Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It plays Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator, a Cyborg assassin who was sent back from 2029 to 1984 to kill Linda Hamilton, whose son will one day be the Saviour of the post apocalyptic war against machines. Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future who returns in time to protect Connor. The script, along with producer gale Anne Hurd, is credited to Cameron. John Daly and Derek Gibson, executive producers of hemdale Film Corporation, played a role in the financing and production of films.

"Terminator" held a two-week high in the U.S. box office and helped Cameron open up the film industry and consolidate Schwarzenegger's film career. It has been acclaimed by many for its rhythm, action scenes and Schwarzenegger's performance. Its success led to a series of four sequels (Terminator 2: judgment day, Terminator 3: the rise of machines, terminator redemption and terminator genesis), TV series, comic books, novels and video games. In 2008, the terminator was selected by the library of Congress to be kept in the National Film Registry and considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.".

In 1984, in Los Angeles, a robot assassin called the terminator arrived in 2029 and stole guns and clothes. Shortly after that, Kyle Reese, a human soldier from 2029, arrived. He stole clothes from the police. The terminator began to kill a woman named Sarah Connor in a planned way, and he found her address in the phone book. He tracked the third Sarah Connor to a nightclub, but Kyle saved her. The two stole the car and fled, while the terminator chased them with a police car.

As they hide in the parking lot, Kyle explains to Sarah that an artificial intelligence defense network called Skynet will become self-conscious and cause nuclear catastrophe in the near future. Sarah's future son, John, will rally survivors and lead resistance against Skynet and its robotic forces. As the Resistance Army was about to win, Skynet sent terminators to kill Sarah before John was born in time to prevent the formation of the Resistance Army. The terminator is an efficient killing machine with powerful metal endoskeleton and external living tissue, making it look like a human.

Kyle and Sarah were arrested after another encounter with the terminator. Criminal psychologist Dr. Silberman concluded that Kyle was paranoid and delusional. The terminator repaired his body and attacked the police station in an attempt to find Sarah, killing many police officers. Kyle and Sarah escaped, stole another car, took refuge in a motel, where they assembled the bombs and planned the next move. Kyle admits that he has loved Sarah since John took pictures of him and that they have had sex.

When Sarah doesn't know the terminator's ability to imitate the victim and tries to contact her by phone, the terminator kills Sarah's mother and pretends to be her. When they realized that he had regained them, they escaped in a pickup truck. In the chase, Kyle was shot and wounded while throwing a pipe bomb at the terminator. Enraged, Sarah crashes the terminator off his motorcycle, but loses control of the truck, which turns over. The terminator hijacked a tanker and tried to knock Sarah down, but Kyle slid a tube bomb onto the tanker, causing an explosion that burned the meat inside the terminator's skeleton. It took them to the factory, where Kyle started the machine to confuse the terminator. He shoved the last pipe bomb into the terminator's abdomen, blew the terminator apart, wounded Sarah and killed Kyle. The damaged terminator reactivates and grabs Sarah. She broke free, lured it into a hydraulic press and crushed it.

A few months later, pregnant Sarah traveled across Mexico to record a tape and pass it on to her unborn son, John. She was debating whether to tell him that Kyle was his father. At a gas station, a boy bought her a Polaroid photo, just like John finally gave Kyle.