Bodybuilding Legend Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood Career Was on Verge of Ending After an Incident During Most Iconic Scene

Every actor has a piece of work that they are associated with often. For bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger that movie is Terminator 2: Judgement Day. It remains the highest-grossing movie of the star to date. However, making such a movie comes with its own set of challenges.

For one, the movie is full of stunts that are difficult to perform even by today’s standards. But a particular stunt went down in history as the one that almost broke Arnold’s hand. And the stunt in question is the most iconic one in the film.

Stunt that almost broke the hand of Arnold Schwarzenegger

More than 30 years after its making, Terminator 2: Judgement Day still has a huge fan following. Additionally, it is still among the top action movies, notably for its inclusion of extreme stunts.

Schwarzenegger, whose name had already become synonymous with bodybuilding by then, had to move past the comfort of his sport to make the movie a success. In the process, the former Mr. Olympia had to face multiple challenges, including several injuries sustained while performing the numerous stunts during the making of the film.

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However, one event that stands out from all others was the time the Austrian Oak almost broke his hand while trying to shoot the most epic scene of the movie. The scene is the one where the T-1000 gives chase to John Connor. Soon, Arnold joins in the pursuit with his motorbike while holding a Winchester shotgun in one hand.

The scene required the former bodybuilder to shoot at the truck while driving the bike. It meant Arnold had to reload the gun with one hand after each shot. However, the director James Cameron decided to capture this most dramatically, requiring Schwarzenegger to spin the shotgun in a twirling motion to reload after every shot.

However, the star injured his hand severely during one of the takes of this stunt. Moreover, handling a shotgun this way is difficult, especially with one hand. But the director added the scene in the movie nonetheless.

They constructed a modified prop with an extended lever to make things convenient. The extended lever enabled one to pull off the twirl, albeit with much effort. It was still a difficult stunt to perform, so much so that Cameron mentioned the arduousness of the task in the director’s commentary of the film.

How did the stunt almost break Arnold’s hand?

He revealed that Arnold had to practice the stunt so much that the actor kept tearing his fingers’ skin. Besides, Schwarzenegger has to perform the stunt without wearing gloves, making it more difficult.

During the stunt, Edward Furlong, who played the role of John Connor in the movie, had to act as the pillion passenger on the bike. Furlong, then 13, was hit several times by the actor’s gun twirl, almost knocking him out.

But this is considered minor compared to the injury Arnold sustained when he used the wrong prop to perform this scene. This prop shotgun had a smaller lever than the one modified for this. The small prop lever caught his fingers, and the weight of the twirling gun almost broke his hand that day.

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Luckily, Schwarzenegger did not sustain any serious injuries that day and got away with a few minor ones. However, he finally got the final take of the now-iconic scene that many associates with the movie and the star, even to this day.