Terminator (franchise)/Trivia

The Terminator

 * Dueling Movies: Runaway, a film also about robots and starring Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons (and written/directed by Michael Crichton), was projected to be the big sci-fi film of 1984. Who would have thought that it would be overshadowed by a low-budget film, with B-list actors, written and directed by an unknown who got the idea while having a fever?
 * Not to mention one actor was mostly a theater actor (Biehn), the other one was a body builder with a thick accent who had more bad movies than good ones by that point (Arnold), and Cameron only had one directorial credit to boot before doing Terminator - Piranha 2.
 * Hey It's That Guy: Private Hudson and the Alien Bounty Hunter are two of the punks the Terminator kills in the film's opening.
 * Slider is Ginger's boyfriend.
 * I thought Lt. Vukovich was the robot?
 * What Could Have Been / Hilarious in Hindsight: OJ Simpson was originally considered for the role of the Terminator. The studio did not go with this casting choice because they could not see a nice guy like OJ playing a killer.
 * German actor Jürgen Prochnow, known for his role as the Captain in Das Boot, was also considered for the part. Hilarious in Hindsight, as he ended up playing Arnold in See Arnold Run (a film about Arnold's run for governor of California).

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

 * Hey, It's That Girl!: Lt. Van Buren! aka Reba the Mail Lady!
 * Budnick/Montana Max is John Connor's friend in the beginning.
 * Big Mike is a lot less big, but he's one of the guards at the mental hospital.
 * Miles Dyson is Henry.
 * Throw It In: The T-800 inexplicably saying "I need a vacation...", but James Cameron found it so funny he left it in.
 * In addition, Sarah Connor knocking out the orderly with a broom, as well as the resulting injury, was indeed real. She, or rather, the actress, did it out of revenge because in an earlier scene the orderly went a bit too easy on her during the acting. They kept it in for the final cut (no pun intended).
 * What Could Have Been: WASP singer Blackie Lawless was considered for the role of T-1000.
 * Shaquille O'Neal reportedly asked for a role as a black Terminator.
 * Michael Biehn was originally supposed to be the T-1000, but the studio thought this would be too confusing.

Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time

 * Doing It for The Art: In the behind-the-scenes documentary, Cameron goes to great lengths about how he is essentially treating the attraction as a third Terminator movie.
 * Hey It's That Guy: Some of you may recognize the narrator of the pre-show video as Cortes, and less likely, as Ackar and the mayor of Retroville.
 * The Other Darrin: Kimberley Duncan is played by different actors from show to show, and each one has a different take. For example, one acts a lot like an Excited Kids Show Host, another tends to say "Super!" a lot.

Terminator Salvation

 * Fake American: All three leads.
 * Let's see, Welsh, Marcus Wright's Aussie right? And Russian...yeah.
 * Though it's worth mentioning that Russian-born Anton Yelchin has lived in the United States since he was six months old.
 * General Ashdown is played by Michael Ironside who's Canadian.
 * Hey It's That Guy: Batman (who is married to Gwen Stacy) is trying to save Chekhov from an army of machines led by Bellatrix Lestrange who are using Macbeth as an unknowing pawn in their grand scheme. And let's not forget the Resistance is being led by Revok! Daryl Revok! See you at the party, Ashdown.
 * What Could Have Been: Another portion of the fanbase would have prefered the original ending, over the implausibility of the one that ended up being filmed.
 * Definitely more plausible though than
 * Not to mention that
 * Also, the original cut of the film includes a topless scene when Blair and Marcus are warming themselves by the fire. Director McG said that it was meant as a Shout Out to Kelly [=Mc Gillis]' topless scene in Witness, but that it ultimately felt exploitative and would have flouted a PG-13 rating. The scene is reinstated in the director's cut Blu-ray.

The film series in general

 * Development Hell: The third and fourth movies suffered from it (as is a possible fifth... though it seems to be on its way).
 * Dyeing for Your Art: Linda Hamilton got ripped for the second movie, to emphasize the levels in badass that Sarah Connor took.
 * Arnold also had to get back into bodybuilder-level shape to play the T-850 in the third one.
 * The Other Darrin: John Connor has been portrayed by many people; T4 also has a new Kate Brewster and Kyle Reese; understandable and necessary in the latter case, since he's several years younger than in the original film.
 * Star-Making Role: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 * Trope Namer: These movies named the following tropes:
 * Come With Me If You Want to Live
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate
 * In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves
 * Now I Know What to Name Him
 * Terminator Twosome