T is for Terminator

While there have been five Terminator movies, I really only like the first one: The Terminator

James Cameron shocked sci-fi fans in 1984 with this low budget movie, involving the relatively new actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

IMDB's quick description reads: A human-looking indestructible cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs.

NECA released a great figure of his first outfit when he tracks Sarah Conner to the Tech Noir nightclub. Love the chain accessory and the detailing on the punk shirt from the early 80s.

The Terminator introduced some of the most classic quotes in Arnold and movie history.

From IMDB: Terminator Quotes

Cleaning Man at Flophouse: [damaged skin on the Terminator is rotting from gangrene] Hey, buddy. You got a dead cat in there, or what?

[the Terminator visualizes: 'POSSIBLE RESPONSE: YES/NO; OR WHAT?; GO AWAY; PLEASE COME BACK LATER; FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE; FUCK YOU']

The Terminator: Fuck you, asshole.

The Terminator: I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told she was here. Could I see her please?

Desk Sergeant: No, you can't see her she's making a statement.

The Terminator: Where is she?

Desk Sergeant: Look, it may take a while. Want to wait? There's a bench over there.

[points to bench]

The Terminator: [looks around, examining the structural integrity of the room, then looks back at him] I'll be back!

Kyle Reese: [to Sarah] Come with me if you want to live.

Punk Leader: [the Terminator arrives naked and encounters some punks] Nice night for a walk, eh?

The Terminator: Nice night for a walk.

Punk: Wash day tomorrow? Nothing clean, right?

The Terminator: Nothing clean. Right.

Punk Leader: Hey, I think this guy's a couple cans short of a six-pack.

The Terminator: Your clothes... give them to me, now.

Punk Leader: [pulls out a knife] Fuck you, asshole!

Sarah Connor: [to the Terminator] You're terminated, fucker.

Dr. Peter Silberman: Why didn't you bring any weapons, something more advanced? Don't you have, uh... ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.

Detective Hal Vukovich: [chuckling] Ray guns?

Kyle Reese: You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.

Dr. Peter Silberman: Why?

Kyle Reese: I didn't build the fucking thing!

Dr. Peter Silberman: Okay, okay. But this cyborg, if it's metal...

Kyle Reese: Surrounded by living tissue!

Dr. Peter Silberman: Oh, right, right.

Dr. Peter Silberman: [shuts off the VCR screen on which the police and Sarah have been watching the interview] This is great stuff. I could make a career out of this guy! You see how clever his part is? How it doesn't require a shred of proof? Most paranoid delusions are intricate, but this is brilliant!

Dr. Peter Silberman: Why were the other two women killed?

Kyle Reese: Most of the records were lost in the war. Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. Her full name, where she lived. They just knew the city. The Terminator was just being systematic.

Dr. Peter Silberman: Uh-huh. Well, let's go back to what I was...

Kyle Reese: [interrupts] Look! You have heard enough! I have answered your questions! Now, I have to see Sarah Connor!

Dr. Peter Silberman: I'm afraid that's not up to me.

Kyle Reese: Then why am I talking to you? Who is in authority here?

Dr. Peter Silberman: Please, I...

Kyle Reese: [interrupts again] Shut up!

[He glares into the camera]

Kyle Reese: You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her! That's what he does! That's ALL he does! You can't stop him! He'll wade through you, reach down her throat and pull her fuckin' heart out!

The Terminator: [picking up guns] The 12-gauge auto-loader.

Pawn Shop Clerk: That's Italian. You can go pump or auto.

[hands the Terminator the pump action shotgun]

The Terminator: The .45 long slide, with laser sighting.

Pawn Shop Clerk: [hands the Terminator a .45 gun] These are brand new; we just got them in. That's a good gun. Just touch the trigger, the beam comes on and you put the red dot where you want the bullet to go. You can't miss. Anything else?

The Terminator: Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

Pawn Shop Clerk: [annoyed] Hey, just what you see, pal!

The Terminator: [looks around] The Uzi nine millimeter.

Pawn Shop Clerk: You know your weapons, buddy. Any one of these is ideal for home defense. So uh, which will it be?

The Terminator: [pointing the 12-gage shotgun towards the door] All.

Pawn Shop Clerk: I may close early today. There's a 15-day wait on the hand guns but the rifles you can take right now.

[sees the Terminator load his 12-gage shotgun]

Pawn Shop Clerk: You can't do that.

The Terminator: [shoots the clerk] Wrong!

[after Sarah tries to escape and bites Reese's hand]

Kyle Reese: Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do. Don't do that again.

Sarah Connor: [weakly] Just let me go!

Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

Sarah Connor: Reese. Why me? Why does it want me?

Kyle Reese: There was a nuclear war. A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. Nobody even knew who started it. It was the machines, Sarah.

Sarah Connor: I don't understand.

Kyle Reese: Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.

Sarah Connor: Did you see this war?

Kyle Reese: No. I grew up after. In the ruins... starving... hiding from H-K's.

Sarah Connor: H-K's?

Kyle Reese: Hunter-Killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal.

[pulls up his right sleeve, exposing a mark]

Kyle Reese: This is burned in by laser scan. Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah... your unborn son.

[last lines]

Sarah Connor: What did he just say?

Gas Station Attendant: He said there's a storm coming in.

Sarah Connor: [sighs] I know.

Kyle Reese: John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know why at the time. It was very old - torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve... I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you; I always have.

[opening title card]

Title card: The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight...

Sarah Connor: [recording a tape for her future son] The hardest thing is deciding what I should tell you and what not to. But I guess I've got a while yet before you're old enough to even understand the tapes. They're more for me at this point just so I can get it straight. Should I tell you about your father? Boy, that's a tough one. Will it affect your decision to send him here, knowing that he is you father? If you don't send Kyle, you can never be. God, a person can go crazy thinking about all this... I suppose I will tell you... I owe him that. Maybe it'll be enough if you know that, in the few hours we had together, we loved a lifetime's worth.

Sarah Connor: Are you sure you have the right person?

Kyle Reese: I'm sure.

Sarah Connor: [angrily] Oh, come on. Do I look like the mother of the future? I mean am I tough, organized? I can't even balance my checkbook! Look Reese, I didn't ask for this honor and I don't WANT IT, ANY OF IT!

Kyle Reese: Your son gave me a message to give to you. He made me memorize it.

[reciting message]

Kyle Reese: Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist.

Kyle Reese: [to Sarah] I'm here to help you. I'm Reese. Sergeant Tech-Com, DN38416. Assigned to protect you. You've been targeted for termination.

Dr. Peter Silberman: Why this elaborate scheme with the Terminator?

Kyle Reese: It had no choice. Their defense grid was smashed. We'd won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence!

Dr. Peter Silberman: Is that when you captured the lab complex and found the, uh, what was it called... the time displacement equipment?

Kyle Reese: That's right. The Terminator had already gone through. Connor sent me to intercept him and they blew the whole place.

Dr. Peter Silberman: Well, how are you supposed to get back?

Kyle Reese: I can't. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him - and me.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: I can hear it now. He's going be called the goddamned phone book killer.

Detective Hal Vukovich: I hate these press cases, especially the weird press cases. Where you going?

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: To make a statement. Maybe make these jackals work for us. If I can get on the tube by 11:00, maybe she'll call us. Well, how do I look?

Detective Hal Vukovich: Like shit, boss.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: Yo momma.

Kyle Reese: The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.

Sarah Connor: [frustrated] Look, I am not stupid, you know. They cannot make things like that yet.

Kyle Reese: Not yet, not for about 40 years.

Sarah Connor: [disbelieving] Are you saying it's from the future?

Kyle Reese: One possible future. From your point of view. I don't know tech stuff.

Sarah Connor: Then you're from the future, too. Is that right?

Kyle Reese: Right.

Sarah Connor: Right.

Sarah Connor: What's it like when you go through time?

Kyle Reese: White light. Pain. It's like being born, maybe.

Sarah Connor: [answers the phone] Hello?

Matt Buchanan: First I'm gonna rip the buttons off your blouse one by one, then run my tongue down your neck to your bare, gleaming breasts. And then slowly... slowly pull your jeans off inch by inch.

Sarah Connor: [starts laughing and covers the receiver with her hand] Ginger, it's Matt.

Matt Buchanan: And lick your belly in circles further and further down, and then pull your panties off with my teeth.

Sarah Connor: [in a serious tone] Who *is* this?

Matt Buchanan: God. Sarah? Jesus. I'm Sorry. I thought you were... Can I talk to Ginger please?

Sarah Connor: Sure, Bunky.

Ginger Ventura: [takes the phone from Sarah] Hello?

Matt Buchanan: First I'm gonna rip the buttons off your blouse one by one...

Sarah Connor: This is a mistake. I haven't done anything.

Kyle Reese: No, but you will. It's very important that you live.

Sarah Connor: This isn't true. How could that man just get up after you just...

Kyle Reese: He's not a man - a machine. Terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101.

Sarah Connor: A machine? Like a robot?

Kyle Reese: Not a robot. A cyborg. Cybernetic organism.

Sarah Connor: No, he was bleeding.

Kyle Reese: Just a second. Keep your head down!

Sarah Connor: So Reese is crazy?

Dr. Peter Silberman: In technical terminology: he's a loon.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: [shows a bullet-proof vest] Sarah, this is what they call body armor. Our tac guys wear these. It can stop a 12-gauge round. This other individual must have been wearing one under his coat. Feel that. Go ahead.

Sarah Connor: [handed the vest, she feels it] What about when he punched through the windshield?

Detective Hal Vukovich: He was probably on PCP. Broke every bone in his hand and wouldn't feel it for hours. There was this guy once, you see this scar?

[Traxler interrupts him by handing him back the vest]

Detective Hal Vukovich: Thank you.

Kyle Reese: All right, listen. The Terminator's an infiltration unit: part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled. Fully armored; very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs.

Sarah Connor: Look, Reese, I don't know what you want from...

Kyle Reese: Pay attention! I gotta ditch this car.

Sarah Connor: [checks the grocery bags Kyle has brought back to the hotel room] What've we got? Moth balls, corn syrup, ammonia. What's for dinner?

Kyle Reese: Plastique.

Sarah Connor: That sounds good. What is it?

Kyle Reese: Nitroglycerine-base; it's a bit more stable. I learned to make it when I was a kid.

Sarah Connor: Kyle, the women in your time, what are they like?

Kyle Reese: Good fighters.

Sarah Connor: That's not what I meant. Was there someone special?

Kyle Reese: Someone?

Sarah Connor: A girl, you know.

Kyle Reese: No. Never.

Sarah Connor: Never? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. So much pain.

Kyle Reese: Pain can be controlled - you just disconnect it.

Sarah Connor: [to Big Bob] Guard it for me, big buns.

Sarah Connor: You're a doctor?

Dr. Peter Silberman: [yawning] Criminal psychologist.

Sarah Connor: Is Reese crazy?

Dr. Peter Silberman: Well, that's what we're gonna find out.

[clicks his pen]

Detective Hal Vukovich: [about Reese] Come on, Ed. That was loon talk. The guy's a wacko, right?

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: [quietly] He'd better be.

Sarah Connor: Tell me about my son.

Kyle Reese: He's about my height. He has your eyes.

Sarah Connor: What's he like?

Kyle Reese: You trust him. He's got a strength. I'd die for John Connor.

Sarah Connor: Well... at least now I know what to name him. I don't suppose you know who the father is, so I won't tell him to get lost when I meet him?

Kyle Reese: John never said much about him. I know he dies before the war.

Sarah Connor: Wait. I don't want to know.

Sarah Connor: [awakens] I was dreaming about dogs.

Kyle Reese: We used them to spot Terminators.

Sarah Connor: Your world... it's pretty terrifying.

Detective Hal Vukovich: That guy Silberman cracks me up. Last week, he had this guy in here that burned his Afghan. He screwed it first and then he set it on fire...

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: [leaning forward] Hey, shut up.

Ginger Ventura: That bum. So what if he has a Porsche? He can't treat you like this. It's Friday night, for Christ's sake.

Sarah Connor: [slumping] I'll live.

Ginger Ventura: I'll break his kneecaps.

Detective Hal Vukovich: [Traxler comes into the office, spits his gum on the floor, and lights a cigarette while picking up a cup of coffee] That coffee's two hours cold.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: [drinking the coffee] Mm-hmm.

Detective Hal Vukovich: I put a cigarette in it.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: [puts down the coffee] Did you reach the next girl yet?

Detective Hal Vukovich: No, I keep getting an answering machine.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: Send a unit.

Detective Hal Vukovich: I sent a unit. There's no answer to the door, and the apartment appears empty.

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: Call her.

Detective Hal Vukovich: I just called her!

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: Call her again!

[forgetting about the cigarette in his left hand]

Lieutenant Ed Traxler: Give me a cigarette.

[Reese has just traveled back in time and appears in an alley]

Derelict in Alley: Hey, buddy, did you just see a real bright light?

[first lines]

[the garbage truck's engine stops]

Truck Driver: What the hell? Goddamn son of a bitch...

The Terminator: [in the voice of the police officer] This is 1-L19. Westbound on Olympic approaching Overland.

The Terminator: [to the passenger in the semi truck] Get out.

Kyle Reese: Sleep. It'll be light soon.

Sarah Connor: Okay. Talk some more.

Kyle Reese: About what?

Sarah Connor: About where you're from.

Kyle Reese: All right. You stay down by day, but at night, you can move around. The H-K's use infrared so you still have to watch out. But they're not too bright. John taught us ways to dust them. That's when the infiltrators started to appear. The Terminators were the newest and the worst...