“Lizards Eat Arnold’s Lunch”: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Efforts to Replicate Terminator 2’s Success Were Outshined by Steven Spielberg’s Masterpiece in 1993

After conquering the bodybuilding world, Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the world of glamor. With a vision to become a Hollywood star, he debuted with the 1970 movie Hercules in New York. The now 75-year-old received worldwide recognition in the early 80s with movies like The Terminator and Conan The Barbarian. And since then, there has been no looking back. However, in an instance in 1993, Schwarzenegger failed to meet his own expectations. In the 20th chapter of Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Story, the Austrian Oak shed light on one such incident. 

Schwarzenegger was already a massive superstar by the late 80s, having gained fame with hits like The Predator. But as he penned down in his book, “NOBODY IN HOLLYWOOD WINS all the time. At some point, you’re bound to get a beating.” In a similar fashion, the former Governor of California faced a bump in his cinematic journey in 1993.

Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t see this coming

The Terminator was released in 1984 and created the launching pad for Schwarzenegger’s career. Notably, it has six installments released until now. Terminator 2: Judgement Day, released in 1991, was a milestone in his career. It helped create a mammoth impact on the audience and became the biggest action movie of the year. Moreover, the Austrian envisioned featuring in another movie that would top the 1991 hit. 

In his book, he recalled how after the James Cameron movie, he came with more expectations for his next movie called Last Action Hero. He wrote, “We’d promised the world a blockbuster hit: “the big ticket of ’93” and the “biggest movie of the summer” was how we promoted the movie”. However, just a week before Schwarzenegger’s movie was released, one of the most iconic movies of Hollywood graced the theaters, Steven Speilberg’s Jurassic Park.

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As Schwarzenegger wrote, “It ended up outdoing even E.T. as the biggest success in movie history. Meanwhile, we delivered a film that didn’t have the snappiness it needed to be great entertainment, and we had the bad luck to have scheduled the movie’s release for the weekend after Jurassic Park’s opening.” The movie wasn’t acclaimed by the audience or the critics. In addition, the front-page headline of Variety stated regarding the film, “Lizards Eat Arnold’s Lunch.” 

The Terminator’s unexpected entry into the movies

Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America with a dream of becoming a bodybuilder. However, even before he won his first Mr. Olympia title, Schwarzenegger had his first film released in Hollywood. Once speaking in an interview, Schwarzenegger opened up about his first step into Hollywood. 

While speaking with the interviewer, he revealed, “Muscle mag publisher Joe Weider called to tell him, ‘They’re looking for a star in a Hercules movie. I recommended that you were the best.'” Moreover, he added, “Schwarzenegger laughingly recalled that Weider sold him as a “‘German Shakespearean actor’ — there’s no such thing!” 

Schwarzenegger has taken several breaks in his 53-year-long acting career. Whether it was because of his bodybuilding career in the beginning, or his political career in the 2000s. But he has always made a powerful comeback and now at 75, he is finally having his first release on Netflix.

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