Under The Terminator's Skin

This edit succeeds quite well in telling the story of "The Terminator" in the most succinct way possible, and is almost seamlessly done, blending the film's two car chase scenes into one. The score is perfect, and the slight murkiness of the video quality actually compliments the score quite well.

Minor narrative quibbles aside-- (to paraphrase the-scribbling-man: "it was slightly odd that Sarah goes from cowering and confused "please don't kill me" to suddenly trying to save Kyle's life") --I was on the edge of my seat throughout, even though I saw "The Terminator" countless times!

I highly recommend!

I absolutely adore Terminator 1, and I really like Terminator 2, but all the other sequels didn't do it for me.
I was intrigued to see this experiment of telling the story of Terminator 1 as a short-movie. As an experimental short-movie I think it works and I like the new music, it gives it a more ethereal atmosphere.

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The narrative works for the short movie. The explanation for the terminator wanting to kill her: "I didn't do anything", "But you will", makes it work for the short-movie, but it's lacking something crucial when it isn't told what she will do that causes all this timetravel. In some way it relies on the viewer already knowing the story of Terminator.

This 15-minute-movie also shows greatly that for a real movie more time is needed to give scenes their emotional impact. For example at the end when Sarah Connor's protector Kyle died, it had no impact for her as she met him just a few minutes ago. And when the terminator was pressed down by the machine she had that exhausted look on her face and a certain hate and rage in her eyes and a triumphant feeling of accomplishment but in this movie it wasn't earned at all and so the emotional payoff was not there.

--------Spoiler-warning-end-------

Still I recommend it because this works as an experimental short movie and the editing is done really well and because of the interesting and eery music used.

Terminator 1 is the first movie I ever watched, still remember the old VHS I used to rewatch a million times as a kid (with the sex scene expertly taped over with Horlicks commercials by my dad). This edit does a great job of summarizing the film into 15 mins by using ingenious cutting techniques and great scene selection. I love the foley/original audio tracks being so clear, not sure if they were recreated or if it was a clear center channel, but it sounds pitch perfect. The new music is good, certainly appropriate for the atmosphere and is a worthy alternative to Fidel's iconic score.

All in all, a great edit to revisit for a fan, an a very interesting alternate look at T1. Nice work!!

The music totally worked for me and turned every scene into one of greater dread. I once thought the techno soundtrack for T1 fit the movie like a hand in mailed glove, but this aural outing actually made me feel in a more visceral way how desperate Sarah & Kyle were, the holyshit danger. Take the word "stark" and wizardly turn it into a short fanedit, and you get this.

In a very good/mysterious/surreal way, this piece reminds me of Dwight Fry's Spidey edit, in that it transports you on a most deliciously fucked-up wonderbus.

I was hoping the narrative would mess with the time travel elements. Conveniently, the Terminator franchise is bulging with this particular fanediting raw material. The story here is a condensed version of the theatrical telling, nicely done, but it misses an opportunity to put a twisty wrinkle on a well-known plot.

The video seemed a bit juddery to me, and I can't tell whether it's a Vimeo conversion problem or a whatnot amongst whatnots. No biggie.

Folks, this is the kind of thing you can show fanediting virgins (or the recently devirginized) to give them a taste of the alternate life of a movie. I look forward to more edits by DominicCobb. Make them and send them back through time.

Terminator is widely regarded as an action series, but the first film can be argued to fit in the horror genre as well. In many ways, it could be considered a time travel slasher flick, and this short highlights those aspects. The ambient, alien, unnerving soundtrack really drives home the atmosphere. Cutting the story down to an extended chase shouldn't work, but the editor pulled it off with style! It's quite seamless. Most impressive. I believe that he also did some color correction? Or perhaps I'm just not familiar with the more recent remasters of the film. At any rate, it looks quite nice from an aesthetic standpoint. Technically, there's some obvious compression, and the frame rate isn't presented in the standard 3:2 pulldown. Still, a very entertaining, well put together short. Well worth watching.