Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "The terminator" (1984). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

"The Terminator" (1984), written and directed by James Cameron and co-written and produced by Gale Anne Hurd science fiction inspired 'gun wielding' slasher movie, featuring a seemingly unstoppable human flesh covered cyborg, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his breakout role to Hollywood stardom, sent from the future to the present, in this case Los Angeles of 1984, to kill "Sarah Connor" (Linda Hamilton) the mother of the unborn "John Connor", who will lead the humans to victory over the machines, after they, those pesky AI 'human hating' robots, tried to wipe us out with our own nukes.  For its time, as mentioned, The Terminator very much fell into serial killer genre, which was all the rage of 1980s Hollywood trends, obviously aimed at the teenage over 16 year old market.  Yet, Cameron's and Hurd's revamp and modernisation of the killer-on-the-loose premise, ramped up the ultra violence with the Terminator machine gun rampage shooting sprees, rather than knives, in its effort to kill Sarah Connor.

"The Terminator" is also a love story, with human soldier, "Kyle Reece", played with resolute determination by Michael Bien, has also been sent from the future, naked like Schwarzenegger, as both the psychopathic machine and the lone 'soldier' systemically have to track down Sarah Connor, The Terminator, killing off all the Sarah Connors in L.A. one by one, and Reese, narrowing her down to a vulnerable and scared Sarah Connor holded up in the very 1980s esque "Tech Noir" club.  Thus begins, the relationship between Reese and Sarah, which if you don't know the story after 40 years since the film's release in 1984, Reese ends up becoming John Connor's father.  Perpetuating The Terminator mythos, into its interwoven timelines and SciFi paradoxes, in which The Terminator franchise, with various degrees of success, toyed within the decades that followed, whilst toning down the mass casualty gun violence that the 1984 original represented with gusto. 

The is no doubting the pop culture impact that The Terminator has had, and also propelling once special effects creator James Cameron into directorial stardem, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went on to be Hollywood's quintessential 1980s and 1990s action star.   The Terminator is Generation X's 80s darling, as we romanticize the memory of going to the film's premiere on October 26th 1984, before playing shoot-em-up arcade games at the local mall or cinema complex. 

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(A.Glass 2025) 

All CHIAMUS Cult Cinema trailers/commentary to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chiasmus%20cult%20cinema