Arnold Schwarzenegger shares he wanted 150 kills in ‘Terminator 2’ to outdo Sylvester Stallone

During a panel discussion at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wednesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he didn’t want to be overshadowed by Sylvester Stallone in terms of on-screen violence.

However, his calls for increased bloodshed in Terminator 2 were dismissed by director James Cameron. Although Schwarzenegger praised Cameron’s writing skills, he admitted that he was initially hesitant about playing a “good Terminator” in the sequel.

“I said, ‘What do you mean a good Terminator?’ I say, ‘I was killing 68 people in the first one.’ I say, ‘In the second one I have to kill 150. We go up,'” Schwarzenegger recalled telling Cameron, listing many ways they could’ve brought on more casualties on-screen, from running people over with a car to cutting throats.

“‘I got to outdo Stallone,’ I say. ‘Remember, My whole mission is that I gotta be number one in killing the amount of people on the screen,'” the actor continued. “So he says, ‘Arnold, stop it. You’re a very sick guy.'”

The rivalry between Schwarzenegger and Stallone as action movie stars of the 1980s has been frequently discussed by both actors.

In the Netflix docuseries Arnold, Stallone praised Schwarzenegger as a superior action hero who possessed the ideal physique, strength, and knowledge.

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger admitted that he felt like he was playing “catch-up” with Stallone since the first two Rocky films were released before his breakout film Conan the Barbarian.