The Terminator (1984)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1984
Running Times: 107 mins
Format: colour     35mm
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: mono     Dolby Digital     Dolby EX 6.1 (re-release)

SELECTED CREDITS

(Full Credits)

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Cinema 84 / Euro Film Funding / Hemdale Film Corporation / Pacific Western
Executive Producers: John Daly, Derek Gibbon
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd

SCRIPT
Script: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Original Screenplays: Soldier and Demon with a Glass Hand by Harlan Ellison (credited on only later prints)

DIRECTION
Director: James Cameron

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Adam Greenberg

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Mark Goldblatt

MUSIC
Music: Brad Fiedel

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Richard Lightstone

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up Department Head: Jefferson Dawn
Hair: Peter Tothpal
Costume Designer: Hilary Wright

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Fantasy II Film Effects; Stan Winston Studio
Special Effects Co-Ordinator: Ernest D. Farino
Special Terminator Effects Created By: Stan Winston

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: George Costello

LOCATIONS
Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA; South Pasadena, California, USA
Location Manager: Joseph A. Liuzzi

STUNTS
Stunt Co-Ordinator: Ken Fritz
Stunts: Tony Cecere, Jeff Dashnow, Hill Farnsworth, J. Suzanne Fish, Marion Green, Tom Hart, Gene Hartline, Jean Malahni, Gary McLarty, Frank Orsatti, Jim Stern, Peter Turner
Stunt Double For Arnold Schwarzenegger: Peter Kent (uncredited)

CAST
Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)
Michael Biehn (Kyle Reese)
Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor)
Paul Winfield (Detective Lieutenant Ed Traxler)
Lance Henriksen (Detective Vukovich)
Rick Rossovich (Matt)
Bess Motta (Ginger)
Earl Boen (Dr Silberman)
Dick Miller (pawn shop clerk)
Shawn Schepps (Nancy)
Bruce M. Kerner (desk sergeant)
Franco Columbu (future terminator)
Bill Paxton (punk leader)
Brad Rearden, Brian Thompson (punks)
William Wisher Jr, Ken Fritz, Tom Oberhaus (policemen)
Ed Dogans (cop in alley)
Joe Farago (TV anchorman)
Hettie Lynne Hurtes (TV anchorwoman)
Tony Mirelez (station attendant)
Philip Gordon, Anthony T. Trujillo (Mexican boys)
Stan Yale (derelict)
Al Kahn, Leslie Morris, Hugh Farrington, Harriet Medin, Loree Frazier, James Ralston (customers)
Norman Friedman (cleaning man)
Barbara Powers (ticket taker)
Wayne Stone (tanker driver)
David Pierce (tanker partner)
John E. Bristol (phone booth man)
Webster Williams (reporter)
Patrick Pinney (bar customer)
Bill W. Richmond (bartender)
Chino 'Fats' Williams (truck driver)
Gregory Robbins (motel customer)
Marianne Muellerleile (wrong Sarah)
John Durban (sentry)

In the near future, the defence computer SkyNet turns on humanity and conquers the world with its army of Terminator cyborgs. A resistance movement fights back and is gaining ground. To prevent defeat, SkyNet hatches a desperate plan - a Terminator is sent back in time to 1984 to track down and kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the still unborn leader of the resistance, John Connor. In turn, the resistance send one of their own back through time to try to protect her.

Still Cameron's best film and one of the key science fiction movies of the 1980s. Schwarzenegger was never going to be this good again in the role he was born to play. Carefully plotted (the time paradox stuff actually makes some sort of sense), brilliantly directed and tightly edited it's the kind of film that Cameron should have continued to make instead of getting bogged down in the popular but vapid effects-fests that marked the rest of his career. A landmark film that still works as well now as it did when it first opened.

France
Laserdisc Distributor: TF1 Video (500164 - includes: theatrical trailer; French theatrical trailer)
DVD Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment (1591745Z7 - includes: deleted scenes; making of documentary; DVD-ROM features); TF 1 Video

Germany
Video Distributor: VCL Communications GmbH
DVD Distributor: MAWA Film & Medien (22608); MAWA Film & Medien (50208)

UK
DVD Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment (15917 DVD - includes: Terminator: A Retrospective documentary; Other Voices documentary; terminated scenes; James Cameron artwork; production and visual effects stills; publicity materials; original treatment script stills)

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Orion Pictures Corporation
Video Distributor: Video Distributors: Artisan Entertainment; Home Box Office; Thorn EMI
Laserdisc Distributor: Image Entertainment (ID 2940 NSB - includes: original theatrical trailer); Image Entertainment (ID 6677 HB); Image Entertainment (ID 8316 HD); Hemdale (2535)
DVD Distributor: Image Entertainment (ID 3949 NSBDVD); MGM Home Entertainment (15917 DVD - Special Edition)

Argentina
Rating: 16

Australia
Rating: M

Chile
Rating: 18

Finland
Rating: K-16

Norway
Rating: 18

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: 18 (in 1984); 15 (in 2001)

USA
Rating: R

West Germany
Rating: 18

1985
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA (Saturn Awards)
Best Make-Up (Stan Winston) - winner
Best Science Fiction Film - winner
Best Writing (James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd) - winner

Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival
Grand Prize (James Cameron) - winner

1984
October
26: USA - theatrical release

1985
January
11: UK - theatrical release

February
8: Sweden - theatrical release
15: Finland - theatrical release

March
25: West Germany - theatrical release
28: Norway - theatrical release

April
18: Argentina - theatrical release
24: France - theatrical release

1991
July
Day Unknown: USA - laserdisc release (Image Entertainment (ID 8316 HD))

1995
March
22: USA - laserdisc release (Image Entertainment (ID 2940 NSB))

1997
September
3: USA - DVD release (Image Entertainment (ID 3949 NSBDVD))

1998
August
1: Germany - DVD release (MAWA Film & Medien (22608))

December
8: France - DVD release (TF 1 Video)

2001
February
21: France - DVD release (MGM Home Entertainment (1591745Z7))

March
16: UK - theatrical re-release
19: UK - DVD release (MGM Home Entertainment (15917 DVD))

The thing that won't die, in the nightmare that won't end.

In the Year of Darkness, 2029, the rulers of this planet devised the ultimate plan. The would reshape the Future by changing the Past. The plan required something that felt no pity. No pain. No fear. Something unstoppable. They created 'THE TERMINATOR'

SEQUELS
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996)
Terminator 3 (2002)

SEE ALSO
Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001)
Encino Man (1992)
It's Tough to Be a Bug (1999)
La jetée (1962)
Otto - Der Neue Film (1987)
Planet of Junior Brown, The (1997)
Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000 (1994)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave (1995)
The Wizard of Oz (1991)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001)
He's Back... The Terminator Story (2003)

MAGAZINES

DVD Review no.20 (2000) p.6 (UK)
illustrated note (World News: Prepare to Terminate!)

Entertainment Weekly no.565 (27 October 2000) p.126 (UK)
review (by Daniel Fierman)

Hollywood no.12 (October 1996) p.72 (Croatia)
review (by Rade Dragojevic)

Premiere April 1985 p.13 (France)
review (by Jean-Philippe Guerand)

Video Watchdog no.8 p.19 (USA)
review

NEWSPAPERS

Diário de Notícias (14 April 1999) p.55 (Portugal)
article

BOOKS

The Psychotronic Video Guide p.561
credits, review

The Terminator (London: BFI Modern Classics (1996))
review (by Susan French)

cyborgs, time travel, the future, hydraulic presses, department stores, los angeles, motorcycles, forensic psychologists, lasers, waitresses, artificial intelligence, computers, war, factories, post-apocalypse, trucks, motels, gas stations, police stations, police, cyberpunk

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008