My wife and I have been watching the show “Monk” and recently there was an episode called, “Mr. Monk and the Three Julies” where two women named Julie Teeger were killed on the same day, minutes apart from one another. The third Julie is the daughter of one of the main characters. Adrian Monk, the titular crime solver, throws out a wild idea that an assassin was paid to kill Julie Teeger but there were several in the city and they didn’t know which one it was, so started killing all of them. Outlandish, at best, but the show had already made me think of a particular movie which that idea (and an outright mention moments later) is referencing.

I was thinking about doing a newer movie for this week’s article, but then found out that today, 9/26, is actually the birthday for Linda Hamilton of all people! Heck of a coincidence… but still, I went back to the drawing board thinking up some other movie to do.

Then, my phone put up a news story for me to read based on an interview with James Cameron and his first full-movie director credit, a movie that is soon to have its 40th anniversary! This very same movie! Okay, fine, who am I to argue with the universe and the signs I’m obviously getting?!?

In case you haven’t guessed it yet, the movie we’ll discuss today is:

MOVIE: “The Terminator” (1984, R, 107 min, watch it: DVD, AMC+)

I was born in 1980, so the chances I saw this movie upon release in 1984 are slim. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate for me to say that if I did in fact see it in 1984, the chances of me remembering that 4-year-old me saw it are almost nil. However, I definitely saw the movie before the 1991 release of its sequel. The film is rated R for swearing, brief nudity, violence and graphic cyborg surgery (they weren’t rating for smoking at the time, but most characters also smoke), so make your own decisions on who should watch it, but I have to say this movie (and its sequel) were very formative for me growing up.

First, they set the bar pretty high for great one-liners in action movies. This is the first time you’ll hear a character say, “Come with me if you want to live!” It’s also the first time (and, honestly, best time) Arnold Schwarzenegger uses the line, “I’ll be back.” If you think back to great action movies and/or franchises, they often have some catchphrase from at least one of the main characters that pops into mind. While I’m sure there were others before this movie, it has the spot on the pedestal in my mind of the one that started it all.

Second, the movie wastes little time diving right into the story. They trust that the audience will be able to keep up with what is going on in the movie until Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn’s character) gives one of his exposition dumps. The movie opens on some lines of text describing the war that ravaged Earth while huge robotic machines drive over and crush human skulls. Ominous, but that’s not their actual storyline for the movie. Next, you see two brief lightning storms, each followed by a naked guy, both of whom are looking for Sarah Connor. Why? Keep watching for a bit and you’ll find out. I appreciate a movie that trusts its audience to do so.

Finally, the movie shows that a time travel concept can work for an interesting plot. I really enjoy the idea that both a robot and a human travel back in time, one to kill and one to protect the human leading the uprising against the robots in the future. Given that one of them rips someone’s heart out and the other shouts at a cop to know what year it is, you can guess who is who. Still, they don’t tell you for a little while and leave things a wee bit suspenseful. As the movie reaches the final climactic battle, the relentless nature of the attacking robot is definitely aided by the idea that it is a futuristic being with metals and programming we wouldn’t understand by current standards.

However, as I write “current standards,” I have to also acknowledge this strength of the movie is also a huge weakness and my main gripe. It also shows how time travel can be used for lazy writing. I’m not talking about James Cameron’s cheesy dialogue (something he responds to amusingly if you look up his recent article I mention earlier) but rather the plotlines that follow as the movie progresses.

One of them is a huge, major plot point: the real reason Reese was chosen to protect Sarah Connor. I don’t want to ruin for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie before so won’t go further, but it is safe to talk about the other one. Quick premise: the future (the year 2025 in the opening scroll) saw humanity first devastated by nuclear war and then robots, after developing a central AI, built up an army and further decimate the human race. As the humans push back, the robots send one of their own back to 1984 to kill the leader’s mother. The humans send someone back to protect her once they have a hold of the robot’s time travel technology.

Follow that one through for a moment. The humans, with time travel technology at their fingertips, doesn’t decide to go back in time and prevent that first nuclear war, but instead, they go back to save their future uprising leader. Excellent choice there, folks.

So, is this what to watch for you? Time travel antics aside, this is a classic action movie well worth a first-time watch or just another watch, assuming you’ve seen it before. There is even a full franchise of other movies, television shows and books you can peruse if you enjoy this one. In order for anything to go from 1984 to the present day in multiple mediums, there has to be something good about where it started, no?

Kent Kraft is someone who can tell you every “I’ll be back” delivered on film by Schwarzenegger, surely a useful bit of trivial knowledge! Chronologically, they include: The Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Twins (1988), Total Recall (1990), Last Action Hero (1993) and, finally, The Expendables 2 (2012). His final one is the most amusing as he says, “I’ll be back…” to Bruce Willis’ character who tells him, “You’ve been back enough! I’ll be back!” In reply, Schwarzenegger says, “Yippie-ki-yay,” a famous Bruce Willis line from Die Hard (1988).