From its feverish inspiration to strange early casting discussions to an iconic shot that
almost got the crew in trouble with the law, here are a few facts you might not have known
about the making of The Terminator.
Some films begin with a story, while others begin with an image.
In the case of The Terminator, it began with a literal fever dream.
After an awful experience filming Piranha II, writer-director James Cameron retreated
to Rome to recover.
He told Entertainment Weekly,
"Nightmares are a business asset; that's the way I look at it.
I was sick, I was broke, I had a high fever, and I had a dream about this metal death figure
coming out of a fire.
And the implication was that it had been stripped of its skin by the fire and exposed for what
it really was.
When I have some particularly vivid image, I'll draw it or I'll write some notes, and
that goes on to this day."
Cameron sketched his fever vision and eventually showed the images to young producer Gale Anne
Hurd.
The Terminator was born.
With the idea set in their minds, Cameron and Hurd collaborated on the film's script,
then began to shop it around to studios as a low-budget, guerrilla-style film that Cameron
would direct and Hurd would produce.
To keep costs low, they decided to have Lance Henriksen play The Terminator, but when Orion
Pictures came on board with financing, they had a much crazier idea: O.J. Simpson!
Cameron said no to that idea, but reluctantly agreed to take a meeting with Orion head Mike
Medavoy's top choice to play the heroic time traveler Kyle Reese.
Medavoy's choice?
Conan the Barbarian star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Cameron was skeptical, but came away impressed by Schwarzenegger's ideas for the character
of The Terminator.
Instead of offering him the role of Reese, Cameron offered Schwarzenegger the role of
Terminator.
Schwarzenegger initially feared playing the villain would hurt his leading man image,
but Cameron won him over.
Schwarzenegger told Entertainment Weekly,
"But Cameron said that he'd shoot it in such a way that all the evil stuff that I do will
be totally excused by audiences because I'm a cool machine.
And so cool that some of the people will cheer."
Schwarzenegger took the role.
It would prove to be the best decision of his career.
He wasn't the only second pick in the film, though.
With Schwarzenegger off the board, numerous stars were considered for the role of Kyle
Reese, including everyone from Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell to Bruce Springsteen.
Superman star Christopher Reeve declined a million dollar offer to play the role, but
perhaps the strangest star to pass on the film was the musician Sting.
After being offered a cool $350,000 to play the role, Sting ultimately passed because
of prior obligations including a role in the epic science fiction flop Dune opening the
door for Michael Biehn, who would team with Cameron again for Aliens in 1986 and The Abyss
in 1989.
Even some of the talent behind the scenes were second choices.
Cameron and Hurd originally wanted legendary makeup artist Dick Smith to design The Terminator's
look.
He said no, but pointed them towards another rising star in the business: Stan Winston,
who would go on to win four Academy Awards for his effects work, including two for Terminator
2.
Though she would go on to become an action badass in subsequent films, in the first Terminator
movie, Sarah Connor spends the whole movie running away.
And that was a problem for star Linda Hamilton, because just before shooting, she broke her
ankle, tearing some ligaments, too, just for good measure.
To make things easier on Hamilton, Hurd shuffled the production schedule around so that many
of the scenes that involved running were shot near the end of principal photography.
But it was still far from easy.
Hurd told Entertainment Weekly,
"She had to run throughout the movie, and it was mostly Linda by the way, on a broken
ankle that had to be wrapped every day."
The Terminator franchise has endured for more than three decades, and through it all one
line has remained a signature not just for the franchise, but for Schwarzenegger as a
major action star:
"I'll be back."
Ironically, Schwarzenegger tried to change the line.
"I could not pronounce really well this 'I'll' so I kept just saying to Jim Cameron, maybe
I should just say 'I will be back'"
Cameron refused to budge.
"He says, 'no, no, no.
Look, I don't tell you how to act, don't tell me how to write.
I wrote the line, 'I'll be back.'"
Cameron shot several takes of the scene and had Schwarzenegger deliver the same line a
different way each time, then picked the best take.
Almost immediately after the film was released, fans were approaching Schwarzenegger on the
street to ask him to repeat it.
Cameron and Hurd shot the film guerilla style, filming many scenes without location permits.
And that almost got the production in hot water with the law during the filming of the
final scene when a cop crashed the party.
Hurd told Entertainment Weekly,
"[He] said, 'I need to see your permit for filming here.'
And we didn't have one.
We said, 'Oh, officer, we're making a UCLA student film.
We didn't know you needed permits.'
And he said, 'Okay, you're fine, just take the camera off the road.'
I don't know if that cop ever figured it out.
Wherever he is, we thank him for not shutting us down."
In the summer of 1984, as The Terminator was nearing completion, Cameron took a rough cut
to show the bosses at Orion.
They were less than impressed, with Cameron calling the screening, quote, "disastrous."
Hurd told Entertainment Weekly,
"They had such little faith in the movie that they didn't want to screen it for critics.
The head of marketing almost said as much.
And if you were Orion and you had Amadeus, which they had released five weeks before,
and which did go on to win Best Picture, well, I can imagine them saying, 'Amadeus, The Terminator
which one doesn't fit?'
I can't blame them now, but at the time I was devastated when they didn't like it."
In The Terminator's closing credits, there's one credit that may seem odd to viewers not
familiar with how it came about.
It reads: "Acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison."
Ellison, of course, was a legendary science fiction author who was almost as legendary
for being cantankerous.
So when he discovered the similarities between The Terminator and two Ellison's stories for
the 60's TV series Outer Limits, "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand," he contacted
his lawyers.
"We've been altered to look like humans.
It was necessary to come back into time and find you."
"What do you want with me?"
"You're the last hope of Earth."
Cameron publicly denied ripping off Ellison's stories, but Ellison reached a settlement
out of court with the studio that included both money and that credit.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.