In The Terminator, yesterday’s vision of tomorrow never felt timelier. It’s been precisely 40 years since the release of James Cameron’s classic sci-fi film, and real technological advancements have made its story of a machine programmed to assassinate humanity’s last hope resonate even more deeply. The plot involves Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time-traveling cyborg hunting humans with big ‘80s hair on behalf of their future AI overlords, a premise Schwarzenegger acknowledged is “becoming a reality” during a book promotion this summer. The Terminator reflects current AI nightmare scenarios, tapping into our fear of technology making humans obsolete — as workers or as a species.
L.A. restaurant server Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) will one day give birth to a child who leads the human resistance against sentient machines. “The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire,” explains the opening text, setting the stage for a dark, post-apocalyptic 2029. Later, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), the soldier sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah, reveals that a self-aware defense program called Skynet concluded humanity was a threat.
