James Cameron Rejected Arnold Schwarzenegger's Gruesome Terminator 2 Pitch
If Hollywood heavyweight Arnold Schwarzenegger had gotten his way, his titular cyborg character in the 1991 blockbuster "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" would have been a lot more menacing and murderous.
Fortunately, James Cameron — who wrote and directed Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" in 1984 — talked the famed bodybuilder-turned-action star out of his idea for where the character goes in the sequel. It took some persuading, though, for Cameron to talk the action hero into playing the polar opposite of what the actor envisioned for the character.
Calling Cameron a genius writer during a panel discussion before a "Terminator 2" screening by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in July 2023, Schwarzenegger said he initially balked at the idea of making the T-800 a good guy for the sequel. "I said 'What do you mean a good Terminator?' I was killing 68 people in the first one," Schwarzenegger said during the panel (via Deadline). "In the second one I have to kill 150. We go up! Cut their throats and shoot them with a cannon and run them over with a car.'"
Schwarzenegger admitted during the panel that his idea for making the Terminator more of a killing machine than it was in the first film was rooted in a rivalry he had in the 1980s and early '90s with fellow actor Sylvester Stallone over who was the bigger action star. "I had to outdo Stallone," Schwarzenegger recalled. "I said that my whole mission was being number one at killing amounts of people on screen."
Cameron brutally terminated Schwarzenegger's T2 ideas
Fortunately, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone's legendary feud ended when they became business partners in the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain that was established in 1991. Schwarzenegger recalled for British TV talker Graham Norton (via NME) that he and Stallone became close friends when they flew around the world together to promote the business venture.
Whether James Cameron's talk with Schwarzenegger over his thirst for cinematic blood in "Terminator 2" had anything to do with the actor turning the other cheek in his battle with Stallone is up for debate, but it is certainly food for thought. "[Cameron] said 'Arnold, stop it. You're a very sick guy. I am gonna make sure that in 'Terminator 2,' you're not gonna kill one single person,'" the star recalled of the director's brutal assessment of his ideas for the movie during the AMPAS panel. "I said that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How can this be 'Terminator 2' without me killing anyone? At least throw a few token bodies in there."
Cameron, as it turns out, was right, considering "Terminator 2" was a blockbuster hit worldwide, pulling in more than $515 million at the global box office against a $100 million budget. In the film, of course, Schwarzenegger's iconic robot comes to the aid of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her young son and future leader of the rebellion against Skynet, John Connor (Edward Furlong), instead of trying to kill them.
Schwarzenegger and Stallone, by the way, remain close friends. In fact, they appeared in each other's documentary projects, "Arnold" and "Sly," which both premiered on Netflix in 2023.