Release Year: 1984

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd

Stars: Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I'll be back."

It's one of the simplest sentences in the English language. But how many times have you seen somebody suddenly adopt a stiff demeanor and deep, menacing, Austrian accent when announcing their intention to return after a trip to the bathroom? If we had a penny for every time somebody did this to us, we'd have at least 50 cents.

Well, we have The Terminator to thank for that. Yeah, that's probably not news to you.

Released in 1984, The Terminator is a classic tale of girl meets boy, killer cyborg meets girl, and boy fights killer cyborg for girl's affection and survival. You know, your usual movie.

Anyway, said cyborg, the Terminator, is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to her son, humanity's future leader in a war against the machines that have taken over. To survive, Sarah must team up with another time-traveler, future soldier Kyle Reese. What follows is a tale of shoot-outs, car chases, and star-crossed lovers that culminates in…well, we don't want to give too much away.

The film did well, coming in number one at the box office during its first two weeks. Fans and critics enjoyed the movie for its violent, kitschy goodness. It didn't topple any records, nor did it sweep the awards circuit as some other James Cameron movies would do in the future. But it snagged three Saturn Awards in '85, including Best Writing and Best Science Fiction Film, and it started a huge franchise.

Not too shabby.

If the awards proved too few on the first go-around, our culture has certainly done its best to make up for the slight. The American Film Institute has showered the film with accolades: the Terminator earned its place on the "100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains" list, both as a hero and as a villain—the only character to do so. "I'll be back" enjoys a spot on the Institute's "100 Years…100 Movie Quotes." And the film sits proudly on many, many Best Films of All Time lists.

But The Terminator's highest achievement may have come in 2008, when the Library of Congress included it on the National Film Registry. The Library of Congress adds certain extraordinary films to the registry "to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's film heritage" (source). It was added the same year as Deliverance, In Cold Blood, and The Invisible Man. That's an impressive group of peers for any film, let alone one conceived as a B-rated monster flick.

Like fine wines, 16-bit video games, and Rowan Atkinson riffs, The Terminator has only grown better with age, since the passage of time has intensified our culture's fondness for its craftsmanship. This baby has spawned a science-fiction franchise that includes one of the greatest sequels ever made, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. There are also three other sequels that…happened. The story has also been extended in books, comics, and video games. There are even Terminator toys.

Because nothing says '80s R-rated goodness like a line of kids' toys.

The Terminator is one of those wonderful little quirks in cinematic history. The producers cobbled together a measly $6.4 million, and the filmmakers, many of them either unknown or underappreciated at the time, came back with a sci-fi classic. That's like giving kindergartners some construction paper, glue sticks, and googly eyes and having them create an Off-Broadway puppet show that would make Jim Henson green with envy.

Before The Terminator, James Cameron's only directorial credit was being fired from the gloriously awful Piranha Part II: The Spawning. But The Terminator showed Hollywood what Cameron could do, jumpstarting one of the most important directorial careers of the last few decades.

Cameron's film career resulted in several important movie milestones. Teaming up with Industrial Light & Magic, he helped revolutionize computer-generated imagery in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He set the all-time highest grossing box office record with Titanic in 1997 (source). After that, he continued to innovate with special effects while toppling his own box office record with Avatar.

He also piloted the Deepsea Challenger to the ocean's deepest point in a record-breaking dive. Not only is that crazy awesome, but it's also a major scientific breakthrough in our exploration of the oceans.

The Terminator brought make-up effects guru Stan Winston to the forefront, too. While not unknown before The Terminator, he really showed his stuff with the T-800. After the film, Winston worked with Cameron again on Aliens, winning his first Academy Award for his visual effects. After that, his filmography is a chronology of crushing it: Edward Scissorhands, Predator, Jurassic Park, The Thing, Iron Man, and Congo.

(Oy. Congo.)

And, of course, we need to talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator launched Schwarzenegger's career, like, into orbit. He was a huge movie star in the '80s and '90s—after which he became the 38th Governor of California from 2003-2011. He was even known as the "Governator."

Think about that. If not for a low-budget monster movie, the political landscape of California—the sixth-largest economy in the world—would have been completely different for nearly a decade.

The world is a weird place, Shmoopers. Real weird.

And that's why you should care about The Terminator. Because sometimes small things can have unexpectedly huge impacts.

Also, come on: it's a fun movie to watch.