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40 years of Terminator – creating an icon

30-10-2024

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

The Terminator only says 74 words in his first movie. But for Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was this role in 1984 that made him a film legend – and his director, James Cameron, a household name in Hollywood. A look back.

It all began with a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. The year? 1981. James Cameron, a young director on the verge of a nervous breakdown, twitches in his sleep. The filming of Piranha 2 is a disaster. He’s suffering from food poisoning. And now an unstoppable killing machine is chasing him in his dreams – a harbinger of his impending failure.

«Will my career end before it’s really begun?», is something he could’ve well been thinking.

But Cameron doesn’t give up. Instead, he clings to this nightmare, noting down the images that haunt him. Near-manically, he begins to write another screenplay; the script for what was going to be his next film – Aliens – is half finished already anyway. But first, he wants to process the anxiety from his nightmares into a dark science fiction story. Then, one night, Cameron finally finds the perfect title for his new story. Short, concise – and terrifying.

Terminator.

Romance in the war against machines?

Cameron is convinced Terminator will be his masterpiece. Full of vim and vigour, he presents his screenplay to Orion Pictures. But the studio bosses aren’t as enthusiastic. The first thing they do is eliminate one of the two resistance fighters who, in Cameron’s vision, were supposed to travel back in time to save Sarah Connor. Too complicated, too brutal – the scene in which one of the fighters materialises inside a solid object and dies in agony is removed. Instead, the studio demands something else. Something unexpected:

romance

Sarah Connor, mother-to-be to the future leader of the resistance, and Kyle Reese, revolutionary from the future, will fall in love. «Nonsense!» Apparently, Cameron wasn’t a fan. Soppy love stories don’t fit his dark vision, born of nightmares and food poisoning.

But the longer he thinks about the request, the more he likes it. What if it’s not just anyone, but Kyle Reese who becomes the father of future resistance leader John Connor? That wouldn’t just be a successful plot twist, it would even create a perfect closed cycle – and a highly ironic one at that! John Connor would never have been born if Skynet hadn’t actively tried to prevent his birth.

Slowly, the pieces come together to form an iconic piece of the puzzle. But the most important thing of all is still missing…

A beefcake as the machine: Cameron’s unexpected Terminator

Once again, the studio pipes up at the still young filmmaker. To give Terminator more star power, literally, Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, the muscle-bound Austrian with a highly unconventional accent, is to take on the role of Kyle Reese. Fresh from his success off Conan the Barbarian, Schwarzenegger is considered a box office guarantee.

Cameron gives in, against his wishes. But he won’t give up without a fight. He may not be allowed to reject Schwarzenegger, but maybe he can get the would-be actor to turn down the offer voluntarily?

The meeting arrives. Cameron has no intention of being friendly. On the contrary: he wants to scare off the Austrian muscleman with provocations and jibes. But his plan doesn’t work. Schwarzenegger catches Cameron completely off guard (article in German). Not only has he read the entire script, he’s so enthusiastic about it that he comes up with his own ideas. For example, he thinks the Terminator shouldn’t blink even once. After all, the Terminator is a machine, and machines don’t blink. Brilliant.

But then, the biggest surprise: Schwarzenegger doesn’t want the role of Kyle Reese, as pushed by the studio. He wants to play the villain. The killing machine.

The Terminator.

We almost got a completely different Terminator instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Source: Skydance

Schwarzenegger as the Terminator – an unexpected twist. Under Cameron’s vision, the Terminator is an inconspicuous, almost gaunt individual who can hide in a crowd and emerge from it in a flash – deadly and brutal. More similar to the T-1000, which will come a few years later in Terminator 2. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, embodies the exact opposite: a colossus, a boulder made flesh. With that imposing appearance, he’s anything but inconspicuous.

But maybe that’s exactly the trick? Wouldn’t this unstoppable, raw power make the Terminator even more terrifying?

Cameron and Schwarzenegger say goodbye. Both already know that they’ll meet again; the idea is just too tempting. «I’ll be back», as Schwarzenegger later says in the movie.

Low-budget, high-stress: Cameron’s fight for Terminator

Despite the strong cast, production is anything but easy. The budget? Shoestring. The film was only granted six and a half million dollars – and only because Cameron had previously begged for an increase after an original four million. Luckily, Cameron completed his film apprenticeship with none other than Roger Corman, the King of the B Movies. There, he learned how to make a lot out of little. For «Terminator», this entails meticulous preparation and detailed storyboards. Cameron himself even draws designs to clarify the look of his film.

James Cameron (left) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (right) during filming.
Source: Skydance

Filming begins in Los Angeles, mostly at night and in dodgy, dangerous areas – the budget isn’t big enough to obtain proper filming permits from the city. For example, the scene in which the Terminator kills the «wrong» Sarah Connor or the epilogue in the desert are filmed without permission. On top of that, hard 16-hour shooting days are required to get the whole thing done in a few weeks. The crew? Well, they’re so stressed that some show up with T-shirts on set (article in German) saying, «You don’t scare me, I work for James Cameron.»

Cameron remains stubborn – his perfectionism knows no bounds. An example: the opening scene where a couple of drunk punks meet the Terminator. In the edit, he realises he doesn’t like the scene. So he simply shoots it again, at his own expense, with improvised lighting, a new cameraman and a few buddies who grab punk outfits out of the closet. The buddies? Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson. Two years later, Cameron hires them again – this time for Aliens.

The triumph of The Terminator

In the end, all the effort was worth it. The Terminator is a global success and grosses almost 80 million dollars worldwide – more than ten times its budget. Schwarzenegger receives some of the best reviews of his career – and The Terminator lays the foundations for one of the most successful action film series in cinema history.

And James Cameron? He does one better in 1991 with Terminator 2, crafting another milestone as well as the most expensive film of all time up to then. In True Lies, he’ll even work in front of the camera with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a third time. Today, with Avatar, Titanic and Avatar: The Way of Water, he’s responsible for three of the four most successful films of all time.

But that’s a story for another time.

Header image: "Terminator" / Skydance

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Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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