James Cameron reveals a big, wild James Bond action sequence that he cut from REAL LIES

directors James Cameron (avatars) AND Greta Gerwig (Barbie) met recently to talk about film and directing in a recent episode of Variety’s Director on Director series. During their conversation, Cameron revealed a huge action sequence that he had originally planned for his action comedy Real lies. This is described as a big James Bond style action scene Arnold Schwarzenegger helicopter skiing down a snowy mountain. It seemed like a crazy sequence, but it ended up being cut at the last minute before filming. Cameron explained the elaborate scene, saying:

“Sometimes compromises lead to something that really works. When we were making “True Lies,” we had this elaborate scene that would take place in these snowy mountains. There were skis and a crashed helicopter. [Arnold Schwarzenegger] he ends up skiing a helicopter on skates down the mountain – a great James Bond sequence. We shot one night in the mountains. I had this horrible image that we would be there for three weeks. We were already late. At that point, I knew we wouldn’t meet the release date if we stayed there. I gathered the crew at the hotel the next morning. I said, “We’ll finish the scene tonight.” The helicopter is out, this is out, that is out. He shoots two guys, jumps in the van and they drive away.’ We finished it in one night.”

Sure, what they did worked in the end, and I understand that he didn’t want to fall further behind schedule, but the thought of Schwarzenegger skiing down a mountain in a helicopter sounds awesome, and I would have loved to see it! It seems like we missed something really interesting with the cut, as it could have been one of those classic action sequences from big movies!

The movie still turned out great in the end, and had many more memorable action scenes, but I still would have loved to see the one that got cut! When making films, however, you have to make compromises.

Gerwig talked about the stories about decision-making and trade-offs that he wants to hear more about, saying, “I watch these stories [of directors], and I have the feeling that they stayed true to their ideas. I said to my producer, David Heyman, “You should start circulating more stories about directors compromising and it will work.” The only stories I hear are from directors saying, “No, we’ll do it this way.”

Both directors make it clear that while we often hear stories of directors “standing still,” filmmaking is also a collaborative art form full of compromise.