More than a full decade before James Cameron made the ultimate “chick flick” about some cruise ship that hits an iceberg, and a full 25 years before he remade “Dances With Wolves” with Smurfs, there was The Terminator movie, arguably one of the greatest sci-fi action films ever produced.

Not only did it take Cameron’s career as a filmmaker to the next level, it helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger one of the biggest action stars of his generation.

The Terminator Movie: Classic Turns 40

The Terminator spawned one equally classic sequel, followed by countless attempts at capturing the same magic in subsequent movies, a TV series, comic books, and novels – some with and some without Cameron’s direct contributions. However, nearly four decades after the relatively low-budget film hit theaters, it remains one of the most memorable and important contributions to modern pop culture.

It has influenced countless films, been parodied endlessly, lines have been sampled in music, and few can say “I’ll be back” without thinking of Schwarzenegger. And not all of the references to the film are taken so lightly. As the U.S., Russia, China, and other powers seek to develop autonomous weapons, the plot of The Terminator – where the machines rise up and turn on their human masters – serves as a portent of the potential dangers.

A Low-Budget “B Movie”

For what is now arguably one of the best films of all time – and yet manages not to seem the least bit dated despite the advances in CGI and other special effects – it needs to be remembered that The Terminator was largely a success because it wasn’t made to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

That fact helps explain why nearly all of its sequels have failed to deliver.

The bar was set very low when Cameron made the film about a cybernetic assassin (Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), a young woman who seems utterly unimportant but whose unborn son will be the savior of mankind. The then-29-year-old Cameron’s only directing credit was Piranha II: The Spawning, a low-budget film that bombed at the U.S. box office.

However, Cameron had been paying his dues in Hollywood, working as a model maker at Roger Corman studio and as a special effects artist and a director of photography for John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

Production was originally to have taken place in Toronto, but Schwarzenegger delayed filming as he was starring in Conan the Destroyer. Production finally began in March 1984, with much of the filming taking place at night, which allowed Cameron to employ “guerilla filmmaking” that required shooting scenes as quickly as possible to avoid the necessary permits for the various locations. The crew and actors would show up, shoot the scene, and leave before the police arrived to shut them down.

At one point, the production even continued to film as the area was being sprayed with insecticide. It provided an eerie-like fog that helped set the tone of the film.

An “Original Idea” – Not Quite!

Long before comparisons to Dances Were Wolves could be made about Avatar, some noted that The Terminator may have seemed a little familiar.

The official story told by Cameron is that he had a fever dream during the making of Piranha II about a mechanical killer, while he also admitted to being inspired by Carpenter’s 1978 slasher film Halloween. Yet, Cameron also has admitted to being influenced by 1950s B movies and TV shows – perhaps a bit too much.

Noted sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison reportedly loved the film when he first saw it, but he also threatened the film’s distributor, Orion Pictures, with a lawsuit, believing the plot was too close to his short story “Solder from Tomorrow,” which spawned the 1964 episode of the TV series The Outer Limits, titled “Soldier.”

For those readers who haven’t seen it, “Soldier” is highly recommended. It tells the story of two soldiers from some 1,800 years in the future who are accidentally sent back to the modern day. While not all that action-packed compared to The Terminator, it is simply excellent storytelling, and arguably one of Ellison’s best works.

Some sci-fi fans are quick note the similarity of another Ellison story for The Outer Limits titled “Demon With a Glass Hand,” which tells of a robotic soldier sent from the future to save humanity. However, Ellison always maintained that The Terminator was influenced a bit too much by “Soldier,” and he was paid an undisclosed amount of money and given credit in later prints of the film.

T-800’s Arsenal

One of the notable facts about The Terminator is that while Schwarzenegger had appeared as the title character Conan the Barbarian, his onscreen appearances had been limited – and he was only seen with a firearm before appearing as the T-800 in the now largely forgotten comedy Western The Villain (1979). As the “Handsome Stranger,” he carried a Colt Single Action Army revolver.

The Terminator certainly wasn’t short on firearms, yet, it still didn’t have the massive arsenals of later Schwarzenegger films. His choice of firearms was noteworthy for several reasons.

As the T-800 was sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor without even clothes on his back, he required some weapons and headed to the Alamo Sports Shop, a Los Angeles-area gun retailer that was quite well stocked, to say the least. While there he picks up an assortment of firearms that included an AMT Hardballer Longslide .45 handgun, Franchi SPAS-12 combat shotgun (noted to be “Italian”), an Armalite AR-18, and infamously an “Uzi 9mm.”

The T-800 asked for a “phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range” but was rebuffed “Hey, just what you see, pal.”

More Firepower

Along the way, the T-800 acquired an Ithaca 37 shotgun and a Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolver – likely both from the LAPD.

Since the film’s release, several questions have been raised as to whether any gun shop – and especially one in California – would have the AR-18 and Uzi on its shelves. The short answer is that it is a low-budget movie made when people weren’t so picky about these details. But it is still a good point, and there are some theories.

The film’s novelization explains that the T-800 acquired the civilian AR-180 semi-automatic rifle and successfully converted it to full auto, and the same held true with the Uzi. As a terminator, he doesn’t eat or sleep so would have the spare time to make a conversion.

However, the bigger issue with that Uzi is that the semi-automatic civilian models – sold as a carbine at the time – featured 16-inch barrels. We’ll have to accept that the Terminator had the skills to do a little cyborg magic on it.

The Uzi Goes Mainstream

As a side note, while the IMI Uzi had appeared in several films by 1984, including the 1981 mercenary movie Dogs of War, where the SMG was even called out by name, it wasn’t really until The Terminator that “Uzi” entered the mainstream vernacular. Interestingly, just weeks before the release of The Terminator, the Uzi did get a shout-out in the sci-fi action comedy Night of the Comet – although in the latter film, the valley girl main characters sport Ingram Model 10s (MAC-10s).

It also seems that proper firearms safety didn’t seem to be much of a concern at Alamo Sports Shop either as the T-800 isn’t discouraged from putting his (its) fingers on triggers (and is even encouraged to test the laser sight), while no firearms are checked to ensure they’re unloaded. Finally, it would be a bad idea to have ammunition so readily accessible on the counter.

Full-On Firepower

Though the T-800 had the larger arsenal, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) – the savior from the future – also could be seen with a few weapons. It is also noteworthy that The Terminator was among Biehn’s first major movie appearances where he is seen with any firearms.

Reese obtains an LAPD’s Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolver and Ithaca 37 shotgun, which he cuts the stock off of for easy concealment – and later obtains a Ruger Speed Six. It is in a deleted scene that the gravely wounded Lieutenant Edward Traxler (played by Paul Winfield) gives Reese his revolver during the police station rampage. Reese later gives that handgun to Sarah, who must have liked it as she is seen at the end of the film with the same model revolver.

As the T-800 infamously guns its way through the police station, several officers head to its armory and retrieve M16A1 rifles with 20-round magazines. The fully automatic weapons are appropriate for the era and likely would have been in the LAPD’s SWAT arsenals.

In the flash-forwards, human resistance fighters are armed with Heckler & Koch KH91A3 rifles, while Reese is seen with the futuristic-looking Valmet M82A bullpup assault rifle mocked up as the Westinghouse M-25 plasma rifle. Another T-800 is seen armed with a “General Dynamics RBS-80” but it is unclear if it is in the “40-watt range.”

The Terminator Movie: Final Thoughts

Compared to the sequels – and modern knockoffs –The Terminator lacks in nonstop action, but is arguably a better film for it. It is really a slasher film of sorts, with near-constant tension, not an over-the-top action ride, and perhaps that is why the original remains the best in the series.