Where to watch The Terminator (1984)

Trivia & production notes

• James Cameron conceived The Terminator after falling ill in Rome during the release of Piranha II and dreaming of a metallic torso wielding kitchen knives crawling from an explosion.
• Cameron sold the film rights to producer Gale Anne Hurd for one dollar, contingent on his agreement to direct, a decision he later regretted.
• To secure financing from Hemdale Film Corporation chairman John Daly, Cameron staged an elaborate pitch where actor Lance Henriksen arrived early dressed as the Terminator with fake cuts and gold foil teeth before kicking open the office door.
• The original script outline called for two Terminators sent to the past, with the second being made of liquid metal, but Cameron shelved this concept because the technology of the time could not create it.
• Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson both declined the role of the Terminator before Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast.
• James Cameron initially planned to avoid casting Schwarzenegger as the Terminator by picking a fight with him during their meeting, but instead decided he was perfect for the role.
• Schwarzenegger dismissed The Terminator as insignificant while filming Conan the Destroyer, calling it a B-movie that would not harm his career if it failed, only realizing its potential after seeing twenty minutes of the first cut.
• Schwarzenegger spent three months training with weapons to prepare for the role and speaks only 17 lines and fewer than 100 words in the entire film.
• Rock musician Sting was considered for the role of Kyle Reese but declined because Cameron was not yet an established director.
• Michael Biehn initially thought the script was silly and only committed to the role after meeting with Cameron, having studied the Polish resistance movement in World War II to prepare for playing Kyle Reese.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Terminator, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.