The Terminator ★★★★

LET’S get the big questions out of the way first.

In 2029 John Connor knows that he was born in 1984 to Sarah Connor.

John sends his lieutenant Kyle Reese back to 1984 to stop the Terminator which has also been sent back to 1984 by Skynet to kill Sarah before John can be born and eventually lead the resistance against Skynet.

But does John know that Kyle is/will be his father?

Does Kyle know that he is/will be John’s father?

How can John exist in 2029 when the only reason he does exist is because the man he sends back to 1984, due only to a reactive decision, impregnates his mother and gives birth to him?

Is time fixed or variable? How does this impact time travel?

At the risk of sounding stupid and/or nerdy, I’m one of those people who still ponders the basic premise of James Cameron’s seminal 1984 sci-fi action film The Terminator.

Thank God time travel doesn’t exist.

According to the film’s Wikipedia entry, Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and even, unbelievably, OJ Simpson, were among those originally considered for the Terminator role.

Imagine if one of those guys had gone back to 1984, knowing the success they had missed out on, and accepted before Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped into his greatest role?

Imagine if we didn’t have The Terminator at all? We also wouldn’t have one of the greatest action films ever made – Terminator 2: Judgment Day – nor one of cinema’s best female action heroes.

In 2025 I saw the film again with my youngest adult son on a big screen, complete with soundtrack played live by the WA Symphony Orchestra.

Cameron’s film really does still stand up 40 years later in almost every facet of film making and entertainment value.

Brilliantly edited and paced, intelligently written for basically an action film, convincingly acted by all and such a great soundtrack.

You can complain about how some of the special effects appear now, but in 1984 they were extraordinary and provided a template for hundreds of films that followed.

Can you believe Cameron also gave us Aliens two years later and then Terminator 2 in 1991? What a streak.

Watched at Perth Convention Centre.