Original subtitles

After touching down in Tinseltown,

Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted what everyone wanted.

I really want to get big.

Schwarzenegger sunk his teeth

into the big screen,

going from humble bodybuilder to barbarian.

He started to be taken seriously.

"Conan the Barbarian" really launched his career.

Reaching the top of the box office...

The film was like massively successful.

...Arnold's next project

would surely set Hollywood on fire.

And Universal's like,

"Man, we should make this a family movie."

Arnold, I think, was very disappointed.

I do not like this film.

He thought that it was kind of a step down.

But Schwarzenegger refused to step down,

instead becoming--

Sarah Connor?

No, that's not right.

"I want to play the Terminator."

Yes, that's it.

The ultimate robotic villain.

In a low-budget film noir.

You're trying to do a $20 million film for $6 million?

With an untested director.

I said, "You're gonna become Jim Cameron.

But right now, you're not."

"Terminator," the story of a chaotic production...

We had a lot of fights. We had a lot of, hmm.

...that nearly blew up.

There was cocaine around the set.

One of our set dressers got blood poisoning.

Head-on with a semi doing 60 miles an hour.

That was a dangerous movie to do.

As co-stars battled their demons.

Linda, she would hang on me and just cry and cry and say,

"Jim likes the machines more than he likes the actors."

Was Arnold Schwarzenegger

making the biggest mistake of his movie career?

Some robot story?

I think the word he said,

"This sounds shitty."

But yeah, I know it doesn't make any sense.

Arthur looks at the film and he says to me,

-"This is terrible." - Wrong.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan character

made him a household name.

Schwarzenegger.

- Schwarzenegger. - Schwarzenegger.

But the actor knew

constantly reinventing himself

would ensure career longevity.

Do you wanna live forever?

And one role in an action picture

set on the gritty streets of Los Angeles

co-starring Linda Hamilton.

Oh, not that picture.

This action picture set on the gritty streets of Los Angeles

co-starring Linda Hamilton

was about to do just that.

But what would make a fate

of these two mid '80s Linda Hamilton releases different?

A larger than life Hollywood star on the rise,

and a filmmaker whose legend had yet to unfold.

The director who would make Arnold magic happen

was born in a remote part of Ontario, Canada,

but long before he met Schwarzenegger,

James Cameron would move to California,

where he met another significant figure in his life.

Friend and writing collaborator Bill Wisher.

His girlfriend at the time,

she was just a friend of mine,

she said, "You should meet my boyfriend."

I was 17, I think he'd just turned 18.

We were writing a lot of stuff that will never get made.

But you can see in some of these early projects,

he's a very fine artist.

The pair were inspired

by "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Star Wars."

Thank the maker.

They set about making their own sci-fi

that was as weird as the choice of financiers.

A conglomerate of dentists of all people.

We got 40 grand out of them.

To make their crowning achievement.

A short film called "Xenogenesis,"

which you can find online.

Yeah, it's right in front of me.

And there were forced-perspective backgrounds.

I was cutting them with box cutters.

I'm the idiot running around

that this thing is trying to kill.

Soon enough,

a young Alec Gillis would get pulled

into the Xenogenesis orbit.

The first time I met Jim Cameron, he said,

"Hey, why don't you come out to a movie theater?"

I watched "Xenogenesis"

and it was so spectacular I left depressed.

Both excited and depressed.

Do I have to do all-- Like what?

I saw the models.

Jim's creativity was setting a high bar,

but Alec would have to get over it.

At the time, he was creating special effects too.

I had been making monsters

in my mom's two-car garage in Santa Ana.

My sister knew someone who was working

on a movie called "Battle Beyond the Stars"

for Roger Corman.

They saw my mom's garage and they said,

"Why don't you come in for an interview?"

And I was very insecure

'cause my portfolio was not professional at all.

But Jim's was.

The pair had become friends,

and Alec was now a friend in need.

And I thought, "Oh,

maybe if I bring Jim along,

it'll make me look good."

So what do you think of him?

It did and it didn't.

Taking six months for these two young rascals

to get in the door.

Why did it take so long to get hired?

Well, to quote James Cameron himself who said

to me a few years later,

"Hey, I just found out why it took them so long to hire us.

They thought I was an asshole."

Jim and Alec's new boss Roger Corman

was a prolific producer of low budget '50s and '60s films,

some of which became cult classics.

He had the reputation to giving

all these young artists a chance.

But this crafty movie legend

had an ulterior motive.

I'll see you in hell first.

We couldn't afford the big-time directors

and the veteran directors who were pretty good,

I thought there are younger guys who are better.

When Corman's film,

"Battle Beyond the Stars" went into production,

he and the visual effects director gave Cameron

his first real production design break.

Chuck Comisky kind of offered up a little like,

"Hey, anybody got any ideas for the ship?"

I did something,

you know, this is kinda cool.

Organic little, you know...

And then Cameron plunked his down on top of mine

and we all were like,

"Oh, well, that's it right there."

Not even a pale imitation.

You know, I thought I did pretty well back there.

I mean, it was a spaceship that actually had boobs.

Who can say no to that?

Before Jim knew it,

Roger's bright young assistant, Gale Anne Hurd,

was recommending him for something even bigger.

Directing second unit.

On 1981's--

"Galaxy of Terror."

What are the odds of us getting outta here?

And while Jim and Alec

were carpooling to work on the production...

A lot of late nights,

a lot of very tired driving.

...Jim pulled over and told Alec

about a recurring nightmare that would change everything.

He said, "I saw a car on fire

and a metal skeleton got up out of the car,"

and that was the dream.

Just that image,

which was a central kind of thought in his mind.

And then I think he started thinking,

"Well, how do I build a story around that?"

But apocalyptic robots

would have to take a back seat

when Roger Corman asked Jim to work on special effects

for a movie about apocalyptic fish.

Keep your hand out of the water.

What's wrong with the water?

Nasty films about nasty fish were in vogue,

and New World Pictures landed a whopper.

"Piranha 1" was amazingly successful.

So of course, you're gonna make another.

Entitled "Piranha 2,"

but when the director was fired,

an eager Cameron got his big break

to flex those big brain muscles.

Special effects,

the physical stuff and the art direction

'cause he'd been an art director.

So he sort of covered all bases.

Except for one minor detail.

Jim didn't know how to direct.

The idea of framing something perfectly,

shooting it gorgeously is not the way "Piranha" worked.

It's like fast cut, fast action,

very dark, hardly see anything.

And you know, he was given nothing.

He did it in Italy

because there was an Italian producer

that gave Roger a lot of money.

And Roger just turned it over to Jim

and sent him far away.

While Jim really sunk his teeth into it--

He got fired from "Piranha 2."

He only worked 12 days on it.

I saw a poster. "Piranha 2"?

And I'm like, "Wow, he's directed a movie.

This is fantastic."

Well, for 12 days,

but then Cameron really began raising eyebrows.

I remember somebody saying like,

"Where's Jim?

We need him to answer questions."

And then somebody else was going,

"And where's Gale?

I've got some questions for..."

And people went, "Oh."

Gale Anne Hurd, very strong.

She's very smart.

She came up through Corman. And of course,

her and Jim, producer team,

they made a very formidable couple.

He and Gale started collaborating on movie ideas.

And one idea,

or rather nightmare,

"The Terminator" would need Jim's old writing partner

Bill's special touch before he could take it to Gale.

Jim was joking with me.

He says, "Well, you've got a young girlfriend.

You probably know how these people talk.

You write all the early scenes with Sarah."

He gave me sections of the treatment

to turn into a script.

Better than mortal man deserves.

And that was my job.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Gale Anne Hurd would produce,

and Jim Cameron would direct with one tantalizing sweetener.

He was in love with her

and sold her half the rights for a dollar.

And I remember just thinking,

"Is that entirely wise,

do you think?"

A script for "Terminator" had been

developed by Jim Cameron,

Bill Wisher and Gale Anne Hurd.

They were a power couple and it was really cool to see.

Jim and Gale were also romancing.

I came across time for you, Sarah.

- What they needed now... - I love you.

- ...was financing. - Is this enough?

Jim didn't have any of his own money to put into it.

The movie that could make

or break everyone's career needed ignition.

And the key was Barbara Boyle from Orion Pictures.

Gale calls me up and says,

"Jim and I have a project.

Can't be with Corman.

It's much too expensive."

And they come in and tell me this story.

And Jim, as you probably know,

is a brilliant writer.

I said, "I love it, I love it, I love it."

This needed to go upstairs to the office

and pocketbook of Mike Medavoy.

He said, "Well, let me meet them.

You know, I don't know them, but of course,

I respect you."

I said, "I'm not even gonna tell you the credits

and even if I tell you the credits,

I don't want you to see Jim's film."

That would be the one

Jim was fired from after 12 days.

How could Barbara get Medavoy to bite?

Gale did all the talking.

She told him the story.

And what Jim did was storyboard everything.

His production design,

camera angles and movement

and Medavoy said, "Okay,

I'll read the script. Thank you so much."

And they left.

Everybody expected Mike to think--

This is insane, this is so cool.

It was the crisp writing.

- But-- - Mike comes back to me

and says, "Absolutely no."

No, no, no.

But David Hemmings

and John Daly, AKA Hemdale Films,

might be interested.

Come with me if you wanna live.

Gale Anne Hurd got in their door

by pretending to be interested

in buying Hemdale's head of production's desk.

Actor Lance Henricksen turned up

for the resulting pitch meeting in full Terminator costume.

There is artwork to show it.

There is Lance as the Terminator.

I think they were using it for pitch opportunities.

Hemmings and Daly were sold

for the bargain price of--

$6.4 million.

It was just in the range of the money

that they had that they wanted to spend.

They were scared of Jim,

I will say that right from the beginning,

'cause they were.

This was his debut and I love him dearly,

but he is tough to work with

'cause he's so organized in his own mind.

That he was very self-confident.

He was like 25 years old

and ready to take on the world.

He gave them pause,

but it all worked out in the end.

Then I went back to Medavoy and I said,

"They've got the whole thing financed

and I wanna distribute it."

He said, "You better talk to Arthur."

That would be Arthur Krim,

chair of Orion Pictures

who didn't like the script at all.

I said, "Okay, okay,

but there's absolutely no commitment to even spend a dime,

but I'm telling you I wanna do this movie."

He said, "Okay,

if it's nothing but distribution rights,

we'll release it in a very limited way."

So who would play the Terminator?

Lance Henricksen really wanted to be the Terminator.

He came from "Piranha 2."

Jim really felt like Lance saved his bacon on that movie

and wanted Lance to play the Terminator.

But Hemdale shut down that idea.

The studio didn't think Lance had a name.

So they started searching around.

One name was suggested but terminated.

This was before OJ got into trouble,

but he was another one that was flirting

with the film industry

after his very brilliant sports career.

And Arnold was like this.

Various actors were in the mix and Hemdale,

they wanted Arnold to play the part

that Michael Biehn ended up with, Kyle Reese,

and Jim hated that idea.

I was around when Arnold first heard of "The Terminator"

before he read the script or he met Cameron,

which he was reluctant to do

'cause it was a low budget film.

"Why do I want to go down when I could go up?

And this is what?

Some robot story, it just sounds like--"

I think the word he said,

"It just sounds shitty."

Jim's like, "I have to go have lunch

with Arnold Schwarzenegger today

and pick a fight with him.

'Cause I can't say no.

So I have to make him hate me.

So he'll say no."

And that was the politics of it.

And I said, "Good luck."

Over the wine list,

Arnold looked Jim square in the eye

and in a heavy Austrian accent said--

"I don't wanna play Kyle Reese.

I wanna play the Terminator."

And Jim starts thinking real quick and he's like,

"Well, that doesn't make any sense at all."

The idea was a slight-build guy,

nondescript, who could infiltrate.

He's supposed to be an infiltration unit

and here's this 6'2" Austrian

with a thick accent.

He goes, "Well yeah,

I know it doesn't make any sense,

but he's such a strong presence.

That's gonna work."

So Jim said, "Done."

They came away from that lunch loving each other.

I love you too sweetheart.

And if you read the script,

there's very little dialogue that the Terminator says.

The script may have been simple to implement,

but the special effects were going to stretch the budget

to the breaking point.

This is a low budget film.

I mean $6 million. 2 million for cast,

2 million for shooting,

2 million for post.

So really, really tight.

That 2 million for post

had to do a lot of work.

So when it came to special effects,

Cameron would turn to make up guru Dick Smith.

I don't know if Dick really understood

what "The Terminator" was all about.

Thus, he recommended Stan Winston

because of "Heartbeeps."

We would be mechanically compatible

for many similar functions.

Different kinds of robots.

Of course, whimsical robot makeups.

But that was the cool thing about Stan

is that he had done his own animatronics

for facial expressions.

Gorilla.

But like a chrome full-body rod puppet

and servo-driven skeleton dude

Dude, you know,

nobody had done that.

Joining an ever-growing list of true believers,

Stan began assembling his team.

Stan never said that it was

for a film called "The Terminator."

He just said that it was a little robot movie.

Jim came in,

I recognized him from Roger Corman's studios.

He did come in with concept drawings

of the Terminator endoskeleton

and they were magnificent.

A lot of people were now hitching their wagons

to Jim and Gale's big idea.

You're trying to do a $20 million film,

which was a big budget film back then for $6 million.

You have all of this action,

which takes time.

Things can go wrong.

You have stunts, people can get hurt.

And you're trying to squeeze 10 pounds of you know what

in a five pound bucket.

And all of this with the specter of unions

hanging over them like a guillotine.

Suddenly you're gonna add another million dollars

or so to the budget.

I did not wanna be union.

Hemdale's David Hemmings and John Daly

coughed up 6.4 million for Schwarzenegger's "Terminator."

But the movie's budget really needed an arm and a leg.

Yeah, Hemdale,

they weren't the most fun people to deal with.

Up-and-comer Donna Smith

is expected to oversee production with an iron fist

to make it work no matter what.

They needed to control,

they had that word a lot,

that we need to control this movie."

Don't move unless I say,

don't make a sound unless I say.

Donna's job was simple.

Make sure Hemdale's $6 million investment

and her relationship with the director didn't blow up.

Jim always calls me Smith.

He never calls me Donna.

"Smith, you gotta do this movie with me."

Gale was the producer.

So we started at her house up on Mulholland Drive.

That's where just the three of us started chatting

about everything we have to do

'cause we had a lot of work to do.

Such as how to stretch the budget.

Could Jim's home country come to the rescue?

It was 76 cents on the dollar in Canada at the time.

But the exchange rate

and the opportunity to run the shoot without unions

could not make up for Canada's harsh winter weather.

Canada just kind of piddled away very early on.

We decided to do it in LA.

Where the intimidating presence of the unions

could completely shut down this low budget movie.

Suddenly you're gonna add another million dollars

or so to the budget.

We couldn't do this movie with the unions.

And budget was an early flashpoint

between Jim and Donna.

We were never gonna get any more money.

I told Jim and we had a lot of fights.

We had a lot of, hmm.

Cameron solved the non-union idea

by channeling Roger Corman,

who knew the value of hiring a crew

wanting to earn their stripes, not just money.

I kinda live for that. When things are going really crazy,

I look around and go, Alright now we're having fun.

Let's see what these people are made of."

Everybody was in it for the long haul.

The search for a reasonably priced

leading lady was on.

Sarah Connor?

And co-writer Bill Wisher

got back in the frame to help.

Jim had me read for different women who would be Sarah.

Among potentials were Jody Foster,

Gina Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer,

and even Madonna.

Well, maybe I could help you.

Jennifer Jason Leigh was one.

That'd be great.

But one relative unknown

certainly left her calling card.

There was something about Linda.

She just, I don't know, fit it.

Some legend, huh?

Shortly after,

the legend of Michael Biehn would begin.

And Michael Biehn showed up.

He had a walk-on in "Grease,"

stalked Lauren Bacall in "The Fan,"

and a supporting role in "Lords of Discipline."

You gotta be careful.

- But on the day of his read... - For Kyle Reese.

...Biehn saw Bill with Sarah Connor hopefuls

and saw red.

He says, "I took one look at you and I thought,

that guy looks like Kyle Reese.

I don't think I'm happy about that."

Jim explained, "No, no, no.

Just helping me read the women."

And Michael was like, "Okay, good."

Michael Biehn landed the role of Kyle Reese

and while Lance Henrickson would miss out

on the Terminator,

he'd be happy to play Detective Vukovich.

This is fucking great.

And of course,

Lance and James Cameron ended up having

a long history working together.

- You did okay. - I did.

Principal roles cast,

pre-production tasks like makeup trials could begin.

Jeff Dawn was the makeup artist on set

to apply the makeups on Arnold.

So I go in and I interviewed with Stan Winston.

Stan Winston was our makeup designer.

He said, "We're doing a test on Arnold here at my studio."

He comes in, "Everybody, you look fantastic."

It was incredible to meet him at that time

because he was in Conan physique.

We were gonna put a little foam latex cover

that makes it look like you don't have eyebrows.

Wait, what?

Why did the Terminator lose his eyebrows?

Out in the alley,

he jumps on the car and the fire singes his hair

and burns his eyebrows off.

Now we're getting into some makeup look.

He sits in the chair, all the stuff is laid out.

I didn't bring anything I was gonna watch.

Nobody's touching him.

Well, who would?

Brave Jeff made his move.

I'm gonna jump in and do it.

Now yell if it hurts.

I think it was a test with Stan

'cause I did it and he said,

"Hey, I kinda watched you do that?

And that turned out really good."

The pressure immediately went up

when Linda decided she'd take a break before filming.

Not that kind of break.

Linda had twisted her ankle before we started the film

and one of the first scenes we did

was riding the motorcycle.

'Cause she could do that easily.

And a few weeks later she was strong enough

- to start running. - Run.

After only a week,

production shifted to long night shoots

and even longer weeks.

We started big, baby.

We started big.

It was a really big night.

We had the observatory for,

you know, just so long.

Where Jim Cameron's colleague

from the Roger Corman days,

Bill Paxton, would steal the scene.

Jim was like, "Yeah, just punk him out."

I was like, "Okay."

So we spiked his hair and--

Hey, I think this guy's a couple cans short of a six-pack.

So I just painted a tire track across his face.

Jim loved it.

It wouldn't be just the makeup

that made Paxton stand out.

Jim recognized his obvious talent casting him later

in another Schwarzenegger-Cameron project,

"True Lies."

Oh God, oh, please don't.

Don't, don't, don't kill me.

Bill was punked up.

- Fuck you, asshole. - But then Jeff looked down.

And Arnold arrives naked, of course, he's the Terminator.

Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a tan line.

Terminators don't have tan lines.

So here I am in the makeup trailer,

just Arnold and myself. He's buck naked.

I'm on my knees painting his ass and his hips

to match the rest of him.

"Hey Arnold, how's your family?"

You know?

Nice night for a walk, eh?

Arnold has no problems walking around naked.

He's a very confident guy.

Like Jeff, stunt coordinator Ken Fritz

would look the other way

when Arnold was in his birthday suit.

All those unnecessary people were cleared from the set.

There's a wall there, and all the females...

Sit down, you're going to love this.

They started giggling when Arnold took his,

you know, robe off.

And it was a cool night.

Not a night to be naked.

Why were the girls giggling?

Can we take the Fifth on that?

Whatever the weather,

Arnold certainly loved hanging out with the crew that is.

Well, Arnold is playful.

Because we were working nights, it was cold.

Freezing.

Girls are always standing around,

when we're cold, we kind of--

We just do that.

And Arnold would come

and put his arms around the back of you and say,

"Oh, here, I will help warm you up."

This is why it's nice to make films like this.

Arnold was very accessible.

He had a confidence

because he had already accomplished so much in his life.

Jim on the other hand,

was just starting his career as a director.

I always told him, I said,

"You're gonna become Jim Cameron.

But right now you're not.

And we've got this much money and this schedule

and we're sticking to it."

Donna was talking like a boss

because she was Jim's boss.

As a studio representative on location,

she began challenging Jim's

get the shot at all cost approach.

And action.

We did a shot and he said,

"That was perfect,

let's do it again."

Do it a little faster too.

And so the crew is kind of scrambling to just do it.

And I said, "Nah, Jim,

we have to have a talk.

We can go behind the trucks and talk,

whichever way you want it.

And I said, "When you call a shot that was perfect.

You cannot call, 'Let's do it again.'"

And I just said, "Ladies and gentlemen,

that was perfect. Move on."

Conversation terminated

and everything was roses.

- Or was it? - He hated me.

I mean, that was not easy.

It was a very tough time between us

'cause it happened in front of the crew.

Donna decided on a peace offering of clothes?

So the next day I had a T-shirt made up

and on the front it said, "That was perfect.

Let's do it again."

So I gave it to Jim in front of the crew.

He held it up, he looked at it and I thought,

"Oh, he's gonna come give me a hug."

Your clothes.

He wadded it,

he threw it down.

I thought, "Oh, that didn't go so well.

So, that kind of thing happened with us a lot.

Despite tensions

between production manager Donna Smith

and Director Jim Cameron,

"Terminator" would have to be shot in just 10 weeks.

That was a big, big thing with me

to bring it in on budget and on time.

Novice director Cameron decided

now was the time to invent a whole new genre

of movie making.

And I said, "This is gonna be

a terrific science fiction film."

And he said, "Barbara,

this is not science fiction.

I am creating my own genre. It's a tech noir."

I'm at this place called "Tech Noir."

And this pivotal scene where Connor,

Reese and the Terminator would engage

was the perfect opportunity

to put this exciting new genre up in lights.

We had the Tech Noir sign made.

I'd never had a neon sign made for any movie before.

You know, it was going to cost this much

and I thought it would cost that much.

That's the kind of thing that would hurt the budget.

To make up any shortfall,

the production would rent the worst space in town.

It was a rat infested old restaurant that had closed down.

Props people did a very impressive job

making it look like real.

It looked like a happening place you'd like to go into.

A couple of 'em snuck in

and we got free extras out of it.

If the unions heard about that--

This scene would actually go on to set the standard

for action editing and action writing for years to come.

And it became the touchstone for many filmmakers.

In that sequence,

we had a number of stunt people around the actors.

And so when they're running out,

you know, to get away,

you have Sarah running and you had just the regular extras

in and around the stunt people and it was seamless.

You couldn't tell the difference.

Because even running was a stunt

on a set like this.

I had to worry about metal tables

and they were sharp as razors.

Getting into Tech Noir

was a lot easier than getting out for Ken.

I remember going through that window quite well.

What they did is they squibbed the window

and then when you go to the window as a stuntman,

it actually crushes before you go out of it.

So the only thing you have to worry about

is your hands getting cut up and stuff.

I loved working at Tech Noir.

I've done dozens and dozens of nightclub scenes

since then, including shoot-ups,

that was the one that put it on the map for me.

I remember at the end of the film,

James Cameron took the Tech Noir sign

and gave it to Gale Anne Hurd as a gift.

I hope she has that in her office someplace still.

Before long Arnold Schwarzenegger

would come face-to-face with the actor

whose screen debut gave rise to

the very character he was playing now.

Jim says, "Why don't you play the cop

that Arnold steals the police car from?"

So I said, "Sure."

Just like "Xenogenesis,"

Bill was walking into yet

another risky confrontation with a killer robot.

He was supposed to smash my head into the car

and then fling me sort of over his shoulder.

And you go like this here.

- I like that. - And I landed

and just skidded across the asphalt.

Oh god.

I got a round of applause from the stunt team.

And I thought, "God, I hope they got that on camera."

No.

Smash, out of frame.

Shooting would also continue at breakneck pace,

but not always with cameras.

You could hear other gunshots going

and people getting shot

and all this stuff going on all around.

'Cause in those days,

downtown wasn't gentrified.

It wasn't just the shooting guns,

it was the shooting up.

Needles, all of that.

Nasty, smelly,

urine, feces.

Rats and garbage and condoms and--

It was actually where all the homeless people lived.

They loved that we had this table of food.

Well, they didn't know what it was,

but they would come and just take everything.

But Tech Noir guerrilla filmmaking

isn't possible on an empty stomach.

So Donna marched up to the de facto leader

of the unhoused, Fats.

And I said, "Can I hire you?

I wanna hire you

to take care of this table from now on?

I want these other people to have some food also.

But you get to regulate it and you'll get a salary."

And he went, "Yeah, I'll do that."

So Jim, once he met Fats, he just loved Fats.

So now he says,

"You're gonna be the truck driver."

So here Fats is now in the truck

opening the whole bloody movie.

What the hell?

And that's where he came from.

Just one of the street people

hired to watch the craft service table.

He was a real character.

What the hell?

Chino 'Fats' Williams wouldn't be the only walk-on actor.

Hemdale's completion bond rep.

would be roped into play a desk sergeant.

Unfortunately he had a different personality of, you know,

kind of militant and "I'm here to straighten things out

and smack you all around."

And then Arnold said--

I'll be back.

And then the rep was dispatched

with the same cold efficiency.

That's part of our culture.

Everybody knows that line.

Everybody does.

But it was almost not that line.

Arnold wanted to say,

"I will be back."

And James Cameron said, "No, it's, 'I'll be back.'"

And James Cameron had to say,

"Writer, actor,

read line."

James was in control,

but pushing the crew and the actors to the limit

to achieve his vision.

What he put Linda through,

there was a love-hate relationship.

She would hang on me

and just cry and cry and cry and say,

"He likes the machines more than he likes the actors."

That's just the truth.

I mean she was very, very exhausted

and Jim would be,

"We gotta do it some more.

You know, Linda, give me this,

give me that."

And she was all blood, sweat and tears.

I mean, 18 hour days for us was normal on that.

I'd probably get home around 8:00 or 9:00,

sleep for three hours and get up and go.

That was it. Like three hours.

The crew were clearly at breaking point,

the perfect time for the union to step in.

As in all films in LA,

the union is there watching you.

It's pretty hard to hide an independent production

for eight weeks shooting in LA.

We were all non-union.

They came to the set,

said we're here to shut this down.

And it was very gnarly.

And I said, "You can talk to the crew

and try to unionize them. You've got five minutes."

And they said, "No, we'll take as long as we need, sis."

In early 1984, filming "Terminator"

on the mean streets of LA was dirty...

One of our set dressers got blood poisoning.

...drug fueled...

It was actually where all the homeless people lived.

- ...and dangerous. - Arnold shot me.

Plenty of ammunition for unions

to convince the production it was time to sign up.

So the crew had gathered

and the union guys gave their speech about,

"You really should be union

and this is why," and everything.

Unionizing the crew meant

there wouldn't be enough money to finish the film.

James stood up and said, "Look it, guys,

this has been my baby.

This has been something I've worked hard for for years.

If we go union,

we will have to shut down

because we don't have the budget."

James said, "I'm asking everybody,

let's just get through this.

Let's do this non-union like we're doing.

Finish it with this wonderful crew

and be proud of this movie."

So the crew needed to decide

between the union or the movie.

They couldn't have both.

We all got in the union later on.

But I'm glad to this day that I followed my heart

and we all did in that room and stayed non-union.

Dwindling amounts of time and money

would be harnessed to drive innovation.

One of the many obstacles to overcome

had to take place in just a few frames.

Well, I tried to put my fist,

I almost broke my hand.

It didn't work.

Jim Cameron came up with a device.

We put an air ram up Arnold's sleeve.

So when Arnold, he just had to go like this

and this air ram would put the hole through the windshield.

The background had to be moving.

So we put a block wall inside of a semi

and had the semi go really slow in the background.

From that point on,

I started making him look more and more pale

because terminators lose their source of blood.

I had K-Y jelly on him

and I would keep him shiny

'cause it needed to look like plastic.

Necessity continued

to be the lube of invention

as good looking Arnold...

Beautiful Austrian, Conan, God.

I hope you're watching, Arnold.

...would need to become

hideously disfigured Arnold.

There's a transformation. Stage one,

we were in an era of pre-digital--

You know, makeups can only really be built up,

I don't know if-- built out.

But you can't dig negative space in.

You can't see past the flesh into the bones.

See the teeth, see the tongue.

The idea Stan and Jim came up with

was to make replicas of Arnold

that did have negative space.

Matching makeups to semi- animatronic simple heads.

Makeup and prosthetics

would take hours to put on.

So when the caterers had gone home,

how would Arnold refuel his negative space?

Nine o'clock at night,

Arnold's in his full torn apart makeup.

Let's get outta here.

So we took Arnold into a Hungry Tiger to say hi.

And we walk in and people start looking

and there's a payphone and a woman is on it

as we walk by and the woman says--

There's somebody after me.

Well, what she actually said was--

"You'll never believe what just walked in.

A punk band just came in here."

"Hello, everybody.

I hope you're having a fantastic time."

You know, everybody's like...

with their spaghetti halfway up to here.

He's walking along and the woman's right here

on the phone still and he stops and he turns to her

and he takes the phone from her hand,

leans over and kisses her on the cheek

and then hands her back the phone,

turns back and walks out.

She'll never forget that.

Back on the set nobody would forget this.

One of the screw-ups in "Terminator,"

nobody notices it.

Actually, I was referring

to the truck explosion that almost incinerated

the whole crew.

We needed the scene where Kyle Reese

jumps into the garbage can.

We shot that at Piper Tech,

which was where the police land

and take off their helicopters.

We had to do this giant explosion off camera

that then rains down on this garbage can.

There was a request from the police, "Please,

please, keep your explosives two stories tall.

No more."

Of course, it was like a four or five story ball of flame.

They have these giant pots, like this--

that you fill with peat moss,

you fill with cork, you fill with balsa wood

and you use rubber cement.

It's like napalm, rubber cement.

You can imagine as it's burning,

it's sticky stuff.

So this whole glob of goo goes flying into the air.

Rob Roda standing right in front of me.

And I caught fire,

just lost some hair.

Oh, that's something to be proud of.

That was a dangerous movie to do.

Now these are people that are experts at doing things

that can kill you,

but learning how not to die doing them.

Drive faster.

Such as not getting hit in the face

with a speeding truck.

The special tech guys were throwing pipe bombs at me.

One of 'em went off right next to my front motorcycle tire

and the whole bike went like that.

And I, whoop,

got outta his way.

I think I missed him by five feet.

Otherwise I would've done a head-on with a semi

doing 60 miles an hour.

And you see the motorcycle in the movie go like this--

That's all true.

That's not fake.

Luckily, Ken wasn't terminated.

But Schwarzenegger's flesh and blood roll was,

meaning life for Stan Winston's effects team

was about to experience a birth of fire.

- No! - The endoskeleton was going

to have a lot more stop motion animation

and it was Stan who convinced Jim that he could do

as much full size live action endo as possible.

What Stan and his group came up with

is these large portions of the endoskeleton

that were extremely realistic.

And Stan had a full 6'2" endoskeleton

and various bits and pieces,

arms and legs and hands that would work.

There's a half body that I wore,

so it looks like it's walking

when you see it from the waist up.

It was about 75 pounds.

It had a radio-controlled head

so that the guys could follow around with the head

and the jaw and the eyes as I was walking.

But the hard part was hiding all of the rigging.

The only question now for Cameron, Hurd,

Schwarzenegger, Hemdale,

and all the hopeful cast and crew was,

would all their hard work

and invention pay off at the box office?

In May of 1984, principal photography

for "Terminator" had wrapped on time and on budget.

Thanks largely to Gale Anne Hurd's production chops.

They're very clever. Coming from Corman--

Live fast, fight well.

And working with 15, 18, 21 days.

It was amazing to have 42.

I mean, I had the right people

for this ambitious of a project.

Gale and Jim were becoming a formidable team

due to both of them being extremely hands-on.

She was very present on the set.

She wasn't the type of producer

that sat back in the main office,

off-site someplace.

She was there all night.

She was there during the day.

You know, she was a problem solver.

It was time

for Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Terminator"

to face the music and the critics and the public.

The film is now finished.

New York wants to see it.

Arthur looks at the film

and I go back to look at it with him.

After the film, he says to me, "This is terrible."

"You're making my company into

a Roger Corman company

with trashy movies."

Good.

And I said,

"This is not a trashy movie.

This is going to be reviewed well."

And the critics and the public would agree.

The reviews were out of this world.

Like wildfire.

It's the hit we were hoping for.

We did it, Kyle.

- We got it. - It was the talk of the town.

This little action film that everybody going,

"Did you see Terminator?"

I liked the whole movie

way better than "Piranha 2."

It was lightning in a bottle.

Barbara had said as much way back

with her meeting with Arthur Krim when she said--

We need this project and it's gonna make some money.

He said, "Okay,

we'll release it in a very limited way."

Released in October of 1984,

Cameron and Schwarzenegger's "The Terminator"

was a hit bringing in $38 million domestically

in its first run.

It would go on to gross over $78 million

at the global box office

on a budget of just 6.5 million.

A huge hit.

Number one box office

for one, two, three weeks.

Something like that.

I just believed in Jim and Gale.

I just did.

And it was great for both of them, that picture.

While the story stands on its own

as a closed loop,

Terminator would become a $1.4 billion franchise

paying forward huge dividends for all the blood,

sweat and tears.

"Terminator 1" launched so many careers.

Mine, James Cameron's, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I've worked ever since.

I never stopped working.

Jim became Jim.

Gale became Gale.

Who would team up again

on their very next project,

with a slightly less intense Michael Biehn on board.

Yeah, I noticed.

Cameron's pen would go on

to write "Rambo 2,"

which would make $200 million at the box office,

giving Stallone the edge over his archrival Arnold.

But "Terminator" was just the beginning.

A low-budget movie with significant risk attached

had made Schwarzenegger

the superstar he'd hope to become.

I think "Terminator" got him beyond the strongman.

When Arnold dies,

they'll probably put "The Terminator"

on the bottom of his headstone.

Because of all the things he's ever done,

that's what he'll be remembered for forever.

Having traded swords for sawed-off shotguns,

could Schwarzenegger's next film give him

the everyman role he always wanted?

I'll be back, Bennett.

He said, "I like this picture,

I'm not a robot from the future,

a caveman from the past.

I'm wearing clothes like a regular person.

I do this picture."

He was trying to humanize Arnold.

Don't disturb my friend. He's dead tired.

Remember, Sully, when I promised

to kill you last?

The whole audience said the line.

I lied.

- What'd you do with Sully? - I let him go.