Early candidates include every Ginger scene, Bill Paxton’s arrival, and Rick Rossovich returning from a plate-glass-window throw to keep fighting in his underwear.
Tech Noir combines indiscriminate danger, slow-motion club imagery, Sarah recognizing both pursuers, Kyle’s rescue, and the reveal that shotgun blasts cannot stop Arnold.
Kyle’s tunnel explanation of Skynet, extermination, and Sarah’s unborn son is praised as exposition that should fail but succeeds through writing and performance.
The Terminator repairing his arm and eye is remembered as astonishing 1984 practical work whose crudeness now adds charm; sunglasses make the puppet face convincing.
The police-station assault turns flimsy PCP explanations into a brutal crash-and-shootout showcase whose sound improved with later formats.
The oil-tanker chase, delayed explosion, and endoskeleton emerging from fire create a false ending and reset the rules again.
The Mexico coda completes Sarah’s transformation and pays off the photograph Kyle had carried without explaining away the causal loop.
Two hosts explicitly choose Tech Noir, and the third centers his favorite quality on that scene’s revelation of how hard the machine is to kill.
The title, Arnold’s casting and dialogue, the gun-shop scene, supporting actors, synth score, romance, practical effects, and the unkillable-villain structure have aged best.
The two-word title is praised as perfect, direct, sequel-friendly 1980s naming.
Arnold as a robot is called A-plus casting, and the gun-shop inventory scene turns his delivery, scale, and Dick Miller’s salesmanship into repeat-viewing pleasure.
Bill Paxton’s brief punk appearance, including his distinction as a Terminator/Alien/Predator victim, is a treasured cameo.
Arnold’s pronunciation of Sarah Connor, Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield’s overqualified cops, and Cameron’s dark Los Angeles atmosphere remain distinctive.
“Fuck you, asshole,” the address demand, and especially Cameron refusing Arnold’s requested “I will be back” rewrite preserve his signature vocal comedy.
Brad Fiedel’s synth pulse is picked as an enduring musical trigger despite its inexpensive-sounding era-specific tools.
Kyle’s claim that he crossed time for Sarah gives the romance enormous stakes, while the explicit hotel scene remains narratively essential because it conceives John Connor.
Stan Winston’s practical effects and Arnold’s effortless disposal of a visibly strong Rick Rossovich sustain the machine’s threat.
Future-war effects, dated chronology and hair, exposed nudity, a personal scooter association, the Harlan Ellison dispute, Ginger’s food and pet choices, and John Connor’s weak message draw criticism.
The red future lasers and stop-motion endoskeleton look dated, although the handmade work remains charming and the machine-dominated future feels newly plausible.
The once-distant 2029 setting is now close, intensifying jokes about missing lasers and walking robots.
Sarah’s heavily sprayed hair is criticized while her later Mexico headband reveals a more timeless look; Arnold’s opening nudity is also called dispensable.
Sarah’s Honda scooter ages badly for one host because he later crashed the same model.
Harlan Ellison’s claim that the story borrowed from his Outer Limits work led to a settlement and acknowledgement that Cameron bitterly rejected.
Ginger’s enormous post-sex sandwich, celery with peanut butter, milk, and dark-kitchen routine feel like a vanished 1980s horror convention.
The iguana exemplifies dated offbeat screen pets, while future John’s formal message omits affection and useful practical information for his mother.
Orion executive Mike Medavoy proposed OJ Simpson as the Terminator and Arnold as Kyle Reese; Cameron rejected Simpson as too likable at the time and the pursuit image as racially wrong.
Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson reportedly declined the Terminator, while Tom Selleck was considered because the machine was originally imagined as an ordinary man able to blend in.
Sting is the one Kyle Reese alternative treated as credible and exciting, though Michael Biehn is defended.
