Standing as one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, The Terminator is a story that pretty much anyone can recite front to back. Putting co-writer/director James Cameron on the map as a talent to watch, it set the table for the blockbuster performance of the similarly-regarded Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, in a recent anecdote shared by co-writer/producer Gale Anne Hurd, a crucial scene that laid the foundation for T2 had to be deleted from its predecessor, and for some technical reasons.
One of the robots in The Terminator.
Why The Terminator Had To Delete A Crucial Ending Scene
Answering a fan on Twitter, Hurd addressed a concern involving a deleted scene from the 1984 franchise starter that would have rung a very different bell had it still been included. Before we get to that scene, here’s Gale Anne Hurd’s explanation for why such a scene would be cut in the first place.
#TheTerminator financier John Daly’s #HemdaleFilms had an output deal with #OrionPictures but hadn’t yet made a hit (that changed with our film and #Platoon).
They insisted we use financier friends not actors in this scene, which ruined it for us… They were paid as actors, via the #TaftHartley act. I think he insisted they be in the film because the financiers were promised a return on their investment and had yet to receive one. Daly never believed the film would be a success.
From the sounds of Gale Anne Hurd’s story, it looks like the performances in this Terminator scene weren’t quite up to snuff. To be fair, the financiers-turned-actors don’t sound like they had the best skills when it came to being captured on camera. With John Daly having no confidence in this watershed blockbuster, this looks like a scenario where it was more about keeping the investors happy. Which is a damned shame, as a Terminator 2 plot point is basically laid out in this cut scene.
