History Trivia / TheTerminator

** [[Series/{{Frasier}} Niles Crane]] (of all people) is the truck driver that the Terminator forebodingly tells to "GetOut!"

** ArnoldSchwarzenegger himself was originally considered for the role of Kyle Reese (the hero) while Lance Henriksen was the original choice for the Terminator as Cameron originally envisioned the killing machine as having a more ordinary appearance in order to blend in with the rest of society, but changed his mind when he met Arnold and felt that he was in the presence of "a living machine".

** I thought [[Film/{{Aliens}} Lt. Vukovich was the robot]]?

** Also, 27-going-on-28-year-old Michael Biehn playing 21-year-old Kyle Reese.

** 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.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The British Ministry of Defence launched a network of communication satellites to coordinate between NATO, EU and British forces... [[OhCrap called Skynet]].

** Creator/LanceHenriksen (Bishop from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'') was considered for the part of the terminator, back when the role was concieved as [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse someone who could blend in]]. Instead he ended up playing Detective Vukovich.

** The scene where the Terminator kills the first "wrong Sarah" ended with the Terminator walking away after the kill, getting into his car and driving away.

** Ally Sheedy reportedly auditioned for the role of Sarah Connor.
* AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #42
** AFIS100Years100HeroesAndVillains:
*** #22 Villain, The Terminator
** AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes
*** #37, "I'll be back"

* AFI Accolades:

** "100 Years. . .100 Thrills" - #42
** "100 Years. . .100 Heroes & Villains"

** "100 Years. . .100 Movie Quotes"

** "100 Years. . .100 Heroes & Villains" - #22
** "100 Years. . .100 Movie Quotes" - #37, "I'll be back"

** One of Reese, who only knows the world as a ruined wasteland, breaking down over being unable to handle simply standing in some grass once he gets the chance to slow down and notice all the normal things he was never meant to see. This was part of a scene where he and Sarah, who is now trying to be more proactive and forward thinking, got into an argument over trying to destroy Cyberdyne, the company that would create the Terminators, thus completely averting the war (which of course was revisited in ''Terminator 2''), where he refused to go along with her idea simply because, in his words, "That's not my mission." Sarah angrily tries to run away from Reese, Reese chases her down and she hits him, which causes him to reflexively pull the gun on her; when Sarah points out to him what he's doing - and goes on a rant about how she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life living in fear of the Terminator and the big bad future - Reese completely falls apart and has NoPlaceForMeThere monologue where he quite literally says "I don't belong here" before he laments how painful it is for him to see the world as it once was, which causes Sarah to feel more sympathy for him before he points out that Sarah doesn't understand what it feels like to know that "it's all gone." The scene ends with Sarah reminding Reese that together they have the chance to save the future by changing the past.

** 28-year-old Linda Hamilton playing 19-year-old Sarah Connor.
** Also, 27-year-old Michael Biehn playing 21-year-old Kyle Reese.

** One of Reese, who only knows the world as a ruined wasteland, breaking down over being unable to handle simply standing in some grass once he gets the chance to slow down and notice all the normal things he was never meant to see.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The British Ministry of Defence launched a network of communication satellites to coordinate between NATO, EU and British forces. Guess what they called it...

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger as the ruthless, terrifying villain of the title.

* DuelingMovies: ''Film/{{Runaway}}'', a film also about robots and starring Creator/TomSelleck and [[Music/{{KISS}} Gene Simmons]] (''and'' written/directed by Creator/MichaelCrichton), 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 then (Arnold), and Cameron only had one directorial credit to boot before doing ''The Terminator'': the film ''Film/{{Piranha}} 2: The Spawning''.

** And [[Film/StarTrekII Captain Terrell]] switched from captaining a starship to captaining the LA Police.

* PlayingAgainstType: ArnoldSchwarzenegger as the ruthless, terrifying villain of the title.

** It seems that [[TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland LeChuck]] has given up on pirating and became a psychiatrist.

** LanceHenriksen (Bishop from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'') was considered for the part of the terminator, back when the role was concieved as [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse someone who could blend in]]. Instead he ended up playing Detective Vukovich.

* DuelingMovies: ''Film/{{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 then (Arnold), and Cameron only had one directorial credit to boot before doing ''Terminator'': the film ''Piranha 2''.

** Lance Hendrickson (Bishop from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'') was considered for the part of the terminator, back when the role was concieved as someone who could blend in.