The World’s Most Famous Stuntman Explains How He Directed Terminator 2’s Opening Scene [Exclusive]

Armstrong, who is British, explained that he got into a bit of a “row” (that translates into a fight, for those of us who may not be up on our UK terminology) with James Cameron about the opening scene of “Terminator 2.” Here’s how he explains what happened:

“I had four days to do the opening sequence of the future wars, [when] the car comes in and crashes and the foot comes down on the skull and all that sort of stuff. I had four nights down in Fontana in California to do that. That was tough. Actually, I had a row with Jim Cameron on that, because I went with him, looked at it all, and [we were] really compressed for time, and he wanted all this battle that we had — fighting and shooting and the crashing and the car crashing and the car flips over and the crushing of the skull, but he also wanted background footage of the future wars that he could use later in the movie, but that would all be [shot from] left to right. And we worked it out that we wouldn’t have time to shoot it all because of the massive organization each [take required] with all the people, so I said, ‘Let’s shoot it all at the same time. We could even have Steadicams in there, because in the battle, it’s so futuristic, a guy running around with a Steadicam looks like he’s got a futuristic gun.’ So I said I’d shoot them both together: I’d shoot the left to right [shots] in the battle, and the right to left [another] way while we’re outside it. So he went, ‘That sounds good.’ 

The first night shooting, I did it, and he came down to the set and he was furious. ‘You idiot, you’ve done it all wrong! They’re all going the wrong direction!’ I said, ‘No Jim, we decided that in the battle, we’d shoot left to right and right to left at the same time and you can flop it,’ and he went, ‘Oh, you’re dead right. We did, didn’t we?’ And he was sweet, and off he went. But it was one of those moments where you think, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s happened here?’ Big fight. But that’s one I’m very proud of. It’s an iconic sequence, an iconic movie. One of my favorite movies, along with the Indys and such, you know?”

Cameron has always had a reputation as a hot-headed filmmaker, so it’s not surprising to hear that he got up in arms about something he perceived to be done incorrectly on one of his sets. (That’s not to excuse his behavior; screaming at people and calling them idiots is obviously not an ideal way for professionals to treat each other.) But everything worked out for the best: Armstrong looks back fondly on the experience, and Cameron directed the hell out of the rest of the film, turning “T2” into an all-time classic.

You can hear this story, and several others about the making of “The Rings of Power” season 2, on today’s episode of /Film Daily below:

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