The film was delayed by CGI limits and a rights dispute: Hemdale owned half and didn't want a sequel, Carolco did, and Mario Kassar paid the struggling Hemdale $5 million for the franchise before it made 520.
80s action producers seemed like arms dealers; Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna were covered on the First Blood episode.
The shoot itself cost about $51 million inside a roughly $100 million budget because of payments to Arnold, Cameron and rights holders.
A national search picked the dormant Kaiser steel mill in Fontana, California for the climax.
Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie was used whenever two Sarahs appear.
Hamilton damaged her hearing firing the gun in the elevator after forgetting her earplug.
The nuclear nightmare used a large-scale miniature Los Angeles.
The special edition added 15 minutes, including Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in a dream sequence.
The biker bar scene was filmed across the street from the Rodney King beating, on that same night, as Cameron told it.
The sound of the T-1000 passing through the bars was an inverted can of dog food oozing out.
The twin security guards were Don and Dan Stanton, also in Gremlins 2.
Cameron and Hamilton began a relationship during the film while he was divorcing Bigelow; they later married and divorced.
Cameron's perfectionism made crew members wear 'Terminator 3: not with me' shirts.
In one motorcycle take Schwarzenegger accidentally hit Furlong in the eye with the shotgun, stopping filming.
