<P> The Terminator is a 1984 American science - fiction action film directed by James Cameron . It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future . Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent back in time to protect Connor . The screenplay is credited to Cameron, along with producer Gale Anne Hurd . Executive producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in the film's financing and production . </P> <P> The Terminator topped the US box office for two weeks and helped launch Cameron's film career and solidify Schwarzenegger's . It received critical acclaim, with many praising its pacing, action scenes and Schwarzenegger's performance . Its success led to a franchise consisting of four sequels (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys), a television series, comic books, novels and video games . In 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". </P> <P> In 1984 Los Angeles, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator arrives from 2029 and steals guns and clothes . Shortly afterward, Kyle Reese, a human soldier from 2029, arrives . He steals clothes and evades the police . The Terminator begins systematically killing women named Sarah Connor, whose addresses he finds in the telephone directory . He tracks the last Sarah Connor to a nightclub, but Kyle rescues her . The pair steal a car and escape with the Terminator pursuing them in a police car . </P> <P> As they hide in a parking lot, Kyle explains to Sarah that an artificial intelligence defense network, known as Skynet, will become self - aware in the near future and initiate a nuclear holocaust . Sarah's future son John will rally the survivors and lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines . With the Resistance on the verge of victory, Skynet sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before John is born, to prevent the formation of the Resistance . The Terminator is an efficient killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton and an external layer of living tissue that makes it appear human . </P>

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