Arnold only has 16 lines.
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When The Terminator's stolen police car is shown up close in the parking structure, the motto on the left side of it reads "to care and to protect." After the car crashes, you can see the motto on the left side again, but this time it reads "Dedicated to serve." See more...
The Terminator (1984) - 32 trivia entries
Directed by James Cameron, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lance Henriksen, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn (add more)
Arnold only has 16 lines.
At the beginning of the film, Sarah listens to an answering machine recording of her boyfriend breaking up a date. The voice heard on the answering machine belongs to James Cameron.
The skulls seen in the future segments were actually used as part of a technique to make the model set (and all the HKs on it) look bigger than it actually was. Fantasy II littered the set with little skulls that were about 3/4 of a inch in size and then placed a normal sized skull in the foreground for some shots. This created an illusion known as 'forced depth perception' which makes you continually think the scale of the picture you're seeing is larger than reality. An inexpensive but very effective trick.
The final image of the Terminator in the film - where its red eye winks out after it had been crushed in the press - was actually one of the cheapest and simplest shots to create. It was done after principal photography had wrapped, when Cameron decided they needed the final shot. The press was made of foam core spray-painted silver, the eye was taken from one of the endoskeleton models and fitted with a small LED that was dialed down, the ring of metal that falls off was made of tinfoil, and the smoke wafting across was cigarette smoke blown on-camera by somebody out of the camera's field of view. Simple - but one of the most powerful images in the film.
The classic line, "I'll be back." was originally scripted as "I'll come back."
Before the Terminator drives up to the house of the first Sarah Connor, there is a shot of the house from the street. In this shot, you can see a small toy truck which looks exactly like the one the Terminator uses at the end of the film. In the next scene, you can see how the truck is run over and crushed by the car that pulls up. A small hint of what might happen in the future of the film. That model truck is one of those what the filmmakers made for filming the truck-blows-up scene.
The body bag that Reese is zipped up into at the end of the film is actually a suit bag that belonged to director James Cameron. They needed a pickup shot and Cameron happened to have the bag in his car, so he pulled it out and presto, instant body bag.
Michael Biehn gave a very impressive reading for the part of Reese, but Cameron didn't like the fact that he had such a prominent Southern accent. He called Biehn's agent and said that they loved the reading, but didn't want Reese to have a pronounced accent like that. The agent was confused: "What accent? He doesn't have an accent." It then transpired that Biehn had in fact just come from an audition for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that morning, and hadn't shaken off the accent yet. So they had him come in for another reading, verified the lack of accent, and offered him the part.
The Tunnel that Reese & Sarah throw pipe bombs at the Terminator is called The Second St. Tunnel between Hill & Figueroa St. in downtown Los Angeles.
The start of shooting was delayed for two days because The Terminator's custom leather jacket didn't fit him correctly.
If you watch the flying HKs you may notice the turbine pods on the sides look a little 'flat' at times. This is because Fantasy II had to start shooting the future war segments before they finished the small scale models so they built the body of the HK and then stuck cardboard on the sides so they could get the passing shots done. Then they added the engines.
The Tiki Motel is at 7301 Santa Fe Ave. in Huntington Park, CA. This is where Sarah & Reese make pipe bombs.
The "smoke" effect coming off Terminator's jacket during the scene where he is riding on the hood of Reese and Sarah's car in the alleyway outside Tech Noir was created by pouring a mild acid onto the jacket. Arnold begged for an alternative method, as the idea understandably made him rather nervous, but eventually he agreed to it.
After the Tech Noir shootout, the Terminator takes out a hapless policeman (One-L-nineteen) and steals his car (and later impersonates his voice). This cop is played by Bill Wisher, a friend of Cameron's and co-writer of the script. Wisher also appears in "Terminator 2" as the shocked mallgoer with the camera, after the T-1000 throws the Terminator through the wall.
A "steel fist" machine rig was used to punch through the windshield of the car in the alleyway scene. The rig was so heavy that the car couldn't be moved, so instead they moved the brick wall behind the car to give the appearance that the vehicle was in motion.
The scenes in the restaurant that Sarah works at was filmed at Carrows Restaurant located at 815 Fremont Ave. South Pasadena, CA.
Lance Henriksen was originally considered for the role of the Terminator but was dropped in favour of Arnold and instead cast as Vukovich. Henkriksen would however later go on to be cast as the android Bishop in 'Aliens'.
Reese arrives in a Alley on 7th & Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. This is also the same block they filmed the Tech Noir nightclub.
The Alamo Gun Shop is located at 14329 Victory Blvd. Van Nuys, CA. It is now a used Car lot. Across the street is also where the Terminator throws the Biker from the phone booth.
The name of the nightclub, "Tech Noir", was a deliberate allusion to "film noir" - director James Cameron hoped that critics might be interested in the kind of filmmaking they were doing with this film, the references to the dark side of technology.
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