MOVIE NEWS – Terminator producer Gale Ann Hurd explained why the deleted scene showing the T-800 getting its arm and chip was cut from the film.
Terminator producer Gale Ann Hurd explained why a key deleted scene was cut from the film. It showed the acquisition of the T-800’s arm and chip. James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi/action film classic created an iconic character with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin from the future. With the release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, Cameron’s film officially became a franchise. But as hardcore fans know, the series was actually perfectly set up by a deleted scene from the original movie.
In a moment close to the cut ending, Cyberdyne Systems scientists retrieve parts from the destroyed T-800, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads to a future war between humanity and the machines.
Now, almost forty years after the first Terminator was released, producer Hurd has explained why they decided to cut the scene that brought a perfect ending to an already near-perfect film. As Hurd explained on Twitter, the scene was removed because of questionable acting by the cast. They weren’t actually professional actors, but financiers that he and Cameron were unfortunately forced to put into the film. Watch what Hurd said (and you can see the scene via Flashback FM below)
“The Terminator financier John Daly’s Hemdale Films had an output deal with Orion Pictures 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 Taft-Hartley 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. … The film cost $6.4 million…which seemed like an awful lot to us at the time!”
How does this deleted scene set the stage for the Terminator franchise?
The classic set-up of the original Terminator is, of course, that Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will ultimately save humanity in the coming war against the machines. But the plan fails.
Connor eventually defeats the Terminator after receiving help from future soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who turns out to be the father of Sarah’s son.
But as the deleted scene above shows, the plan to send the T-800s back in time is actually a success. For Cyberdyne discovers the technology that will allow them to invent the machines. The deletion of this perfect moment in the time loop ultimately does the film no harm, as the ending is still satisfying. But it is still disappointing that the film did not include this perfect sci-fi twist that foreshadows future events. If Hurt and Cameron could have employed real actors to play the scene, their almost flawless film might have achieved true perfection (which it did in the sequel…).
#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. https://t.co/q5wl5why7N https://t.co/6sM2wUU1Cc
— Gale Anne Hurd (@GunnerGale) August 30, 2023
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