Script: 5 Reasons The Terminator Rocks

Somehow, I lived through the golden heyday of the action film, the 80’s, without actually seeing any of the giants of the genre. It’s only been within the last few years that I’ve seen the Alien quadrilogy, the Die Hard movies, Lethal Weapon and, of course, The Terminator franchise. And I gotta say, I like what I see.

Here’s 5 reasons why The Terminator in particular kicks total ass. Script wise, of course.

1. Foreshadowing. Absolutely everything is set up ahead of time. Even little things. When goes to Arnie kill the suburban housewife Sarah Connor, his station wagon drives over a toy big rig truck – an exact replica of the one that will feature, and eventually blow up, in the final chase scene. Good stuff, especially for repeat fan viewings.

I know 80’s movies get a lot of flak for being low substance, but they do foreshadowing really well. (see Everything I Need to Know I learned in Adventures in Babysitting).

2. Something for Everyone. Yay, explosions and shoot-outs and really buff cyborgs! But Terminator has something that made it a huge hit with women too – a tragically romantic subplot. Kyle Reese goes back in time to save a woman he’s never met but has loved his entire life, never knowing that he is in fact the father of her child, the child that will grow up to be his mentor. Women everywhere swoon over this kind of stuff.

And the film uses foreshadowing again – we’re pretty sure before Sarah and Kyle are that he’s her baby daddy – to avoid the melodrama that seems intrinsic to this situation. We’ve been warned ahead of time that this is coming, so it’s tragically romantic instead of soap opera.

3. It’s tighter than Arnie’s lats. There is no fat on this script, only what’s absolutely essential to the story. The only beef I have is Sarah’s pet iguana, Pugsley. I’m not sure what he’s doing there – unless it’s to establish the nurturing side of her character. But I will forgive James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd on this one.

4. You can hear the pennies scream. This film was shot on a pretty low budget for the time, and it’s a great example of a high concept, low budget first feature. Cameron is a genius at pulling off big movie on small money (at least in Terminator and Aliens). The movie dazzles, but despite the big action pieces, it’s a pretty contained, small movie. One woman, being stalked by a killer who will never rest and never give up. Smart and small, potentially even smaller than what they’ve done here, but T2 was an example of how much bigger it could have been – and wasn’t. Not that we missed it.

5. "I’ll be back." Aside from being a great example of one-liners (see Awesome Microcosms at Reversals), this movie spawned two sequels and a popular ride at Universal Studios. And you know what? Judgment Day is pretty kick ass, too. Rise of the Machines is basically an homage to the previous two films, but on the whole, watchable (since it wasn’t a Cameron vehicle, we can forgive it a little).

A low budget first feature that makes mega money, and inspires a sequel that rakes in just as much, if not more cash? That’s a good movie.