The scheduling conflict changed the face of the sci-fi franchise

When James Cameron and his producing partner Gale Anne Heard set out to make The Terminator, they faced so many setbacks that it's a wonder the movie ever came to fruition. Cameron, who had a disastrous experience as an interim director on 1982's Piranha II: The Spawning, needed a film that would essentially launch his filmmaking career, but with little directing experience, he managed to get something. be difficult. Fortunately, he and Heard were able to raise the funds needed to shoot a version of Cameron's own story about an assassin cyborg sent back on a murderous mission. But getting funding was just the first hurdle.

Cameron once starring Arnold Schwarzeneggerhe had to wait for an actor to become available, which delayed production by six to eight months. When he finally became available, it turned out that the Aussie actor had been contracted to take on another project, leaving Cameron and co. shoot Sarah Connor actress Linda Hamilton in her solo scenes. Unfortunately, Hamilton injured her ankle, which meant she couldn't film most of her scenes, which involved a lot of running and physical activity. Meanwhile, the entire film's budget was stretched throughout its production, creating a tumultuous and chaotic shoot that somehow paid off one of the best science fiction movies of all time.

But it turns out that those production delays ultimately helped The Terminator become as iconic as it has been in the years since its 1984 debut. In fact, they helped create a visual identity for the entire Terminator franchise that has remained a part of the saga throughout its 40-year run.

In 1984's The Terminator, Los Angeles provided what has now become an integral part of the franchise's iconography. From the arrival of the titular cyborg at the Griffith Park observatory to the car chases downtown, the city was instrumental in shaping the film's overall aesthetic, not only providing a strangely incongruous contrast to the doomed tone of its sun-drenched suburbs, but also helping to anchor the film in the expressionist-inspired tech noir style of its gloomy urban surroundings.

More importantly, every movie since the first installment except 2019 “Terminator: Dark Fate” (the film that made Schwarzenegger abandon the franchise) has been in and around Los Angeles. In this sense, City of Angels came to define much of the franchise's visual identity, maintaining this strangely unsettling juxtaposition between the tropical climate of Southern California and the harsh nuclear winter of the city's future.

It's hard to imagine a franchise without LA at its core. But it seems that “Terminator,” and thus the entire saga, could have looked very different had it not been for one of these pesky scheduling conflicts and subsequent filming delays. Talking to Call moviesGail Anne Hurd revealed that the film was originally supposed to be shot in Toronto, of all places. “The interesting thing is that we weren't supposed to shoot in LA,” the producer said. “The original concept for the film was that we were going to shoot in Toronto and they were going to close some major freeway lanes.”

Before Heard and James Cameron could travel to Canada to begin filming, their star was called away to shoot the sequel to 1982's Conan The Barbarian, which made filming in Canada completely untenable. Heard continued:

“Arnold had to go to Conan the Destroyer for (producer) Dino De Laurentiis, which meant we had to start shooting in March. You can't shoot the streets in Toronto when there's still ice and snow on the ground, and that's actually why we we ended up shooting in los angeles, i think it was an olympics year so it was actually a lot more deserted than usual.

The first Terminator movie I saw was 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which opens with one of the most brilliant movies in history. An orchestral sting introduces images of Los Angeles freeways battered by cars sweltering in the heat, before the film cuts to a future version of the city, where the freeways are ruined under the dark color of an eternal nuclear winter. This contrast between the two versions of the city immediately captivated me and set the tone for the entire film. As Edward Norton's John Connor rides his motorcycle through the pristine suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, you can't forget the nightmarish future that hangs over the entire film, giving it a sense of haunting doom that's more haunted than any action movie. any business entity.

If The Terminator didn't take place in Los Angeles, it's unlikely that any of that would have happened, robbing the saga of anything of substance. In retrospect, Gale Ann Hurd realized how integral Los Angeles was to the final film, telling Ringer Movies: “There are iconic images (..) I mean the Griffith Park Observatory and the Second Street Tunnel and downtown LA is a hero in this movie.” Also, LA has become an icon for the entire franchise, which will hopefully now get back on track. Netflix's “Terminator: Zero” has proven the value of returning to the source material.

Meanwhile, it seems that since abandoning the “Terminator” franchise Arnold Schwarzenegger has developed ambitions to make a new Conan movie.