Myths of the Near Future

Watching The Terminator on BBC3 the other week, the latest in what must be well over 50 viewings, reminded me what a fantastic film it is. One of my favourites of which the only negative was the dire quality of further installments of the franchise.

Director James Cameron's plot itself isn't too complex (unless you want to get into the whole mechanics of time travel stuff) and is essentially a 'chase' film given a sci-fi twist: cyborg from the future is out to get teenage waitress and soon-to-be mother of the hero of the human resistance Sarah Connor, whose only help comes from Kyle Reese, also from the future. The idea of a seemingly unstoppable being killing all and sundry wasn't all that new - Alien had covered the same kind of ground in 1979 to equally successful effect.

For me, the whole film spins on the character of Reese. As someone born into a world where humans are being hunted to extinction, he's tough as boots and quick on his feet. Initially, he appears as cold as the machine he's fighting. It's only after he's arrested and gets frustrated with being interrogated that he shows any kind of emotion.

Like with any great film, we allow a bit of creative license. Quite how a cyborg is going to work as a successful infiltration unit in a post-apocalypse world when it looks and sounds like an Austrian champion bodybuilder is a tad confusing. Unless the gyms in the LA area somehow managed to avoid the nuclear fire. Casting Lance Henrikssen (who appears as a police detective) would have made more sense, logically. But it works perfectly with Schwarzenegger as his lack of acting talent gives him a non-human feel, helped by his having about ten lines of dialogue in the entire film.

And so what if some of the special effects have aged? I'm glad Cameron hasn't felt the need to do a George Lucas and remake scenes. So yes, in the scene where the Terminator fixes itself back up it's obvious it isn't Arnie's head for real - but I still wince a little when he takes the scalpel to his eyeball and digs in.

Years on, Cameron would bring us Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a worthy enough sequel whose best feature was the transformation of Sarah Connor from terrified young woman into kick-arse warrior. The less said about further sequels and TV series the better.

That's not the fault of the original - and even Cameron jumped ship before it all went to bollocks - which remains in my top 10 till life mirrors art and the machines take over. Though I never did understand why in the gun shop scene the machine doesn't just snap the owner's neck and take what he wants rather than ask him to get the hardware he needs. Perhaps Terminators need to socialise too.