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50 free Terminator trivia questions with answers. The Terminator started as a fever dream James Cameron had while promoting a killer-fish sequel, and grew into six films, two TV series, theme-park shows and three decades of video games. This quiz walks the whole timeline: the $6.4 million 1984 original and Schwarzenegger's 17 lines, Terminator 2's liquid-metal T-1000, record budget and four Oscars, the exact minute Skynet becomes self-aware, then Rise of the Machines, Salvation, Genisys and Dark Fate, plus The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the Terminator Zero anime. Easy questions ask who played Kyle Reese and which band recorded the T2 theme; the hard ones want the time signature of Fiedel's score, the studio behind the first DOS game and how Carolco paid Arnold's salary. Built for people who can rank every Judgment Day date across the continuities. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the films, characters, cast and games, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01James Cameron got the idea for The Terminator from a fever dream while promoting which film?
Piranha II: The Spawning
Piranha II: The Spawning was the film that had Cameron in Rome when, sick with a fever, he dreamed of a metal skeleton dragging itself from an explosion, the image that became the Terminator.
Q 02Which studio distributed The Terminator in 1984?
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures released The Terminator in October 1984 with modest expectations and little marketing push, yet it opened at number one and topped the US box office for two weeks.
Q 03Roughly how much did The Terminator cost to make?
$6.4 million
Made for about $6.4 million, The Terminator grossed roughly $78.3 million worldwide, more than twelve times its budget, and launched Cameron's career.
Q 04Which football star did Orion suggest for the Terminator, only for Cameron to find him unbelievable as a killer?
O. J. Simpson
O. J. Simpson was Orion's suggestion for the Terminator, but Cameron thought the genial running back would never be believable as a killer; Schwarzenegger had been approached to play Reese instead.
Q 05Which actor showed up to a pitch meeting dressed as the Terminator to help Cameron sell the film?
Lance Henriksen
Lance Henriksen kicked open the door of the Hemdale office in character, foil on his teeth and cuts on his face; he ended up as detective Hal Vukovich and later Cameron's Bishop in Aliens.
Q 06At which motel do Sarah and Reese hide and build pipe bombs in The Terminator?
Tiki Motel
Tiki Motel is where Sarah and Reese hole up and build pipe bombs; the Terminator finds them after intercepting Sarah's phone call to her mother's house.
Q 07Who plays Kyle Reese, the soldier sent back to protect Sarah Connor, in The Terminator?
Michael Biehn
Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese and became a Cameron regular, going on to play Corporal Hicks in Aliens and Lieutenant Coffey in The Abyss.
Q 08What is Sarah Connor's job when we first meet her in the 1984 film?
Diner waitress
Diner waitress is Sarah's job when the film opens: she works a shift at Big Jeff's family restaurant, where a kid drops ice cream in her apron pocket, before learning other Sarah Connors are being killed.
Q 09What is the name of the nightclub where Reese first fires on the Terminator?
Tech Noir
Tech Noir is the club where Reese first opens fire; the name was later borrowed by critics for the blend of film noir and science fiction that Blade Runner and The Terminator typify.
Q 10Harlan Ellison threatened to sue over The Terminator, claiming it borrowed from his episode of which anthology series?
The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits episodes 'Soldier' and 'Demon with a Glass Hand' were Ellison's claim; Orion settled out of court and added an acknowledgment credit to later prints, over Cameron's objections.
Q 11Who composed the synthesizer score for The Terminator, including its pounding main theme?
Brad Fiedel
Brad Fiedel wrote the synth score, which he described as being about 'a mechanical man and his heartbeat', and he returned for Terminator 2 and True Lies.
Q 12The Terminator's main theme is written in which unusual time signature?
13/16
The theme runs in 13/16 because the composer's finger rushed while triggering a loop on his Prophet-10 synth; he liked the herky-jerky propulsion and kept it without ever writing notation.
Q 13In what year was The Terminator added to the US National Film Registry?
2008
The Terminator was added to the National Film Registry in 2008 as 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'; the Library of Congress added its sequel in 2023.
Q 21Who doubled for Linda Hamilton in the Terminator 2 scenes where two Sarah Connors appear at once?
Her identical twin sister
Her identical twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, stood in so that two Sarahs could share a shot in the steel mill; twins Don and Dan Stanton pulled the same trick for the hospital guard.
Q 22Which detail of the T-800's death scene in Terminator 2 was added during filming?
The thumbs-up
The thumbs-up as the T-800 sinks into the molten steel was not in the script; Cameron added it on set, and it became the film's signature farewell image.
Q 23According to Terminator 2, at what exact time does Skynet become self-aware on August 29, 1997?
Q 14How was most of Schwarzenegger's Terminator 2 salary paid, to ease the studio's cash crunch?
With a Gulfstream III jet
With a Gulfstream III jet is how Carolco covered most of his fee: the cash-strapped studio financed the aircraft rather than pay the sum outright, at a time when it was already being blamed for inflating star salaries.
Q 15Who played the liquid-metal T-1000 in Terminator 2?
Robert Patrick
Robert Patrick was cast as a lean, fast contrast to the muscular T-800; he reprised the T-1000 for a gag cameo in Wayne's World, asking Wayne 'Have you seen this boy?'
Q 16Which rock star was considered for the T-1000 before a motorcycle accident ruled him out?
Billy Idol
Billy Idol was Cameron's early pick for the T-1000, but a February 1990 motorcycle crash in Hollywood badly injured his leg, ruling him out of a role built on relentless running.
Q 17Where was Edward Furlong discovered before being cast as young John Connor in Terminator 2?
A Boys & Girls Club in Pasadena
A Boys & Girls Club in Pasadena is where casting director Mali Finn spotted Furlong, who had never acted; he went on to win a Saturn Award and an MTV Movie Award for the role.
Q 18How many Academy Awards did Terminator 2: Judgment Day win?
Four
Four Oscars went to Terminator 2: Makeup, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects; it was nominated for six, missing out on Cinematography and Film Editing.
Q 19Which band's song 'You Could Be Mine' was used as the theme song for Terminator 2?
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses supplied 'You Could Be Mine', which plays in the film and in a video cut with footage of the T-800; the song came from the album Use Your Illusion II.
Q 20Which effects house created the liquid-metal T-1000 for Terminator 2?
Industrial Light & Magic
Industrial Light & Magic built the T-1000's liquid-metal morphing effects under Dennis Muren; the work ran over schedule and is credited with pushing Hollywood from practical effects toward computer imagery.
2:14 a.m. EDT
2:14 a.m. EDT on August 29 is the moment the T-800 gives: the system had gone online on August 4, began learning at a geometric rate, and fought back when humans tried to pull the plug.
Q 24Who plays Miles Dyson, the engineer whose work will lead to Skynet, in Terminator 2?
Joe Morton
Joe Morton plays Miles Dyson, the Cyberdyne engineer who reverse-engineered his breakthrough from the CPU and arm of the 1984 Terminator; Morton later starred as Rowan Pope in Scandal.
Q 25The T2 3-D: Battle Across Time attraction, directed by Cameron, first opened at which park in 1996?
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida opened the show in April 1996, three years before the Hollywood park got it; its 12-minute 3D film reunited the 1991 film's lead actors in their original roles.
Q 26Who directed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the first entry made without James Cameron?
Jonathan Mostow
Jonathan Mostow, who had made Breakdown and U-571, directed the 2003 film; Cameron passed on it, and its budget of about $187 million included roughly $30 million for Schwarzenegger.
Q 27Who plays the T-X, the 'Terminatrix', in Terminator 3?
Kristanna Loken
Kristanna Loken plays the T-X, a shape-shifting Terminator with a liquid-metal skin over an endoskeleton; she went on to play Rayne in Uwe Boll's BloodRayne.
Q 28Which actor took over as John Connor in Terminator 3?
Nick Stahl
Nick Stahl took over as John Connor after Edward Furlong was not brought back; Claire Danes plays Kate Brewster, the future wife the reprogrammed T-850 is sent to protect.
Q 29What is the grim twist at the end of Terminator 3?
Judgment Day happens anyway, that very day
Judgment Day happens anyway, that very day: the T-850 reveals that the events of 1997 only postponed the attack, and John and Kate are sealed inside Crystal Peak as the missiles launch.
Q 30In what year is Terminator Salvation set?
2018
Terminator Salvation takes place in 2018, the first film set entirely after Judgment Day; Schwarzenegger appears only as a digital likeness laid over a body double.