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. Keep watching the video to learn the truth about The Terminator finally revealed!
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Fever dream | 0:12
Accidental superstar | 0:56
Second choices | 2:03
Linda Hamilton's superheroics | 2:59
Schwarzenegger almost wasn't back | 3:37
The cops almost defeated Terminator | 4:23
The studio hated it | 4:53
Harlan Ellison's cantankerous credit | 5:27
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