prolific producer Gale Anne Hurd talks The Terminator, tech noir and beyond • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

It’s one of many images that have come to define the power of the first Terminator, a down and dirty sci-fi action thriller that also feels like a horror film. The unique genre mélange is something many of the reviews highlight.

“An unstoppable force of cinematic perfection that’s impervious to feeble critique or jabroni hatred… a cyber Halloween riff from a once in a generation talent,” says Ian. Sean “can’t believe how clearly it codified sci-fi horror for the next twenty years. Majestic, metallic, romantic, ridiculous and oddly sincere.” “It’s like [Cameron] couldn’t decide whether to tackle noir, sci-fi, romance, or cautionary tale, and instead of settling for one, he went all-out and made movie history,” remarks SilentDawn. Emily concurs that Cameron is “a little underrated for how much horror he brings to action cinema.”

As these reviews demonstrate, The Terminator is very much perceived from a contemporary perspective as a deft mash-up of various identifiable genres, and I was keen to find out from Hurd if that’s how she and Cameron saw it while writing the screenplay.

“I don’t know of any filmmaker who thinks that way,” says Hurd. “Characters come first, the story comes second, and that’s the movie you’re making. You don’t try to put it in one box or another.”

Indeed, Hurd and Cameron more or less forged their own genre for the film. “It was a warning about the dark side of technology,” explains the producer, “which is why the nightclub—which features a seminal interaction that starts the roller coaster ride that the rest of the film is—we named it TechNoir. That is the genre we feel that the film is.”