17 little-known facts about James Cameron's cult film on its anniversary
On October 26, 1984, a low-budget film called “The Terminator” was released in US cinemas, starring a little-known bodybuilder who, 19 years later, became the governor of California. The film also launched the career of director James Cameron: he borrowed money from friends to make a film about a killer robot, and in the late nineties and 2000s he directed two of the highest-grossing blockbusters in history.
On this occasion, TJournal recalls unknown facts about the Terminator.
The famous phrase “I'll be back,” forever attached to Schwarzenegger, was written as “I'll come back” in an early version of the script. Arnold, for whom English was still new, insisted on the “I will be back” option, as he considered it more suitable for the car, but Cameron had the last word. As a result, the quote took 37th place in the hundred greatest phrases in the history of cinema according to the American Film Institute. In total, Schwarzenegger spoke 17 sentences during the film. According to James Cameron's original idea, the sinister Skynet network was supposed to launch two robots into the past at once: an ordinary one and one made of liquid metal. During the preparation process, the director realized that the special effects of those times were not yet ready for this and implemented the idea in Terminator 2, having previously tested it in The Abyss. Arnold Schwarzenegger took an extremely responsible approach to preparing for filming: he spent hours at the shooting range to learn how to pull the trigger without blinking and use both hands equally well, and also disassembled and assembled weapons with his eyes closed to bring all actions to automatism. The efforts did not go unnoticed: Soldier of Fortune magazine praised the actor for his skillful handling of pistols and rifles in the frame. In the eighties, Hollywood didn't often pay attention to such details. While writing the script for The Terminator, James Cameron did not have an agent: the director fired him because he did not like the idea of a film about a killer robot. Then the future director of Avatar lived in his car. He sold the completed script to his wife and producer Gale Anne Hurd for just $1, subject to complete creative freedom on the set. In the original version of the script, Sarah Connor's behavior resembled that of a teenage girl, but then Cameron gave her the habits of an older woman. Nevertheless, according to her passport, she remains 19 years old: this fact is confirmed in Terminator 2, when 10 years later the audience is shown 29-year-old Sarah. Moreover, at the time of filming the original film, Linda Hamilton, who played her role, was already 28. In one version of the scenario, Sarah Connor had an injury from figure skating, which the Terminator checked on all her namesakes - tearing off her legs. Linda Hamilton actually broke her ankle before filming began, but this fact is not used in any way in the film. In Poland, “The Terminator” was released under the title “Electronic Killer”, because the word “terminator” in Polish sounded like “student”. Nevertheless, due to pirated copies, the original name eventually took root in this country, so there was no longer any “electronic killer” in the sequels. Instead of his iconic role, Arnold Schwarzenegger initially wanted to play Kyle Reese, but Cameron explained to him that this was a mistake: it was a film about a sinister robot, and not about Sarah Connor's savior. Science fiction author Harlan Ellison has stated that The Terminator was inspired by two episodes of the series The Outer Limits, which he wrote, as well as his short story "I Have No Mouth, But I Must Scream." The conflict was resolved pre-trial and Ellison's participation was recognized, but Cameron later claimed that this decision was imposed on him by the producers. Schwarzenegger tried to reduce his contacts with the performers of the roles of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to a minimum: next to them he had to show absolute composure. Although stereo sound was already available in 1984, James Cameron was unable to afford it due to his limited budget. Nowadays, the track has already been re-encoded. The Terminator is the only character to be featured twice on the American Film Institute's list of best heroes and villains: as a hero and as a villain. During the filming of all the chases in the film, the cars moved quite slowly. Cameron achieved the effect of fast driving by speeding up the recording, as well as using special rotating lamps, which created the feeling that the car was rapidly rushing past the lights. When viewers are shown the Terminator's “eye view”: lines of assembly code for the Apple II computer are visible on the screen. In one of the first versions of the script, the Terminator had to eat to nourish its human shell. 30 years later, James Cameron told the creators of the fifth film in the franchise that she could also age. Michael Biehn (who plays Kyle Reese) appears in the frame with Schwarzenegger once. He smiles that many times throughout the entire film. The Terminator is set "in modern times" because filming in the future was prohibitively expensive. This is how Cameron came up with the idea of time travel. I watched the second one first, so I didn’t fall in love with the first one right away,
Vadim Elistratov,
TJournal
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