The first Terminator film was released in 1984.
Directed by James Cameron, The Terminator premiered in the United States on October 26, 1984. It introduced the central conflict between Sarah Connor, a waitress targeted for assassination, and a cyborg sent from the future to kill her.
The film was made on a relatively modest budget but became a major commercial success. Arnold Schwarzenegger played the Terminator, while Linda Hamilton portrayed Sarah Connor and Michael Biehn played Kyle Reese.
The 1984 release is sometimes confused with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which arrived in 1991 and greatly expanded the story's mythology. The original film established the franchise's themes of time travel, artificial intelligence, fate, and the danger posed by Skynet.