The World's Most Famous Stuntman Explains How He Directed Terminator 2's Opening Scene [Exclusive]

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Vic Armstrong is the most prolific film stuntman in the world. He's been a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and/or director in over 250 movies, and he's arguably as famous as they come in the stunt community. Long before guys like David Leitch and Chad Stahelski broke out with "John Wick" and helped bring more attention to stunt folks in the modern era, Armstrong was doubling for Christopher Reeve in the first two "Superman" films, Harrison Ford in the first three "Indiana Jones" movies, and multiple James Bond actors over the years. At age 77, the days of performing stunts are behind him, but he's still working behind the camera as a second unit director, most recently on season 2 of Prime Video's excellent "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

On today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, I spoke with Armstrong about that show's most recent episode (an epic battle that arguably eclipses anything seen on HBO's "Game of Thrones"), but while I had him, I also asked about his experience directing the opening scene of James Cameron's 1991 sci-fi action masterpiece "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." That evocative sequence, which is bursting with excellent practical explosions and model work, depicts the devastating future war between Skynet's machines and the remnants of humanity after a nuclear explosion, and in just about two minutes, it clearly and efficiently provides the stakes of the entire rest of the movie: If our heroes characters fail, humanity doesn't stand a chance.

For Armstrong, directing that sequence was "tough" — partially because he got into a bit of a confrontation with Cameron about it on the set.

Armstrong, who is British, explained that he got into a bit of a "row" (that translates into a fight, for those of us who may not be up on our UK terminology) with James Cameron about the opening scene of "Terminator 2." Here's how he explains what happened:

"I had four days to do the opening sequence of the future wars, [when] the car comes in and crashes and the foot comes down on the skull and all that sort of stuff. I had four nights down in Fontana in California to do that. That was tough. Actually, I had a row with Jim Cameron on that, because I went with him, looked at it all, and [we were] really compressed for time, and he wanted all this battle that we had — fighting and shooting and the crashing and the car crashing and the car flips over and the crushing of the skull, but he also wanted background footage of the future wars that he could use later in the movie, but that would all be [shot from] left to right. And we worked it out that we wouldn't have time to shoot it all because of the massive organization each [take required] with all the people, so I said, 'Let's shoot it all at the same time. We could even have Steadicams in there, because in the battle, it's so futuristic, a guy running around with a Steadicam looks like he's got a futuristic gun.' So I said I'd shoot them both together: I'd shoot the left to right [shots] in the battle, and the right to left [another] way while we're outside it. So he went, 'That sounds good.' 

The first night shooting, I did it, and he came down to the set and he was furious. 'You idiot, you've done it all wrong! They're all going the wrong direction!' I said, 'No Jim, we decided that in the battle, we'd shoot left to right and right to left at the same time and you can flop it,' and he went, 'Oh, you're dead right. We did, didn't we?' And he was sweet, and off he went. But it was one of those moments where you think, 'Oh my goodness, what's happened here?' Big fight. But that's one I'm very proud of. It's an iconic sequence, an iconic movie. One of my favorite movies, along with the Indys and such, you know?"

Cameron has always had a reputation as a hot-headed filmmaker, so it's not surprising to hear that he got up in arms about something he perceived to be done incorrectly on one of his sets. (That's not to excuse his behavior; screaming at people and calling them idiots is obviously not an ideal way for professionals to treat each other.) But everything worked out for the best: Armstrong looks back fondly on the experience, and Cameron directed the hell out of the rest of the film, turning "T2" into an all-time classic.

You can hear this story, and several others about the making of "The Rings of Power" season 2, on today's episode of /Film Daily below:

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and send your feedback, questions, comments, concerns, and mailbag topics to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention your e-mail on the air.