He became governor, she hung out with Lion Face before being jilted by Cameron: "The Terminator"

Seriously, that "Beauty and the Beast" series sucked. It didn't help that my mom watched it all the time.

Where do we start with this undisputed sci-fi classic? With James Cameron introducing his mastery of lean, mean and loud futuristic shoot-em-ups? With Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming the model for the unstoppable force, a role that made him a bigger star than the "Conan" movies ever could? With Michael Biehn in the first of many roles as an average looking yet unbalanced kook?

Hard to say, but there's no question that "The Terminator" remains a seminal sci-fi movie, not to mention a staple for any current thirtysomething. Seriously, I remember watching this on VHS while spending the night at a friend's house at age 12, a year after it came out. Rated R? Who cares? It's Arnold kicking ass, man! We even opened the phone book to see if anyone named Sarah Connor was listed. (No? Dammit.)

We all know the story: An unstoppable cyborg who looks human is sent back from the future to kill a woman who will later give birth to the leader of a revolution against machines that have taken over the world. OK, stop right there. Read that last sentence again. How can you not love this premise? The future ... time travel ... cyborgs ... this has it all. Yet James Cameron keeps it simple. Robot must kill woman. Man must save woman. Woman must scream and sleep with man trying to save her. Bare bones, baby. (And a little boning, too.)

Rather than talk about how good the movie is -- not "The Godfather," but highly entertaining -- let's point out the real pleasures now that "The Terminator" is two decades old. I'm speaking, of course, of the supporting cast. Hey, that's Slider from "Top Gun" as Sarah's roommate's boyfriend! Hey, there's Bill Paxton as one of the punks whose asses Arnold kicks right after his time travel trip! And, of course, there's Lance Henriksen as a cop. What, you had to play a human after someone else got the cyborg part?

This stuff is always fun with older movies, but "The Terminator" holds up well more than 20 years later because it's a crisp, clean story of pursuit and escape. Even if -- I mean, when -- you know what happens, it's still fun to watch Arnold keep coming and coming and coming, complete with quips. True, he utters maybe 50 words total, but that's what's so good. If only his State of the State speeches followed this model ...