Terminator Vault: The Complete Story Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The Terminator’s back in this magnificent, behind-the-scenes look at The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Long before Titanic and Avatar broke box-office records and won countless awards, James Cameron announced his genius with the 1984 release of The Terminator. Nothing like it had ever been seen before—it fused time travel, thrilling action, artificial intelligence, and terror with provocative questions about the human race—and of course, it made Arnold Schwarzenegger an international superstar. The movie’s 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, has some of the greatest special effects in movie history and remains one of the most influential science fiction films of all time. The story of Sarah and John Connor’s fight against the advanced assassin cyborg, the T-1000, is an astonishing look at the battle between good and evil. Now, for the first time ever, here is the complete story of the Terminator world. Terminator Vault, written by acclaimed film expert Ian Nathan and with a foreword by “Governator” Schwarzenegger, takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of both films, from the initial conception of Skynet (the AI system determined to destroy humanity) to the creation of the films’ special effects, many of which had never been previously attempted. Reproductions of original scripts and concept drawings provide completely new insights into the Terminator backstory, and there are over 170 color images of the development, production, and more. This is a must-have book for any Terminator fan, released in anticipation of the first film’s thirtieth anniversary.

Ian Nathan, who lives and works in London, is one of the UK’s best-known film writers. He is the author of nine previous books, including Alien Vault, the best-selling history of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Terminator Vault, Tarantino, Tim Burton, The Coen Brothers and Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth. He is the former editor and executive editor of Empire, the world’s biggest movie magazine, where he remains a contributing editor. He also regularly contributes to The Times, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, Cahiers Du Cinema and the Discovering Film documentary series on Sky Arts. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of history's biggest film stars. His films include Total Recall, Conan the Barbarian, Last Action Hero, True Lies and Predator.He was the governor of California from 2003 to 2011.www.schwarzenegger.com