Creating the Terminator

“They could have fired me on the spot. But you know, they’re idiots” That’s a quote from James Cameron about the reaction of gathered executives to the first screening of The Terminator, which according to the director, really didn’t go all that well. However, largely due to Cameron’s background working on cheesy B-Movies, there was nobody else in Hollywood the studio could bring in to finish the movie. In fact, the success of Terminator and by extension the career of James Cameron owes a lot to the director’s B-movie chops, connections and experience. Oh, and a vicious bout of food poisoning that left him delirious and on the verge of shitting himself for like 5 whole days. On this, there is a long-standing industry legend that the genesis of The Terminator was a nightmare Cameron had whilst working on the cinematic turd that is, Piranha II: The Spawning, a film about genetically engineered flying piranha that is largely only noteworthy for being the directorial debut of Cameron, outside of a little film he made funded by his dentist. The legend posits that Cameron had to take a break from tossing rubber piranha at his actors when he came down with food poisoning. Whilst recovering in a cheap Italian hotel, Cameron is said to have had a nightmare about a chrome skeleton attempting to stab him with a kitchen knife and that that image was so terrifying he was convinced it could be a great hook for a film. Cameron then immediately sketched out the basic design of what would become the Terminator. Which is a great story, but it’s not the whole story and there are several details James Cameron himself has dismissed or clarified over the years. Author: Karl Smallwood Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices