Phil C.

Trivia: A bit of trivia for those who haven't read the books. In the Grey Havens scene, the three Elven Rings can be seen upon the hands of their bearers: Vilya, mightiest of the Three, is worn by Elrond; Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, is still borne by Galadriel; and Narya the Great is seen on Gandalf's hand.

Phil C.

Trivia: The famous "Wilhelm" scream makes a reappearance during the scene where Faramir's men are fleeing from Osgiliath across the Pelennor Fields. Just after the people of Minas Tirith call out, "The White Rider" a Nazgul swoops down and snatches up one of Faramir's men. The "Wilhelm" is heard as he falls.

Phil C.

Trivia: Director Steven Lisberger had several arcade games scattered all around the sets. The cast and crew often had to be called away from them to return to shooting, particularly Jeff Bridges, who would often claim he was "preparing for the next scene" in order to keep playing a bit longer.

Phil C.

Trivia: Peter O'Toole was originally offered the part of Dillinger/Sark. He was very interested in the role, but backed out when he discovered that it would involve mostly acting against a black screen, with all the sets and backgrounds to be added digitally later on.

Phil C.

Trivia: Supervising Sound Editor Mike Hopkins makes a cameo appearance in the film as Farmer Maggot, in the cornfield scene. He notes on Commentary Track 3 that it was difficult to sound angry and spout profanities without ever repeating himself and without actually swearing.

Phil C.

Trivia: The filmmakers discovered to their chagrin that the snakes used for the Well of Souls sequence weren't afraid of fire at all - in fact, they would always try to get closer to the fire to warm themselves. At one point director Spielberg was caught on camera picking up a snake and telling it, face to face, "In the script, you're supposed to hate fire. Why do you like fire? You're ruining my movie."

Phil C.

Trivia: The canyon where Indiana confronts Belloq and the Germans and threatens to blow up the Ark is the exact same canyon where the Jawas take R2-D2 in "Star Wars".

Phil C.

Trivia: The German submarine is the same sub that would later be used for Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot".

Phil C.

Trivia: During filming of the fight scene around the German flying wing, Harrison Ford slipped and fell down and the plane's wheels rolled over his left knee, tearing his ACL. Rather than trust in the local medical care, they simply wrapped the knee up tightly, applied ice, and kept on going.

Phil C.

Trivia: The beach scene where Indy's father frightens the seagulls into taking flight and bringing down the Messerschmitt was done with fake seagulls and real white doves. The beach was covered with fake seagulls for the wide shot, and the closeup shots were done with white doves and piles of loose feathers to further confuse things. The film crew had to use white doves because it turned out that they absolutely could not train live seagulls to do anything at all on cue.

Phil C.

Trivia: In the scene in the zeppelin where Indy talks with his father, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery both elected to shoot the scene wearing no trousers whenever possible, in close ups for example, because it was so hot and they didn't want to stop every ten seconds to wipe sweat away.

Phil C.

Trivia: The "smoke" effect coming off Terminator's jacket during the scene where he is riding on the hood of Reese and Sarah's car in the alleyway outside Tech Noir was created by pouring a mild acid onto the jacket. Arnold begged for an alternative method, as the idea understandably made him rather nervous, but eventually he agreed to it.

Phil C.

Trivia: Michael Biehn gave a very impressive reading for the part of Reese, but Cameron didn't like the fact that he had such a prominent Southern accent. He called Biehn's agent and said that they loved the reading, but didn't want Reese to have a pronounced accent like that. The agent was confused: "What accent? He doesn't have an accent." It then transpired that Biehn had in fact just come from an audition for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that morning, and hadn't shaken off the accent yet. So they had him come in for another reading, verified the lack of accent, and offered him the part.

Phil C.

Trivia: The exploding tanker truck shot was done with miniatures. Director James Cameron originally wanted to do a full-size tanker explosion, but couldn't because they were shooting in a particular area of downtown Los Angeles that was directly in front of the police armory, and the LAPD wouldn't give permission.

Phil C.

Trivia: Because the production was so short on time, the "Future War" segments with the Ground H-Ks were filmed from the ground up. Fantasy II built the treads section, and then they filmed those shots. Then they added the torso section on top of the treads, and filmed those bits. Finally they added the head to the body and shot the full-on views of the H-K.

Phil C.

Trivia: The final image of the Terminator in the film - where its red eye winks out after it had been crushed in the press - was actually one of the cheapest and simplest shots to create. It was done after principal photography had wrapped, when Cameron decided they needed the final shot. The press was made of foam core spray-painted silver, the eye was taken from one of the endoskeleton models and fitted with a small LED that was dialed down, the ring of metal that falls off was made of tinfoil, and the smoke wafting across was cigarette smoke blown on-camera by somebody out of the camera's field of view. Simple - but one of the most powerful images in the film.

Phil C.

Trivia: The body bag that Reese is zipped up into at the end of the film is actually a suit bag that belonged to director James Cameron. They needed a pickup shot and Cameron happened to have the bag in his car, so he pulled it out and presto, instant body bag.

Phil C.

Trivia: A "steel fist" machine rig was used to punch through the windshield of the car in the alleyway scene. The rig was so heavy that the car couldn't be moved, so instead they moved the brick wall behind the car to give the appearance that the vehicle was in motion.

Phil C.

Trivia: The "Tech Noir" shooting was done in a building in LA that used to be a restaurant. The set was so realistic that the night after shooting wrapped, people were trying to pay to get into the "club". Producer Gale Anne Hurd recalls that "we were so desperate for cash at that point that we almost took their money, but better sense got hold of us and we declined the paying patrons."

Phil C.

Trivia: The name of the nightclub, "Tech Noir", was a deliberate allusion to "film noir" - director James Cameron hoped that critics might be interested in the kind of filmmaking they were doing with this film, the references to the dark side of technology.

Phil C.