This is a difficult choice choosing which Terminator villain I love and had effected me the most. The choice is between
THE T-800
AND
THE T-1000
They're both really great villains but sadly I have to make a decision. I don't want to put too many ties on the list. I have to confess the one that left a huge impression me is...
THE TERMINATOR T-800 (ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER)
FROM THE FIRST TERMINATOR FILM
I know what a lot of you are thinking, "What the first Terminator? Come on the T-1000 is a lot scarier, threatening, and superior than the evil Arnold Terminator." It's true on so many levels and even though I love the T-1000 and "Terminator 2", Arnold still left a bigger impression on me than the T-1000. Why, well lets take a look!
The Terminator is a cyborg who looks human on the outside
but underneath that living tissue is a mental exoskeleton machine. It
feels nothing, no pain, no remorse, no emotion, it can't be reasoned with nor
can it be bargained, it only has one purpose and that's to terminate
mankind. The Terminator was created by a computer company called
"Cyberdyne Systems" and is controlled by an artificial intelligence
system called "Skynet". One day, the system saw all humans as a
threat and nuked them. The survivors were taken to prison camps to work and
build machines. There was one man who stood up for the human race and his named
was John Connor. He led a group of survivors to destroy those machines and
"Skynet" sent The Terminator to the year 1984 to Terminate Sarah
Connor before she had John. The Resistance sent a human protector for Sarah.
The Terminator travels to 1984 naked because nothing dead
will go and even though it's made out of metal, it's surrounded by living
tissue. The Terminator finds three punks hanging out, drinking and using a
telescope. He approaches them repeating what they say and then demands them to
give it their clothes. They all take out their switch blade knives and The
Terminator pushes one of them aside; knocks one of them out; and rips through a
guy’s chest with its bare hands. The now frighten teenage punk that was pushed
gives The Terminator his clothes. This is one of the best entrances for a
villain because right off the bat you know it's menacing.
The Terminator now has clothing and steals a vehicle. Its next objective is to get guns. It goes to a gun shop and gets a 12-gauge autoloading rifle, a .45 longslide with laser-sighting, and an Uzi 9mm which I have to admit is a badass choice of weapons. After it receives the weapons, it loads one of them with bullets and blows away the salesman (Played by one of my favorite character actors Dick Miller). This is what I call a badass and cold robbery.
Now that it has its weapons, it can now destroy the target.
However, "Skynet" didn't know too much about Sarah, it only knew the
city and time she lived in. The Terminator had no choice but to wipe out all
the Sarah Connors living in Los
Angeles. It finds the Sarah Connors in the phone book
after it coldly pushes away a biker using the phone. Its first victim’s death
is played out in a very eerie and cold way. It runs over a little kids toy
truck and slowly walks on the lawn as a dog viciously barks at it (Because Dogs
can spot a Terminator). It first knocks on the door asking if the woman is
Sarah Connor. She replies "Yes" and the Terminator bursts open the
door and shoots her down with its 45 long-slide with laser-sighting. In the
scene that follows, we find out that she was a mother of two children, that’s makes
the kill more than scary. Its next victim is killed off screen but we see a
picture of her dead body.
The Terminator goes after it's final victim and kills her room mate and her room mate's lover. Just when it thought it killed the last Sarah Connor, the real Sarah calls for help leaving a message telling her friend where she's hiding and fearing that she'll be killed. The Terminator hears the message and finds Sarah's ID. The Terminator goes to the place she's hiding and just as it aims it's gun at her in breath taking slow motion, Sarah Connors protector Kyle Reese appears and shoots it down with a shot gun. The Terminator then gets up and start shooting up the club and killing innocent civilians. This then leads up to a thrilling chase. Kyle shoots at the gas tank of a car but the Terminator jumps out of the explosion, landing on the hood of the car, breaks the windshield with it's own hand and tries to strangle Sarah. Kyle knocks it off, but the Terminator steals a police car. It finds them and tries to shoot them, Kyle shoots it a few times and the car crashes into a wall. As a cop looks in the car, the Terminator is gone.
In a thrilling and gory sequence with good use of special effects. The Terminator goes into an abandon room and performs surgery on it's self. This is the first time we see a bit of the machine behind the skin. We see it's mental arms in its open skin and see its cyborg red eye. Yeah, we can tell that the Terminator is a puppet in that scene, but as obvious as it is, I still think it's cool, making him seem more robotic than he already looks with that one piece of flesh being removed. However, I will admit, while bringing a huge sense of his robotic self, I do indeed prefer how they improved the effect in the 2nd Movie.
The Terminator puts on a pair of shades to hide it's cyborg eye and proceeds on it's mission. In this memorable action sequence, The Terminator goes to a police station telling an officer behind the counter that it's a friend and was told to pick her up. The officer says no and tells it to wait. The Terminator scans the walls to see how strong they are and then tells the officer his famous line, "I'll Be Back". It then drives through the door and runs over the officer at the desk. Then kills nearly every cop in the building (Including two of our supporting characters) while looking for Sarah. Another reason why I choose this Terminator over the T-1000 is the T-800 actually kills more people than the T-1000. Instead of just blending in, it actually just kills every target it comes across that's a threat and the fact that it killed dozens of police officers in that building makes it a lot more evil and vicious.
A couple of other reasons why I choose the T-800 over the T-1000 is because of its target. Sure the target is a grown woman instead of a kid, but comparing her to John she's a lot more vulnerable. She doesn't think of ways of outsmarting the machine; she spends most of her time running and hiding; and nearly gets killed at the club. John maybe a kid but you knew he can handle himself, Sarah on the other hand can't (At least until the next film). The Terminator is also killing John before he is born which makes the situation a lot more scary. My next reason why I chose the T-800 is also because of the guy it is versing. Instead of being old machine versus superior machine, its man versus machine. When the T-800 was protecting John in the second film, it didn't feel pain; it was a learning computer and survived every abuse it took from the T-1000. Kyle on the other hand is a human which makes the situation more thrilling. He's smart, he can fight but he is just as vulnerable as Sarah. He feels pain and can't handle every abuse from The Terminator. The strange part of it all is the fact that this model Terminator is protecting John in the next couple of films gives this whole situation a bit of a twist. By the way, the same model Terminator (With a few upgrades) is also the one that kills John Connor in the future. That's another one hell of a twist.
Sarah and Kyle escape and hideout in a motel. Meanwhile the Terminator is in it's apartment room looking for the location of Sarah's mom. It is interrupted when the janitor knocks on the door which makes the Terminator say one of my favorite film insults "F--k You Asshole". The Terminator also has more quotable dialogue then the T-1000 and every time it speaks it not only sounds like a machine but also sounds extremely vicious and threatening. The Terminator finds Sarah's mom and kills her offscreen but we do see the wreckage from the attack.Sarah calls her mother telling her where she is, but the person she's talking to is The Terminator with the voice of Sarah's mom.
Knowing where Sarah is, it goes to the motel and shoots up the room where Sarah and Kyle are hiding. They escape by stealing a car and the Terminator chases after them on its motorcycle. In this great chase sequence, Kyle throws bombs (That he made) at the machine but the Terminator keeps getting closer and closer, shooting at the car and switching weapons. The car tips over and the Terminator steals a truck trying to run over it's target. Kyle throws a bomb at the truck and it explodes and the Terminator brutally burns to death,or is it dead?
The Terminator rises out of the ashes of the fire and it's exoskeleton is fully exposed. It then chases after Kyle and Sarah in the factory. What can I say, the design, special effects and stop motion is really cool. Kyle gets brutally beat up by the machine with a pipe but manages to put a bomb inside the machine which destroys the machine and Kyle. The explosion wounds Sarah and as she cries at Kyle's dead body, The Terminator appears without legs and crawls after her to strangle her. Sarah cages the machine and destroys it with a crusher after saying another great line "You're Terminated F--ker!"
After the battle, the factory owners find the remains of the Terminator and use it as their inspiration to create "Skynet". This Terminator wasn't just there to kill Sarah, it was also the reason why "Skynet" was invented and if it wasn't for that visit in time none of this would have happened. It's remains also become the key in destroying "Skynet".
Even though the T-1000 is superior and as scary as the first Terminator, I still find the Arnold Terminator more threatening than the T-1000. The T-1000 will always have a place for being one of the great cinema villains but the T-800 will have the place that started it all.
"I'LL BE BACK"
The Terminator
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