Terminator 2: James Cameron reveals Ecstasy and Sting influenced the story

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

July 3rd marks the 30th anniversary of the release of director James Cameron's sci-fi action classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day (watch it HERE), and to mark the occasion The Ringer has put together an "Oral History of Terminator 2" article that is highly recommended to anyone who loves Terminator 2 and the first film, The Terminator (watch that HERE). Among the interesting information revealed along the way is the fact that Cameron came up with the idea for these films to be about the importance of John Connor while listening to Sting and taking the psychoactive drug Ecstasy. Or Molly, as it's called these days. Cameron explains: 

I remember sitting there once, high on E, writing notes for Terminator, and I was struck by Sting’s song, that “I hope the Russians love their children too.” And I thought, “You know what? The idea of a nuclear war is just so antithetical to life itself.” That’s where the kid came from."

While Sting helped Cameron crack the idea for The Terminator, fellow musician Billy Idol was on the filmmaker's mind when he was developing Terminator 2. There was a time when he was considering casting Idol as the T-1000 because "he had a really interesting look and presence".

Cameron had the idea for the liquid metal T-1000 soon after Carolco Pictures, who had just purchased the Terminator rights for $15 million, contacted him and said they'd pay him $6 million to make a sequel, but that wasn't the only possibility he had in mind for the villain. The other was, 

Skynet sends a terminator, another Arnold terminator, to take out John, and the resistance sends one that’s been reprogrammed, that would’ve been Arnold too. So Arnold would become a dark hero character, obviously. 

So he had to choose between the "Arnold vs. Arnold" concept and the idea of the liquid metal Terminator. There was a moment when the original Terminator might have been taken out of the story in favor of the T-1000:

[Skynet would] think long and hard about pulling the trigger on sending the experimental, one-off super weapon that they’ve created, that even they’re terrified to use. I didn’t call it the T-1000 — it was just a liquid metal robot. And so now the thing that’s coming at you is much, much scarier than that other metal endoskeleton guy with his skin hanging off. I took that guy out of the story…

… but then Cameron had second thoughts.

I thought, “Let’s bring that guy back. Let’s make him the adversary.” I merged the two ideas. Instead of Arnold versus Arnold, it was Arnold versus the scary liquid metal weapon."

Clearly Cameron's co-writer William Wisher thought this was a wise idea, as he said, 

Having Arnold fight another Arnold is just boring. Boring, boring, boring."

To hear more about the making of Terminator 2, and to see what many other people who were involved with the film – including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Joe Morton, and more (sadly, Linda Hamilton chose not to participate) – had to say about it, head over to The Ringer.