It’s back! The Terminator turns 40

The heady year of 1984 served film fans a raft of classics: Amadeus, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, the list goes on. Unfortunately it was way before my time, but I’ve been reliably informed that the queues from my local cinema (now a Savoy) used to back all the way up to the Co-op (now a Wetherspoons), and trust me, that’s one very long line.

Having said that, one upside to last year’s Hollywood strikes is that picture houses the world over are offering screenings of old favourites to compensate for the lack of fresh offerings. For a limited time only, September had been earmarked to bring us The Terminator – my very own ‘Judgement Night’ was looming.

It’s always been up there on my all-time list because it’s the first sci-fi flick I watched that I actually liked. Seasoned readers of Roobla will no doubt recall my thoughts on Star Wars to illustrate this very point, so I really couldn’t think of anything better for a bit of nostalgia. Okay, maybe Amadeus, but we’ll run with it anyway.

Besides, that didn’t spawn a franchise of course, but we’ll get to the critical analysis later. For now, let’s focus on the cinematic experience that James Cameron’s masterpiece was about to provide forty years after its initial release, not to mention Brad Fiedel‘s suspenseful theme which is up there with anything John Williams has ever composed. One question that struck me before I’d even sat down was exactly how familiar would Arnold Schwarzenegger have been to audiences back then? Especially one in a small, East Midlands market town. Sure, being Mr. Universe and Conan the Barbarian would certainly put you on the map, but surely no-one could’ve predicted the megastar he’d become, nor the franchise that The Terminator would spawn.

And having watched it in all its big-screen glory, there’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind that it’s better than the 1990 sequel (not that there was anyway). Judgement Day is surely up there with The Godfather Part 2 and Back To The Future 2 in terms of the greatest second installments ever, but that’s a debate for another time. Tonight, the audience reactions to the many memorable moments in the original were palpable. From a ‘dressed-down’ Arnie early doors, to the heart-stopping robotic sequences at the end. Even when Linda Hamilton‘s eponymous heroine punched her clockcard twenty minutes in, there was the odd gasp, which made we wonder if there was a real-life Sarah Connor in the room.

When that catchphrase was delivered, it was met with laughter. Hardly surprising since it’s become possibly the most recognisable of all time, but what about back then? Did it even register on people’s semi-conscious? Almost certainly not. Would I love if I’d been part of that class of ’84 queue? Absolutely! I’d be steps away from being welcomed into the worlds of Cameron, Schwarzenegger and one of the greatest-ever film franchises, with a bang that no-one back then could’ve possibly foreseen. But I’m still mightily chuffed that I got to do it, in retrospect, forty years later.

Now it doesn’t take a Harvard research scientist to realise the ginormous white elephant in the room when looking in contemporary terms. So much has been written about how accurate the film’s turned out to be and could yet prove to be, and that’ll be going into overdrive four decades on, but consider this: we’re no closer to making time travel a reality than we were back then, and yet it is theoretically possible. As such, we’re still light years away from a real-life rise of the machines, despite the exponential growth of AI.

Which is as comforting a thought as knowing you’re able to watch The Terminator to find out that it’s as spectacular now as it was then. And if time travel does come about any time soon, I’ll be able to join that very long line in 1984.