Since its debut in 1984, the Terminator movies have become synonymous with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Although the title of “Terminator” is actually used by various cybernetic androids throughout the franchise, its Schwarzenegger’s leather-clad, sunglasses-wearing T-800 that comes to mind first.
It may have been his screen presence, his accent or just his overall performance that won over the hearts and minds of fans across the world. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty hard to imagine anyone else in that particular role.
Difficult as it may be, however, popular digital artist, Aitesam Farooq / spdrmnkyxxiii has taken to social media to showcase a very cool rendition of Nicolas Cage as the infamous Terminator.
The image is styled as a movie poster and cleverly captioned with “Cageinator 2021.”
Created by James Cameron, the first Terminator movie told the story of a cyborg assassin who is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose son will one day become a saviour against machines in a post-apocalyptic future.
The Terminator held the number one spot at the United States box office for two weeks, launching Cameron’s film career and solidify Schwarzenegger’s status as a leading man. The movie’s success also led to a franchise consisting of several sequels, a television series, comic books, novels and video games.
And in 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, thereby cementing its place in cinematic history.
Over the years other actors have taken on the role of different cybernetic androids in the Terminator franchise. We’ve seen Robert Patrick’s T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as Kristanna Loken, Sam Worthington, Jason Clarke and Gabriel Luna embody various incarnations across the film’s expansive mythology.
Nicolas Cage has starred in an impressive 27 movies since 2015 and was recently declared the hardest working actor in Hollywood.