News culture “It’s America, I just have to buy some!” During the filming of “Terminator,” James Cameron almost had a big problem because he knew nothing about weapons
Whatever film James Cameron directs, there is always a long list of anecdotes, and Terminator, the director’s first feature film to enjoy great worldwide success, is no exception. To achieve such success, James Cameron had to overcome several difficulties, and there is one that could have been a problem: weapons. However, there was something very simple that allowed him to solve the situation.
Terminator, a film full of anecdotes
In his career spanning more than forty years, James Cameron was not necessarily the most prolific director. On the contrary, he preferred to take care of all his creations in order to establish his feature films in the great history of cinema. This allowed the Canadian filmmaker to bring one film after another to the box office. In 1984, the company experienced its first major success with the release of the film “Terminator”, one of the greatest science fiction sagas. Without knowing it, James Cameron had already raised the alarm at that time, especially on the subject of artificial intelligence.
In addition to introducing themes that reflect current technological developments, the Terminator film quickly presented a major challenge for the director in several respects. The first was to offer an easily identifiable and distinctive face, a step that James Cameron managed to pull off, since we can’t help but associate the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the emblematic T-800 and it all ended only with an unexpected encounter between the two men. After having been stumped by the search for the ideal casting, James Cameron encountered ano ther problem: weapons, a subject that became another source of anecdotes about the filming of ‘Terminator’.
A shoot in the USA that made James Cameron’s task easier
Looking back, James Cameron explained during a master class at the opening of the exhibition “The Art of James Cameron” at the Cinémathèque that he had an ambivalent relationship with the film Terminator. On the one hand, the Canadian director admits to being quite proud of this feature film, as it was the only time that the production deadlines were met, especially because James Cameron had properly prepared the ground for this filming. The only downside was initially the issue of firearms. James Cameron, of Canadian origin, was relatively inexperienced at the time and admitted that he did not know much about it.
Terminator is obviously about technology, but also about action, explosions and weapons. What saved the day for James Cameron on this point was the fact that he had filmed in the United States in 1984, more specifically in Los Angeles, although it was planned to start on the Toronto side a few months earlier, in 1983. James Cameron said it himself: “I didn’t know anything about guns,” but this move quickly made him realize that “it’s America, I just have to buy them.” Although this situation made his task easier, as we have already said, James Cameron regrets having “fetishized” the same firearms in some way. Looking back, given the events that can sometimes unfold, the director feels that it “turns his stomach” and he doesn’t know if he could do this film again the way he did.
