It was forty years ago today, October 26th 1984, that James Cameron's science-fiction thriller (I'd also consider it horror) The Terminator was released.
Cameron was sick with food poisoning in Rome. While convulsing in agony he had a fevered dream of a robot assassin with glowing red eyes hunting him down. And that was the genesis of the Terminator.
This is a movie that has aged very well. Including the design of the Terminator and the then-relatively distant future of the SkyNet-dominated 2029. Ask a conceptual artist on a modern film to create an endoskeleton for a cyborg killing machine and it would be difficult not to envision something along the lines of the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Hunter-Killer.
I first saw The Terminator in 1986. My best friend Chad had seen it on cable TV and was really raving about how good it was. So I was able to rent it not long after. I thought it was amazing. It was definitely nightmare fuel for a twelve-year-old. Especially that shot of the metal skeleton rising out of the wreckage to continue chasing down Sarah Connor. I was like "Can't ANYTHING stop this guy?!?"
I've got this movie on DVD. It's been awhile since I've seen it though. Think I'll pop it in tonight.
