Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s rivalry was never public, but it appears they did keep tabs on one another after every movie release. However, the director of the hit movie franchise, James Cameron, wasn’t about to let their competition ruin his vision forTerminator 2.
Terminator2: Judgment Day, one of the all-time best sequels, grossed $520.9 worldwide, making it 1991’s highest-grossing movie. ThefirstThe Terminatormoviemade a modest $78.3 million. The sequel picks up ten years after Sarah Conor was rescued fromThe Terminator, a killing machine played by Schwarzenegger. In the first film,The Terminatorwas sent back from 2029 to 1984 with direct orders to kill Sarah Connor. The second film changes things up, and this time after some rewiring, Schwarzenegger’s Terminator has direct orders to protect the son of Sarah Conner, John Conner, from a different and more sophisticated machine who has also taken human form.
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During a panel for theAcademy Museum of Motion Pictures, Schwarzenegger said he wanted his character, The Terminator, to kill at least 150 people inJudgement Day. “The reason why it became such 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 recalled. “He said ‘I want to make you a good Terminator.” The confused actor told Cameron, “What do you mean a good Terminator? I was killing 68 people in the first one. 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 Stallone. I said that my whole mission was being number one at killing amounts of people on the screen.” Naturally, when the “Govenator” approached Cameron with some notes on his character, the talented director shot those ideas down. “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.'”
With one box office hit after another, it’s safe to say Cameron knew what he was doing. Every great director genuinely listens to actors and their concerns, butthis was only to one-up Stallone. Schwarzenegger and Stallone were the biggest action stars of the ’80s, and they loathed each other. Constant competition over who brings in the bigger bucks may have clouded Schwarzenegger’s judgment when approaching Cameron with his ideas for the 1991 film.
Cameron stayed true to his word. For anyone needing a refresher, the once-killing machine was taught tolerance by his degenerate friend John. Regardless, Schwarzenegger andStallone have led successful careers. They also became the face of action films in the ’80s and ’90s. If it wasn’t Schwarzenegger on the big screen, it was Stallone. Of course, all’s well that ends well, as according to Stallone, the two are now good friends.
