The Terminator Series: The Terminator

"Time to kick off my new series of reviews, this time it will be The Terminator films. Also as I don't count Salvation as part of the series I will not be reviewing it."

Plot;


The date is May 12th 1984, two people appear from streams of lightning. They are from the year 2029 and one of them is a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) and the other a human resistance fighter. The Terminator has been programmed by Skynet and sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) has been sent back in time by John Connor from 2029 to protect Sarah. The Terminator gets clothes and weapons and starts to go through the phone book killing each Sarah Connor until it is the right one. It then finds it's target at a TechNoir nightclub and goes in for the kill, but just before the terminator can get a shot off it is shot by Kyle Reese multiple times until it falls to the ground.

Sarah Connor?

Kyle takes Sarah out of the nightclub and both drive off while The Terminator gives chase. While they are both parked Kyle explains that he is from the future and in the very near future a computer AI named Skynet will become self aware and make its mission to kill all humans. Kyle then goes onto to say that Sarah's son John will become the leader of the human resistance and will lead the humans into battle. He explains that the terminator is a killing machine and has a metal endoskeleton covered by living tissue to make it look human.

The Terminator then spots them which leads to a car chase, The Terminator's car comes to a crashing stop. Kyle and Sarah are arrested and The Terminator disappears. Kyle is then questioned at the police station by a psychologist and the final verdict is that Kyle is paranoid and delusional. Sarah is then questioned about what happened by two detectives. While this is happening the terminator is repairing itself and has grabbed guns and is on it's way to the police station. The Terminator crashes through the police station and starts to open fire on everybody it can see. Kyle manages to find Sarah and both escape the police station. The Terminator tries to follow but loses them.

 

I'll be back...

Kyle and Sarah both end up in a Motel. Kyle goes out for supplies and Sarah mistakingly phones her mother, Sarah thinks it is her mother but in fact it is the terminator. The Terminator then gets the address from the hotel and starts to make it's way there. Kyle returns and starts to make pipe bombs. Later, Kyle says to Sarah he has never been with a girl and has came across time for her. This then leads to sexual intercourse. After this, they both hear a dog barking. The Terminator kicks the door down and shoots the room up, it then walks back out of the front door to get hit by a pickup truck.

 

Never?

Kyle and Sarah then speed off while The Terminator gets up and starts to give chase on it's motorcycle. Kyle starts to throw pipe bombs from the truck to try and hit the terminator. The Terminator shoots and wounds Kyle, Sarah steers the truck into the terminator and hit's it off it's bike. Sarah loses control and the truck crashes, The Terminator tries to get get up but gets hit by a gasoline truck. The Terminator gets up yet again and steals the tanker to kill Sarah. Both run a short distance down the road when Kyle lights a pipe bomb and puts it into the tailpipe of the truck, he hides in a dumpster. The truck explodes, the relentless terminator gets out of the truck on fire and falls over.

Get out.

Kyle and Sarah hug each other, then the terminator now just an endoskeleton emerges from the debris and continues to give chase. They both end up in a factory, Kyle grabs a metal pole and starts to hit the terminator. The Terminator hit's Kyle onto the floor, he lights a pipe bomb and puts it in the terminator and it explodes into pieces. The dust clears and Sarah is injured, she goes to see Kyle but he has died from the blast. The Terminator comes back again from it's injuries and it now has no legs. It starts to crawl towards Sarah, Sarah leads it into a hydraulic press and pushes the button to crush it. Sarah is later seen being put into an ambulance and Kyle being put in a body bag. 

A few months later we see Sarah on the road again in Mexico, she is pregnant with John. She records tapes so that when John is old enough he can understand who his father is and what had happened. She is unsure if she should tell John that Kyle is his father. A little boy takes a photograph of her, she buys it. The photograph is revealed to be the same one Kyle had seen while in the future. She then drives away into a storm.

Extras;

Nothing new unfortunately which is a surprise, only deleted scenes and a few old interviews seen previously on the DVD releases.


2/5


Picture Quality;

The 4K transfer is nothing short of amazing, the detail is perfect, the colours are amazing. No digital tampering is evident, grain is seen throughout the film. This has to be the best Blu-ray I have ever seen. 



5/5


Audio Quality;

The audio quality is a different matter, the metal scraping effect heard in the terminator opening credits on the VHS and DVD are now gone. Also the sound effects on the guns have been redone and now the 45. longslide sounds terrible along with the revolver. The terminator's theme is sometimes hard to hear but dialogue is never muffled.


3/5


The Terminator is now considered a Sci Fi classic and helped both the careers of director James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger go to new heights. Countless imitations have been made but none have come close to capturing the atmosphere and tension that is seen in this first installment. It would later spawn another sequel that is now hailed to be one of the greatest sequels of all time. A film not to be missed and now a signature role for Arnold Schwarzenegger.





Highly Recommended!






Andrew