The Terminator Is Free to Watch on YouTube 42 Years After Its Release

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the rare sequels that most people like better than the original. The 1991 sci-fi action thriller redefined the blockbuster with a relentlessly exciting story, mind-blowing special effects, and the star power of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It often outshines its predecessor, which also redefined the action thriller in the 1980s and is still exhilarating to watch, though for a very different reason.

Directed and co-written by James Cameron, The Terminator is currently free to stream on YouTube with ads. It follows two opposing time travelers who leave the year 2029 for Los Angeles in 1984. The first is a robot played by Schwarzenegger, with living tissue over its body. Called a “Terminator,” it is a killing machine sent back to murder a woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). In the future, machines control the world. Sarah’s son John Connor will lead the human resistance, and he causes the machines so much trouble that they send the Terminator back to eliminate him before he is born.

The other time traveler is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a trusted soldier in the resistance. John sends him back in time to protect his mother from the Terminator.

Terminator 2 is fun because it is one big chase, with huge explosions and great gunfights. Its Schwarzenegger plays a different Terminator, one that future humans have reprogrammed to protect John Connor directly. He is still robotic, but he gets to be heroic and charming as a good-guy machine.

In the original 1984 film, Schwarzenegger is downright scary. The Terminator wasn’t his first movie, but it turned him into a superstar, and he did it by being completely stoic and unfeeling. His bodybuilder physique and square jaw made him convincing as a robot. Still, the performance is a masterclass in doing more with less. His first Terminator has no humor or humanity. He is a relentless thing, and you feel it from the moment he appears.

The Terminator is also a slasher film

Part of why The Terminator works so well is that it carries slasher-movie vibes on top of its sci-fi and action. It has gunfights and car chases, but the Terminator also has a lot in common with villains like Michael Myers in Halloween. He keeps coming no matter what the heroes throw at him. In interviews about the film, Cameron has cited John Carpenter, and specifically Halloween, as an influence. He explained that he and co-writer Gale Anne Hurd saw The Terminator as “a low-budget slasher movie.”

The original is also slower, quieter, and moodier than its sequel. Sometimes that makes it dry up a little, as in the overlong flashes to the destitute future. Overall, though, the methodical pacing helps. It builds an incredible sense of tension and fear. The sequel may be more fun, but it is never as scary.

The Terminator was a monster success on release and made both Cameron and Schwarzenegger stars almost immediately. It is still widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi films ever made. It also helped widen what people expected from the genre, making room for serious-minded, high-concept films for adults.

The first two Terminator movies mirror another franchise from the same era that Cameron also had a big hand in: Alien. Ridley Scott’s 1979 film was straight sci-fi horror. An alien aboard a spaceship hunted down crew members one by one until only Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley was left. Then came the 1986 sequel Aliens, which Cameron directed after the success of The Terminator. In it, Ripley and a group of soldiers face dozens of aliens in one of the best action movies ever made.

The Terminator franchise followed a similar path. The first installment leaned much more into horror tropes than its louder, more action-packed sequel. So I encourage everyone to watch Terminator 2, and I admit it is the superior, more entertaining film. But I implore you not to forget The Terminator either.

Source: Polygon