“ALL RIGHT, LISTEN. The Terminator’s an infiltration unit—part man, part machine. Underneath, it’s a hyper-alloy combat chassis, microprocessor controlled. Fully armored, very tough. But outside, it’s living human tissue—flesh, skin, hair, blood—grown for the cyborgs.”
Thus, sitting atop a pool of drool in a sketchy Memphis movie theater in 1984, I got my first introduction to the Terminator, a mechanical assassin from the future that does not feel pain or pity or remorse. James Cameron’s epic sci-fi masterpiece of the same name is one of the most testosterone-charged movies ever filmed. After I first saw that movie, I wanted to be the Terminator when I grew up.
You think I’m kidding. When I was in college, I kept a VHS copy in the VCR and watched it piecemeal over breakfast…