The Terminator is by far one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most famous roles.
While director James Cameron had an idea of what he wanted the T-800 to be, it was main character Arnold Schwarzenegger who shaped the Terminator villain. Few sci-fi antagonists are as memorable as the T-800 from The Terminator. The Terminator is one of the most memorable scary faces in the history of the genre.
Terminator creator James Cameron did not envision the Terminator as audiences know it. While Cameron had the initial idea for the T-800 during a feverish dream, his vision of a
metal exoskeleton emerging from a wall of fire did not give Helmour much insight into the Terminator’s character. To do this, Cameron had to rely on a possible Terminator star. Though Cameron initially met with Schwarzenegger to see if the actor was interested in playing the character Kyle Reese.
Initially, Schwarzenegger was not interested in the role of the Terminator because it had almost no lines, but in the end Schwarzenegger agreed to play the role of the Terminator anyway. Schwarzenegger reasoned that the Terminator should work like a real machine, taking no pleasure or joy in killing, but instead coldly complete each mission without any emotional investment.
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This even included body language, such as how the T-800 first turns its eyes before the head follows it as it scans targets. Arnie’s original T-800 became a sci-fi movie icon thanks to the actor’s advice to Cameron about the character.
Schwarzenegger recalls a 2019 MensHealth interview as he told James Cameron, “He’s a machine. So everything should be prosaic … I said that there should be no joy, no satisfaction, no victory circle. It was clear that Arnie thought more about the T-800 than Reese, and his concepts caught on with the director. In the same meeting, the actor recalled that “Jim then said to me: you analyze it better than I wrote.
Why aren’t you playing the Terminator?” Schwarzenegger wasn’t the only name being considered for the role of Reese. Cameron also offered the part to musician Sting, who hilariously scolded the director after learning that his only credit to date was 1981’s Piranha II. Spawning. The role eventually went to Michael Biehn, who also starred in Cameron’s Aliens. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger continued to reprise his role as the T-800 in every subsequent Terminator film except one, in the critically acclaimed Terminator 2. This take on the Terminator proved even more popular with viewers, leading to a string of Terminator sequels that continued until the box office disappointment of 2019’s The Terminator. Dark fate.
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