Let's Talk - Movies

The Terminator (1984) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

November 18, 2020 Just Curious Media Episode 7
Let's Talk - Movies
The Terminator (1984) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
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Show Notes Transcript

Let's Talk - Movies
Episode 07: The Terminator (1984) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the classic movie and talk about James Cameron's career, working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and nude time traveling.

Synopsis: A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.

Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematographer: Adam Greenberg
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Eric Boen
Composer: Brad Fiedel

Original Episode: S01E07

Recorded: 10-30-20
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

Listen:
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Host:
https://www.instagram.com/MrJasonConnell/

Special Guest:
https://www.instagram.com/SalvadorLosAngeles/

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Jason Connell:

Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's talk movies. And I'm Jason Connell on the show. Today I'm joined by a special guest, Sal Rodriguez. Hello, Jason.

Sal Rodriguez:

Thanks for having me,

Jason Connell:

Sal. It's great to have you back. I believe this is your third appearance on Let's Talk movies.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. This is another chance for me to redeem myself from previous guests ships.

Jason Connell:

Now. You were fantastic on American Werewolf in London, the original episode of left dock movies. And then you were on the fly, which was a lot of fun as well.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. See, you're throwing me on some awesome movies. How about like, throwing me on a rotten tomato and see how I really do?

Jason Connell:

Well, I like to focus on great films films worth seeing again, or for the first time and today we are covering the Terminator 1984 The James Cameron classic film which spawned five sequels, a TV series arcade games, I think they even have things that amusement parks for the Terminator, but a fantastic movie, Episode Seven. And here we go. Are you excited?

Sal Rodriguez:

Jason? Let's not forget all the fantastic toys that have come out of the Terminator movie fantastic action figures. Even recently, yes, recently, brand new, beautiful Terminator action figures made by NECA. And they're not sponsoring this podcast, just thought I'd give a shout out because they make great toys. And for our purposes, the Terminator.

Jason Connell:

I wish they were sponsoring this podcast.

Sal Rodriguez:

Maybe they will if I keep throwing the name out.

Jason Connell:

There you go. Alright, so it's written and directed by James Cameron, also written by Gale Anne Hurd, who we'll talk about in a minute, but she was his second wife just throwing that out there. It's an action sci fi you could also throw a thriller in there, but I just take this from IMDB. I like to cover the ratings. So I'm going to give you a chance to guess so what do you think the IMDb Rating of this film is?

Sal Rodriguez:

I'm going to say 7.9.

Jason Connell:

Very close. 8.0

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow,

Jason Connell:

you're really close. You're

Sal Rodriguez:

going I'm pretty good at this.

Jason Connell:

And that's a really good rating. IMDB is a much tougher grading scale, I would say. And now for the Rotten Tomatoes grade, which is percentages. Go ahead, Sal, give me your best guess.

Sal Rodriguez:

72%

Jason Connell:

No way, buddy. Not even close. Because this is 100% What 100 100 out of 100 it is absolutely a fresh film.

Sal Rodriguez:

I've never heard of a movie that's 100 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. I haven't heard of that.

Jason Connell:

I know. And no movie I've covered thus far in season one of Let's Talk movies has been 100. So buckle up, buddy.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know what I gotta tell you after watching this movie recently, where we are now in space and time versus the first time I saw it. I mean, when I saw this movie for the first time I was a kid. Right now I watch it as an adult with a new appreciation for it. This movie is action packed. So exciting. And a little scary. Yeah. And also very simple. I noticed that the NSA has a very simple movie with a simple tale simple scenes. And they just did such a great job with such simplicity.

Jason Connell:

I'm so glad you said that. Because I always say the same thing. It's like a chase movie. We don't get caught down and details or unnecessary things. It's a to be this thing is coming for you and we must escape or kill it. That's it. There's no weird other storylines, which we should probably talk about. At some point in time that Terminator two judgment day gets into. There's the scientists and then there's the son and it just gets caught up. And I think this is how you tell the story. Quick beats simplify it incredibly well executed, and it makes you want to re visit the movie again and again.

Sal Rodriguez:

But you know what? It doesn't make me want to do what's visit Los Angeles. I have no interest in visiting my hometown. After watching a movie like this. This is like, right up there with predator two and escape from LA. But Sal,

Jason Connell:

you'll probably never live anywhere else. So

Sal Rodriguez:

don't jinx me.

Jason Connell:

Fair enough. So the movie came out October 26 1984. And Sal, I saw it on VHS in the 80s. But I watched it with my family. And we were all riveted. How about the first time you saw it?

Sal Rodriguez:

I was lucky enough to see this movie on the big screen. One of my older sisters right around this time, had a boyfriend her and her boyfriend would see movies, a lot of movies. In fact, they were the ones to come home and tell me about the terminator or tell me about A Nightmare on Elm Street. And then I would then run out with my friends and go try to see the movie based on their recommendation. So I was lucky enough to see this as a kid on the big screen. But what I want to know is why didn't you see this on the big screen.

Jason Connell:

I just didn't I mean there was a gap there. I wasn't able to go see movies by myself. We had moved we were no longer near a theater when I was like 10 and 11. We lived right next to this theater in Tulsa called the Bowman twin and I literally could just walk over ride my bike and then we move further away so I was relying on my parents to get me to the movie. So VHS had just come out and my dad was really into movies. So he would just load up go to the video store and get all the new stuff. So that kind of became what I did for a couple of years until we relocated next to a theater. I mean, you're really cut off at that point in time. We have no car no transportation. No one I knew was driving. So yeah, there was a couple years where I was catching them on VHS unless I was visiting my grandparents who lived by theater.

Sal Rodriguez:

And it was it make it a blockbuster night. Are we talking like the mom and pop video store?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, it was mom and pop. I think it was pre blockbuster. Nice. Anyway, I remember it vividly. And I've never forgot this film, Sal. So quickly, as I always do. I like to get into the budgets and the gross. I'll give you a chance to take another guest because you're so good at it. What do you think the budget for this film was? Keep in mind? It's probably filmed in 83. Long time ago,

Sal Rodriguez:

70 million.

Jason Connell:

They weren't making movies for 70 million

Sal Rodriguez:

and had no but I remember in the 80s was when there was a one or two movies that were pivotal in really upping the ante as far as budget and I thought this was one of them. Now, this was a $6.4

Jason Connell:

million movie. Well, what? Yeah, is that crazy? Remember how good you were at guessing just a minute ago. So the US Gross was $38,000,371 Approximately, I know worldwide, it was around 70 something. And I'm sure this movie has far surpassed this number. It's just on IMDb. I'm sure it didn't have any of the ancillary rights and the digital downloads. I mean, this movie still relevant. So it made enough money to spawn five sequels and counting a TV show video games as you said toys. Yeah. So next here is the synopsis from IMDB. A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible sideboard killing machine sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation, because it sums it up. So

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, and we're gonna see how close we are to the proposed Terminator future.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, no. 2020 on the verge of 2021 2029 is not that far away. But man and 84 it might as well have just been here. 3000 It just felt like five lifetimes from now. Yeah, so

Sal Rodriguez:

everybody enjoy the next eight, nine years.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. All right. So this cast there's three main people really there's this one main star who went on to become a mega star and that is none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger who played the Terminator. He went on to do movies such as predator The Running Man Total Recall True Lies, which was also done by James Cameron. And he was in all the Terminator films with the exception of Terminator Salvation, which he was not in.

Sal Rodriguez:

So Conan the Barbarian was before this. Yes,

Jason Connell:

absolutely. Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer predated the Terminator.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a household name before his movie career because my father was really big into bodybuilding. So we knew who our Schwarzenegger was. He was a seven time Mr. Olympia, I believe. Yep. Before he ever started his movie career. In fact, he was kind of laughed out of Hollywood in the beginning. They told him he had to change his name. They laughed at his accent. In fact, he did a movie I think was called Hercules goes bananas, or Hercules in New York. Remember that? Yeah. And it's not even his voice. They dub it someone else's voice over RS Schwarzenegger throughout this whole film, so to see his rise to fame, and then even subsequent political career after that, it's really an amazing story, one of those American success stories.

Jason Connell:

I couldn't agree more. And I'm a huge Arnold fan. I actually read his biography Total Recall twice. It's amazing. It gets into his days of winning Mr. Olympia, how he segwayed that into his acting career, he was really smart in Santa Monica. He owned a lot of different properties. He was working man, he had a plan. He even told one of his professors that there'll be a day where everyone will be able to pronounce my name and he was right. I

Sal Rodriguez:

will tell you this. I did a lot of extra work as you know, I was an extra in the movie Last Action Hero. And around this time, and prior to this, I had been right there next to Kevin Costner. I've been right there next to Michelle Pfeiffer. I've been rubbing elbows with some big names on the same dropper. This guy, I'm dropping names. But it wasn't until I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger walked by me on the set of lax action hero that I was starstruck. I'd never been starstruck. I don't think before since until that moment, when I was like, Oh, my God, Aura Schwarzenegger. He just looked bigger than life walking by me on set that day.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. And it's kind of bigger than life. To be honest. He also has the charm and charisma that a lot of bodybuilders or even just people in general don't have. So we had the full package. And yeah, it was just a specimen as far as his physique goes, and what a great way to leverage that and get a huge career and that's cool that you got to be in that movie. Although I gotta say it's my least favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger film one of the one of the only movies I've ever walked out of, so what I've never finished it i It's to me, I don't like to bash things. Maybe I should give it another chance but did not care for it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, since we're sharing, I've never seen it. I've never seen

Jason Connell:

it and I was in it well with you and I may give it one more chance but you ever

Sal Rodriguez:

seen the movie? I was in some sort of diner scene. I think he walks by the outside or something like

Jason Connell:

that. Okay, I'll keep an eye out. So next up, we have Linda Hamilton. She plays Sarah Connor does an amazing job in this film, who plays this warm, spirited, carefree scooter riding waitress? Who goes on to become the ultimate survivor? I mean, what an arc. She does a fantastic job and she went on to be in movies like Dante's Peak, Terminator two Judgment Day, also known as T two Terminator dark fate, which is the most recent Terminator, and Sal, the fourth wife of James Cameron.

Sal Rodriguez:

I did not know that. Wait, were they married at the time of the shooting? No. After? Okay.

Jason Connell:

So in between his second wife Gail and heard and Linda Hamilton. He married and divorced Katherine Bigelow, famous director who did Point Break, and then went on to win an Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, well against him that year, because he was supposed to win it for Avatar. Definitely. Yeah. Very interesting. And then the last main character would be Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese, who went on to do movies like tombstone, and then to Cameron movies, Aliens and the abyss. And of course, Reese was great in this role as well. They had really good chemistry I felt and that was really the main three because beyond that, you get some bit players here and there. But like you said it initially just a small movie. We don't get to know that many other people. And I think that's in its favor.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. And I will say that there are definitely two great microbeam figures. One is the Kyle Reese Terminator figure, and the other was his character in Aliens.

Jason Connell:

And so now I'd like to quickly run through the crew, which is James Cameron, writer, director. He was coming off of Parana, two which was a sequel to Parana and he was actually fired on Parana to thought his career was over, came up with this idea, and a dream. More of a nightmare. He really woke up in the middle of night wrote it out, told Gale Anne Hurd who he worked with on Roger Corman films, and that it was an idea percolating and then it would become his first real feature. And we're still talking about this movie today. Of course, he went on to do T two aliens the Abyss which I've mentioned before, as well as True Lies. And of course he did Titanic which most people remember him for. He wins the Oscar the movie wins tons of Oscars, and then he does avatar, which still won a lot of awards. He just didn't win the Best Picture. I believe he is slated to make like a bunch of Avatar movies now. So but every time I look on IMDb, I just keep getting pushed out. Avatar 2345. At some point in time, we're gonna see more avatar movies.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know what, I wasn't a huge avatar fan. But one thing I did acknowledge is when I watched avatar is when I thought to myself, I think that the CGI thing has arrived. That was I think the first time I saw CGI, I was like, You know what, this is looking kind of seamless now. Because it was lino kind of clunky before. So definitely, I would say for me personally, Avatar, put CGI on the map.

Jason Connell:

I agree. I saw it in 3d, right when it first came out and said, it's a spectacle and it's worth seeing. I didn't love it as much as his other movies. But yeah, it was really interesting. And the technology has come so far from when Avatar came out, and I'm really anxious to see where he pushes the boundaries. So Cameron states that the themes had been important to him since high school, the apocalyptic visions, ideas about our love, hate relationships with technology, our tendency as species to move in a direction that might ultimately destroy us, and essential faith and the resourcefulness of humanity. He also credits the post apocalyptic hit Mad Max to the road warrior as a major influence. So with that, as well as his time spent working on Roger Corman films, Cameron knew all the tricks of the low budget trade, and was able to solve a lot of his logistical and practical issues on his own even sports and Edgar was surprised when Cameron didn't hesitate to demonstrate how to perform a potentially dangerous motor stunt himself. Camera would say that even though it was a studio movie, it was still a low budget guerilla style production. So back to that 6.4 million Sal, every bit of that and more is on the screen. I mean, I can't believe they made it for that little bit of money.

Sal Rodriguez:

Nice. And we don't know Arnold Schwarzenegger salary for this. Is that public record?

Jason Connell:

I'm not sure. So that's a really good question. It couldn't have been too much of the budget. He wasn't a big star yet. So he couldn't have demanded too big of a salary.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I mean, he was not yet a household name. So not able to demand top dollar but I'm just curious what his salary was for this one. Maybe I'll Google it later.

Jason Connell:

Call him up and say remember me from Last Action Hero.

Sal Rodriguez:

Remember me? The diner scene. You walked by me? I was starstruck.

Jason Connell:

So Gale Anne Hurd, who I talked about earlier being the second wife and CO writer the movie she also produced STED show went on to do movies like Armageddon, Dante's Peak and the whole Walking Dead franchise, which is huge AMCs massive hit. Adam Greenberg was a cinematographer. He also did T to ghost Three Men and a Baby some good credits there. And Brad Fidel was the composer who did all of the terminators as well as Fright Night One and two and Salya like this one. Encino Man.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes, Brad and Fraser,

Jason Connell:

being a valley guy, such as yourself had to be excited when that hit the theaters. Oh, yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

In scene it was it was part of my life. Growing up. It was for me. Encino was uptown.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. All right, Sal. So it's time to jump in to the scenes the beat by beat breakdown, as we do on every episode. Are you ready? I am all set. All right, so it starts with Los Angeles. 2029 A D, nine years away, uh, blows my mind. But here we are. So now we see text on screen and it reads the machines rose from the ashes of the nucular 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 and are present tonight. Ooh, scary.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, this movie is scarier than I remember. In fact, as an adult man, this movie I can see is scarier than I thought of it as a kid. I as a kid, I just thought, Oh, this is cool. But now I'm like, You know what? This movie is way scarier than I realized.

Jason Connell:

It absolutely is. He was terrifying. And I don't remember him ever being a bad guy again. And that's too bad because Arnold played a great villain.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, you're right. You're right. I don't think he did play bad guy after this.

Jason Connell:

So we start with Los Angeles. 1984 152 A has a great cut to present day with the trash truck because you think you're still looking at this future. But here we are. 1984 and I gotta say South a guy driving the truck. His real name is Chino, fats, Williams, rest in peace. But I've always recognized him because he was in one of my favorite movies Weird Science at the candy bar. And I've always thought it was like that's the guy from Weird Science. And it was so shout out to him. And then we see electricity Cracklin all over the place. And then we see a naked Arnold

Sal Rodriguez:

my mom was so excited about a naked Arnold I could not believe I remember my mom in the theater. She let out a shriek mamas like, you know, when they would show teens who would see Elvis on stage. Oh, yeah. This was the Griffith Park Observatory is where they are here. Yeah. And the one thing I thought is why are they at the observatory? So I was wondering if maybe it had to do with some sort of transmission. Maybe the way that they transmitted him had to be some sort of high point. I mean, Kyle Reese just gets dropped off in an alley. And yet the Terminator shows up on hilltop of Griffith Park. It's just

Jason Connell:

such a beautiful visual. It's been in tons of movies like Rebel Without a Cause the great Eddie Murphy movie bow finger to transformers. So when I first moved to LA in 2004, it was actually under renovation had been closed for a year or so. And then finally it open and I was dying for it to open because I couldn't wait to go up there all we seen it in these movies. And it probably never looked better before than it was in this shot. That was beautiful. In the way they captured it with Arnold walking over the edge and seeing the city behind him. And then as you churn Sal, he walks towards three punks like total punk rockers out of the 80s and among them is one of my favorite actors who left us far too soon. Who was Bill Paxton, kind of leader of the of the crew, who went on to be in more James Cameron movies, aliens, True Lies, and Titanic. Plus, let's not forget he was also in weird sciences Chet. But tell us what happens here sounds so

Sal Rodriguez:

the Terminator is nude, approaching these punk rockers. And these punk rockers. You know, they start laughing at this naked guy who's walking towards him. Start making fun of them and cracking jokes. He demands their clothes. They pull out knives. Each of them has a switchblade. And yeah, they don't last very long in front of the Terminator.

Jason Connell:

When I was watching this movie for note, Sal, I was thinking act like I've never seen it. What is the audience think right now? Because all we know here's a naked super strong, buff guy is the man or machine. We don't know anything about this guy. But missing you learn he has superhuman strength.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he punches one of these guys and I think pulls out his heart. Is that what he did? Yes. Oh my god. Yeah. And he got knifed. Yeah, that guy stuck on with the knife, which seemed to do absolutely nothing. And yeah, he got his heart ripped out for it. But then the third guy, the third guy gives up his clothes, right? That big, gray

Unknown:

coat he gives up to the terminal. We assume he lives to we don't know.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, we don't know. We don't know what happened to that guy.

Jason Connell:

I gotta say, Arnold's voice. His natural voice is so perfect for this role. His normal cadence. It's like it was so perfect because the world had really heard him talk that much he Yes, he was in the Conan movies. But let's not forget, he didn't talk very much in those movies. So they didn't know the Arnold that maybe your household knew. But most people had just didn't know him as like, Wow, is this guy? What is this? He's like cyborg esque already. And you don't even know what he is at this point in time in the movie? No, no, we don't know. So now we cut to downtown LA like you said, what Reese gets dropped off you see another electric storm. And now there's a naked Reese and again, you don't know who this guy is? He's the man or machine or what's going on. But I love how they go through the same portal sound but yet they're dropped off miles apart. Yeah. Now

Sal Rodriguez:

that you mentioned that you would think that they would wind up in the same spot. It would have been cool if they would have both wound up at Griffith Park Observatory. But then again, you wouldn't have had the same scene with the punk rockers if that had happened.

Jason Connell:

Now worked out great, but some things just don't have an explanation. We just go with it. So now Kyle Reese is his full name. He stills a bums pants. And then cops began to chase him.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait, hang on Jason. Not just a bum. Alright, that man his name is Stan Yale, actually a good friend of my mother's and as a matter of fact, when I was a kid, more than a couple of times, we would stop by Stan Yale's house. Look at some of his Hollywood memorabilia. Look at his movie collection, his record collection, have a visit. Have a soda and then be on our way. So rest in peace. Mr. Stan Yale, he did a lot of scenes like that. And a lot of movies like that.

Jason Connell:

Wow. So when he came on screen, did your mother also do a big shout out for him?

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, yeah, we both of us were like, Hey, there's Stan that's great. So

Jason Connell:

steals his pants cough start chasing him. He runs into a cop takes his gun. But Sal we learn right there that he doesn't have the super strength that Arnold Schwarzenegger is character has at this point in time.

Sal Rodriguez:

No. And this is also where he asks, What date is it right? What date is it? That the cops like? The hell's wrong with this guy?

Jason Connell:

And I was like, what year? Yeah, he didn't even care about the date. Like what year? Where am I?

Sal Rodriguez:

What year is it? That was like me during COVID shutdown? What? What date is it? I lost track.

Jason Connell:

So now he's in a department store grabbing clothes. And I liked that shot where you see his foot come down with a Nikes. And Sal, I had those same Nikes.

Sal Rodriguez:

Nice. Nice. They were cool. Yeah. Well, this is one of the things that bothers me though. We've talked about on previous shows talked about licensing. And when they make the action figures when they make the Kyle Reese action figures, guess what, he's not wearing the Nikes. So these licensing wars that they go through, and they may well us the fans and collectors were the ones that suffer.

Jason Connell:

So now Reese escapes, but he grabs another gun. Because the police doors open which I'm telling you saw that pie is not the protocol this day and age you don't leave your cop car, your squad car door unlocked so someone can grab a rifle out of

Sal Rodriguez:

it. Not only does he steal a rifle from these cops, as he's running from them, he dawns on entire outfit. How lame are these cops? How bad is the LAPD

Jason Connell:

all this cash on the future cell. He's got skills. So now he goes to a payphone to look in a phonebook. Because this was a day and age that there was payphones and phone books. And he looks up Sarah Connor and there's three of them. Which is kind of cool. Put his thumb down, sees all three. Boom, we know he's looking for this person. And then I liked the way we cut to Linda Hamilton. Soon to find out she is Sarah Connor but she's on a scooter. And she rides up to big Jeff's, which is actually Caros and South Pasadena right around the corner from where I used to train Nikko, my dog at dog obedience class. It's right there. I used to pass this thing all the time, Sal and I never knew that the Terminator was filmed there.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, do you think that big Jeff's is a take on Bob's Big Boy now in other parts of the country? It's not Bob's, it's just big boy. It's something big boy but chips and it's kept in other places. Okay, so here, it's Bob's Big Boy. And then here she's a waitress at Big Jeff's doing that sort of a take on on the big boy.

Jason Connell:

Totally. I mean, they should have just left that his Caros. But yeah, it was big. Jeff's and maybe that was another licensing thing. And as far as I know, or maybe it was big, Jeff's and it turned into Caros because that's what it is. Now, I don't know about the lineage back in the 80s. But that building is still a restaurant today.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I want to draw attention to her scooter, which I believe was a Honda elite. Back in the era when all the kids in my neighborhood had arrow scooters, spree scooters, if you were an older kid or a college kid, you had an elite and I wanted an elite never got an elite. I was still a kid when I was covering all these things. So I definitely wanted that at least an elite scooter though.

Jason Connell:

Very cool. So when she shows up at the restaurant, the timecard reveals how we learn her name Sarah Connor. There it is. And now we cut to the Terminator who now is dressed. He still has a car of course lots of cars during this movie. And so how does he do it? Oh, this

Sal Rodriguez:

way does the hot way. Right, we're seeing lots of hot wiring a lot

Jason Connell:

of hot wiring. So now we're back to Sarah because we're kind of going back and forth and we're learning that she's not a very good waitress. Well, I mean she's just kind of making lots of mistakes mess an orders up kids are picking on her. So obviously not the best career path for her at this point in time.

Sal Rodriguez:

This kid is bred a kid puts an ice cream scoop in her apron. Who are these kids?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, so now the Terminator visits Alamo sports shop guns and Van eyes. And so I love the same with the shop owner played by Dick Miller rest in peace. He was in movies like Gremlins and the howling and saddest what happens here?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, Arnold, he's buying an arsenal, or should I say the clerk thinks he's buying an entire arsenal. He knows all the names of all the guns. He knows their caliber. He seems like a guy that knows his stuff. And right when the shopkeep thinks, wow, this guy is gonna buy these guns. I think he said something about, I can close early today. All of a sudden the Terminator, put some shells into the shotgun, pointed out the shopkeepers chest shoots him in the chest. That's it. And I think this was that first moment we really, really see. I mean, I don't know that punching the guy and reaching through. You could kind of say with self defense, the guys had knives. You could kind of argue that for a second. play devil's advocate. But here this guy was definitely just shot in the chest in cold blood.

Jason Connell:

Definitely Cold Blood killing right here. could have bought the guns. The guy was cool his shop. Nope. That was it. You knew that the stakes were high. This guy means business. We still don't know what he's doing here. We just know what Reese is doing. So let's cut to him. And he's making a sawed off shotgun with a rope and his trench coat and he also looks pretty badass. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, this is the outfit that he got from that store when he was running from the cops. And you know, we learn a few scenes from now that for a second there. Sara thinks that Kyle's trying to get her so he looks definitely medicine from Sara's point of view.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. So next we see Terminator pulls up to a payphone also going to a payphone for probably the same reason. And he throws a big burly guy Morris off the phone. This huge guy in overalls is on the phone. And he's like, I don't care what you're doing. Come and get me. terminators flings him doesn't kill himself just literally throws this guy with no problem. And then he's like, Man, you've got a serious attitude problem. You just hit it off screen, which is so funny to me.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so this shows that the Terminator can just fling the most medicine guys this guy's sort of a burly type guy kind of like a hillbilly Jim for you WWF fans, you know, you wouldn't mess with this guy. And yet, the Terminator just grab this guy just throws them across the street like a rag doll.

Jason Connell:

So Sal, he goes to the phonebook, just like Reese did. And he scrolls down same bed. So he is also looking for Sarah Connor. It's all we know. And we know that one of the three is this waitress that we're getting to know. So now we see a little bit of foreshadowing, as this toy semi truck is run over by his tire of the car who stole this station wagon I believe. And Terminator is visiting the first Sarah Connor. So Sal, please tell us what

Sal Rodriguez:

happens. When he goes up to the door. knocks on the door. A woman opens up the door just a little bit just just enough to see each other. And he says Sarah Connor? And she says yes. And he busts through that door like slomo Oh yeah. And the gun with the laser scope on it. Man right at her head. First Sarah Connor is killed.

Jason Connell:

Well, thank goodness, our lead wasn't the first or second in the phonebook because it game over. Right. And I just want to point this out as well. The address on the woman's door who was just killed, unfortunately, is 14 23914239. I looked it up it was on Gilmore Street and Van eyes. But it doesn't match sell any of the three addresses from the phonebook. You don't see the full address and all the phone books but you see an 1823 Doncaster, a 2816 East Hill and a 309 called her Canyon. There is no one for 239 So I don't know how Terminator knew this Sarah Connor was at some random address. But that's what happened.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, since we're talking if you look at the IMDB page for the Terminator there is it's probably one of the longest sheets of what would they be bloopers inconsistencies continuity mistakes. Oh yeah, there's a ton of them. There was a ton of them things like you know a bloody bandage here and then it's dry there, you know, anything and everything. Oh,

Jason Connell:

yeah. I mean, I don't want even poke holes in it. I just found it to be funny. This is a glaring mistake, because they've showed us A phonebook twice. Plus they show it when Sarah also goes to the phonebook. So we've seen these images three times. It's like, someone could have slapped a 1823 on there and not left at 14239. But just wanted to point it out. Now we're back at big, Jeff's. And Sal, what does Sarah learn what her coworker drags her the TV set,

Sal Rodriguez:

this is where we learn. This is where Sarah learns that someone named Sarah Connor was killed, which at this point, you're just thinking, well, that's incredibly coincidental that a person with my name was killed, but I don't think anyone thinks that there's a pattern yet

Jason Connell:

now. And even her friend says, you're dead honey. You know, it's just like a joke. Like, it's kind of funny. It's not funny. It's very morbid, but when it's your exact same name, you can kind of laugh at it, or at least this waitress friend can laugh at it. So no big deal no harm and not a serial killer pattern just yet. So now Reese, hotwire is a car and then sell after he does. So he just goes to sleep. I don't think you hotwire go to bed in the car.

Sal Rodriguez:

Right? Well, what happened is I think he was sort of hypnotized, if you look at he was right outside of a construction site looks over at the construction site. There's one of those big pieces of equipment rolling along the dirt that has the sort of tread on the bottom like a tank. And then that piece of modern day equipment kind of morphs into the futuristic battleground, rolling over skull. So all of a sudden, I don't think we know that he's sleeping yet. But that's what happened. He fell asleep in the car. And now he's flashbacking or flash forwarding to his everyday life, which is being a freedom fighter part of the rebellion.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I think I would have driven like a mile away or something after a hotwire new car, but whatever. And yeah, that that junkyard is very Mad Max esque. It's got that kind of feel about it. And the effects I know they're dated when we go back in his dreams, which is obviously from the future, but it looks really good. It's not bad for the era. And I like on the radio. You hear Bob stereo, we sell compact LaserDisc. And this is big advertisement for all the technology at the time as he does is out. So so I don't know. Did you ever go to Bob's stereo?

Sal Rodriguez:

That might have been made it for the movie I never heard of Bob stereo. I think we might have had a Fred rated. There was a local guy named Chateau Stevens. He did something called Yeah, federated he advertised for federated his name was Fred rated, and he would smash stereos and smashed televisions with a giant sledge hammer. But so that's about as close as we got to Bob's TV. Well, I

Jason Connell:

knew Chateau Stevens from Hollywood Squares when I was a kid. Yes. Always on Hollywood Squares. So now we're at Sarah's apartment. And she's wearing like a Flintstone shirt and her roommate. We find out his name ginger. She's always got her Walkman on and a lot of people in that day and time did. But she's always rocking the turns and they're getting ready. And I'm telling you, Sal, there's a lot of 80s hair in the bathroom.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so here we have two ladies in the 80s two roommates getting by the way, I noticed that they had to share a bathroom. So there she is bumping shoulders with her roommate, ginger, they're rocking out they're getting ready. They're excited to spend a Friday night out with their guys having a good time.

Jason Connell:

And ginger. His boyfriend is Mike played by Rick Ross, which you may recognize him from movies like Roxanne Top Gun, Navy SEALs, which also had Michael being in it plays Reese So he calls on the phone. It's kind of a funny exchange cell. Yeah, he

Sal Rodriguez:

calls on the phone and starts talking dirty to Sarah thinking that it's ginger starts talking about how he's going to take her panties down with his teeth.

Jason Connell:

And then she tells him, no, that may get gendered he's embarrassed. And then ginger gets on the phone and he starts right back at the top. The same routine is not changing award take to. So now we're at the police station. And Lieutenant Traxler played by Paul Winfield, rest in peace. Great actor. You may recognize him in movies like Star Trek to Wrath of Khan, Mars Attacks, along with detective Vukovich played by Lance Henriksen. He's an aliens also James Cameron, near dark. I also met Lance Henriksen at the Los Angeles United Film Festival, played one of the movies he was in he was fantastic. He came to the kickoff party at the beauty bar. And then about few months later, I was flying to London to run the festival there and we were on the same flight. And he comes over and we just chat for a minute because it's only been a few months. And then he is with Carl Weathers who plays Apollo Creed and the Rocky movies. I'm just like, golly Apollo Creed is huge. And then out of nowhere there Sean Austin so so I was on this crazy star studded flight. And I felt completely safe because I always say like, Hey, as long as you're on the flight with a celebrity, you're probably going to be okay. Well I had three on that flight so I felt really good as we crossed the pond.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait, were they all together? Are they just all happen to be on the same plane?

Jason Connell:

No. Hendrickson was with Carl Weathers they were doing a movie or something and then Sean Austin was this bad nowhere. Wow. And lastly, a Vukovich Lance Hendricks name and this movie was the name used in to live and die in LA. A great name. So one of the characters names Vukovich. And I highly recommend checking out the let's talk movies to live and die in LA episode, episode three. And great movie as well. Very la movie before we move on, so Did you also meet Lance Henriksen at the LA festival that year?

Sal Rodriguez:

I didn't remember until you just brought it up. But yes, I do. Remember now, meeting lancehead was sent at the festival. In fact, if we do a q&a,

Jason Connell:

I'm sure you probably did. You guys went for beers. After that. Remember that?

Sal Rodriguez:

I did a q&a with Lance Hendrickson at the LA United Film Festival. Yeah, I do remember that. Now his characters are kind of grisly and a little spooky. And yet that's not the way he really is. He's not like that at all. He's a very, very pleasant guy.

Jason Connell:

He's a great guy really is and they're dynamic travelers and Vukovich. The lieutenant detective are fantastic. They kind of ground the movie, they give it some humor. I mean, it's two people that are really connected beyond probably ginger and Sarah, but we don't really see that dynamic blossom. But these two are great. And I'm really happy that we explore them just as much as we do. And so Sal is there talking. What does Vukovich lay on Traxler?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, this is where we learn. And I was surprised to hear this. And I'll tell you why. This is where we learned that there have now been to Sarah Connors killed. Yep. And the reason I say I was surprised to hear this is because we as the audience don't see the second one killed. We see the first one killed. And now we have Linda Hamilton, a Sarah Connor our hero. But this number to Sarah Connor, we know nothing about nor did we see her death.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I wonder if they shot it. And I just thought it was repetitive. And why keep it again, this movie doesn't veer off too much. And it would have played out very similar to the first one. So maybe they thought this is a good reveal. Just to say it, you see the lieutenant's face, because he's so nonchalant. He's walking through his goddess coffee. There's cops trying to detain somebody and he's got a straw and he's just, you know, he's been there, done that. And then the detective comes up, and he's kind of dropping these files on him. And he's like, Yeah, I can read. I can see when he finds out. It's the same name. He's like, is this right? Like, oh, we got ourselves a serial killer here. And he says the name Sarah Luis Connor. Now, Sal, let me just go back to the phonebooks there's a Sarah and Connor. There's a Sarah Connor. And there's a Sarah J. Connor, who I assume is our hero. There is no Sarah L or Luis Connor. So I have no idea who they're talking about.

Sal Rodriguez:

And you know what? I didn't read this on the IMDB bloopers page yet either. So you know what, I think I'm pretty observant. And I catch bloopers and movies. I thought I had a gift. But you know what? There are people who are. They are amazing at catching little inconsistencies and little bloopers and movies, that tiniest little thing that your average person would never notice these people find these little flaws. I gotta hand it to him. Are you one of these people? It's almost like a cinema savant is what I call these people.

Jason Connell:

I do spot those things. But again, I don't like to point out the small continuity. It's the bigger things like this, these types of nuggets. If you're going to lay out some information, just match that information. I do see those inconsistencies. I don't care about a half burned cigarette and then a brand new cigarette in their mouth and they cut back and it's almost gone. Like yeah, that's a continuity thing. Editors and directors. They will choose performance over continuity most every time but this was obviously like, oh, yeah, well, maybe Luis but there's no Luis like that's a bigger flaw to me, and worth pointing out.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I think maybe they didn't have our second murder. Maybe she had like a emblem on her shirt. They couldn't show it

Jason Connell:

exactly that she had a Nike swoosh on her and I couldn't do it. Alright, so now the girls are dressed up, and we meet Pugsley who's like her?

Sal Rodriguez:

It looks like an iguana. Iguana. And there's this moment when she kisses the iguana says something like he's there for me. And then the iguana hisses in her face. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

I was good. So now we're checking our messages, which is what you did in the 80s. Right? And it's Sarah's mom, leaving a quick message. And then the second message is from Dan and Sal, who is Dan, what does he have to say?

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, well, this guy, this idiot is canceling a date with Sarah Connor. This guy had a day with Sarah Connor. Ginger was gonna go out with her boyfriend. This guy was gonna go out with Sarah. I don't know if they were really serious. It seemed like probably like a new guy. Maybe. But Sarah was gonna go out on a date with this guy. But he calls leaves a message says something came up. I hate when people say that something came up reeks of bullshit. cancels the date. And now Sarah is alone on this Friday night.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, pretty lame. Gingers mad like this jerky can't do that to you. It's Friday night. So now Sara changes because she was like a little more dressed up a little more professional look more like a first date. And she changes and she puts on a tie dyed shirt and it looks like a members only J I get something like that. As she walks out the front door we see it's apartment 225, which is also not in the phone books out. I don't know how he tracked them down, but she goes to her scooter. And Sal, who's in the parking lot spying on her.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, there's Kyle. So you could see how she started to get that feeling that she's being followed as she is by Kyle Reese. So we'll see what he's up to. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

because he didn't know the number of the apartment, but he assumed that he is the right place and she comes out and he follows her. He's tailing her. So now we're at the police station. We got Traxler and Vukovich. And they're trying to reach the third Sarah Connor are Sarah Connor. So now we cut to the apartment. And we see Matt and ginger in bed. I don't even know if they went out or they just stayed in whatever. And gents are still wearing the headphones. So now we cut back to the police station. And Sal, I love this exchange with the detective and the lieutenant. He's got to go talk to the press because the second Sarah Connors has been announced. At least they know. And now the press has kind of beaten him down because you know, you get a serial thing going on and everyone's on hyper alert. And he's like, Well, how do I look? Vukovich says like shit boss, and then tracks or says your mama. It's such a funny exchange.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, these guys you could tell have a history together. They might have climbed the ranks together. These guys they were probably rookies together, they got a long history. Wonderful report. A lot of jabs between these two very fun to watch.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, they were really good. I mean, they really are the only comic relief we have in this movie. And it really takes the air out. Just here and there, which we need. And they're just so at ease in their own skin. I love someone who's done something for so long. It's like, I gotta go deal with this your mama. And now you look like she was pretty funny.

Sal Rodriguez:

I was gonna mention something I really loved. If you notice Sarah and gingers answering machine, their outgoing message. They do that old gag where if you call the number you call their apartment, the machine goes, hello. Hello. And then you're on the other line going Oh, hello. Hello. They're like haha, fooled you. We're not here. This is our answer machine. What young person in the 80s and probably up to the early and mid 90s did not do this to their answer machine.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. And who didn't fall for it? Everybody did the first. So now Sarah's eating dinner. I believe its own bertos because it was on the apron that the bartender was wearing. Sarah's having a pizza pie having a good old time by herself because Dan canceled on her. And she looks across and yet another TV news story. And Sal What is this one say?

Sal Rodriguez:

Two victims killed both named Sarah Connor now. At one moment. Another patron says turn that off. And Sarah runs up to the bar. Don't turn it off. kind of alarming. These other patrons like who the hell is this lady and she is intently staring at this screen behind the bar realizing to Sarah Connors have been killed. And her name is also Sarah Connor.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, one. That's weird, too. We got a problem. Then Sarah runs to the phonebook. So this is our third phonebook slash payphone combo in the movie. And she goes to the exact same page. And she discovers she's number three. sound too bad. There's not 20 in between the second and her. But there's only three. So she's next. Maybe we don't know what's going on.

Sal Rodriguez:

Had they been after Salvador Rodriguez in the phone book in Los Angeles, they're safe. I would have been like number 128, I would have had time to take a bath and then pack before the Terminator comes.

Jason Connell:

Now Sarah leaves, and Reese is stalking her. Right there. She's feeling it like, look, you know, I've never really been followed by someone. But I'm assuming you get like a sixth sense about it. Plus what's going on with the two dads and all these things at play. She's on hyper alert. And she goes to a place called Tech Noir. I love that name more about that later. And as she walks in, and she's just trying to use the phone and she's got to pay 450 So she pays really fast and goes in. And then we hear the song plane photoplay by triangles who have a few songs in the movie. And then Sarah calls the cops out. But what happens when she tries to call the police

Sal Rodriguez:

while she dials 911 Right, but she can't get through what is it like a voicemail comes on?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I don't know if it was 911 but it was like, please hold so they weren't in a hurry. They don't have the dispatch that they have this day and age. But so she just hangs up.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, and also did you happen to notice the patrons in this tech Noir? They were literally all doing the same dance. Oh yeah, they were all doing the same dance move which is the new wave 80s dance move. I stood up and did it as I was watching the movie today. Yeah, every one of the was patriots doing the same executives?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I liked it. So now the Terminator arrives Sara's apartment. How did he know it was 225? I'm not sure but he's the Terminator. And kind of a weird cut from this police car squad car that's out front. You're like what's going on there and he gets a colony he takes off. So this random cop was just kind of in front of their building for whatever reason. As he drives away, the Terminator walks in frame as he's walking up to the apartment. You have ginger, she's still got her headphones on. You hear a song called intimacy by Lynn van heck, pretty good little track. And she's making a fee sale. Like she's whipping up a bunch of midnight snacks.

Sal Rodriguez:

This woman is fantastic. They just made love. He's napping, and she's in there making a sandwich. This is Woman of the Year Do I sound like a chauvinist when I say that this woman ginger. God bless her. I shed a tear when she meets her demise.

Jason Connell:

And then the Terminator opens a sliding glass door cell and what happens?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, well, the first person he approaches is the sleeping boyfriend and the sleeping boyfriend wakes up. I gotta hand it to him. He's ready to fight, he grabs a lamp starts swinging it, this guy tries to defend himself to defend the apartment to defend ginger. And the thing about the Terminator is that he doesn't fight. He doesn't know how to fight. He's not a trained fighter. He just gets this guy and just throws him around, he throws him against the Mary throws him against the dresser. He then throws him through the bedroom door. He's just treating this guy like a hawk would treat a mouse. This guy just has no chance.

Jason Connell:

Now at first he throws him out the sliding glass window and I think, hey, that would really hurt. If I'm that guy. I'm not gonna get up and kind of go out this guy again. Play dead. But he doesn't. He is tough. Matt is trying to defend himself and ginger. And he's killed for it, unfortunately. And as gingers bebop and down the hallway, listen to her tunes, and she's got this big feast, everything's done and ready to deliver to Matt and herself. And Matt comes crashing out of the door and bloodied up and she's like, that's the last thing she probably thought she was gonna see. As she comes back down the hallway. And this is a really cool shots out, and she turns to move away. And he has, I believe the laser pointer gun again. And what happens?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he shoots ginger in the back as she's running away from him. What a coward. He is shooting a woman in the back.

Jason Connell:

It's terrible. But it's a really cool shot because she's almost diving away and get shot. And it's like, slomo through the air. It's really, really cool. I mean, it sucks for ginger. And yes, this guy is a maniac killing everyone in his path. But it's a cool moment visually, and he doesn't know who he's killed. He's killed some guy that attacked him. He was there to kill the female in the building in the apartment. But he's trying to like look around and scan Terminator style. And the phone rings.

Sal Rodriguez:

And it's Sara calling from the techno our club telling ginger to grab her boyfriend and come get her so she gives up where she is on their answering machine. And of course the Terminator is there listening. And he hears this.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, he's like doo doo doo doo. I killed the wrong person. No worries there. He is now headed to tech Noir.

Sal Rodriguez:

Even the most sociopathic killer might have been like, Oh, shit.

Jason Connell:

So the difference is Reese knows what she looks like. He's been tracking her following her. We don't know what he's up to. But he's much closer to her than the Terminator is at this point in time. In fact, we don't even know what his name is yet.

Sal Rodriguez:

That's true. We don't know who the trenchcoat is a gentleman who ran from the police who was also teleported in the beginning of the movie. Yeah, we don't know his name yet. You are right.

Jason Connell:

So now we cut to Sarah who's leaving that message and now she's on the phone with the police. And we hear in the background another triangle song burnin in the third degree. And sound I

Sal Rodriguez:

just mentioned something this this goes back to the way the police fumbled when they were chasing the trench coded hero in the beginning of the movie. So the police the detectives have Sarah Connor on the line. She says she's at the tech Noir. They say they're sending a police car over. Don't you think they should have stayed on the line with her? What kind of cop isn't gonna say okay remain on the line. We are sending a car over especially under these circumstances involving serial killer and involving the press. They fumbled it LAPD is just screwing up everything.

Jason Connell:

Like every good advice, stay in a public place. You'll be okay there. Don't go to the restroom. Don't be out of sight. And I like how he knew where the place was immediately. Oh, it's over there on Pico. Yeah. So Traxler knows that dance move very well. But now so after she gets out the phone with them, who shows in walks

Sal Rodriguez:

the Terminator, and he doesn't pay an entrance fee for the bouncer comes along. Hey, puts his hand on his shoulder like you didn't pay your fee buddy. And like an adult to a child, the Terminator just grabs this guy's hand squeezes it breaks it instantly. The guy falls into a heap on the floor. In fact, some other patron comes to rescue the bouncer as the Terminator just keeps walking into this club.

Jason Connell:

And this is a great sequence as a terminator spot Sara because she'd knocked over her candidate dry on the ground or something. So she went to pick it up and the Terminator came in did like a sweep of the place. But then he spots are and as he spots her Reese spots, the Terminator, and all this is going on. It's really cool, very well orchestrated. And then tell us what happens.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's a good three shot because for a second there you see over the trench coat and heroes shoulder looking at the Terminator who is looking at Sarah Connor and Sarah Connor looking at the Terminator. So it's one of those wild wild west moments where whoever's quickest on the draw is going to walk away alive.

Jason Connell:

Right? And then the Terminator gets the laser pointer. And it's on Sarah. I mean, she's dead. It's game over. She's just deer in the headlights like, Huh, what is this? I thought this was tech Noir. What is this? And then Reese fires off a bunch of shots hits a terminator. And then what happens

Sal Rodriguez:

and they go into a crazy gunfight here in the tech noir Reese versus the Terminator. And at this point, Sarah Connor doesn't know what the hell's going on. Who's the good guy who's the bad guy who wants to kill me? Who wants to save me? Are these guys on the same team? She has no idea. No clue what the hell is happening. She's just waiting for the police to arrive.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. But Reese actually injures the Terminator. And then he comes over and says, Come with me if you want to LIS to Sarah. And Sarah doesn't know what to believe. But she did to see him fight this bigger person off. And then he gets up slowly because he's not down for long. So we're learning that this guy's indestructible. Of course, we've already seen him get knifed. We've seen him do some miraculous things. Fight guys have no problem. And now he can take bullets and come back almost like Jason from Friday the 13th or Mike Myers from Halloween. Like they're down for a second. And then the hands of fingers start to move, and then they're back at it. That's kind of who he's emulating here.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, wouldn't this be the ultimate nightmare? And the only reason this is not a horror film is because it has the Sci Fi robotic element. But this guy is this hyper killer. Imagine Michael Myers. Imagine Jason indestructible, but with the intelligence of a computer. Holy cow. This guy is terrifying.

Jason Connell:

But he almost kills Sarah again. And Reese has to save her again. And this is his plan. And he's already killed to Sarah Connors today. So this has to be the real one. And now they're running and the Terminator chases. And so we see his POV the terminators that is, and it's like $6 million, man. He's getting all these data points in there. And, and this really reminds me of Steve Austin. I'm really loving this, but this is back in 84. So really cool back then.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes, and especially cool when you know who did the special effects. And that is Stan Winston. So as I'm watching 1980 force Terminator, I'm thinking what does this remind me so much of and the terminators POV when you look through his eyeballs, not only million dollar man, but for our era predator 1987 also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, special effects by Stan Winston. So we see his trademark POV when you are either a predator or you are a terminator. This is how you see the world.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. And it's scary. Now we know. Right then this is a machine and we didn't know that until that point in time. I mean, we kind of assumed he could take all these bullets, but he could have had a bulletproof vest on but now we know this is not a man we don't know about race, but he seems to be more human. So now Reese blows up a car is quite good at that. And Terminator jumps over the car sow lands on it, and what does he do?

Sal Rodriguez:

He's on the hood. And he punches his fist right through the windshield.

Jason Connell:

Hand to the broken windshield reaching for her as Reese is going in reverse super fast. I mean, a lots going on here. And

Sal Rodriguez:

then the Terminator falls off the car. Kyle and Sarah take off. Or should I say our hero and Sara take off leaving the Terminator lane there and then the cop comes up.

Jason Connell:

Now we got a hit and run here. He thinks the Terminator was the victim in this situation while

Sal Rodriguez:

he's calling an ambulance. Terminator stands up, goes over to the cop grabs him by the back of the head and smashes his head against the cop car. It's got to be certain death. I mean, if you were I did it, he might not die. If the Terminator does it. He's probably dead. So I'm assuming that he killed this cop right here.

Jason Connell:

Maybe or maybe just injured badly. I'm not sure but whenever he has the car and so I also noticed in the sequence that his hair changed. I don't know if you noticed that. But it definitely has changed. Maybe there's some prosthetics going on. But there are scenes where his hair Arnold tears very different if you watch it again, like right before he jumps on the hood, it's one way it's more like more normal, like Arnold from his bodybuilding days. And then it's like this weird kind of like hairpiece, but maybe they put some things on his face, and they had to do that. But his hair is different, for whatever reason. And he also does something that we learn about him here that he can mimic voices perfectly Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

this is where it's really, really scary. And again, the fact that he's a robot, we let them off the hook. But this would be considered absolute evil. He just happens to be a robot, he kills and he messes with your head by tricking you and making you think that you're talking to somebody that you're not. In this instance, he makes dispatch think that he's a cop. I think the voice he's able to capture your voice and record it and then mimic you. So he does it with this cop. was the purpose of this to throw dispatch off his trail? Is that what he's trying to do here?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, and then he wants to kind of be undercover in this cop car and then track their whereabouts because they're high talent all over town with a broken windshield. So he knows he's already figured out like, Okay, I'm gonna go position a position of authority. They have CBS and everyone's going to communicate and I'll just scan and yeah, so he's one step ahead of everyone. He's a robot. He's total AI here. Badass AI

Sal Rodriguez:

that in fact, we're gonna be finding out very soon. His actual name, because he does have an actual name we're going to find out soon from our hero when he explains things to Sarah Connor.

Jason Connell:

So Sarah is freaking out in the car Sal. And she knows she's safe with this guy, but she doesn't know who this guy is. So he's kind of spewing off things almost like military. Like I'm Reese Sergeant tech comm v n 36416. And she's like you know he's this is all he knows he's a soldier. Sure No. And he tells her that she's targeted for termination which again still it's just too much to digest she's been through a whirlwind of a day from firing out the to Sarah Connors are dead from being stood up on a date to nearly getting killed a couple of times by this whatever it is, so it's just a lot to process

Sal Rodriguez:

it let's not forget her roommate, ginger and her boyfriend being murdered. Yeah, but she doesn't know that yet. All she doesn't That's right. She doesn't know that yet. That's sad.

Jason Connell:

And then race begins to explain what is chasing them?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, officially, what is chasing them is a cyborg. Also called a cybernetic organism. Officially Cyberdyne systems model 101. Corral for you have fanboys out there, some people call this the T 800.

Jason Connell:

They started calling it the T 800. And Terminator two. And from what I understand the 101 is essentially the T 800. They just wanted to use that name for the second movie and subsequent movies. So it's one of the same, okay,

Sal Rodriguez:

well, one thing he also has that I completely forgotten about is that he does actually have flesh. They grow the skin and hair in a lab for the cyborgs to wear a sort of a skin suit, but it is actual flesh grown in a lab. Very interesting.

Jason Connell:

And it really is to pass as humans and that's why you couldn't really tell who he is. However, they picked a guy that's pretty conspicuous. They picked this huge man who definitely stands out in the crowd has a very unique voice, but whatever. I'm glad it's Arnold's

Sal Rodriguez:

if they really wanted to have a T 800 not blend in. They would have made them look like me. Nobody looks when I walked down the street. I'd be a killing

Jason Connell:

machine. Yeah, and SR 800.

Sal Rodriguez:

How about the SR 900? Maybe I'm one. Oh, I'm one up. Yeah, like because I can blend in so the T 900 can blend in to society a little better.

Jason Connell:

So now cops are chasing them, and they find refuge in a parking garage. And Reese goes on to share about the future. And of course, there's the site. I don't know this guy and she's trying to flee again. But Sal, he's opening up in the same he's not even sure if he can kill a terminator. So my question is, why does in one Reese send a few more back to strengthen numbers, but they don't they send him back and hopefully he'll do his best. You know, this seems like a pretty critical thing is to keep Sarah Connor alive so she can have John Connor. And it seems like there would have been more done. It's like, Here you go. Good luck to your race. He's a badass and you got no weapons from the future either. So go save the future. This

Sal Rodriguez:

is piggybacking off of Let's Talk movies, the fly. I would imagine it would be easier to send non organic material through a time portal than an organic piece but you Whatever I mean, it's because for the fly was the opposite, right? It's it was easier to send non organic materials through. Yeah, you're

Jason Connell:

absolutely right. They were stocking the meat that tasted synthetic after he put it through, but it would mess up the baboon. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Good point. So now the terminators driving and scanning is in the cop car. And they have found the vehicle at the parking garage the cops have. And Reese and Sarah, get out of the car just in time. And they upgrade because now they have a Cadillac. If I'm not mistaken.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yep. Because later on when the cop or is the man of the car, he mentioned the Cadillac.

Jason Connell:

Now so I know there's a lot of hot wiring, but there's also a lot of unlocked cars in the 80s.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I think maybe in the 80s Less people locked their cars. I mean, we didn't even have the club in the 80s. I think the club came out in like the early 90s. So I think the 80s was a more trusting time, I think.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. Alright, so now Reese shares about the nuclear war, the machines, the defense network computers, and yes, one John

Sal Rodriguez:

Connor. And Sal, Sarah believes him. Well, I think she really on the fence about believing him. But she knows she's not dead. Right? If this is the guy that wanted her dead, she would be dead. So I think maybe minute by minute, she starts to kind of trust him more, because I think she's seen enough now to know that this guy is not the one who's here to kill her. She doesn't may not believe his story entirely. Because remember, later on at the police station, she asked the police about his sanity. So right now she doesn't know what to think. But it's starting moment by moment to I think trust him a little bit more.

Jason Connell:

And this movie is very head of itself in so many ways. But here we are, in today's day and age in AI has become a bigger and bigger movement. We rely on smart devices and helping with our homes. And there's people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who are really pushing AI. And this movie that's really what it is essentially, it's machines got so smart that they wanted to wipe out mankind and so you're doing a pretty good job. And it's kind of a scary thought to see AI churn on us. And you know, it could be lights out. Yeah, I

Sal Rodriguez:

think if they were to reboot the Terminator today, they would have just dropped a serie inside of a t 800. With a 5g connection, right.

Jason Connell:

That's a scary. So now the Terminator spots them as they're in the Cadillac. And this begins a big car chasing and shooting and he's having Sara help out grabbing the will. And what happened so

Sal Rodriguez:

well, they're having an incredible shootout chase scene, it's like they're shooting at each other. As he's chasing them at few moments. They're kind of running parallel together him on the other side. So a sort of a duel, a moving duel. But uh, yeah, very interesting sequence because it's both a shootout and a chase at the same time through this parking garage. And as though parking garages aren't scary enough, now we have cybernetic organism chasing you

Jason Connell:

exactly. As they fly down the road. Sara does the unthinkable. And she throws the car, the car that's in Drive. I think she does it in park reverse while she's going that fast. So the car is shot, but it totally stops. And terminators car keeps going and slams into a wall.

Sal Rodriguez:

And they're sort of maybe like in a freeway overpass, sort of a dead end. And so here's the Terminator crashed over here. And here's Kyle Reese, and Sarah Connor. And then here come all the cop cars and Kyle Reese is ready to have a shootout with the cops. But then Sarah says no, no, no, no, no, no and tells them to settle down. They surrender to the police. They are arrested. They look over and the T 800. is gone.

Jason Connell:

Very Mike Myers, Jason ask. Yep. So now we're at the police station. And Sarah finds out about ginger, and Matt. And she's obviously very broken up about it. Not only is some killer after her, he's killed her friend, her friend's boyfriend and harmed so many people and she's just, you know, this is like the worst day ever and has no idea how it's going to stop. And she's with a guy that like you said, Is he crazy? She's questioned his sanity although everything he's saying kind of makes sense about this and indestructible person that can take bullets who jumps over cars who hits the windshields? Like it doesn't make sense. Maybe he is a machine. And then we meet the criminal psychologist whose name Silberman and I love this actor Sal played by Eric Bowen. And he went on to be in Terminator two, and Terminator three. And this role.

Sal Rodriguez:

I didn't know that this guy is in the three movies and he's the criminal psychologist. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

kind of weird that this obscure character went on to be in all three of them. He fits right in with a detective and a lieutenant. I love that he's just so natural Sal. Obviously they brought him in And late at night, he's yawning. He's there. She's like, Is he crazy? And he's like, Well, let's we're gonna find out and flips his little pen. accused us right on. They just nailed it. Yeah. Now we're back to the Terminator. And he's in an apartment. I guess he's just commandeer this apartment, Sal. And he's repairing himself, his arm, the flesh, part of his arm has taken some hits. And this is a really cool sequence.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he's using at least what we used to call exacto knives, which are these little utility knives that are used like in drafting and arts and crafts. So he digs into his forearm with this little exacto knife, and performs a full on open forearm surgery was definitely one of the coolest sequences of the 80s.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, it was really neat. And it's a great effect. And a lot of these throughout the movie does give it that authenticity. Like now we know this is a machine. And now we're seeing the inner workings of said machine. We just saw him take things and absorb them. But now we know like, Oh, my God, Reese is right. So we have the audience now can all believe that. He's telling us the truth. And we've seen him dreaming, and we've seen the future from the audience standpoint. So yeah, it's pretty cool. And now we cut back to Silverman, who's interviewing Reese, and I love this sequence to Sal. They're all getting a laugh. And I like when Superman says, oh, okay, I get it. So it's kind of like retroactive abortion. And he's talking about Time Displacement equipment and how Reese can't go home. So sermons just, you know, he's seen it all before he thinks race is loaded up on drugs, and no one's buying the story.

Sal Rodriguez:

But as a psychologist, your job is to make the subject kind of think you believe them? Right? He kind of makes it seem like, Okay, so let me get this straight. So then you go here, and then you use this device, and then you use this machine. And he makes Sergeant Reese think that he's kind of on board with his story. And he just might believe his story.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, but he doesn't. But race is convictions are strong. We know that he's telling the truth. And Sarah is the only one there that seen some of this evidence. So back to the Terminator, who's fixing his eye, the classic red eye, which is an homage to how from 2001 No doubt,

Sal Rodriguez:

he doesn't actually do a repair job. He just kind of Chuck's his eyeball, because I guess he realizes he can't fix it. So he just Chuck's his eyeball and puts on the glasses. But I'll tell you this scene where he's working on his own eye doing surgery on his own eye, not for the faint of heart. I mean, you know, one of those things where you hold your breath. And again, going back to the 80s. I mean, we haven't seen this before.

Jason Connell:

No, not at all. And it's very cool. We hadn't seen it before. And it still holds up today. So it's still really neat. And like you said, he puts his sunglasses on, and he kind of looks like Jim McMahon, who was a famous NFL quarterback in the 80s for the Chicago Bears and later the Philadelphia Eagles. But he looks really cool like that he's got the same kind of hair. All he was missing was the headband that said Roselle on it, which was the NFL commissioner in the 80s. But, and also Sal, I noticed that he is now upgraded to a black leather jacket. Much different than the one he stole from the punk at the Griffith Observatory in the first scene.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think we're just led to believe that he's just jacking people for clothes everywhere he goes, I mean, and the thing of it is, see look, if you're let's say a thug on the street, and a greater thug comes and Jax you are punks. You. You can't run to the police and say, Hey, this guy stole my clothes, you know, because then you're now you're a punk. So he probably just accosted when it would have to be another large guy, steal his leather jacket. And there's nothing that that other guy could possibly do.

Jason Connell:

Because that's the rule of the street. So now we're at the police station, and they're watching the video interview. And Vukovich likes the Ray Gun reference. He's laughing he's snickering. And so Reese shares that you have to be naked to come through, which is also pretty funny to them. But he also shares it Skynet only knew Sarah Connors name, and the city she was in. So very hazy details, and they dropped him here. And that's what the Terminator is doing. And he's been very successful. With his limited knowledge. He's already wiped out to Sarah Connors, and he knows what the third one looks like. And he's hunting her down and Reese knows it. It's always just a matter of time until the Terminator shows up. He's begging them to release him so he can be with Sarah because he probably has the best chance of saving her. And they're having none of it

Sal Rodriguez:

sound No, because they also bring along a giant bulletproof vest and show her Yeah, this guy was wearing the body armor. That's how he got up after the gunshots. And then she's like, What about punching through the windshield. They're like, Ah, he's probably on PCP. So they minimize everything that the Terminator is doing. brushing it off on drug use, or body armor. And I think that's enough for the moment for Sarah to think okay. The guy was a drug addict with body armor. Kyle Reese is a nutcase. And then they laid Sarah down to take a nap in the police station, which has 30 police officers have a rest on this comfortable couch in his office. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

and that'd be a nice trucks was trying to be really sweet to her. In fact, at one moment when they're watching the video interview, it goes too far. And he's like, Oh, kill it, Doc, kill it because you're upsetting Sarah. So yeah, he's like, Hey, this couch doesn't look like much but I've slept here myself a lot. So take a little nap while your mother drives down from Big Bear. A place that I've been to often with young Nico my dog. I've had some cabins there. It's a fun place. It's about an hour and a half, maybe two at the most outside of Los Angeles. So another Terminator is going to the police station. And I guess it's because he saw Reese and Sarah get picked up or apprehended by the police when he fled the scene after he ran into the wall. After he kind of came to as he shows up, we see bone our beloved criminal psychologist, his beeper or pager goes off, and he's looking down at it. And then the Terminator walks in right behind him. And next comes the most classic line in the entire franchise. So Sal, please take us through it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, this line has transcended the movie itself in our cultural lexicon, I would say ever since this date. So you see the front desk of the police department. You see the Terminator walk in, nearly running into the criminal psychologist as he checks his beeper. He walks up to the front desk guy. He says I'm a friend of Sarah Connor, man, I see her and the front desk guys like blowing them off. Like yeah, she's busy with a written statement. Have a seat. The Terminator looks around kind of gauging the front area. In his computer brain. he utters the famous and infamous line that even at 11 When I saw this movie, I knew this line was special. I'll be back. So he leaves. The front desk guy continues filling out some paperwork there. And all of a sudden, here comes the Terminator, driving a car through the front of the police station.

Jason Connell:

And all hell breaking loose afterwards.

Sal Rodriguez:

He is just walking through the police station, shooting everything in sight.

Jason Connell:

Sound there are 30 cops here and he is blowing them away. And then he walks down the hall and kills the power very smart. He can see in the dark. He's the Terminator. It causes more panic, and people are running around. Terminator even shoots our beloved Lieutenant Traxler and Detective Vukovich kills him dead. Well, as far as we know Vukovich gets shot off camera. We assume Vukovich meets his demise. So Reese escapes firing Sara. They escape all wild terminators blowing cops away. And Sal they steal their third

Sal Rodriguez:

car via improper hotwire

Jason Connell:

and proper hotwire. And I think this one's like a gremlin or a Pinto or something or it looks like one of those cars.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's not a Pinto because I have had a Pinto in my life. That was one of those Gremlins I believe.

Jason Connell:

And so they get out of there. Terminator still causing havoc, but they escape again. And then they run out of gas because not every car you still has a full tank.

Sal Rodriguez:

And they're in some sort of woodsy area. And then they decide to push the car off the road to get it out of sight. And then they seek shelter under some sort of bridge. And then she treats his gunshot wound. Almost like a field medic.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, because we had mentioned that because he was shot. He took a hit.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. So she addresses his wound and does a fantastic job.

Jason Connell:

And then he begins to share more about John Connor because she wants to hear and he opens up more. I love how he says he's about my height. Spoiler alert. And he's got your eyes but I thought who? First time I saw this. I didn't see this coming. But okay.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, I don't think in 1984 I saw this either. This just over my head.

Jason Connell:

And then reshare something that John Connors had said to him, and he memorized it to tell Sarah, which is this. Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must face. Except to say the future is not set. You must be stronger than you can imagine. You can be you must survive, or I will never exist. Wow. Words from the future.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, because that was reassuring because this is right after she had sort of that little breakdown that she didn't want this. I don't want to be a part of this. I didn't ask for this, which I believe is the hero's journey. You know, the the reluctant leader as I call Khalid, which I believe is the highest leadership is when you kind of get pulled into the leadership position, as opposed to nominating yourself.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, look at Jaws every day man. Sheriff Martin Brody, he didn't want to go save the day and kill the shark Quint wanted to go kill the shark. Well, Quint gets eaten. Yeah, but Brody was the hero. And that's the last thing he wanted to be. So you're absolutely right. She wants nothing to do with this. But yet, maybe it is my calling. Maybe I am strong enough. And it's all starting to resonate. And it's obvious that the Terminator is going to find her. So she's going to have to come to grips with this, and work with Reese and try to defeat this machine. So now reshares about H Ks, which sell or HKS Hunter killers, Hunter killers, kind of like that. So he's sharing about HKS. And he's telling more of the story, some of the things we saw before from the future, but now it's more intricate. Like he's telling her more things. And I swear this is so much like, escaped from New York, Mad Max Of course, and even has a total recall kind of

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, also a lot of the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, that post apocalyptic underground shelters. You know, you want to be safe from the enemy, the powers that be the machines, the institutions. You're down in these in these underground bunkers. And there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on, like people are catching rats to eat. There's a kid watching a television and there's like a bonfire in the middle of the television set. Yeah. So a lot of weird things going on here. And this is where we see that Kyle has a picture of Sarah in his hand. This is where we see that photograph. Remember this photograph?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, you see Sarah Connor, you don't know when this is you kind of see like a dog behind her. He's looking at this photo, you see her face very clearly. And also in the sequence. You see these two German Shepherds, which I liked seeing of course, dogs in general, but specifically German Shepherds. And because we find out later that they can detect terminators. They can sense them out. So have more dogs around you. That's why I got Nico Sal. Just in the event.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, we don't know who's coming from the future to kill you.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. And then in this future sequence, we see another Terminator.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. And this Terminator comes in start shooting up the place. And here's a little nugget. I recognize him right away again. Knowing Arnold Schwarzenegger before his movie career following his bodybuilding career. Arnold Schwarzenegger his real life best friend, Franco Colombo, who is today a chiropractor, but once upon a time was a counterpart of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bodybuilding career. And as a matter of fact, our Terminator here played by Franco Colombo was also once Mr. Olympia.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. And I recognized him too, because I loved the documentary pumping iron. I highly recommend people see it. It's incredible. You see Arnold competing for one of his later Mr. Olympian titles, Franco Colombo's in their training together. You see the future Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno in the movie, and you really see Arnold you see his charisma, but that's a great documentary again, see it, but that's how I recognize him. Franco Colombo is also very short. I mean, it's huge, but he's also very short in stature compared to Arnold, but it works here on the scene because he's got the muscles. He's got the look. It was really cool to see him on this role, albeit very small. But you can see that Reese has been terrorized by terminators even in the future.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's so in other words, it's almost like our Terminator here played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of many for Kyle Reese. Sadly.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So now we're back at terminators apartment, and his face is the king.

Sal Rodriguez:

That sounds hilarious. We're back at terminators apartment. His neighbor walks over wants to borrow some sugar.

Jason Connell:

Kramer comes sliding in and his face is decaying. And He's scanning Sarah's address book and sell what happens next.

Sal Rodriguez:

So he's looking through this address book to gain information about Sarah's whereabouts. And then a custodian knocks in the door some sort of janitor or custodian type yells out something like, Hey, you got a dead cat in there. And then we see this robot killer go through some sort of database of phrases of possible responses. Yeah, possible responses, and he decides to use fuck you asshole. And that works and sends the custodian guy on his way.

Jason Connell:

So good. And then we see something that says mom's cabin, Big Bear 181 spruce lane. So Sal, he's deduced. Go to Sara's mom's because she would probably know Sarah's whereabouts because really, Sarah and Rhys right now are needle in a haystack when they could get out of dodge. He's limited, but he's using what he has to find her.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, because at this time, Kyle and Sarah, check into this motel. As soon as they're in there, Kyle goes out for supplies. And Sarah is on the phone with what she thinks is her mother. But we see it's actually the Terminator mimicking her mother over the telephone. They don't show it. That would have been extra horrific. But we can assume that the Terminator has killed Sarah's mother.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. They go to the tiki motel. And that's actually in Huntington Park style. Although I think in the movie they were trying to act like it's the San Jose area because the area code was 408. On the phone, yeah. There was also a German Shepherd there who's kind of like tied to the front of the tiki motel. So as Rhys goes off to get groceries, you're absolutely right. Sara calls her mother and Sal, this Terminator. He's put it together. He's smart. He knows that she'll eventually talk to her mother. But Sal, let me just point this one thing out the night before. When Sarah was taking a nap at the police precinct pre Terminator coming in and ruining everything. Traxler said your mother's coming down from Big Bear. So she was coming down to pick up Sarah. So are we led to believe that she got there and said, Oh, this is crazy. I'm going back to Big Bear. I guess that's what happened. But it seems a little far fetched. I think she would have stayed and been like, this is like one of the biggest news stories of all time. A police precinct was blown up, everyone and it killed. And her mom's is going to drive back to Big Bear. I mean, maybe, but I'm just saying there's

Sal Rodriguez:

that. Wait, are you saying that it's entirely possible that the mother was not at the cabin when the Terminator showed up?

Jason Connell:

I'm just questioning the logic of the mother. Why would she return there. But this is also a day and age where you had to go by your phone to wait for a phone call. So maybe it is completely plausible that she drove all the way back there to be by her phone because this predates cellular telephones. So anyway, back to what's really going on. And what do we see Sal? As she hangs up the phone with her mother air quotes, and she's shared with her the phone number and the room number where she's at? Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

the cameras moving along. This cabin camera moves over and we see that it is the Terminator mimicking Sarah's mother impersonating her mother so I think we can assume the mother's dead

Jason Connell:

okay, you see like the door has a hole in it. The whole place has been destroyed. It's a really cool reveals like a panning shot of all the destruction. Nobody they didn't do that to us. But yes, I think it's safe to assume that our mother was there because he picked up on her voice Yes. and

Sal Rodriguez:

killed her. Well, so far the Cyberdyne systems model 101 has not been successful at killing Sarah Connor, but has been successful at killing Sarah Connors mother.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. And other people named Sarah Collins who other Sarah cutters. So Reese comes home with the groceries. And it's mothballs, corn syrup, and ammonia. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

And we come to find out that actually, these are the supplies for making pipe bombs. And that's what they're going to be doing here as the Terminator is heading down to see them on a motorcycle. Where did he get the motorcycle from? We don't know. But he's on a motorcycle now.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. I'm sure he stole that like all the other stolen vehicles in this movie. And really screw up making nitroglycerin. So yeah, pipe bombs. No problem. I've been doing this since I was a kid. So now we cut back and forth. We have Terminator writing towards them. And little do either one of them know that the Terminator is headed their direction.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, there will be no reason for them to think or believe that the Terminator knows where they are. No, but yeah, he does.

Jason Connell:

We also find out so that Reese is not only a virgin. He's also in love with Sarah.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, that was kind of a interesting reveal. I'd forgotten about that. So he expresses that he's had love for her since he's first saw this picture. He travelled through time for her which is incredibly romantic. And he expresses his affection for her but then he's embarrassed and he gets up and walks away. But then she stands up, goes over to him and starts kissing him. So she kind of makes the first move on Kyle Reese.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. And then we have our sexing

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. Poor guy. Poor guy has to do a sex scene with Linda Hamilton.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, that's a pretty good sexing pretty gratuitous sexing. And now we know that John Connor has been conceived. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

and you know The 80s were just so chock full of gratuitous sex scenes unlike today. I mean, you know, gratuitous sex scenes were just part of sci fi and horror back in the 80s. But not so much today. That's a bygone era.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So now the Terminator is getting closer, and he's got the gun over the shoulder sow like he's, he's ready for business. And then we hear the German Shepherd that's tied up at the front office, he starts to bark, which is a telltale sign for terminators. And then what happened?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, the Terminator breaks down the door of the motel room. But Kyle and Sarah have made off on their way. And this time,

Jason Connell:

Reese pulls a Terminator movie and he tosses a guy out of his own car. Oh, yes, yes. And doesn't bang his head like the cop. More like the phone booth scene when he threw Morris out of the way. If I'm not mistaken for stolen car for recent, Sarah.

Sal Rodriguez:

And we you know, by today's standards, we would still call that a carjacking. I don't know if they have the term carjacking back in 84. But that was a carjacking that guy, innocent guy, but happen to be in the wrong place the wrong time.

Jason Connell:

In fact, when you see the Terminator walk up, the guy kind of moves out of his way Terminator does not do anything to him. And he's like, Oh, hey, so he finally gets in his car, only to be thrown out by reading. So he was really in the wrong place. It

Sal Rodriguez:

was the same guy that moved out of the way it was the same guy. Okay, yeah,

Jason Connell:

same guy here, like I'm getting out of here. What wait. And so this chase goes on. And I like so that they wind up at the Second Street Tunnel. And those of us who know Los Angeles are visited are those of us who watch movies, you have seen this tunnel and many, many movies more than you even realize some huge films such as Blade Runner, Independence Day, The Dark Knight, and many, many more use this tunnel style. And the reason this tunnel is so let's say cinematic, is because I believe it's just tiled the whole way around the whole sphere. So the way it shines, it's kind of like this white, glossy, reflective tunnel. And it's just you've seen it a lot. There's no other tunnels like it that I've ever seen. So I'll see it in the movie and think, Oh, that's it. And it just gets used a lot. And here they are in it again, going down. And I believe that now Reese is throwing these pipe bombs at the Terminator.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, you know, you gotta have your aim perfect, because he's throwing the pipe bombs hoping that they explode right at the right moment. But they're kind of a few seconds early or a few seconds late. So the Terminator is just heading forward on this motorcycle, kind of dodging all these pipe bombs for now.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. You're exactly right. They're just blowing up. And then you see him come through the smoke. And since he's not nervous, he's a machine. He's not veering out of the way or he's just going full throttle. If he gets blown up, so be it. I'll deal with that if and when it happens. And it's very hard to hit a moving target with the pipe bomb turns out. And then Sarah driving. She has an idea of one way of getting the Terminator off of his motorcycle, which

Sal Rodriguez:

is what that's to hit them and knock them off.

Jason Connell:

She kind of pins him into the side of the road there and yeah, knocks him down. Although that also puts them at great risk because they start to roll themselves.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. So they roll the car. And then she is upside down in this car with Kyle but quickly grabs him, pulls them out. And then also the Terminator has to kind of come to because he crashed on the motorcycle. So he's kind of coming to gathering himself. And just as the Terminator is starting to gather himself. Here comes a giant, big rig truck. Yeah. And he gets run over by this big rig truck. Two guys in this truck. They stop. They're like holy cow. One of the guys gets out just to check on what the hell or who the hell he ran over. He wants to do the right thing right? Gets out and the Terminator just grab this guy. What does he do with this guy does

Jason Connell:

he just he just throws him.

Sal Rodriguez:

He just throws goes into the truck. He looks so gruesome right now turns to the passenger. This scene is almost like one of those. I'll be back scenes because I'll never forget this line. When he turns to the passenger says Get out. And that passenger does exactly what I would have done at that moment. got the hell out of that truck. And the passenger

Jason Connell:

thought his buddy was getting back in the truck. He's like, hey, what was it? Oh, and he sees this grotesque machine man. And he's like, I'm out of here. So the Terminator does let people live if they just get the heck out of his way.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I like how the Terminator looks down at the gear shaft and does some sort of three dimensional scan to see how the gearshift works. I guess he does like an automatic learning upload. He has like The Matrix. Yeah, look down at the problem and boom, you solve it. And there you go. Before we know it. He knows how to drive an 18 Wheeler with all these years. How many gears does an 18 Wheeler have?

Jason Connell:

I don't know. But it looks pretty intimidating to me. A lot of gears and I know how to drive a stick but that would take me a minute inside the matrix when he did know how to fly a helicopter and he downloaded it really quickly and then boom, they're off. Very similar to that. So that's an homage to the Terminator. So then he starts to chase them down the street because now Sarah has got Rhys up and he's running. And they're going down the street. I was like when people are running from the vehicle down the middle of the street. And then Reese can't keep up with her. He goes off to the side and yells at her to keep running because a terminator is really just after her. And then Reese does What Sal pretty great move.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, let me just mention this for cinematic sake. And that is this scene as they're running from this big rig truck. I'm having flashbacks of Steven Spielberg's duel, the movie starring Dennis Weaver, which is one of my favorite old movies that was just a guy getting chased by a evil guy in a truck. So very reminiscent of that a lot of terror here a lot of hopelessness almost. I mean, if I'm running down the street and the truck is on my ass, I don't know if I'm gonna have a lot of hope there. So what happens is Reese grabs one of these pipe bombs, and throws it into the exhaust of this truck. Fantastic Moon by the way, this is not just any truck. This is a tanker trucks, we can assume maybe it's full of fuel. This is not just a truck carrying bananas, or chickens. This is full of some sort of flammable liquid. So when he throws a pipe bomb in, this whole thing explodes and goes up in flames.

Jason Connell:

It does. And so when I saw this movie for the first time, I thought ballgame, Reese is the hero. It's over my gosh, that was such a close call. But we see Sara and Reese reunite. And then out of the ashes, Sal,

Sal Rodriguez:

what do we see? It's one of these moments where you almost think, Okay, that was a good movie. glad that's over. And you're almost starting to get up from your chair. And then boom, here comes the Terminator coming out of the flames. Skin completely burnt off. We now see him in his true silver metal form without his his flesh, his lab grown flesh. We now see him in his all of his a endoskeleton I believe it's called. And then we still have his red eyes. So this is a hideous robotic creature, limping towards you now.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. And I have to say south at the tighter shots like of the feet of the backside, when they just really have this practical effect going on where it's really there. Those looks so cool, very similar to an American Werewolf in London when the man was running in the tube. And he's going up the escalator and you see the wolf come into frame very slowly, just enough to make it believable. Those shots are great. The other shots of the actual moving robot look a little cartoony to me and the sequence. I'm not sure how you felt?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is not this is probably the beginning of computer graphic technology, you know, some practical effects, some computer effects. And yeah, they had not arrived. Just like I mentioned earlier, James Cameron's later work with avatar, they have not arrived with the computer technology. So you do see those seams there where you see like, half the frame looks real half the frame looks sort of animated. Yeah, there was a couple of shots. But believe me, sitting where we are today, I definitely give a lot of leeway for the era itself.

Jason Connell:

And they did a very good job of using the effects that I liked more the actual robot they're keeping in front of them. When he's hitting it and his reaction, they did a very good job of that to keep the realism going. So they take refuge in this building, which, of course now they are in the GMF robotics plant. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

And it's very similar. For those of you who have ever been in the bowels of a ship here in Los Angeles, we used to have the Queen Mary, and they would have a tour of the ship and you can go into the bowels of the ship. Yeah, so this was kind of reminiscent of that even though this was some sort of robotics laboratory, the layout and the way the stairs and ladders go around and you have these little alcoves kind of reminiscent of being in the bottom of a giant ship and in this scene, no security guards robotics laboratory. A lot of expensive equipment, no security guard there whatsoever.

Jason Connell:

So restarts to turn everything on to confuse the Terminator threw off his bearings or what have you. And of course the Terminator still finds them because he is the Terminator, and race then grabs a pole and is trying to fight the Terminator off.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he gets a few good shots in swinging this metal rod at the terminators had a few net cranks the Terminator going boom, boom, slam slam on the face. Shots are pretty cool, actually. Yeah, well, I liked the way his head tilts in either direction. My favorite part was the backhand. So he knocks this pipe at a Kyle raise his hand and then the Terminator delivers this major backhand. I mean, jeez, that would that would probably break someone's jaw pretty easily.

Jason Connell:

And then Reese has one last pipe bomb.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he sticks it into the ribcage of the Terminator, and then he kind of fall goes down the railing. So he goes out of frame. We just kind of Soomi falls off this sort of platform. And then the Terminator explodes right in front of our faces. He explodes and now maybe we think, Oh, well now he's got to be dead.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, parts go everywhere. Even Sarah who's pretty far ahead of them. She takes a part in her leg and she's got to pull it out and she's in pain but elated that she's live because she's swimming through all these parts, you know, because he's this this mechanical thing. And part spewed everywhere. I believe she crawls over to re so again, our hero, right, he did. He's killed the Terminator a second time and the last few minutes. And when she gets to Reese, why don't we find out

Sal Rodriguez:

a very sad Reese appears dead. I say appears because you never know in movies, but he does seem dead. So she's starts to break down over Reese's lifeless body. And guess who reappears Terminator reappears without any legs, he just sort of an upper torso. But just goes to show just like Kyle Reese said earlier in the movie, he will not stop until you are dead. Nothing will stop this thing. So he keeps moving forward in spite of having no legs and crawling, chasing after Sarah Connor. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

and very capable of killing her. I know it's kind of Surely she can get away. But she's injured. No one's around to help. She has no weapons. And this is still a very strong robot. His hands could crush you. So he's common, albeit slow, but it's a really cool sequence which happens as she starts to crawl away he's crawling towards her. And Sal please set the stage

Sal Rodriguez:

while the grand finale of this ride of terror I would call it is Sara crawls through with some sort of hydraulic press.

Jason Connell:

We should point out that earlier had been hit and went into motion but we didn't talk about

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so now she crawls through and then she traps the Terminator in this closes like a gate he reaches through with his arm tries to grab her the piece de resistance very similar to the RV back very similar to the Get out moment in the truck. Another famous line she reaches around the corner pushes the button but right before that looks at the Terminator and says you're terminated fucker and hits that button and down comes that hydraulic press down squishing squishing the Terminator. And then we have electricity again right sort of lightning coming out. He leaves this world the way he came into it.

Jason Connell:

That's exactly what happens a lot of electricity. He continues to try to smash them down taking all the life out of him. And then you see the classic red. I finally go black.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. And I think at that moment, we can all take a breath. Because I think we need to now assume the terminators dead.

Jason Connell:

I think it's safe to assume now. So I liked the way that she had her reach around her hand these buttons, these three buttons and she picked the right one to bring it down. That was pretty funny that she learned that right away. But she's got skills, Sarah Connor, and then what do we see happen to Reese? Next?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, the next time we see Reese, he's being zipped up in a body bag.

Jason Connell:

And a body bag. Oh, Maj. Cobra Kai,

Sal Rodriguez:

I knew you were gonna say that. Yes.

Jason Connell:

And Sarah goes into an ambulance and scene. She lived cops calm. piece it together. I mean, let's not forget and I talked about it a minute ago about the mother. But this was a big story with this police station being shot up. I mean, imagine the coverage of that cell. We don't know what happened. Apparently it was a robot. I mean, if this had gotten out there what had really taken place but there's no video there's no cell phone footage. We don't know what happened. But this police precinct was under siege, as well as all these weird things that happened around the city. Explosion semis blowing up. I mean, LA was under siege with the Terminator, the tech noir people all telling their stories. Yeah, this guy came in he got shot. He got back up. I mean, it was a crazy night or so in Los Angeles. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

See now that you mentioned it and since I mentioned predator earlier, imagine if Terminator arrived in Los Angeles, the same moment predator. The City Hunter arrived in Los Angeles. What a crossover. That would be Terminator vs Predator.

Jason Connell:

That's crazy. I want to see that movie. So now we see Sara's driving and she says tape seven November 10. And we find out that Sara is pregnant Sal.

Sal Rodriguez:

And she is making recordings audio recordings as she drives for her unborn son who is currently in her belly

Jason Connell:

and ash. She said earlier in the film, I guess he's already named so she knows it's going to be John, because that's just what he needs to be. And she is in a Jeep Renegade. Nice lookin Jeep, and she's got a German Shepherd.

Sal Rodriguez:

Although I was wondering what happened to the iguana, I think that they should have had a little shot. Maybe you with the Guana in a cage on the floor? That would have shown that, you know, that would have like, tied it up a little more, I think because otherwise, whatever they gonna

Jason Connell:

hold Pugsley. Who knows? And then I guess it appears that she's in Mexico as she pulls into a gas station. And then there's a nice little sequence here

Sal Rodriguez:

there at this gas station. And yeah, they appear to be maybe somewhere south of the border. There are pinatas hanging one of them for sure to cut a beer so we got to cut the beer pin Jada's I think you can only gather that we are somewhere in the deserts of Mexico. at a gas station. She continues her audio recordings. She stopped. The guy comes over she tells him she has an English to Spanish translate book. She tells him in Spanish fill it up. He says I see fill it up. He goes around to start to fill up the car. I don't know where a little boy takes her picture. Unbeknownst to her. She's surprised by it. And then he says something in Spanish that the old guy who works at the gas station has to translate for Sarah, basically saying he's asking you to give him $5 For this picture. If he doesn't get$5 for this picture. When he gets home his father will beat him. Great story. Great sales line. Well, Sarah offers them for the kid takes for the kids very excited. And then the kid turns around Vienna la tormenta. And Sarah again asked the guy What did he say? The old man says there's a storm coming. To which Sara replies. I know. And of course we know what she is referring to her future her destiny. And she drives off towards the horizon. And we hear that music Come on that iconic Terminator music don't turn. Oh, I love that.

Jason Connell:

We didn't talk about the music much other than earlier on I've mentioned red Fidel's name who composed it. The music is great. The score is incredible throughout the whole film. And yeah, I find myself just listening to that music sometimes because it's just so Terminator comes out at the right times. Perfect ending as she drives towards the storm. She knows what's coming. She's such a different person now than the girl that we met on the scooter and the opening parts of this movie. I mean, night and day.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I'm thinking her waitressing days are over. I would say yeah. And you know what? A little shout out for Terminator two. She comes on strong and Terminator two, and I'm talking specifically about her physique because when the Terminator two came out, I was working at the gym at the time as a trainer when Terminator two came out and every woman came in. I want to look like Linda Hamilton from Terminator two. She had an iconic physique for Terminator two, and continues to kick ass as Sarah Connor. So definitely, if you see in Terminator, definitely want to implore you to see Terminator two.

Jason Connell:

You're absolutely right. And also the fact that Arnold switch sides and becomes a good guy, but I think he did his best work as the villain in this movie. It was perfectly cast. And I believed it. From the beginning to the end. He was relentless. The movie is fantastic sale, and it deserves at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I would say so. And as a matter of fact, revisiting this movie after all these years, because I haven't seen this movie in decades. I really appreciate it more now I really have a lot more respect for it more now. It's not just a sci fi flick, you know? No, there's a lot of meat in this movie. I think they did a lot with a little very simple storyline. Not a whole ton of locations. We had the streets of LA, a few apartments and a police station, and they did a lot with us.

Jason Connell:

And maybe we should have done a body count in this movie. It's no Commando, or he killed hundreds of people, but still an amazing movie. And so now time for trivia, which I like to do on Let's Talk movies to get the film greenlit Mike Medavoy who I've actually met Sal, incredible guy. look him up. Eight Oscars. He was head of Orion Pictures at the time, and he agreed to finance it on one condition. It needed a major star and his idea was to cast OJ Simpson as the Terminator. Yes. And Arnold Schwarzenegger as the good guy as Reese's character. Now Cameron and the other producers push back on this stating OJ was too nice and would not be taken seriously as a cold blooded killer.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, historic words.

Jason Connell:

Right. How about that? As for Swartz Nagar he had just completed Conan the Barbarian Conan the Destroyer as we mentioned earlier, which he had very limited dialogue and due to his heavy accent and the role itself. So Carmen was opposed to casting him anyway. That was until they shared an important lunch meeting. And Cameron realized that he wasn't right for the good guy, but rather he would make a great Terminator. So with 14 lines of dialogue, and 21 minutes of screen time, Arnold Schwarzenegger encapsulated the role and terrified audiences for years to come.

Sal Rodriguez:

Great story to always throw back to the Karate Kid universe, which is our mainstay. Like how they didn't want Pat Morita at first, right? Yeah. And then he wants Schwarzenegger. I've experienced that I'm proud to say I was second or third choice on a few projects. And I think everyone was proud with the results in the end.

Jason Connell:

Well, you were first choice for my co host for let's talk Cobra Kai. Thank you. Thank you. You're very welcome, Sal. And next, the tech nor nightclub was named after a film genre which James Cameron coined himself and describing the film. He would also include Blade Runner, and say that these films combine the old style grittiness of noir films with the futuristic elements of a sci fi thriller. It's a pretty cool tag. I like that tech news,

Sal Rodriguez:

film noir. becames. Tech, the war in the world of James Cameron. Yes, very neat. I didn't know that.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Okay, here's my last bit of trivia. Then there's the most famous line in the film and which Swartz Nagar tells the police go ahead, so I'll be back, and then rams a stolen vehicle through the front of the station. Now in the script, the line was written as all come back, which simply doesn't have the same impact, or staying power and Swartz Nagar was against saying, I'll be back. But James Cameron was able to convince him to try it. And the rest is movie history.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I mean, I think the I'll be back line is right up there with Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Jason Connell:

attitude. I think you're right. This movie really holds up in a movie, they can spawn that many sequels and still not tarnish its own legacy. Just tells you how special this movie was. And I'm sure Cameron can look at it and think nah, nah, Terminator two, that would be bigger, better batter. He's probably more proud of that one. I don't know this for sure. Because this is early on. And they had limited budget and was really gritty. But sounds sometimes that just makes a better movie. Yeah. You know the limitations on jaws that Steven Spielberg had made it a better movie. And you just mentioned dual earlier. Well, Dooley, it was like a TV movie. He barely had any money. And he was trying to prove himself but still holds up. Good filmmaking great filmmaking can hold up better than if you have all the toys to play with and all the money in the world to throw at something, sometimes strip it down to its essence and let the movie be what it is. And I love the Terminator. And I will always love it. And anytime it comes on. I'm going to enjoy the ride.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it definitely was a lot of fun. I have no regrets watching this movie. One day and then again the next day, no regrets a real great film. A lot of fun to watch.

Jason Connell:

I'm glad you came on for your third guest hosting appearance and traveled down the Terminator rabbit hole with me. And I hope that you enjoyed it.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know what? I had so much fun on this podcast. Jason. You know what I think? I'll be back.

Jason Connell:

There it is, folks. There it is. Not all come back. I'll be back. So thanks so much for listening. And please be sure to subscribe rate and review the show wherever you get your podcast. You can also follow us on social media at let's talk movies, or check out our other shows at just curious media.com So without further ado, please enjoy

Sal Rodriguez:

the Terminator

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