Terminator: 20 Easter Eggs And References You Must See
2. Arnie Had So Few Lines As To Compete With Conan
The reason that production of the original Terminator was delayed, affording James Cameron the time to pitch and write the script for Aliens (apparently he managed to sell the producers on it simply by writing Alien on a whiteboard and then adding s), was because Arnold Schwarzenegger had to spend eight months filming Conan the Destroyer. Cameron wrote the shooting draft of the script soon after Arnie filmed the first Conan film, and decided that he would give him as little dialogue as possible. Not because he had trouble speaking English, as has been speculated, but as a direct riposte to Conan The Barbarian: Schwarzenegger spoke only 24 lines there. In The Terminator, that's pared even further down to 14.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
