‘Terminator’: The movie James Cameron secretly wanted to fail
Considering the fact that James Cameron is one of the highest-grossing film directors of all time, it’s quite remarkable that his filmography is rather thin. Of course, it has greatly helped Cameron’s financial prospects as a filmmaker that he’s worked on some of the biggest movies of all time rather than offering a wide selection of works.
Having directed the second Alien movie, plus the widely successful Titanic and Avatar, it’s clear to see why Cameron has been in the hot seat for so many years, and, of course, one ought not to forget his incredible contributions to the world of science fiction in the shape of his early Terminator movies, which he wrote and directed.
While Cameron’s name will forever be tied to the Terminator movie franchise, he hasn’t actually directed a movie in that world since the second film arrived in 1991, even though he served as a producer on 2019’s Dark Fate. So ever since the early 1990s, the Terminator movies have cast their own fate, free from the hands of their original creator.
As such, by the time the third movie in the series came around, 2003’s Rise of the Machines, Cameron naturally had divided feelings about the film and how much he wanted it to be a success. He, of course, felt tied to Terminator, but this was a film with which he had little to do other than historical and thematic links.
“There was a small part of me that hoped it wasn’t good – but another part of me hoped it succeeded,” Cameron admitted in an interview with MovieWeb. “And it did. And I’m so glad it did. Jonathan’s made a really great movie. Arnold’s in great form. I really like what he’s done with it.”
Rise of the Machines was directed by Jonathan Mostow and saw Arnold Schwarzenegger star alongside Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken in a big shakeup for the cast, with a Terminator once again being sent across time to save humanity. Schwarzenegger also noted Cameron’s conflicted feelings about the success of the film.
“He has a part of him that wants the movie to succeed and a part of him that wants it to fail,” Arnie told Blackfilm. “He has mixed emotions because he started it, and I think this one time-wise, it didn’t work out, and he didn’t want to be part of it under those constraints that it has to be a summer movie 2003, and he has to do it. He doesn’t operate that way. I totally appreciate that.”
