James Cameron called Arnold Schwarzenegger a "sick guy" over his Terminator 2 ideas

Terminator 2
(Image credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed that James Cameron wasn't really a fan of his Terminator 2 ideas. 

Speaking at a panel ahead of an Academy Museum of Motion Pictures screening of Terminator 2, Schwarzenegger shared that he had his own thoughts on where his character should head in the Terminator sequel. 

"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," Schwarzenegger said (H/T IndieWire). "He said 'I want to make you a good Terminator.'"

Schwarzenegger wanted to beat his kill count in the first movie, however. "I said 'What do you mean a good Terminator?' I was killing 68 people in the first one," he commented. "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.' I had to outdo [Sylvester] Stallone. I said that my whole mission was being number one at killing amounts of people on screen."

Luckily, though, Cameron was set on his own plan. "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,'" Schwarzenegger recalled. "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."

Schwarzenegger has also recently said the Terminator movies predicted the future with the rise of AI. "Now over the course of decades, it has become a reality," he said. "So it's not any more fantasy or kind of futuristic. It is here today. And so this is the extraordinary writing of Jim Cameron."

You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies to stream now. 

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Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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