The Terminator started with a dream, and an Outer Limits writer sued Cameron over it

There are few sci-fi action franchises quite as instantly recognisable as The Terminator. Blame it on the time-travelling cyborgs, blame it on Arnold Schwarzenegger and his silly sunglasses—either way, the original 1984 film’s become a permanent fixture of geek culture. It’s easy to forget, though, that things behind the scenes weren’t all smooth robot parts and cool catchphrases. In fact, the film’s release turned into a bit of a legal mess when director James Cameron found himself sued for pinching someone else’s idea—and honestly, there’s more to the story than most people realise.

The Lawsuit from Outer Space

Cameron has always said The Terminator came to him after a rather intense nightmare about a metal skeleton crawling from fire. He couldn’t get the image out of his head, so he did what any future blockbuster director would do: he wrote a screenplay. Fair enough. But apparently, that dream turned out to be a bit too familiar for one Harlan Ellison, a very well-known name on the American sci-fi scene. Ellison was convinced Cameron had nicked his material from more than one old TV script.

Ellison didn’t just dabble in science fiction, mind you—he built a reputation (and a few enemies) off it, with credits on Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits. The key complaint, and the focus of his lawsuit, was the 1964 Outer Limits episode called "Soldier", based on an Ellison short story. Not, as many assumed, his other famous episode “Demon with a Glass Hand”—Ellison himself clarified this online ages ago.

The Terminator film has credited Ellison for his work after a legal settlement required acknowledgments in all releases since the case.

Parallels and Paradoxes

Plot-wise, it’s not hard to spot the overlap once you know where to look. In Soldier, two blokes from a war-torn far future end up thrown back to the present by a rogue energy weapon, and at least one of them starts blundering about in modern-day America. Cameron’s version, as everyone knows, swaps the soldiers for killer robots and resistance fighters, but the bones are the same—future combatants, time travel, and a lot of grim fate-of-humanity stuff. Even the details, like the main character reciting his name and rank to police after being arrested, match up rather neatly: in The Terminator Kyle Reese tells the American coppers exactly who he is, just as Qarlo does with his interrogators in Ellison’s story. Both die in the end, too. Coincidence? Maybe. But, as Ellison saw it, there were just a few too many coincidences for comfort.

Cameron Wasn’t Impressed

When Ellison sued Cameron and the studios behind The Terminator, the case never went before a judge. Instead, it was settled out of court. Ellison reportedly got a cash payout (the exact figure’s never been confirmed) and, crucially, every future release of The Terminator had to carry an 'Acknowledgment to the Works of Harlan Ellison' in the credits. If you’ve ever wondered where that came from, there’s your answer. Still, Cameron was anything but pleased with proceedings. He vented about it years later to Rebecca Keegan, biographer and author of The Futurist: The Life and Times of James Cameron, making no attempt to keep things diplomatic. Here’s Cameron sounding off on the subject:

“It was a nuisance suit that could easily have been fought. I expected Hemdale and Orion to fight for my rights, but they abandoned me. The insurance company told me if I didn’t agree to the settlement, they would come after me personally for the damages if they lost the suit. Having no money at the time, I had no choice but to agree to the settlement. Of course there was a gag order as well, so I couldn’t tell this story but now I frankly don’t care. It’s the truth. Harlan Ellison is a parasite who can kiss my ass.”

Litigious by Nature

If you’re surprised by any of this, frankly, you haven’t met Harlan Ellison. Ellison was notorious in American TV and publishing circles for being fierce—both in defending his work and in taking people to court at the drop of a hat. He won several other cases with studios, networks, and even the Writers' Guild, sometimes for proper copyright issues, sometimes for not being paid royalties. In 2011, he filed a suit against the film In Time—saying it copied his story Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman—but dropped it after actually watching the film. One earlier lawsuit, over the 1970s series Future Cop, was settled for a reported $337,000; another, about Star Trek royalties, ended quietly; in every case, Ellison was prepared to fight his corner all the way to the bitter end.

• Soldier (1964 Outer Limits episode): Written by Harlan Ellison; time-travelling future warriors land in the 1960s, central to the lawsuit
• Demon with a Glass Hand: Another Ellison episode frequently mistaken as the inspiration but not part of his legal claim
• The Terminator (1984): Settled out of court; all future releases credit Ellison due to the legal outcome

Whether you side with Cameron, Ellison, or reckon the similarities are just inevitable in time-travel science fiction, one thing's certain: The Terminator came out the other side slightly altered, legally speaking, but still went on to become an absolute juggernaut of a franchise. Meanwhile, Ellison added another notch to his long list of legal battles. No one can say sci-fi writers don’t take their intellectual property seriously.