Hypothesis: Michael Crichton’s Westworld had an enormous impact on the trajectory of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career.
Exhibit A: Yul Brynner plays an implacable killer robot (with an extremely difficult-to-place accent) that relentlessly pursues our heroes, even after his “flesh” has been completely burned away—predating The Terminator by over a decade.
Exhibit B: At one point, Richard Benjamin’s character uses a nearby fire to confuse The Gunslinger’s heat-sensitive vision, similar to how Arnie would use mud for the same purpose in Predator—almost fifteen years later.
I rest my case.
Unrelated Note: I love that one random control room technician’s bizarre pronunciation during his single line of dialogue—“Sir, we have no control over the rub its uh tall!”
