The one movie that inspired James Cameron’s entire career: “I was blown away”
Ambition has never been in short supply for James Cameron, so when he was exposed to a seismic moment in cinema history, he was immediately emboldened to see if he couldn’t just emulate the movie that blew his mind but exceed its impact and influence.
He still had to work towards the upper rungs of the Hollywood ladder, of course, but gaining invaluable experience sitting under one of Hollywood’s most proven learning trees was a decent way to start. Roger Corman was a seminal figure in so many legendary careers, and for Cameron, he experienced his baptism of fire on Battle Beyond the Stars.
Even then, he wasn’t established enough to make his feature-length debut on a movie he had a deep emotional attachment to, but Piranha II: The Spawning was instrumental nonetheless in getting his feet wet and allowing Cameron to marshal a cast and crew for the first time on a movie.
From there, he never looked back. The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic, and the Avatar franchise followed, establishing the Academy Award winner as not only one of the most visually gifted and aesthetically dynamic auteurs of his generation but a genuine trailblazer.
If Cameron wants to capture a shot or create an effect that can’t be done due to the technological limitations of the time, he’ll develop the means himself. His output may have been slowed significantly after he decided to dedicate what appears to be the rest of his career to Avatar sequels, but at the very least, every single one of them is going to be an immersive cinematic experience like no other.
His filmography is stuffed full of classic, seminal, and record-breaking sci-fi, and his ongoing obsession with technology has raised the bar by several levels. With that in mind, it shouldn’t be a shock to discover the movie that inspired him to chase his dream in the first place was one that ticked almost all of those aforementioned boxes.
“When Star Wars came along, of course, I was blown away since nothing like that had ever existed before,” he told Rolling Stone. “But I was also blown away by how right I was. ‘Hey, that shit I was seeing in my head for the past few years, people are buying it! People are loving it! Maybe I better get off my ass and start doing something’. It was a kick in the pants for me to actually become a practitioner.”
George Lucas’ Star Wars exploded into cinemas in May 1977 when Cameron was only 22 years old, and he hadn’t held any positions on any productions at that point. Fast forward 12 months and he’d written, produced, and directed short film Xenogenesis, which laid down a marker he’d continue to follow for the next 40 years and change.
