15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

By Sean Hutchinson |

It’s judgment day all over again! Here are some facts you may not have known about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. 

1. ARNOLD CAME BACK—BUT AT A PRICE ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $29.25 million to star in T3.

2. ... AND HIS LIST OF DEMANDS WAS EXTENSIVE

His contract stipulated that in order to reprise his role as The Terminator, $1.5 million of the budget should be set aside for private jets, a fully-equipped gym, deluxe hotel suites, limousines, and personal bodyguards for his personal benefit at all times during production. On top of that, Arnold also received 20 percent of gross receipts on ticket sales, DVDs, TV rights, game licensing, and in-flight movie licensing on the movie worldwide.

3. JAMES CAMERON AND LINDA HAMILTON DIDN’T RETURN

Cameron, who wrote and directed the first two movies, opted out of participating in the third entry; he felt he had told the entire story he wanted to tell with these characters. Director Jonathan Mostow took over for Cameron.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was offered a part in T3 to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, but she declined. “I knew my character arc was so complete in the first two, and in the third one it was a negligible character,” she told MTV News. “She died halfway through and there was no time to mourn her. It was kind of disposable, so I said no thank you.”

4. THE MOVIE USED LOTS OF PRACTICAL EFFECTS.

Effects artist Stan Winston and his studio, which created the Terminators in the first two movies, returned for T3; the special effects house designed the new T-X skeleton for the movie. And though there are CG shots of the Terminators in the film, all of the T-1 robots were fully functioning robots. Three were built for the production; it took a team of five off-screen puppeteers to operate each one-ton robot.

5. THERE WERE A LOT OF COSTUME CHANGES

Despite the fact that Schwarzenegger appears in the iconic leather-clad getup as The Terminator, there were five separate wardrobe prototypes made for the T-X before her final red leather costume was OK’d by Mostow.

6. THE SCRIPT WAS KEPT UNDER WRAPS

Actor Nick Stahl wasn’t given the complete script before he auditioned.

7. THE FILMMAKERS HAD A TOUGH TIME FINDING AN ACTRESS TO PLAY T-X

They looked at a whopping 10,000 actresses before finding Kristanna Loken.

8. LOKEN HAD A UNIQUE AUDITION

Because she rarely speaks in the film and must act as if she were a robot, the majority of Loken’s audition to play the T-X consisted of her walking down a hallway, stopping, and turning to shoot a threatening look at the casting directors.

9. TERMINATOR TRAINING WAS KILLER

Loken put on over 15 pounds of muscle to portray the T-X. She also trained with mime coach Thorsten Heinze, a long-time collaborator of world-famous mime Marcel Marceau, to create the robotic villain’s movements. Schwarzenegger—who was 56 when T3 was released—worked out three hours a day for three months before shooting began to bulk up his Terminator physique.

10. JOHN CONNOR’S COMPANION, KATE BREWSTER, WAS ORIGINALLY PLAYED BY KATE BUSH.

She was replaced by Claire Danes a month into shooting.

11. THE PRODUCTION CREATED AN ENTIRE STREET FOR ONE SCENE …

Several city blocks used during the crane chase sequence were created because the production needed a level of destruction that wouldn’t be possible on a real street.

12. … AND SCHWARZENEGGER FOOTED PART OF THE BILL.

During the crane chase sequence, The Terminator—hanging from the crane—swings through an entire building façade. The studio didn’t want to foot the bill for the sequence, so Arnold Schwarzenegger put up his own money to complete the scene.

13. THE MOST-USED LOCATION WAS THE BACK OF A TRUCK

Despite all the locations used in the film, the set where they shot the most was the back of the animal hospital truck. Four entire production days were dedicated to shooting scenes that took place there.

14. YOU MAY HAVE SEEN SOME OF THE ROBOTS SOMEWHERE BEFORE

The mini-Hunter-Killer robots didn’t debut in T3—they first appeared in the Universal Studios ride T2 3-D: Battle Across Time. Don’t go looking for them on the ride now, though; it closed in 2012.

15. THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL WAS IMPECCABLE

The shot of the T-X melting took an entire year to complete.