LOS ANGELES 2029 A.D.
THE MACHINES ROSE FROM THE ASHES OF THE NUCLEAR FIRE.
THEIR WAR TO EXTERMINATE MANKIND HAS RAGED FOR DECADES.
BUT THE FINAL BATTLE WOULD NOT BE FOUGHT IN THE FUTURE.
IT WOULD BE FOUGHT HERE, IN OUR PRESENT.
TONIGHT.
LOS ANGELES 1984 A.D.
MAY 12TH 1:52AM.
Reese : I'm here to help you. I'm Reese, Sergeant Techcom, BN 38416 assigned to protect you. You've been targeted for termination.
Reese: All right, listen. The Terminator's an infiltration unit. Part man. Part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor controlled, fully armoured. Very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs.
Sarah: Look, Reese, I don't know what you're talking about.
Reese: Pay attention! The T-600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easily but these are new. They look human - sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.
Sarah: Look, I'm not stupid you know. They cannot make things like that yet.
Reese: Not yet. Not for about forty years.
Sarah: Are you saying you're from the future?
Reese: One possible future. That Terminator. It's out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't geel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever! Until you are dead.
Sarah: Why does it want me?
Reese: There's a nuclear war a few years from now. All this, this whole places, everything, it's gone. There were survivors. Nobody ever knew who started it. It was the machine, Sarah.
Sarah: I don't understand.
Reese: Defense network computers. New, powerful. Hooked into everything. Trusted to run it all. They say it got smart. A new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat. Not just the one on the other sides. Decided our fate in a few micro seconds - extermination. I grew up after it in the ruins. Starving, hiding from HKs - Hunter Killers, patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal. This was burned in by a laser scanner. Some of us were kept alive to work loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire fo the camps, to smash those metal motherf***ers into junk.He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.
......................................
Dr. Silberman: So, you're a soldier, fighting for whom?
Reese: With the 132nd under Perry. From 21 to 27.
Dr. Silberman: That's the year 2027?
Reese: That's right. And I was assigned to the last two years under John Connor.
Dr. Silberman: Who was the enemy again?
Reese: A computer defense system built for SAC CONRAD by Cyberdyne Systems.
Dr. Silberman: I see. And this computer thinks it can win by killing the mother of its enemy. Killing him, in effect, before he's even conceived. A sort of retroactive abortion? Why didn't the computer just kill Connor then? Why the elaborate scheme with the Terminator?
Reese: It had no choice. Their defense grid was smashed. We'd won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence.
Dr. Silberman: Is that when you captured that lab complex and found that...what is it called? The time displacement equipment?
Reese: That's right. The Terminator had already gone through. Connor sent me to intercept, and they blew the whole place.
Dr. Silberman: How are you supposed to get back?
Reese: I can't. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just hiim...and me.
........................................
Sarah: Reese? You got a first name?
Reese: Kyle.
Sarah: What is it like going through time?
Reese: White light. Pain. It's like...being born, maybe.
Sarah: I don't suppose you know who the father is. So I won't tell him to get lost when I meet him.
Reese: John never said much about him. I know he dies before the war.
Sarah: Wait! I don't want to know. Tell me about my son.
Reese: He's about my height. He has your eyes...
Sarah: What's he like?
Reese: You trust him. He's got strength. I'd die for John Connor.
Sarah: Well, at least now I know what to name him. So, was it John that sent you here?
Reese: I volunteered.
Sarah: Why?
Reese: It was a chance to meet the legend...Sarah Connor. Taught her son to fight, organised, prepare from when he was a kid. When you were in hiding before the war.
Sarah: You're talking about things that I haven't even done yet in past tense. It's driving me crazy. Look, Reese. I didn't ask for this honor, and I don't want it! Any of it!
Reese: Your son gave me a message to give to you. Made me memorize it. "Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive or I will never exist".
Sarah: Look at me. I'm shaking. Some legend. You must be disappointed.
.............................................
Sarah: Was there someone special? A girl. You know.
Reese: Never.
Sarah: Never? I'm sorry. So much pain.
Reese: Pain can be controlled. Can be disconnected.
Sarah: So you feel nothing?
Reese: John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know at the time. It was very old, torn...faded. You were young, like you are now. You seemed a little sad. I always wondered what you were thinking at that moment. I memorised every line, every curve. I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have.
Sarah (to a voice recorder): Should I tell you about your father? Boy, that's a tough one. Will it affect your decision to send him here. Knowing that he is your father? If you don't send Kyle, you can never be. God, a person could go crazy thinking about this. I suppose I will tell you. Maybe it will help if you know that in the few hours that we had together, we loved a lifetime's worth.
Mexican man: The boy says there is a storm coming.
Sarah: I know...
......................................................
The Terminator killling machine, cyborg captured the imagination of audiences worldwide back in 84 from the original low budget sci fi movie debut by James Cameron with the same name. Hot Toys, no doubt, captured it accurately in all its one sixth scale glory. Arnie looks chunkier compare to sequel, and fresh from the success of Conan the Barbarian. Incidentally, Arnie was committed to Conan the Destroyer, resulting in the filming of the Terminator being held up for nine months. Originally, Cameron wanted Schwarzenegger to be Kyle Reese but changed his mind when he thought that conceptually, the cyborg assassin would better represented by someone physically imposing due to its endoskeleton. The T-800 used a number of firearms procured from a local gun shop prior to its rampage in the course of hunting down Sarah J. Connor. Hot Toys version comes only with three of these - the AMT Hardballer Longslide .45 ACP with laserlock sight (interestingly, only workable in the movie coz in 84, laser sights are rare and require high power to run it. Arnie had a cable running through his arm to activate the battery hidden in the M65 field jacket), the semi auto IMI Uzi 9mm Carbine (converted into full auto mode), the Ithaca 37 stock standard shotgun (also used by Kyle Reese in sawed off mode). Not included but used and seen in the film are Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun (w. top folding stock removed), the Armalite AR-18 assault rifle (again w. its stock removed), a nickel plated Smith & Wesson Model 15, and of course, when the T-800 asked the gun store owner for a "plasma rifle in the 40 watt range" which left the guy abit puzzled ("hey, just what you see, pal"), it was probably referring to the future weapon, "General Dynamics RSB -80 plasma gun", a form of rapid firing plasma minigun used by the Terminator which infiltrated the Resistance as shown in Kyle's dreaming sequence from the future. The Terminator would went on to be a massive box office hit, elevating both Schwarzenegger and Cameron into the super A-list of action movie actor and big budget director respectively. Re-watching back the movie, I realised that I have probably missed out the entire point of The Terminator. It is about destiny and fate. Also, I have forgotten how cold-blooded, relentless this version of T-800 was, excellently portrayed by Arnie (he doesn't need method acting, he is a natural for this character) most likely I was thinking more about the "good" version T-800 in T2.
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