You know normal human emotions given the circumstances. ( Spoiler Alert!) Sure she triumphs in the end, but through it all she reacts as many of us might with disbelief, shock, tears, fear, and anger. She’s caught up in this unbelievable and traumatic experience as she targeted by the Terminator that will stop at nothing to kill her. Just a girl in her 20s trying to figure out her place in life. In the original film, Sarah is a young waitress working a thankless job at a local family diner and sharing an apartment with her friend Ginger. Obviously the first one looks more “badass” than the other, but the second one is no less strong a female lead than the other. There is no denying that she’s all that, but oddly I think that when you ask most people about Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor they picture this: Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)Īnd not this version below: Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator (1984) We’ve all come to view Sarah Connor in general, and Linda Hamilton’s version in particular as the definition of a strong female lead. Since then I have probably watched it a dozen or more times and have probably owned it on everything except LaserDisc and Betamax(Yes it was released on both those formats.) I sat mesmerized watching it late one night, riveted by the action and Brad Fidel’s score. It was a year or two after it had been in theatres when it showed up on a FREE preview weekend of The First Choice movie network on pay-TV in Canada. OLD MAN ALERT: I first saw Terminator in probably the summer of 1985 or 86 when I was a teenager. The point of my post, was not so much my son’s reaction to the movie (which was interesting in itself), but rather my own thoughts about Sarah Connor and the role of the strong female character. I had the opportunity to rewatch the original Terminator (1984) with my son last night on Netflix. He’s getting to that age where he’s mature enough and patient enough to sit through “classic” grown-up films that I enjoyed and form part of my pop culture DNA.