James Cameron says the idea for The Terminator was born out of a career setback.
After being fired from his first directing job on Piranha II: The Spawning, Cameron felt his career had hit rock bottom. At the time, he believed the dismissal was his fault and described the experience as digging himself into a professional hole he had to climb out of.
Speaking on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Cameron said he realized he couldn’t wait for opportunities to come his way. Instead, he needed to create one himself.
That decision led him to write The Terminator—a story deliberately shaped by tight constraints. Knowing he wouldn’t get hired for a big-budget production, Cameron designed a film that could be made cheaply, with limited but impactful visual effects, and without massive sets.
Those limitations, he said, directly influenced the film’s futuristic ideas and structure. Rather than being a creative handicap, the restrictions forced him to think more practically and originally.
Looking back, Cameron admits he might never have come up with the story if he hadn’t been fired—but the setback ultimately launched the career that later produced films like Titanic.