Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with guns everyday for a month to prepare for the role the first two weeks of filming he practiced weapons stripping and reassembly blindfolded until the motions were automatic, like a machine

Arnold Schwarzenegger was trained for weeks on weapons handling before he started the film, and wound up garnering a compliment in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine for his realistic handling of the guns on camera

During the final chase, as 'Reese' tosses pipe bombs at the 'Terminator', there is a single white frame spliced in just before some of the explosions. Director James Cameron would later use this trick to heighten the visual impact of gunshots in Aliens.

The concept of "Skynet" could also have been borrowed from an Ellison short story called "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." The suit was settled out of court and newer prints of the film acknowledge Ellison.Cameron has claimed that this settlement was forced upon him by the producers, which he has always resented.

Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued James Cameron, claiming that the film was plagiarized from the two The Outer Limits episodes that Ellison wrote, namely The Outer Limits: Soldier and The Outer Limits: Demon with a Glass Hand.

When Reese saves Sarah at the nightclub shootout, he says, "Come with me if you want to live." This is considered a "Series Trademark"

Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous debut line 'I'll be back' was originally scripted as 'I'll come back'.

The beginning of production was postponed for nine months, due to Arnold Schwarzenegger's commitment to Conan the Destroyer. During this time, James Cameron wanted to be working but didn't have the time to do a whole other film so he took on a writing assignment this turned out to be Aliens.

In James Cameron's original treatment, Sarah Connor has an old figure skating injury that was fixed with a couple of surgical pins and the terminator would cut the legs open of the first two Sarah Connors to find this identifying mark.

The laser sight on the .45 Longslide was specially built by Laser Products Corporation now Sure-Fire. This was in the early days of laser-aimed weapons. Only the laser was mounted but the required battery pack was hidden from view. In those days the battery packs were very large, about the size of a TV remote control. A wire was hidden underneath Arnold Schwarzenegger's sleeve.

Series Trademark: In each Terminator film the villainous character's death is greeted with the word "Terminated" in some way: Sarah Connor says "You're terminated fucker" as she crushes the Terminator in the hydraulic press.

Michael Biehn almost didn't get the role of Kyle Reese because in his first audition he spoke in a Southern accent

Movie Body count: 28

One afternoon during a break in filming, Arnold Schwarzenegger went into a restaurant in downtown L.A. to get some lunch and realized all too late that he was still in Terminator makeup - with a missing eye, exposed jawbone and burned flesh.

James Cameron included Arnold Schwarzenegger in a lot of his decisions on-set, e.g. the Terminator's hair had to look spiky and burned.

The sunglasses worn by the Terminator were Gargoyles.

Arnold Schwarzenegger originally wanted to play Kyle Reese. But James Cameron had a different idea and saw Schwarzenegger in the title role of The Terminator and Cameron said to Schwarzenegger "This movie is not about the hero. It's about The Terminator".

Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice is used in exactly 16 lines, with 17 sentences spoken. The terminator has two other lines on-screen, one with the voice of a police officer overdubbed, and one with the voice of Sarah's mother overdubbed.

Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to avoid Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn as much as possible since the Terminator was trying to kill them, not form connections.

The body bag Reese is put in at the end of the film is actually a suit bag owned by director James Cameron.

Near the beginning of the movie, when Sarah Connor Linda Hamilton receives a message on her answering machine breaking her date, the voice on the machine is James Cameron's. Years later, Hamilton and Cameron got married and subsequently divorced.

The movie was released in the late 1980s in Poland under the title "The Electronic Murderer"

Shots through the Terminator's vision shows a dump of the ROM assembler code for the Apple II operating system. If you own an Apple II, enter at the basic prompt: call -151 p This will give you the terminator view.

The future terminator who infiltrates the human camp in the dream sequence is played by Franco Columbu, who is a multiple Mr. Olympia title winner like Arnold Schwarzenegger and is a close friend of his.

According to a 2008 interview with Lance Henriksen Played a cop in Terminator and Bishop from Aliens, James Cameron had no agent and was living in his car when he wrote the script for the film.

Wolfie, James Cameron's German Shepherd dog, can be seen at the Tiki Motel, and is also made reference to in the second film.

In the beginning of the movie, The Terminator drives over a toy semi truck..towards the end of the movie, The Terminator is run over by the same model of semi truck.

The Terminator was filmed on a very tense set, e.g. Schwarzenegger didn't enjoy the prosthetics, because the wires of the red eye burned a lot of the time for the arm scene, he had to have his real arm tied behind his back for hours.

The teaser trailer for this film was narrated by Peter Cullen, best known to fans as the voice of the robotic hero Optimus Prime from Transformers. http:www.youtube.comwatch?vrBlT3eXrXZU