The Original ‘Terminator’ Almost Included The T-1000
By George Robbins
There are plenty of iconic movies that will always have us thanking the movie industry simply due to the fact that they exist and ‘The Terminator‘ is one of those movies. James Cameron’s iconic 80’s action film was something unlike anything that came before and will always remain a classic film in movie history. It is quite easy to say that the movie went on to influence countless action films in the coming years and it very easily cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the biggest actors of the era. Not only was the actor cemented as one of the biggest of the era, but ‘The Terminator’ was cemented as perhaps one of the greatest films ever made. There is hardly a person alive today that has no idea what ‘The Terminator’ is or what the general premise of the film is. Without a doubt, we have that movie to thank for a lot of the action films to follow it.
The most iconic part of the original ‘Terminator’ film itself is the obvious titular antagonist, played by Schwarzenegger himself. The mechanical terror, otherwise known in-universe as the T-800 is a menace that generally terrified not only the characters on screen, but also the audiences that saw the film. While we were told early on that the character was a machine, he was given a mostly human appearance throughout most of the film. The reason for this was explained in the movie so that people would understand the reason why he was such a threat to humanity as a whole. At the time where most horror movie villains were just un-killable for supernatural reasons, James Cameron gave us a villain that was un-killable for justified reasons. This is what ended up making the film such a suspenseful thriller in the first place as we knew that it was an extremely dangerous killing machine with one centralized mission on its mind.
While the overall premise of the film made it both a suspenseful thriller and an action film, the movie aired more so on the side of overall suspense and it shows. Everything about the film sets it up to be more of a horror movie than an action movie and James Cameron made it so that we wouldn’t forget this fact. No matter what point in the film we were at, there were moments when we just weren’t sure of when the T-800 terminator would show up and try to kill the main characters. When we got to the end of the movie, we were finally given the opportunity to breath a sigh of relief because the titular machine was finally destroyed. Unfortunately, we knew in the final scene that things were only just beginning when we saw Sarah Connor pregnant with the future John Connor.
Even though the T-800 is perhaps the most iconic villain in movie history, it is also a role that became a hero in some form in the next film, ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day.’ What became a larger surprise to the general public in the second film was the fact that the T-800 we had grown to fear from the first film became a face we would grow to appreciate. Instead of trying to kill John Connor, the T-800 was sent back to protect him and thus, instead of another suspenseful film, the movie became an action film. What would be a good enemy for the T-800 to take on though since it was already proven to be capable of taking down just about anything in its path. The new role of film antagonist would actually then be passed onto the equally as famous T-1000 terminator played by Robert Patrick in perhaps his most iconic role.
With two entirely different breed of terminator now taking one another on in combat, the sequel took the turn from suspenseful thriller to straight-up action film. This was not necessarily something that we were expecting to see, but it was a welcome change once the film came out. From that point forward, both films were remembered for entirely different reasons and were both equally loved for said reasons. What made the second film so much more terrifying in some ways than the first is that the T-1000 that tormented the characters in the second film was able to be whatever it wanted to be. A being made entirely out of liquid metal which was capable of taking on whatever form it wanted was something that was even more terrifying than a huge man with a metal skeleton.
So then, if the T-1000 didn’t make its premiere as the sole antagonist of the second film and appeared in some fashion in the first film, what would that have done to the films. First of all, was the T-1000 even something that was being discussed for the first film or was it made just afterwards to be put into the second film. As it turns out, the idea of a liquid metal terminator was made up to be a part of the first film as it turns out that the film was set up to be even more ambitious than the product we received in the end. Apparently, the original script saw a couple of key differences from the final version of the film we got to see on screen including the overall events that happened throughout. For instance, a major difference was that Kyle Reese was meant to be sent back with another protector who was going to be killed early on. This wouldn’t have made too much of a difference as Sarah and Kyle would still have to take on the T-800 on their own anyway.
While the idea of having another protector in the film is major in terms of what we now know, it isn’t really game-changing. What was game-changing was the fact that the two characters were actually meant to find a way of defeating the titular antagonist by about the halfway point in the film. In the events that would proceed that, Skynet would then send back an experimental terminator unit made of liquid metal; the now known T-1000 terminator unit. In the end, these ideas would end up being scrapped due to the fact that this was all far too complex for a brand new film with no background to it. On top of that, Cameron was a new director in the Hollywood scene with a limited budget which meant that he also lacked the means to make the T-1000 exactly the way that he felt it would fit into the movie. This was all probably for the best in the end as we ended up with the incredibly suspenseful first film and the action-packed second resulting from the first script being re-done.
If the first movie managed to play out the way that the original script intended for it to be, we would most certainly have received an entirely different experience than the one we ended up with. Considering the way that every movie after the second one turned out, it is a gift that we ended up with the first two the way that they are now. With a suspenseful thriller/slasher film set during the era where slashers were popular and a sequel action film set in an era where over-the-top action was king, there was nothing more we could have anticipated. These two movies, despite being two different genres set in the same universe, managed to make something that will never be forgotten. Not many sequels can live up to their original films, but due to the fact that James Cameron ended up changing his mind in the end, he made two unique unforgettable films where a sequel actually managed to live up to the original.