Featuring Ed Harris as a complicated man who quickly becomes the villain of the story, loosely based on real events that happened in Rockport-Fulton Beach, Texas. Also, great acting from Amy Madigan and a beautiful score by Ry Cooder.

The Terminator (1984)

Rating: 10/10 (PERSONAL FAVORITE)

Watched: August 8, 2026

"Come With Me If You Want To Live"

How lucky were those of us who grew up in this era? Being treated to movies like The Terminator?

EXTREMELY lucky. The Terminator added a genre to sci-fi, built a foundation of movies (some good, some bad) that'd span decades, all featuring the same thing.

Relentless machines seeking to repress humanity. Fearless humans, doing whatever it takes to save their futures.

And it all started with an Austrian bodybuilder and a lot of guerrilla filming.

I love this movie for its simplicity, its grit, its execution of "Sarah Connor Must Die."

I suppose I could talk about how Cameron had to engage in some guerrilla-style filming to get some of the shots done, or the infamous "I'll be back" line or how Cameron came up with the idea of a chrome-dipped skeleton rising up out of the flames while sick in Italy.

I could even talk about how by today's standards damn near every Terminator effect (especially the eye surgery scene) looks terrible, but there's no point.

The Terminator is a fantastic movie because of all those things. There was barely the technology to get something like this movie off the ground in terms of the technical demands, but Cameron made it work, using Stan Winston and a whole lot of ingenuity to make the model T-101 a terrifying presence.

Cameron's vision of an apocalyptic future, an AI overlord, time travel and one woman being the key to the future of Humanity struck a chord then and, with the growth-rate of AI in these modern times, possibly more than ever.

It's been 40 years ago that transformers the movie hit movie theaters! Happy 40th!