Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to “outdo Stallone” by killing a lot of people in TERMINATOR 2

It’s no secret that Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Sylvester Stallone had a heated rivalry in the 80s and 90s. In fact, the two hated each other as they tried to be the biggest and baddest action stars in Hollywood. They are friends now, but their rivalry was serious business.

Schwarzenegger recently participated in a panel at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Terminator 2: Judgment Day screening (via Deadline), and while there he talked about the different vision he had for Terminator 2he wanted to take it in a different direction than the director James Cameron because he wanted to kill a lot of people in the movie! He explained:

“The reason it became a big hit was, number one, Jim Cameron. Jim Cameron is a brilliant writer. He had this brilliant idea, although I was suspicious at first. He said ‘I want to make you a good Terminator.’ “

He went on to say that he didn’t like the idea of ​​a good Terminator and instead wanted to kill 150 people to get over Stallone. He said:

“I said ‘What do you mean a good Terminator?’ I was killing 68 people in the first one. In the second one I have to kill 150. Let’s go up! Let’s slit their throats and shoot them with a cannon and run them over with a car.” I had to get past Stallone. I said my whole mission was to be number one at killing amount of people on screen.”

While Cameron tried to explain his vision, the actor still didn’t understand it:

“He said ‘Arnold, stop it. You’re a very sick boy. I’m going to make sure you don’t kill a single person in Terminator 2,'” recalled Schwarzenegger. “I said that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. How can it be Terminator 2 without me killing anyone? At least throw some symbolic bodies in it.”

Of course, Cameron made the movie he wanted to make and not what Schwarzenegger wanted, and it’s one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made!