How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Terminator.
Quote #1
The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight…
Right away in the title card, the film sets up machines as the enemy of humanity, which is about as technophobic as you can get. Note that the machines aren't just trying to enslave or domestic humanity—they're trying to "exterminate" us. Needless to say, we take it personally.
Quote #2
OWNER: I may close early today. It's a 15-day wait on the handguns, but the rifles you can take now.
[The Terminator puts a shell into the shotgun.]
OWNER: You can't do that.
TERMINATOR: Wrong.
[It shoots the shop owner.]
Of course, the Terminator is a machine, and it's the main antagonist in the film. But notice how the machine can manipulate other machines to serve its purpose. In this scene, it uses a shotgun, but later, it will also use telephones, radios, and vehicles. Ah, we see the sextant has become the master. Does…does that joke scan? No?
Quote #3
REESE: Defense network computers. New, powerful…hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat. Not just the ones on the other side. It decided our fate in a microsecond. Extermination.
The film suggests that it's our modern reliance on technology that will lead to our downfall. We trust technology to "run it all," rather than shoulder the responsibility ourselves. Of course, this kind of technophobia is nothing new, and with every technological leap, someone feels it'll destroy the world. But, um, sometimes it really can get pretty destructive, so who's right?