Synopsis

A cyborg assassin arrives in 1984 Los Angeles from a war-torn future, tasked with killing Sarah Connor before the birth of her future son, John, who will lead humanity's resistance against the machines. A time-traveling soldier named Kyle Reese protects Sarah, forcing them into a desperate fight against an enemy that appears human but cannot be reasoned with or stopped.

Factoids & Trivia

• James Cameron first conceived the film while working on post-production for *Piranha II: The Spawning*. He developed the idea into a 45-page treatment before writing the screenplay with Gale Anne Hurd.

• The production began with a budget of approximately $6.5 million. Filming took place in Los Angeles after Toronto was rejected as too expensive, and much of the ten-week schedule involved shooting at night.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger originally auditioned for the role of Kyle Reese, but the filmmakers ultimately decided that his imposing physical presence was better suited to the largely silent machine.

• Schwarzenegger trained extensively with firearms before filming. He practiced loading, handling, and stripping weapons until the movements could be performed automatically and without looking.

• The Terminator speaks only 18 lines in the finished film, making the character's physical presence, expressionless behavior, and mechanical movement more important than dialogue.

• Stan Winston's makeup and practical effects work helped create the damaged endoskeleton and the Terminator's self-repair scenes. The film combined prosthetic makeup, stop-motion animation, puppetry, and miniature effects.

• The film premiered on October 26, 1984, and became Hemdale Film Corporation's most successful movie up to that time.

• The film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2008 for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

• The American Film Institute ranked *The Terminator* at number 42 on its 2001 list of the greatest American movie thrills.