If you ask us, Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s prime was Terminator 2. Sure, the actor has been in a lot of cool stuff. But peak Arnold Schwarzenegger is found in the sequel to James Cameron‘s Terminator, one of the best movies of either man’s career.
T2 is awesome, but it could have been a lot nastier had Arnie got his wish… Luckily, when he approached the Avatar director with an idea for his character, Cameron gave the star of some of the best action movies a firm ‘no’.
On Wednesday night at a T2 screening, Arnie praised Cameron (via IndieWire) before remembering his skepticism about the Terminator’s lack of body count in the film. Back then, he felt new movies should be upping the ante with bloodshed.
“The reason why it became a big hit was, number one, Jim Cameron. Jim Cameron is a genius writer. He came up with this brilliant idea, even though at the beginning I was suspicious,” he recalled. “He said ‘I want to make you a good Terminator.'”
“I had to outdo [Sylvester] Stallone,” Schwarzenegger said. “I said that my whole mission was being number one at killing amounts of people on screen.”
“He 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,’” he added. “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.”
Now, go revisit the Terminator movies in order with our best robot movies and best science-fiction movies lists. We also have a guide to all the new anime, if you prefer your gore in 2D.