The Terminator

How this film uses it

The Terminator never stops. It doesn't sleep, can't be reasoned with and won't quit, so the chase itself is the film's clock. Every scene narrows the gap between the machine and its target. Every delay cuts into the time the hero has left.

Where to see it

The Tech Noir club. Sarah shelters in a crowded club while the Terminator tracks her there. You already know it has been killing the women named Sarah Connor on its list. The clock ticks in the gap between what you know and what she is still piecing together.

How this film uses it

Cameron films the Terminator's approach with a fixed, relentless camera. The machine enters the frame and moves without the small variations of a living body. The look of the shots tells you what the Terminator is before any special effect confirms it.

Where to see it

The police station assault. The Terminator enters and advances through the building room by room. The camera films it with a machine-like steadiness of its own, so the shot moves the way the assault does.

How this film uses it

Adam Greenberg shoots 1984 Los Angeles at night, in rain and under neon. The city is a dark, hostile place where the Terminator's chrome body is at home and Sarah Connor is always exposed. This gothic look, all gloom and menace, makes an ordinary city feel like a landscape designed for the machine.

Where to see it

The night streets of Los Angeles. With the rain-wet surfaces, the orange streetlight and the industrial spaces, the city looks like the future the film is warning about.

How this film uses it

Cameron builds a time paradox. The Terminator is sent from a future that Sarah's son creates, and Kyle Reese is the father of the son who sends him back. That is, the film's timeline is a loop where every cause is also its own effect.

Where to see it

Kyle explaining to Sarah the future her son has created. You have to hold 2 timelines in your head at once. The paradox of his mission is the logic the whole film is built on.