Arnold Schwarzenegger Wanted Deadlier Terminator 2 to “Outdo Stallone”

The friendly rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone has been going on for decades, with the men often poking fun at each other in some of their biggest films. The duo eventually worked together, but when their names are said together, fans will usually think of their feud first. Recently, Schwarzenegger participated in a panel at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures ahead of a Terminator 2: Judgment Day screening (via Deadline) and revealed he had a different vision than director James Cameron about the film. Why? He wanted to outdo Stallone.

“The reason why it became a big hit was, number one, Jim Cameron. Jim Cameron is a genius writer,” Schwarzenegger said. “He came up with this brilliant idea, even though at the beginning I was suspicious. He said ‘I want to make you a good Terminator.’”

He added, “I said ‘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 screen.”

“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,’” Schwarzenegger recalled. “I said that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. How can this be Terminator 2 without me killing anyone? At least throw a few token bodies in there.”

 In a recent interview with People, Schwarzenegger revealed that he believes Cameron predicted what has happened with AI.

“Today, everyone is frightened of it, of where this is gonna go,” Schwarzenegger said about all of the talk about AI. “And in this movie, in Terminator, we talk about the machines becoming self-aware and they take over. Now over the course of decades, it has become a reality. So it’s not any more fantasy or kind of futuristic. It is here today. And so this is the extraordinary writing of Jim Cameron. He’s just such an extraordinary writer and he’s such an unbelievable director, this is again, one of those things that I wish I could take credit for this movie. I can only take credit of the character that I played and the way I played it. But I mean, he has created this character. He has written it so well, he’s written the movie so well, and that’s why he is, you know, the number one director in the world.”

You can currently watch Schwarzenegger in Fubar on Netflix.