Standing as one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, The Terminator is a story that pretty much anyone can recite front to back. Putting co-writer/director James Cameron on the map as a talent to watch, it set the table for the blockbuster performance of the similarly-regarded Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, in a recent anecdote shared by co-writer/producer Gale Anne Hurd, a crucial scene that laid the foundation for T2 had to be deleted from its predecessor, and for some technical reasons.
Why The Terminator Had To Delete A Crucial Ending Scene
Answering a fan on Twitter, Hurd addressed a concern involving a deleted scene from the 1984 franchise starter that would have rung a very different bell had it still been included. Before we get to that scene, here’s Gale Anne Hurd’s explanation for why such a scene would be cut in the first place.
#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... They were paid as actors, via the #TaftHartley 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.
From the sounds of Gale Anne Hurd’s story, it looks like the performances in this Terminator scene weren’t quite up to snuff. To be fair, the financiers-turned-actors don’t sound like they had the best skills when it came to being captured on camera. With John Daly having no confidence in this watershed blockbuster, this looks like a scenario where it was more about keeping the investors happy. Which is a damned shame, as a Terminator 2 plot point is basically laid out in this cut scene.
How This Terminator Deleted Scene Lives On In The Franchise
So what was the deleted scene from The Terminator include that was so important? Well, as you can watch below, the aftermath of the climactic confrontation between T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) left some debris foreshadowing the future. Take a look at this excised moment for yourself:
Those of you versed in Terminator 2 lore should be opening your eyes a little wider at this moment. As seen in the clip above, Cyberdyne Systems ended up with the T-800’s CPU in their possession as a result of that last brawl with Sarah. The funny thing is, the location of that set piece was never specified as Cyberdyne’s own factory, which is a huge point this denizen of the cutting room floor clears up.
However, this Terminator moment lives on in the 1991 follow-up, as it’s revealed early on that Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton) and his team are in possession of that very computer chip. The only problem is, as you’ll see in this second clip from T2, how this artifact was recovered was never revealed:
It absolutely sucks that The Terminator would lose such a scene, or at least it feels that way looking back in the long run. Gale Anne Hurd’s story about financiers mucking up a clear point of foreshadowing certainly isn’t fun, but at the same time, the ending that James Cameron went with instead is a lot more foreboding. That being said, there's definitely an advantage to that moment being plucked from the first adventure.
With Terminator 2: Judgment Day spoiling Arnold Schwarzenegger's more heroic turn in its trailers, this big reveal is all the more shocking as it seems to come out of nowhere. Whether this is a missed opportunity or a coincidental punch up is up to the fans to decide, and adds to the cool trivia behind T2 and the rest of the Terminator saga.
