#Arnold Schwarzenegger Had a Big Problem with the Terminator 2 Script After Reading It

As Terminator 2 hit its milestone 30th anniversary, James Cameron revealed that the script of the movie caused a little bit of confusion with star Arnold Schwarzenegger due to his T-800 character not seeming to be killing as many people as expected. At the time, any movie with Arnie in the title role usually meant a big body count, mostly thanks to his character, so the idea of him not doing much devastation in Cameron’s sequel to The Terminator was something that the pair had to have a big heart to heart about – in front of a number of other people at the Cannes Film Festival of all places.

Speaking to The Ringer, Cameron was discussing a number of thing about the making of the sci-fi blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day when he said about Arnie, “I could tell there was something bugging him, right? We were pals at this point. Post-Terminator, we rode motorcycles together. And he said, ‘Jim, I have a big problem with the script.’ I said, ‘Well, what is it?’ And he said, ‘I don’t kill anybody.’ I said, ‘I know, right? They’ll never see that coming. Nobody will guess it. He said, ‘I know, but one thing is surprise. Another thing is I don’t kill anybody and I’m the Terminator.’ This is happening on some terrace at Cannes and everybody’s looking. I’m like, ‘Let’s talk this out.’ I give him all the reasons how it’s going to work. He said, ‘I know, but everybody knows I kick in the door and shoot everybody. That’s what I do.'”
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It is pretty much a fair summation of how Arnie’s big screen appearances usually panned out back then. If you look at the number of bodies piling up in The Terminator, it is clear to understand why he may have been a little put off at the thought of not simply gunning down everything in sight for much of the movie. Having said that, the way the movie turned out wasn’t exactly disastrous for going the route it did.

Arnold Schwarzenegger previously talked about the role when speaking to ComicBook.com back in 2019, and in particular about his famous line from the franchise. “I’ve learned very quickly with the I’ll be back line. We never thought that this would ever be repeated,” Schwarzenegger said. “No one even thought twice about that line. All of a sudden, when the movie comes out, people come up to me and say, ‘Can you say this line? I’ll be back. Oh my God, it’s such a great line.’ So, I don’t know, like when I said I’ll stick around and put the knife through someone’s chest… Or like, it’s another tumor, it’s not a tumor at all. It’s the way I pronounce words that makes these iconic lines because people have fun repeating it with that accent.”

There is no denying that Arnie has always had a way with words in his movies, and although many may like repeating his lines “with that accent”, son-in-law Chris Pratt recently revealed that he would never do an impression of his famous in-law, as he couldn’t then sit across the dinner table from him in future. As for Terminator 2, still being regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi movies and sequels of all time proves that James Cameron certainly knew what he was doing in going against Schwarzenegger’s usual type.

Topics: Terminator 2, Terminator