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Easter eggs
Hidden details in every movie and series: 45 in total. Tap a poster to see its eggs. Titles you haven't marked as seen stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesBorn from a fever dream
James Cameron came up with it in Rome, sick with a fever, around the release of Piranha II: The Spawning. He dreamed of a metal torso crawling out of an explosion, gripping kitchen knives.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesArnold was meant to be Kyle Reese
The first plan had Schwarzenegger as Reese. After meeting him, Cameron decided he'd make a far better Terminator. Orion had even suggested O. J. Simpson for the villain.
source ↗ - Behind the scenes“I'll be back” almost changed
Arnold struggled with “I'll” and asked to say “I will be back” instead. Cameron refused. The Terminator gets only 17 lines in the whole film, under 100 words.
source ↗ - CameoLance Henriksen in cyborg costume
To help sell the movie, Lance Henriksen showed up to a meeting with producer John Daly dressed as the Terminator, in a leather jacket with fake cuts on his face. On screen, he plays Officer Vukovich.
source ↗ - ReferenceA credit for Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison claimed the script lifted his The Outer Limits episode “Soldier.” Orion settled in 1986, and later prints added an acknowledgment to him.
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- Behind the scenesLinda Hamilton's twin sister
Leslie, Linda Hamilton's twin, was cast for the shots where two Sarahs appear at once.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesEdward Furlong had never acted
Furlong was spotted at a Boys & Girls Club in Pasadena with zero acting experience and became the 10-year-old John Connor.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe first computer-made lead
ILM's liquid-metal T-1000 was the first main character built in CGI for a blockbuster. Rendering 15 seconds took about ten days.
source ↗ - Behind the scenes“Hasta la vista, baby” came from calls
The line was something Cameron and co-writer William Wisher used to say to each other on the phone.
source ↗ - CameoMichael Biehn's cut cameo
Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese came back in one of Sarah's dreams. The scene was cut from the theatrical version.
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- CameoLinda Hamilton, 28 years later
Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor 28 years after Terminator 2. She trained for over a year for the part.
source ↗ - CameoA de-aged Edward Furlong
John Connor appears in the opening with Edward Furlong's face, de-aged through facial capture and ILM's CGI.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesCameron's back, and only T2 counts
James Cameron came back as producer and got the studio to bring Arnold in. The film is a direct sequel to T2 and ignores T3, Salvation and Genisys.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe dam is in Spain
The final dam was shot at Aldeadávila in Spain. The film also shot in Hungary and the United States.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesOne of 2019's biggest flops
On a $185–196 million budget, it grossed $261 million. The estimated loss was $122.6 million, the second biggest of the year.
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- Behind the scenesLinda Hamilton passed
Linda Hamilton turned it down. She felt the part was disposable: Sarah died halfway through, with no time to mourn her.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNick Stahl replaces Furlong
Edward Furlong was signed to return as John. The studio dropped him over his publicized drug problems, and the part went to Nick Stahl.
source ↗ - CameoDr. Silberman, again
Earl Boen returns as Dr. Peter Silberman, the psychiatrist who never believed Sarah in the first two films.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA 100-ton crane
In the chase, the T-X drives a 100-ton crane through the streets with the Terminator hanging off its arm. Arnold did many of his own stunts.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesTen thousand T-X hopefuls
About 10,000 women auditioned for the T-X. Kristanna Loken trained for six weeks, put on 14 pounds of muscle and took mime classes to move like a machine.
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- CameoDigital Arnold
Arnold was Governor of California and couldn't shoot. The T-800's face was rebuilt in CGI from a 1984 mold, over the body of Roland Kickinger, who had played Arnold in See Arnold Run.
source ↗ - CameoLinda Hamilton's voice
On the tapes John listens to, Sarah's voice is Linda Hamilton's, uncredited. She was the only actor from the earlier films to return.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesChristian Bale's rant
Bale lost it at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut for walking onto the set mid-scene. The audio leaked and went viral, and Bale apologized.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe ending that leaked
In the original script, John died and the Resistance kept his image alive using Marcus's body. The ending leaked online and Warner rebuilt the third act.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesDedicated to Stan Winston
The film is dedicated to Stan Winston, the franchise's effects creator, who died during production.
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- Behind the scenes1984, reshot from scratch
Another company owned the rights to The Terminator footage, so the 1984 arrival was reshot. Nike made 25 pairs of the discontinued Vandal sneakers for it.
source ↗ - Behind the scenes1984 Arnold in CGI
MPC spent 12 months on 35 shots of the digital young Terminator. The body on set belonged to bodybuilder Brett Azar.
source ↗ - ReferenceSkin that ages
The idea that the Terminator's living tissue ages came from a James Cameron suggestion. That's why Arnold is gray.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesCameron praised it, then took it back
After seeing the film, Cameron said the franchise had been reinvigorated. In 2017 he admitted he only backed it out of friendship with Schwarzenegger.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe trilogy that never happened
Two sequels were dated for 2017 and 2018 and would have revealed who sent Pops back. Both were canceled.
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- ReferenceCameron, like the director
Summer Glau's Terminator is named Cameron, a nod to James Cameron. Glau hadn't seen the films before she was cast.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe strike cut the season
Fox ordered 13 episodes, but the 2007–08 writers' strike cut the season down to 9.
source ↗ - ReferenceMiles Dyson's former assistant
Andy Goode, who builds the chess computer called the Turk, used to work as Miles Dyson's assistant, the Cyberdyne engineer from Terminator 2.
source ↗ - ReferenceAnother Reese in the family
Derek Reese, a Resistance soldier from the future, is the brother of Kyle Reese, the soldier from The Terminator.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesFollows T2, skips T3
Creator Josh Friedman treated the show as an alternate timeline: it picks up after Terminator 2 and sets Terminator 3 aside.
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- CameoShirley Manson's acting debut
Garbage's lead singer plays Catherine Weaver, a liquid-metal T-1001 running the company ZeiraCorp. It was her first acting role.
source ↗ - ReferenceCromartie becomes John Henry
The body of Cromartie, the Terminator from season 1, is wired to the Turk and becomes John Henry's body, the AI Weaver builds.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesCanceled at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes
Season 2 scored 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, but ratings dropped and the show was expensive. Fox canceled it on May 18, 2009.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe ending that never got made
In 2017, Thomas Dekker said the cast spent a year discussing a four-episode, two-hours-each miniseries to wrap things up. The cost of the license killed it.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesCameron watched almost all of it
For years James Cameron said he'd seen little of the show. After working with Josh Friedman on Terminator: Dark Fate, he admitted he'd watched nearly every episode.
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- ReferenceReleased on Judgment Day
The show premiered on August 29, 2024. In the story, August 29, 1997, is the date of Judgment Day.
source ↗ - CameoTimothy Olyphant is the Terminator
In the English dub, Timothy Olyphant voices the Terminator and Rosario Dawson voices the AI Kokoro.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWhy Tokyo
Production I.G asked for Japanese cultural elements. Tokyo also had another upside: civilians barely have access to guns, unlike in the films.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesLeaked before release
All eight episodes leaked online on August 6, 2024, more than three weeks before the Netflix premiere.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesIt was planned for five seasons
Mattson Tomlin had five seasons in mind. In February 2026 he confirmed the cancellation: critics liked it, but not enough people watched.
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