Canadian filmmaker James Cameron was catapulted to fame after directing and writing 1984's The Terminator, a science fiction horror movie in which a cyborg is sent back in time by an AI defense network, Skynet, in order to eliminate the only threat it faces. In this case that means assassinating the mother of John Connor, the man who will one day lead the human resistance.
The Terminator is one of the all-time great blockbusters, and much of that is down to how it evokes the terror of being pursued by a machine with a machine's purpose. "It can't be bargained with," Kyle Reese explains to Sarah Connor after the first encounter. "It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear." The Terminator is a manifestation of Skynet itself, an AI designed to ensure humankind's security, which long ago concluded that humankind itself was the problem.
