Happy Anniversary Ah-nuld!

On October 26, 34 years ago, a classic of the sci-fi/action genre appeared in U.S. theaters. James Cameron's "The Terminator", starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn began it's journey toward becoming a pop culture movie milestone.

The plot(somewhat complicated) in a nutshell. Arnold plays a killer cyborg from the future sent back in time to 1984 to assassinate Sarah Connor(Hamilton) because her future son will one day play a major role against machines in a post-apocalyptic world. Michael Biehn plays Reese, a future soldier sent back in time to protect Connor from the Terminator(Arnold). Got all that? There are some plot twists toward the end as well which can be viewed as straight-forward or complicated, depending on how well you understand the concept of time travel.

Needless to say, the movie was a hit, inspiring numerous sequels, books, comics, a TV series and plenty of video games. The movie basically launched Cameron's career and strengthened Schwarzenegger's. Arnold had already starred in "Conan The Barbarian" at that point, but that was basically it in terms of significance. Linda Hamilton's career got a big boost, too, and of course Michael Biehn became James Cameron's go-to action guy for a few more box office bonanzas such as "Aliens" and "The Abyss".

Some Terminator Trivia. How many Schwarzenegger movies have you seen where Arnold says, "I'll be back"? It all started here. That's the line that the Terminator says right before he pretty much completely destroys a police station. And did you know that before Arnold, somebody named O.J. Simpson almost got the role of the killer cyborg? I'm pretty sure casting O.J. would have made it an entirely different movie.

"The Terminator" is a flick that I've seen countless times and I never get tired of it. Definitely an all-time fave. Happy 34th Anniversary!!