James Cameron

And so then I knew I had to do something extraordinary or something different.

I couldn't wait for a directing gig to come to me.

I had to create it for myself.

And that's when I wrote The Terminator.

I thought, I have to write something original, something that I could plausibly make.

that wouldn't have an enormous budget, and it was scaled to conventional locations, present day, city streets, that sort of thing, so that we could do it relatively cheaply.

But I also thought, all right, but I've got to inject into it.

It can't just be a simple drama.

I've got to inject into it something that I bring as expertise.

So my expertise was in design and in visual effects.

I thought, all right, so I've got to create a careful balance here.

The visual effects have to be very limited, but they have to be powerful so that it's not a ridiculous budget like a Star Wars movie that I knew we couldn't afford or nobody would hire me for.

So then I came up with the idea of a futuristic technology that gets injected into the present day time travel, right?

So there was a logic to the story elements that I was playing with that was based entirely on being practical.

And trying to get a gig.

So would I have come up with that story if I didn't have those constraints?

I don't know.

Maybe not.

But it all worked out.

So I thought, all right, I want this extraordinary thing that requires animation and design, this Terminator.