One man, John Conner, organises a resistance that fights back. At the threshold of victory they discover that Skynet has sent one of its infiltration units: a Terminator T101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to kill his mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton) and ensure he is never born.
One more trip is possible and Connor selects volunteer Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to follow and protect her.
Reese is outmatched in almost every way by The Terminator but has some critical information it lacks: her full name and knowing her face from an old photograph.
CW: injury detail and DIY surgery, enucleation.
The movie that launched a franchise and cemented multiple careers.
It's very very obviously an 80s B-movie shocker that lucked out. Everything just works. The script is great, Schwarzenegger's wooden delivery is an asset, Biehn holds it together while Hamilton is occasionally wobbly but given the situation her character is placed in it's appropriate.
The effects are top notch for the time and they use them sparingly. You think you see more than you do and they save much of it for the final chase and showdown.
It owes an enormous debt to slasher movies, The Terminator is effectively Michael Myers and Sarah Connor the Final Girl.
Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd would go on to use a lot of the devices they deployed here again. Reese's rant to camera in the Police holding cell is Ripley's rant to The Company in Aliens.
Lightning in a bottle 10/10 no notes.