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All questions must be stated in the form of a question (grin). If this is not enough Terminator trivia for you, the Internet Movie Database maintains lists of trivia for The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Lance Henriksen (ALIENS, ALIEN3, Hard Target) was originally cast as the Terminator (O.J. Simpson was considered for the role as well!); Henriksen was recast as the cop Vukovich.
News reports in December, 2001 claimed that Sandra Bullock, Jodie Foster, and Meg Ryan were competing for the role of the T-X in T3. Rumours also suggested that Vin Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal, Famke Janssen, and Joanie Laurer (WWE wrestler Chyna) were also considered. (Laurer's name came into the mix when she was apparently recommended for the part by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself during an interview prior to filming.) Carrie-Anne Moss, Peta Wilson and Jeri Ryan may also have been considered for the role of T-X.
Arnold's voice is used in exactly 16 lines, with 17 sentences spoken. The Terminator has two other lines, one with the voice of a police officer overdubbed, and one with the voice of Sarah's mother overdubbed. There are also many lines with the voice of Sarah's mother, and we learn that the Terminator is actually saying them, but we don't see it onscreen.
SF author Harlan Ellison filed a lawsuit against director JC, claiming that Cameron plagiarized some of his stories, namely the 1957 short story and 1964 The Outer Limits script "Soldier," and the 1964 The Outer Limits script "Demon with a Glass Hand" (and, possibly, the 1969 post-apocalyptic short story "A Boy and His Dog"). The concept of Skynet could also have been borrowed from another post-apocalyptic Ellison short story from 1967 called "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream". Newer prints of T1 acknowledge Ellison. For more on Ellison's influence, see section 6.4.
This refers to the recurring imagery of humanity being crushed by the machines. First, in the 2029 sequence of T1, there is a closeup of tank treads rolling over human skulls. Next, when the Terminator approaches the house of the first "Sarah Connor," it crushes a small toy truck. Also, after the Terminator kills Sarah's friend, he walks over her Walkman headphones. In T2, the title sequence starts with a Terminator endoskeleton crushing a human skull. The imagery of the Hunter-Killer tank rolling over skulls reoccurs. The Terminator crushes one of the roses that falls out of the flower box when it removes the shotgun at the Galleria (may be a reference to the T2 tie-in video by Guns 'n' Roses). The T-1000 treads on the Terminator's sunglasses at Pescadero State Hospital.
Mark Reed <mar@markgenius1.demon.co.uk> suggested that this motif has its origins with George Orwell:
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." -- George Orwell, 1984.
Both "judgement" and "judgment" are accepted spellings, however, "judgment" is increasingly preferred.
She underwent a rigorous weight-training/exercise program six days a week, and weapons training with a former Israeli commando.
Yes, Linda's sister's name is Leslie Hamilton Gearren; she is a nurse in New Jersey. She was in the scene at the end where the T-1000 took the form of John Connor's mother. Linda actually played the T-1000 version of herself and her sister played Sarah Connor coming up behind the T-1000. Linda's sister also appeared in the scene in which Sarah replaces the Terminator's chip and sees herself in a mirror (this scene is restored in the Special Edition). Linda Hamilton played Sarah on the playground during her dream sequence (in fact, she is holding her real-life son).
(The guard in the mental institute also has a real-life twin brother, who actually played the T-1000 coming up behind him at the coffee machine. These twin brothers were also in Good Morning Vietnam and Gremlins 2: The New Batch.)
The systems used were Silicon Graphics IRIS 4D/340VGX RISC-processor workstations. The software used was Alias Studio 3.0 and Pixar's Renderman from ILM. The computer graphics were used, among other things, for the morphing/liquid metal FX, and for putting the pilot's reflection on the T-1000 in the helicopter.
6502 assembler, specifically Apple 2+ assembly, taken from Nibble (QV), a computing magazine. Other code visible is written in COBOL.
According to Arnold on Late Night with David Letterman: "black plowman."
"See you later." Literal translation is "until I see you."
In the Spanish version of the film, the T-800's Spanish catchphrase "Hasta la vista, baby!" was changed because it did not sound ominous enough. In that version, the T-800 shouts "Sayonara, baby!"
T2 editors Conrad Buff IV, Mark Goldblatt, and Richard A. Harris were nominated in the Best Editing category. Adam Greenberg was nominated in the Best Cinematography category for T2.
T2 grossed over US$490 million worldwide. It recouped its total production costs in its first 12 days of release. In three weeks, it grossed US$123M--its closest competitor (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) took six weeks to reach that mark. For 1991, T2's total US box office gross for 1991 was US$204.4M; in the UK it took in #18.1M.
Astonishingly, the answer to this question is a simple "yes!" A web search for "Cyberdyne," will turn up over 270,000 hits! Many of these sites refer to the Terminator movies, of course--but not all of them. For example, Cyberdyne Systems is a multimedia company.
A net.search for "Skynet" will produce over 9,000,000 references! A disturbingly large number do not refer to the Terminator films. For example, skynet.be is an ISP.
Before anyone starts stocking up on plasma rifles, realize that the results of the above net.searches typically refer to the names of servers or ISPs. And the other example is clearly not an automated defense network, but rather a simple communications net. (Or is it...?)
The symbol of the gas station that John, Sarah, and the Terminator pull into in T2 is the symbol of Benthic Petroleum, the fictional oil company from JC's The Abyss. The word benthic means "pertaining to the bottom of the sea."
According to Van Ling, Arnold wore Gargoyles in the first film.
It has been erroneously said that Arnold wore Oakleys in T2, but Jeff McDowell <jtmcdow@hotmail.com> has concluded that they he wore Persol 58230. However, Jean-Marie de Boer <jmdeboer@ezgov.com> suggested that they may be model 2569S. Sarah's sunglasses in T2 were made by Matsuda.
Arnold's sunglasses in T3 were made by Sama, and are available in three styles: BRN-M Brown Matte (code T3-MBRS), BLK-M Black Matte (code T3-MBKS), BLK-S Black Shiny (code T3-BLKS), GRY-M Grey Matte (code T3-MGRS).
Mad magazine featured a T2 parody ("Interminable Too Misjudgment Day") in issue #308 (Jan., 1992), which was reprinted in Mad XL issue #23 (Summer, 2003). A T3 parody appeared in Mad issue #432 (Aug., 2003).
Roy Louden has filmed a funny parody of T2 called Intimidator 3. For more details (and to order), check out the website.
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Jonathan Winters has also recorded a parody, called Jonathan Winters Is Terminator 3. It is is available at Audible.com. |
The shotgun in T1 is a Franchi SPAS-12.
When Sarah attempts to kill Dyson, she uses a Colt Automatic Rifle-15 Military Weapons System or "CAR-15" (XM177 series), which looks similar to an M16A2 carbine. The sound suppresser on the guns is a Sionics model, first designed in the 1960s, and used by the US on M-16s in Vietnam.
When Sarah enters Dyson's house, she is using a .45 longslide automatic, which (except for the laser sighting) is the same weapon the original Terminator used to assassinate the various Sarah Connors. The pistol's Aimpoint laser sight may represent the advance of technology, which is itself indicative of the future.
The Terminator's shotgun in T2 appears to be a Winchester Model 1887 lever-action shotgun (see Guns & Ammo, Dec. 1991, p.18). Sarah's shotgun looks like a pump-action Remington 870.
Some other weapons include: Heckler & Koch MP-5s, and an M79 grenade launcher.
The name "mini" in Minigun is in comparison to designs with a similar mechanism that fire 20 mm or larger shells.
Arnold rode a Harley-Davidson "Fat Boy", designated as model FLSTF.
Jonathan Mostow rambled on in an interview with SciFi.com about Furlong:
Jonathan Mostow, can you talk about why Edward Furlong was not in the movie?
Mostow: It's not so much that Eddie Furlong was, like, rejected, because he wasn't. I absolutely considered the idea of using Eddie. But it goes back to the whole reason I did this movie in the first place, which is, I though it was interesting that you had a unique situation where you had a character that everybody knows that's now suddenly 12 years older. And so this character's psychologically in a very, very different place in his life. He's spent a decade with sort of the ultimate existential dilemma. Am I the leader of the world?
So when I started this movie I just said in every area I want to start from scratch and make sure that I'm building up and making my choices for the right reasons. I don't want to do anything just because it was in the last movie. In the case of this character, I knew I needed a top-of-the-line actor, and I also needed somebody who had a soulfulness about them, so I could believe that they were really carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. And Nick Stahl is, I think, one of the top actors of his age. And secondly, his own personal circumstances in his life, he's been a working actor since the age of 13. He never went to high school. He never went to college. He's lived on his own, in his own apartment, supporting himself since the age of 15. There is sort of a kind of a soulfulness about him that worked perfectly for this character.
Editorial comment: I dunno, I smell some BS here. If Mostow really wanted to "start from scratch," why not replace Arnold too, eh?
Here's what Furlong had to say in an interview with MovieWeb:
What happened with T3?
Edward Furlong: I'll just say I was into other things at that time. I wanted to do the film. I'd say I was caught up with things that were bad for me at that point.
Rumours were swirling that the backers of T3 were nervous about Furlong's involvement due to his substance abuse issues. Interestingly, some rumours suggest that Furlong is being considered for the role of the adult John Connor in T4. (Here's one vote from me in favour of that! :-)
Also, Sophia Bush was originally cast as Kate Brewster. After filming for a few days, Jonathan Mostow let her go and cast Claire Danes instead because he felt that Bush looked too young for the part.
Directors considered for T3 included Ang Lee, John Woo, Ridley Scott, and John McTiernan. James Cameron declined, saying that he had told the story completely in T2.
In an early draft of the T3 script, Sarah Connor was alive and well, but dies in the graveyard scene. Linda Hamilton refused to star, citing that she did not wish to repeat the physical training she did for T2, but did not want to disappoint her fans either. Thus the appearance of her character's apparent grave, and casket full of weapons.
The T1SE, T2UE, T2ED, and T3 DVDs are highly recommended, as they contain much more trivia.
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