James Cameron analyzes Terminator, 40 years later: “There are some very awkward moments”

The filmmaker, however, loves his dialogues. “Show me your three or four biggest hits and we can talk again about the effectiveness of my lines.”

Empire dedicates a special file to Terminator to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the cult sci-fi film James Cameron. The director, who is currently preparing Avatar 3 and recently spoke of his desire to direct a new film that would have nothing to do with his Na'vi universe, admits about his first part of Terminator :

“I don't consider it the Holy Grail. When I watch it again today, I find that there are very awkward moments, and then during other sequences, I say to myself: 'Yeah! We did a good job with the resources we had available.'”

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Cameron therefore does not find his first film perfect (remember that he denied Piranha 2released in 1981), but if there is one element he would not touch, it is his dialogues. For him, Terminator has “production issues” due to its “low manufacturing cost.” But its lines remain striking.

“I'm not bothered by any of his dialogue, but hey, I apparently have a lower level of acceptance for it than some,” he replies sarcastically. “There are a lot of people who are bothered by what I write. Well, you know what? Show me your three or four biggest hits and we can talk about the effectiveness of my lines again.”

A response that goes beyond the simple case of Terminator, since among the biggest box office hits of all time, there are three works by James Cameron, but not this one: Avatar (2009) and its sequel (2022), as well as Titanic (1997), are in the top 5, with revenues of over $2 billion each.

During the interview, James Cameron does not reproach his actors for anything either, even if he confirms having first approached Arnold Schwarzenegger to talk about the role of the human hero, Kyle Reese, and not the T-800. He would eventually offer this other key character in the story to Michael Biehn. Having already explained that he had imagined a more versatile killer robot, one that could blend into the crowd, he says he only had the vision of Schwarzy as the Terminator when talking to him for the first time.

“I think a lot of directors, especially when they're making their first film, get stuck on the vision they had in their head,” he adds of the change of plan for his lead actors. “They're really stuck on their first idea, probably because they lack confidence. I'm proud that we weren't so locked into our initial vision and that we were able to take a chance with Arnold.

Sometimes, when you look back – and in this case we are talking about a 40-year look back – you say to yourself that this film could have been a small, quality production, which would have gone unnoticed if we had not been able to make this decision (to change the casting), which was able to leave its mark on people's minds.”

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