Terminator

A slow, building, machine like rythmic beat builds as the movies introduction credits begin. A battle in the future between men and machines is set to be settled in the present. The movie starts with the arrival of two soldiers from the future. One is Kyle Reese, the other, is a humanoid terminator machine with a mission of destruction. The Terminator is a metallic robotic machine enclosed in living human tissue and built by a computer network named Skynet. Both arrive nude and unarmed. The machine terminator encounters 3 youthful punks in a dark alley of Los Angeles. He kills and acquires clothes from one of them. Kyle arrives at a mall and acquires clothing as police patrol the area. Both Kyle and the Terminator are focused on the life of one lone female waitress; Sarah Connor. Kyle Reese aims to protect Sarah Connor, while the Terminator plans to kill her. The Terminator scans a phone book and learns the addresses of all the Sarah Connor's in LA. It didn't know exactly which Sarah Connor it was supposed to kill, so it systematically plans to kill them all. The reason for this is so that the mother of a human leader in the future can be killed and in effect the leaders life be aborted.

After arming at a local gun store, the Terminator quickly kills a few of the Sarah Connor's listed in the phone book but one remains. The one he could not get to, which is the Sarah Connor it is meant to kill. At a local disco club Sarah, the Terminator, and Kyle meet. A chase throughout the city with the Terminator in a police car calling for backup ensues. After a brief struggle Kyle and Sarah wound up at the police station. Kyle is deemed crazy and detained. A local cop declares there are 30 cops in the building which can ensure Sarah is not harmed by anyone. The Terminator arrives at the police station asks politely if he can see Sarah and then proceeds to ram through the front, and kill 17 cops on his way. Kyle and Sarah escape in the confusion and battle the Terminator throughout the city. Their battles climax in an automated factory. There the Terminator is finally crushed, but not before a dying Kyle Reese can impregnat Sarah and. In short Kyle a soldier from the future was to be the father of the very leader of the future that sent him to save his mother. The Terminator movie is unique in that the star of the film, is a murderous machine. Throughout the movie, references to the wars of the future are shared by Kyle Reese. Terminator's breathe, bleed, and can even have bad breathe he states. They are used in the future to infilitrate human hideouts within the Earth. Radiation and extermination camps by the machines had nearly wiped man from the face of the planet until John Conner arose. John taught humans how to fight, and win against machines poses to exterminate them. John's mother, Sarah was targeted for termination in the past, and that in short sums up the rationale for the movie and the legend it spawned.

The Terminator saga is not just a collection of Terminator, T2 and one 3-D/Live Action attraction. Instead the saga is one of a continuing storyline that in many ways has spanned all of man's existance. Machines and technology have always presented temporary change and adversity for man to overcome. A machine may simplify a process but take away the livelihood of a few. From the days of horsedrawn carriage drivers fearing being replaced by key turned automobiles to todays computer controlled manufacturing environments; workers have always feared that which is new and that which is a "machine." The Terminator mytho takes this fear to a whole new level. Instead of machines transplanting workers it transplants human control. A computer network, skynet is created to serve as an impartial coordinator of man's defenses. But it ultimately decides to transplant man's controls and legacy. This is idea is not a new one for film. In the classic silent film Metropolis, a machine run society is the focus. In the 1970's Classic Collosus the Forbin Project a computer network turns against man and uses nuclear threats to control the world. The Terminator movies incorporate these elements and more. Instead of just a vast machine complex, the strength of the Terminator movies is the singular humanoid T-800 Terminators one of which is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Clad in armor, with the human body's shape and form it presents itself as a new evoluntionary form of life. Strength, easy coordination with other units, and an absolute sense of duty drive the units forth to eradicate man. From their humanoid skeletal structure and hands to their glaring red eyes, the machines scare viewers more for their similiarity to man than for their differences. To be replaced, to be bettered, to be conquered these are the things which drive animals to the point of extinction. These elements are the primal fears that the Terminator machines strike in the human mind.

TERMINATOR CHRONOLOGY
The chronology of the Terminator saga has a very unique flow which brings up many possible paradoxes including how can someone from the future sent to the past be the father of someone that exists only in his future. August 29, 1997 Judgement Day occurs as Skynet a computer defense network launches nuclear missiles at America's enemies abroad. Their retaliatory strike destroys Skynet's human enemies at home and the ensuing armagedden ended with more than three billion human lives lost. 2029 John Conner, leader of human fighting forces deliver defeat upon defeat to Skynet causing Skynet to predict its ultimate downfall. As a result it sends a machine, a humanoid, appearing terminator into the past to 1984 to strike at the mother of humanity's savior before he was even born. John Connor sends a protector, Kyle Reese to intercept the Terminator in the past and preserve the life of his mother, Sarah. Another Terminator is sent to strike at John while he is a boy which also was foreseen as a reprogrammed Terminator was sent to protect him in that time period.

1984 Both the Terminator and Kyle Reese arive in the past and do battle. Ultimately the Terminator is destroyed and Kyle dies as well but not before impregnating Sarah Connor with his seed which is to be the future savior of humanity. Wreckage from the Terminator remains in the past to be unearthed and researched. 1984-1991 Cyberdyne Systems Corporation is formed to study the uncovered remains of the Terminator and further cybernetic and artificial intelligence research. Miles Dyson serves as the chief inventor responsible for a revolutionary new CPU. Miles Dyson helps see to the destruction of his work after persuasion from Sarah Connor. John is attacked by a new Terminator model the T-1000 which can mimic anything it physically samples. His protector, a reprogrammed T-800 is destroyed after the T-1000 dies a fiery death.