True Lies
When he said I do, he never said what he did.
True Lies (1994)
![Watch film True Lies — True Lies [1994] Trailer](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/j/u/true-lies-1994-22cfW.jpg)
Production
Budget
$115 000 000
Revenue
$378 900 000
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Jamie Lee Curtis
Helen
Tom Arnold
Gib
Bill Paxton
Simon
Tia Carrere
Juno
Art Malik
Aziz
Eliza Dushku
Dana
Grant Heslov
Faisil
Short description
Harry Tasker lives a double life. To his wife Helen and daughter Dana, he is an ordinary computer salesman, but he actually works for Omega, a secret government agency focused on counter-terrorism. Harry and his partner Gib are tracking a group that has acquired nuclear warheads and is threatening to detonate them in American cities. At the same time, Helen has grown tired of what she sees as a dull marriage and becomes involved with a used car salesman named Simon, which draws her unwittingly into her husband's dangerous world. When the two sides of Harry's life collide, both he and Helen are caught up in an international plot.
James Cameron directed the film, his sixth in chronological order, arriving between Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic. He wrote the screenplay with Claude Zidi and Simon Michaël, and produced it with Stephanie Austin for 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Harry, Jamie Lee Curtis plays Helen and Tom Arnold plays Gib, with Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere and Art Malik also in the cast.
The production had a budget of 115 million dollars and took about 379 million dollars worldwide, a strong return that reflects its broad commercial appeal. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.3 from roughly 300,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.1 from a much smaller pool of about 4,700 votes. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 135 reviews places it close to the audience scores, indicating a broadly similar level of approval from both groups.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the 1991 French comedy *Total Recall*.
- Video games with the same title as the film were released on various gaming consoles.
- In the film "Me and My Baby", Tom Arnold plays the "second self" of himself – actor Bill Williams, who once starred in "True Lies", but did not achieve recognition, fame, or money.
- Schwarzenegger’s character works for a secret government agency called "The Omega Sector", whose motto is "The Last Line of Defense". This agency is headed by Charlton Heston’s character, who starred in the film "The Omega Man" (1971).
- The song that Schwarzenegger’s character whistles in the bathroom is "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music", which takes place in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s homeland – Austria.
- When Harry and Helen Tasker are fleeing from Samir, Helen says: “I married Rambo.” Director James Cameron helped write the screenplay for "Rambo 2" (1985).
- The number of corpses in the film is 71.
- The music to which Schwarzenegger and Carrere's characters dance is the tango "Por Una Cabeza." The exact same tango was featured in "Scent of a Woman" (1992).
- To film two short tango scenes, actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tia Carrere, and Jamie Lee Curtis had to train for about six months.
- Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Annette Bening, Joan Cusack, Gina Davis, Melanie Griffith, Madonna, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Debra Winger, Emma Thompson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh all auditioned for the role of Helen.
- During the filming of the horseback riding scene, Arnold Schwarzenegger nearly died when the horse stopped responding to commands. The actor began to slide off the saddle, and this was happening near a 9-meter cliff. One of the stuntmen noticed this and pulled the horse and actor away from the edge in time.
- Tom Arnold didn't even hope to get into the film's cast, and he went to the audition mainly to see James Cameron with his own eyes. He played a few scenes with Schwarzenegger, Cameron immediately noticed the instinctive chemistry between Schwarzenegger and Arnold, and cast Arnold in the film. The management of 20th Century Fox tried to object – mainly because of the situation with Roseanne Barr – but Cameron pushed back, and they gave in. When news of this reached Arnold, he was sincerely grateful to Cameron for the opportunity and subsequently became close friends with both Cameron and Schwarzenegger.
- During the performance of the final tango, Jamie Lee Curtis slipped down and at one point had to lean on the floor with her hand – simply because she was already tired (it wasn't the first take). Initially, the actress was upset that James Cameron left this particular take in the final cut of the film, but then she realized that it was entirely in keeping with her character.
- Filming the episode (in the mansion) that begins the film was difficult. It was filmed at night in sub-zero temperatures, and the mansion itself had no heating. The women froze during filming, as they were wearing nothing but evening dresses, and had to change clothes practically on the street. The tents were heated with kerosene lamps, one of which flared up, and someone in the extras' dress caught fire. The extras were paid an additional $50 for filming in the cold. The cold also hampered the filming of the scene of the main character's escape, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cars and equipment were sliding on the surface, so filming on the mountainside was not easy. According to director James Cameron, they only managed to film 10% of what he had intended to include in the episode.
- Filming took so long that work on the film fell significantly behind schedule. Actress Tia Carrere had a contract for seven weeks of filming, but ended up filming for 7 months (her fee increased accordingly). Bill Paxton managed to star in another film during breaks in filming (it was Robert Boris’s western “Frank and Jesse”). James Cameron was repeatedly bothered by Roseanne Barr – she called him demanding that he allow her ex-husband Tom Arnold to return to filming the series “Roseanne” (1988-2018).
- Initially, the script did not provide for Spencer Trilby, played by Charlton Heston, to wear an eye patch. He simply showed up on set on the first day of filming with a black eye, and the props department had to figure something out. Furthermore, he insisted that his character be given the surname Trilby (he himself loves to wear trilbies – a type of soft men's hat with small, upturned brims).
- While preparing for filming, director James Cameron, along with his friend and screenwriter Randall Frakes, gathered information about international terrorism. Cameron and Frakes were literally shocked by how easily it turned out to be to smuggle weapons across the US border unnoticed (everything changed after the September 11, 2001 attacks). Much of what they discovered was incorporated into the film's script to portray the terrorists as realistically as possible. At the same time, no one wanted to be accused of promoting terrorism and its methods, so the film was made as comedic as they deemed possible.
- The explosion of the Sevenmile Bridge was filmed using a small-scale model. The old bridge had already been 'blown up': its drawbridge section had been removed to allow ships to pass underneath. This happened after the opening of a parallel new bridge.
- For filming Arnold Schwarzenegger at the controls of a fighter jet, a full-size mock-up of a 'Harrier' attack aircraft was built. The aircraft was controlled from a crane installed on the roof of a building nearby, which was later removed from the frame using computer technology (as were the cables on which the aircraft was suspended).
- As for a full-fledged sequel to “True Lies,” it was never made, despite the interest of James Cameron and many actors from the original film, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. The reason for this was the September 11th terrorist attacks, after which terrorism ceased to be a topic for jokes, and Schwarzenegger's election as Governor of California.
- Jodie Foster was initially considered for the role of Helen, and she became interested in the script but declined due to a scheduling conflict. Ellen DeGeneres (whom Cameron found “too funny” after auditions), Isabella Rossellini (“too Italian”), and Kyra Sedgwick (who refused to participate in the project because she considered herself too young for the role) were also among the candidates.
- When the main character, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, tells a friend, played by Tom Arnold, that his wife (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is seeing someone, the friend responds by saying that his second wife took literally everything from him in the divorce, even the ice cube trays from the freezer. The episode referred to Tom Arnold’s divorce from Roseanne Barr, which was happening at the time. It was claimed that she even took the ice cube trays with her when she left. Schwarzenegger relayed this to director James Cameron and added the line, “You have to be a real bitch to take even the ice cube trays!” Cameron liked the phrase and included it in the film.
- The US government provided three “Harrier” attack aircraft along with their pilots, and they cost the filmmakers $100,736 (or $2,410 per hour). Director James Cameron said that he first filmed the aircraft flying past from a helicopter with the main character, while the pilots maintained the distance specified in the instructions. After that, he asked if they could make exactly the same pass, but a little closer to the helicopter. They conferred for a moment, answered in the affirmative, and made the pass. Then Cameron asked if they could repeat the pass again, but even closer, now requiring them to violate safety regulations (instructions). The pilots conferred for much longer, but eventually made the pass again, and this third take was the one used in the film.
- The scene in the public restroom was written in the script very schematically – half a page – and without any details. When James Cameron saw the corresponding set a couple of days before filming, he said that the set needed to be three times bigger (for filming shooting, fighting, and so on; and Cameron also envisioned jets of water shooting up from the urinals and lampshades falling from the ceiling). It was at this moment that the props and set decoration departments first learned what would be filmed there. After that, the film’s art director, Peter Lamont, and his subordinates had only two days to change the set to match the director’s plans and wishes. The entire scene was supposed to be filmed in one day, but ultimately it took five shooting days.
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