James Cameron came up with key Terminator 2 character while high on MDMA
Beloved action sequel celebrates its 30th anniversary this week
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.James Cameron has said he was high on MDMA when he devised a key character for the second Terminator film.
In a recent oral history of Terminator 2: Judgement Day published by The Ringer, Cameron said he came up with the idea to include a 10-year-old John Connor in the film during an ecstasy trip.
“I remember sitting there once, high on E, writing notes for Terminator,” said Cameron, “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.”
The song Cameron was referring to was “Russians”, from Sting’s debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles.
Elsewhere in the piece, the Titanic filmmaker suggests that the first part of T2 to come together was the villain, the shape-shifting liquid metal Terminator played by Robert Patrick.
“I talked to Dennis Muren at ILM,” Cameron said. “I said, ‘I’ve got an idea.’
“If we took the water character from The Abyss, but it was metallic so you didn’t have the translucency issues, but you had all the surface reflectivity issues and you made it a complete human figure that could run and do stuff, and it could morph back into a human, and then turn into the liquid metal version of itself, and we sprinkled it through the movie, can we do it?’
He said, “I’ll call you back tomorrow.’”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments