Eventim Apollo, November 2, 2025

James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi classic is projected to screen with live musical accompaniment.

I’m sure you’re as fed up with reading this line as I am writing it, but watching a movie with a live score is without a doubt the best way to experience it. And what the Avex Ensemble pull off here is just stunning.

Naysayers scoffed at the thought of Blade Runner Live, because that’s just a guy stood at a keyboard, playing Vangelis’ score? That proved not to be the case, and so it was with high expectations that I approached The Terminator Live, which would be bringing Brad Fiedel’s synth score to life.

For a start, it’s a good size ensemble. There are three separate synth players (Peter Billington, Carol Arnopp and Pierre O’Reilly), an electric violin (Una Palliser), percussionists (Billy Stookes, Peadar Townsend) and two Taiko drum performers (Akinori Fujimoto, Jack Painting). And those drums are just superb – the auditorium reverberated to the players thrashing away simultaneously on the monster Japanese drum.

The main theme is of course iconic and beautifully brought to life by the whole group, but it’s some of the smaller moments that impress where you didn’t realise that the score was still thrumming away in the background and keeping the propulsion of the movie.

Verdict: The ultimate way to experience The Terminator, with the on-screen announcement that T2 is following next year. 10/10

Nick Joy

 

Read our interview with Avex here