THANK YOU FOR DOING THESE
And we could argue that T2 again reinvigorated certain parts of cinema and threw down the gauntlet again, possibly to even greater effect. Cameron’s influence is so underrated
I don't think Cameron is underrated at all lol. One of the most acclaimed in cinema, & other films rarely share the same level of anticipation as his.
What a great film. I've always been fond of pt. 2, but I've grown to appreciate where it all started.
Most people say T2 was best but for me The Terminator is the best of the series. The first time i watched it, it shocked me. I even expected the terminator to win at the end because he was unstoppable. Fantastic cinema. Thanks for this video, I learnt a few things.
This is one of the best paced films I have ever seen.
Funny thing is that by the terminator asking for a plasma rifle indicates that those weapons were actually invented by humans and the machines are unclear when in time that invention was made.
23:06 the terminator runs away because he doesn't have his weapons, he goes home, fixes himself and grab his weapons and then goes to the police station, it is a nice contrast between him infiltrating to locate Sarah and him launching a full attack after locating her.
Time-travel movies can never avoid paradoxes and The Terminator has one of my favourites; the second the T-800 arrives in the present day it knows it has failed its mission because if it succeeded it wouldn't have been sent back in time because there have been no need.
It also creates a bootstrap paradox because Skynet is created due to the arm/chip from the T-800, so the technology has no actual origin.
The conception of John Connor is a bootsrap paradox too.
There are no paradoxes if there is a 'side-ways' in time...
@@MorliHolect as mentioned in another video that the terminator movie we look at is the third loop of the time line starting with sarah as an ordinary waitress just mess with the first truck driver that comes by and that starts the loop of kyle and later john.
unsure. i mean the fact that the T800 failed because it made the timetravel. Skynet migjt have calculated that the elimination of Sarah and John Connor might result in an alternate timeline in which skynet wins. Pretty much the same as Biff goes back in time to hand the sports almanach to the younger Biff. with that he creates an alternate timeline and in the deleted scene he fades out from reality (well … the whole timeline will get deleted)…
Since timetravel is a bit of a lottery, skynet might hoped that their timeline might be a lost cause but they could create an alternate one where they win.
however the movie goes with the idea of you cant change the past you can only contribute to it for the future to happen as is.
my point is: skynet and t800 might believe that they are creating a new timeline therefore they are not aware of the failure they are representing.
Ummm the T800 was sent back to protect John. Also it had hidden priorities.
The missing child poster was the only thing I missed… seen the movie probably close to 100 times by now.
Wow. You are a trooper 👏
I LOVE your deeper dives into all time classic films. Thanks dude for these and all of your content. You have been top three favorite TH-cam content providers for years now. Please keep up the amazing work!!
Ey thank you so much Luis, that really means a lot to be so high on your list. Much appreciated
@@heavyspoilers Man thank you for taking the time to actually reply to me, a single grateful fan.
Uber cool move!
Thanks again.
It took me about 30 years to get the real genius of this movie. As a kid first seen it scared the hell out of me. Saw it about 10 times from 1990-2010, and finally i understood how unbelieveable realistic and in a strange way science based it was. An all time classic for sure
I always thought there were a number of factors that caused the Terminator to run from the cops in that scene. One is that, as you pointed out, he was damaged and facing many cops. The other is that he may have calculated that the cops were about to capture Reese, leaving Sarah vulnerable and an easy target once he repairs himself. To a machine, these are just "weights" and the Terminator made the decision that would increase his chances of killing Sarah after calculating out all the weights of various scenarios.
One of my favorite movies of all time. T-1 and T-2 are the only Terminator movies for me. I was a little kid when this came out and in 1984 so many other groundbreaking movies were made at that time to include Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins.
I don't think any other movies exist? Just T-1 and T-2
@@Skiller131 yep
@@Skiller131
They screwed the pooch in 3 (Especially with John's character) and the rest was just a cash-grab
This was one of the very few movies where the sequel was just as good. Less thriller, but one of the greatest action movies ever made. This as a thriller is truly incredible. Just an unstoppable machine
The Terminator was used for many years by UCLA film school as an example of a "perfect film", because stylistically and in terms of movie "mechanics", it is flawless, plot development, character arcs, three act structure, etc are all perfect. Pretty impressive for a novice director.
Seriously, is your name James Cameron? Perfect? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Do you need to be informed of the ridiculous plot holes and stupidity in this movie.
Perfect Bullshit.
@@davidtester3239You're the only one in need of being taught, genius. Try to keep up.
I believe this Terminator is a Cyberdyne Systems model 101 in the version T-800. While the number of models are in binary the type of version is in decimal. So the model number in decimal would be a 5. Other models are the hunter killer or the hydrobot for example.
It's the first time I noticed, that the left hand of the endoskeleton was blown away after the detonation of Reeses final dynamit stick.
Gladfully I recognized that detail in the clip I haven't seen before, although I watched it estimately 800 times and learnt to speak the dialogues by heart. It's amazing what a closer look on footage can show you even 30 years after the Terminator-franchise had become a personal epiphany.
Great video! I'm glad you pointed out that the line that the punk says to the Terminator is the same line he repeats to the custodian later. The reason the Terminator fled after the car crash was because he damaged his trigger finger on his right hand. I'm assuming that he couldn't see out of his left eye when it was damaged, which was why he removed it. Also, Sarah gave the Terminator the hotel number when she talked to it. This is such a great movie. It's really one of my favorites. It's like James Cameron got inside of my brain and made a movie just for me.
14:05 The initials JC in John Connor also happen to belong to James Cameron. Given it was originally himself being chased in his dream by a flesh covered robot that sparked the entire franchise, it seems pretty obvious it's a loose analogue for himself as well.
Rob Ager's a don! His Tech Noir scene analysis is mind blowing. Thank you for a great breakdown. Ive learned new things about this iconic movie. The first of the franchise and the best by light years
This is probably Cameron’s best movie. (This and ALIENS.)
Watching fire burn is actually nice. But especially if you're cold and have to be by the fire and have nothing else to do, trust me, you'll be gladly watching the fire burn.
yeah, its what we did/will do, go camping and see what you look at, well, you have to turn off yer phone of course, fire is a great TV :) (yes I am an old f**k)
Tech-Noir is definitely not "Detective Noir" shortened. No "h" in detective for one thing, the tech part is clearly short for "technology" and noir refferring to film noir. The genre of this film is tech noir.
yeh i had to replay that and was confused, you are right. incidentally its a title of a great song by gunship!
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A small detail I've never heard anybody else point out : Arnold of course trained with guns to play the part, but he had a terrible "flinch" whenever he fired one. As a bit of a gun enthusiast myself, I noticed that when he murdered the first Sarah Conner he couldn't stop himself from blinking every time he fired a shot - something that many new shooters have to train themselves NOT to do.
Huh? It's pointed out in this video. He points out Arnold went to the range a lot to get used to shooting so he could shoot without blinking.
@@yoursafeplace8476 Rewatch the segment of this video where the Terminator kills the first Sarah Conner (the housewife in the suburbs), but look carefully at Arnold's eyes when he fires that .45 Colt. You can clearly see that he blinks every time the gun fires. This is called a flinch, and is a sign of an inexperienced or untrained shooter.
Think of it as his human flesh reacting to it
@@marcusmoonstein242 Yea that scene gets pointed out a lot but far as I remember he managed to not blink for the other shooting scenes. Granted some of those he's wearing the iconic shades so it's a thing.
@@marcusmoonstein242you mean the AMT Hardballer? Yes, it fires .45 ACP and is q replica of a 1911 but was not manufactured by colt. It was made by Arcadia Machine & Tool
This T-800 was definitely a prototype, or at best a very early model. Skynet was still trying to get the Terminator right, but had run out of time because the humans were winning the war. The stuff about Arnold slightly flinching whenever he gets off a round from his laser sighted pistol is relevant, also I would add in his limited English, reduced language options and broken accent. Whereas in T2 he is a far more systematic, knowledgable and refined killing machine, though now rendered “obsolete” by the T-1000.
Wow, the attention to detail in this film is insane. Learned so much from this video, thank you!
Great work, Paul! Enjoyed this look back on a cinema classic
Somebody may have already mentioned this. "Last-call return" (*69) was not widely available in the US in 1984. Sarah Connor actually gives the Terminator the name of the motel, the phone number, and the room number before hanging up.
Definitely my favorite action movie. This was an amazing breakdown and even though I've seen the movie many times, you've point out details that I either missed... Or only subconsciously acknowledged.
An absolutely excellent assessment of THE best Terminator movie.
great job. loved your breakdown. T2 is my favorite movie in the whole wide world.
The two Terminators played by Arnold in the original two films were both designated as a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". The CSM-101 was a model in the T-800 series. The Terminator unit portrayed by Franco Columbo was obviously a T-800 model as well, given how it matched the description of the 800 series given by Reese, though no other designation for it was specified. The accepted fan theory is that "Model 101" refers specifically to the "Arnold" appearance mold while the Columbo one would have been a different model number in the T-800 series.
Is this a fan theory? I'm pretty sure I've seen Arnie or Cameron state it in an interview at some point.
That "REACH !!!" got me weak😅😅😅😅
This movie had a profound effect on me as a younger, I used to pretend I was a Terminator in the school playground lol. Great movie on too many levels to list, way ahead of its time
These classic movie in depth analysis are so good, absolutely love it! Great work
Thank you
I see Paul release a new video and I have to click it. I love these breakdowns of classic movies. The Terminator is one if my all-time favorites and I’m still learning more about it the more I watch. Thanks for bringing all this great content, Paul, it’s greatly appreciated. Take care of yourself and we’ll see you on the next one.
Ey thank you man, see you next time and hope you have a great weekend
@@heavyspoilers Thanks, Paul, and you as well.
I agree, stop motion can make fantastical creatures look exactly that... fantastical.
His screw your freedom really tarnished him and some of my favorite movies for me. Great job though, sir.
Something I've not seen mentioned elsewhere is the double meaning of the title. The Terminator refers to the machine, but also symbolically to mankind's destiny, as the "terminator" also refers to the hoirzon at which point the light meets the dark. The film ends with Sarah driving off toward the horizon, toward the terminator, as it were, also in a nod to old Westerns where the hero rides off into the sunset.
Cameron appears to ask with this film about mankind's destiny with his technology. A question as relevant in 1984 with nucelar weapons as it is today with AI. Will mankind destroy himself or control his impulses to go too far? Given that it's Kyle's love for Sarah that drives his mission, which results in John's conception, and eventually the machine's defeat, Cameron seems to suggest human capacity for love and compassion for one another is what will save the day.
The Terminator is truly a great film--arguably a perfect--with so many layers, and Cameron is an absolute genius. I count myself fortunate that I got to see this film as a kid on VHS when it was only a few years old. And like T2, it hasn't aged at all.
Great breakdown as well.
Dude Awesome Video bro. Love it as a Long time fan since T1. I would like to see more of The Terminator Series done right.
To be fair on the model. “Reese says the 600 series had rubber skin, we spotted them easily but these are different.” Then it part 2 Arney says “cyberdyne systems model 101.” So he was from the 800 series and model 101 as in all 101 models have the arney look.
About the Terminator leaving the scene of the car crash. I always viewed it that the Terminator just got damage to it's arm and eye, severely reducing efficiency. So it made a tactical decision to retreat and regroup since it felt like it could lose its target in the chaos of the incoming police. It also knew that the police will take Sarah to a known secure location and also separate her from her protector. So it retreated to repair itself, and load up a full stock of arms.
That's what I always thought
That's a plausible explanation
but the truth is
he went back to his motel
to have a wank.
You can't begrudge him that.
I feel like the Terminator's actions in the parking garage vs the police station are explainable. After the parking garage fight, he's obviously taken some damage and is probably running low on ammo. At that point in the flick, he's still trying to accomplish his mission without revealing what he really is, so damaged and low on resources, it's better to make a tactical retreat and do some repairs, since he knows they'll likely take Sarah to the police station. Taking on all those police + Kyle and Sarah with too many routes for escape is too risky.
At the station, full up on ammo and with a fully operational arm and eye + cornered Sarah + jailed Reese + the element of surprise, he just goes to town.
Terminator 2 is the best film ever created. No one can change my mind.
Affirmative🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Completely certified true.
Because Cameron kept control, had more experience and had a lot more resources to work with.
Piranha made T2 great, indirectly.
Then you are a millennial fool. Us Gen-x'ers know that the first film is superlative. T2 is merely a kids film by comparison.
One thing I never see mentioned yet I always assumed everyone knew. Was that Kyle fell in love with Sarah from looking at that picture but said she always looks sad an he never knew why. In the ending it’s obviously revealed she’s sad because of his death (and also the heavy burden she now has) so in a way he is intrinsically connected to this photo in the future when he owns it but also in the past when he basically inspires it’s emotions that are captured.
Just looked through the comments to see lots of people came to the same conclusions 😂
Brilliant analysis and brilliantly written. I love thinking about that. Reese inthe Future War, his only look into a dream world is the photo of Sarah, lost in a moment. His imagination creates the love he develops for her, but does he "know" that he ultimitly creates Sarahs emotion in the photo via his death in the past?
I love that the film raises questions like that.👍
The ‘REACH’ line really made me laugh. 😆
I can recite this movie 99% every single line! I was born in 1986 and loved this movie as a kid. I always felt it was more of a horror movie at first. The Technoir scene still gives me chills!
It could be argued that the terminator wasn't the first type of unstoppable pursuing villain and that could actually be the Gunslinger from West World in 1973.
Great videos. Thanks for pointing out sooo many little gems.
This film is so amazing. It is the best horror action film ever made. Alien is the greatest horror thriller. Predator is the greatest action film.
The reason the t101 ran away from the "high alert" cops after the chance is he is a stalker, he knew precisely where he could find Sarah, while also to keep his identity a secret after minor damage. The clueless public would underestimate him, and will preserve the success of the Mission. Success in strategy has many parts, so he retreated to have better functional body, element of "surprise", and better gear under his mattress.
*T-800 🤦♀
wow, this is just amazing, thank you so much !!
This movie is the definition of iconic. Arnold's career is full of hits, and he's still most known as The Terminator.
That's a good point. They even called him the "Governator" once he got elected.
This film is amazing without a doubt
However, the reason Arnold has always been most known as The Terminator is not only due to the movie’s quality, but the fact that it was his first breakout role. This is what ‘made’ him as an actor, and then obviously he played the character again in the sequel.
1985 audiences didn't know what treat to expect.
Also, it was 1984 my mistake.
Fun thing I always notice in the TechNoir scene is in the slow motion part when Arnie finally sees Sarah at the table he makes his way through the people dancing. One is a girl in an orange dress with a blonde bob hairstyle.
When the camera cuts to Sarah at the table looking up at Arnie, there’s two people at another table in background and the girl sitting on the left as we look at it is the orange dress blonde hair girl!😄 Once noticed it can never be unseen. Sorry!
The cool thing about Arnie asking about the plasma rifle is that he knew it was already invented that year - but wasnt aware it was likely a government secret
5:49 Tech Noir is definitely NOT short for “detective noir.” 🤦♂️
No. If it was, it would be Tec-Noir.
Must have seen this film a hundred times, yet I've learnt so much just in this video.
This is the first time I've heard someone other than myself mention the teeth. I always assumed they were just prosthetic but the thought of Skynet having machines out there harvesting human remains for them is creepy as hell.
Plays into the Nazis harvesting gold teeth (fillings, crowns and full teeth) from their Jewish victims.
it's probably prosthetic. no reason for it to be from an actual human
If they were real, Skynet certainly had a vast supply considering all the skulls everywhere.
They could have been prosthetic. Or harvested. Or even grown. Reese says Skynet was able to grow blood, tissue, hair, skin, etc. for cyborgs so it's likely they could also grow teeth. You wonder why they would need to grow hair when they could easily use synthetic hair or take hair from dead humans. Who would know the difference in a normal encounter? They think like machines so maybe they want their cyborgs to look as realistic as possible because they think it'll improve their chances of success.
They got the teeth in Turkey
I’d love for them to make a movie about the future war, but in the future depicted like T1 & T2. Basically terminator resistance
They did. It was called Terminator Salvation and everyone hated it.
@@1pcfred I mentioned the future war like what was in T1 & T2. Further along into the conflict, not early on like Salvation. Although it did have some good moments
@@David-1216 I know what you mean. Salvation doesn't seem like those scenes expanded on. But that's what it is. It just doesn't look like it. They took a different visual perspective on things. Then they added plot too. A story if you will. Characters. All of that definitely got in the way of what could have been.
Great video. I look forward to the the T2 video.
Love Cameron telling Arnie "I don't tell you how to act" when that's literally what a director does.