The Terminator (1984 film)
James Cameron's 1984 film that started the franchise.
The Terminator is the 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who wrote it with producer Gale Anne Hurd. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg assassin sent back from the ruined world of 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose future son will save humanity from Skynet; the soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) follows to protect her.
Quick Facts
- Director
- James Cameron
- Writer
- James Cameron; Gale Anne Hurd
- Producer
- Gale Anne Hurd
- Starring
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Michael Biehn
- Linda Hamilton
- Paul Winfield
- Cinematography
- Adam Greenberg
- Editing
- Mark Goldblatt
- Music
- Brad Fiedel
- Studio
- Hemdale Film Corporation; Pacific Western Productions
Facts from the source article.
Making
Cameron got the idea from a fever dream around the release of his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning, and developed it with his friend William Wisher Jr. He sold the rights to Hurd on condition that he direct. Orion first approached Schwarzenegger to play Reese, but he took the title role after befriending Cameron. Shooting, mostly at night in Los Angeles, waited on Schwarzenegger's work on Conan the Destroyer, and Cameron used the gap to write drafts of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Aliens. Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr. led the effects team, using miniatures and stop-motion.
Success
Expected to do little, it topped the US box office for two weeks and grossed $78.3 million on a $6.4 million budget, launching Cameron's career and making Schwarzenegger a leading man. It spawned sequels, a TV series, comics, novels and games, and was added to the US National Film Registry in 2008.
Elsewhere in The Terminator
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