10 Film Franchises That Became Something Else Entirely
3. The Terminator
Before he became obsessed with shoving blue people down our throats, James Cameron made 1984's The Terminator.
It's now become a iconic tale; machines take over the Earth, humans rebel, machines send Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to kill human resistance leader before he is born. Chuck in some sunglasses and Arnie's bare butt, and that's basically the movie.
The first Terminator film is a slasher film dressed up in sci-fi clothes. Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese are relentlessly pursued by the mechanical menace, who is as unmoving and cold as any great horror villain.
The picture is just darker, too. Literally, some scenes are kinda hard to see.
Seven years later, Cameron returned to the series for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This time, he presented an out-and-out action thriller, complete with car chases, shootouts, and enough leather to make a vegan puke.
The horror elements of the past movie were completely gone, traded in for one-liners and cool fight sequences.
Not that this was a bad thing, mind you, as Terminator 2 is often considered one of the greatest action movies of all time.
If only the same could be said of all the films after that.