The Terminator
To coincide with the release of the latest Terminator movie, we decided to go back to where it all began - James Cameron's 1984 classic The Terminator.
Given how elaborate and grandiose this franchise became, it's easy to forget just how lean and mean this original film is. It actually has more in common with Halloween than it does with the subsequent installments. Cameron was definitely borrowing some moves from John Carpenter's playbook, but also putting a brand new spin on a lot of familiar elements. The result is A+ execution of a B-movie premise.
Topics include: Arnold Schwarzenegger originally being offered the role of Reese, the studio's first choice for the role of The Terminator, how incredibly this story unfolds and trying to imagine seeing it for the first time with no pre-existing knowledge of any Terminator movies, structural similarities to T2, what the more recent sequels have gotten wrong about Sarah Connor, and much more!