The Terminator Producer Reveals Why a Key Scene Was Deleted From James Cameron’s Original Movie

The Terminator, James Cameron’s 1984 action classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a very important scene left on the cutting room floor. While big scenes in movies are cut for various reasons all the time, the cause for the removal of the scene in The Terminator had more to do with the people who paid to make the movie than the movie itself. Gale Anne Hurd, the film’s producer and co-writer, recently revealed on social media that a key scene was cut because the movie’s financier “insisted” that their friends were cast in the scene, rather than professional actors.

The scene in question dealt with Cyberdyne Systems, and how the tech corporation that created Skynet came into possession of the Terminator chip in the first place. While that scene would’ve helped make sense out various parts of the story, Cameron ultimately cut it because the people he was told to cast weren’t good enough actors.

“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),” Hurd explained. 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,” she continued in another reply. “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.”

That scene probably would’ve added a lot of context, but it’s removal ultimately didn’t hinder the performance of The Terminator. The film was a massive success and launched a franchise that has spanned several decades.

Terminator’s Iconic “I’ll Be Back” Line

In a recent Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix, the actor and James Cameron revealed that they had differing opinions about what the Terminator should say in his big moment. Schwarzenegger wasn’t a fan of what was in the script.

“Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we’re doing this police station scene. The line is, ‘I’ll come back.’ It wasn’t meant to be like a big moment at all,” said Cameron. “It was literally meant to be, on its face, ‘No problem, I’ll come back.’ For some reason, Arnold didn’t say, ‘I’ll come back.’ I said, ‘Well, just say I’ll be back. Keep it simple.’”

Schwarzenegger then explained that he felt something like “I’ll be back” wouldn’t make sense for his character because he’s a robot. He felt that “I will be back” would be more robotic and closer to what the character would say. 

“And he says, ‘Are you the writer?’” Schwarzenegger said. “And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘Well don’t tell me how to f—ing write.’”

Of course, Cameron was right all along, as that line continues to be one of the most quoted movie lines in film history.