In Rome, during the release of Piranha II: The Spawning director James Cameron grew ill and had a dream about
a metallic torso dragging itself from an explosion while holding kitchen knives. When Cameron returned to Pomona,
California he stayed at Randall Frakes' home where he wrote a draft for The Terminator.
Cameron later stated that his influences while writing the script were 1950s science fiction films,
episodes of The Outer Limits as well as contemporary films including The Driver and The Road Warrior.
To translate the draft into a script Cameron enlisted his friend Bill Wisher who had a similar approach to
storytelling. Cameron gave Wisher the early scenes involving Sarah Connor and the police department scenes
to write. As Wisher lived far away from Cameron, the two communicated script ideas by recording tapes of what they wrote
by telephone. Cameron's agent hated the idea for The Terminator and told him to work on something else. After this, Cameron fired his agent.
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