5 Things You Never Knew About ‘True Lies’

“Are you a spy, Harry?” There was certainly no shortage of spy movies to emerge throughout the 1990s. Not only did Pierce Brosnan get his chance to pick up 007’s Walther PPK and licence to kill, but Tom Cruise would also introduce audiences to IMF agent Ethan Hunt for his very first mission. However, perhaps one of the most memorable spy films of the period would come from everyone’s favourite musclebound action star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Trading in killer robots, barbarians and intergalactic game hunters for tuxedos, gadgets and Harrier jets, 1994’s True Lies remains one of Arnie’s best outings and still ranks as one of his most profitable films to date. Joined by the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku, Bill Paxton, Tom Arnold and June Supa-Star guest Tia Carrere, James Cameron’s foray into the clandestine world of covert intelligence would not only set a new record for Hollywood budgets but remain a certified fan favourite for decades to come.

With True Lies’ enigmatic art dealer Juno Skinner set to join us at Supanova in Sydney (21-22 June) and Perth (28-29 June), we thought it time to uncover a few clandestine secrets you might have never known about Arnie’s time as Omega Sector agent Harry Tasker.

Arnie Was A Dangerous Dance Partner

When audiences first meet Arnie’s suave secret agent, he is busy trying to infiltrate a billionaire’s party in Switzerland. During this party, Harry busts out the moves with Carrere as the two dance a steamy tango together. Despite taking dance lessons and rehearsing for six months to get the routine right, Carrere admitted in a 2022 interview with Yahoo Entertainment that Arnie still managed to step on her toes during filming.

“It would have been dangerous if I had broken my toes,” she admitted. “I suppose, because that would have put us back 30 days in the production.”

‘True Lies’ Was Hollywood’s First Nine-Figure Movie Budget

As a director, James Cameron is no stranger to spending big to deliver his trademark brand of blockbuster spectacle. While he probably did not ever bat an eyelid when it came to spending $350 million US to make 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, True Lies set a major precedent for both himself and the movie industry as a whole.

Officially serving as the first Hollywood movie to cost over $100 million to make, True Lies shattered the production budgets of other films at the time, even if Cameron would seek to double that budget a mere three years later for 1997’s Titanic.

Those Were Real Harrier Jets

While the memorable scene that showed Arnie behind the controls of a commandeered Harrier jet were filmed with a replica fiberglass fuselage suspended from a crane, Cameron did not skimp when it came time to show the same aircraft in action. Striking an agreement with the US Military, Cameron was able to rent three US Marine Harrier jets and their pilots for the bargain basement price of $2,410 US an hour.

James Cameron Scrapped A Major ‘James Bond’ Action Sequence

While Arnie’s tango with Carrere may have been the most memorable moment of the movie’s opening sequence, Cameron originally had something much bigger planned for Harry’s escape from the party. Originally planning an elaborate “James Bond sequence” that involved a crashed helicopter that Arnie would ski down the mountain on its skids, Cameron became concerned that the scene would put them behind schedule and scrapped it at the last minute.

During a 2023 episode of Variety’s Directors on Directors, Cameron explained, “I got the crew together in the hotel the next morning. I said, ‘We’re going to finish the scene tonight. The helicopter’s out, this is out, that’s out. He shoots two guys, jumps in the van, they drive away.’ We finished it in one night.”

Arnie Almost Died While On Horseback

Harrier jets were not the only thing Harry Tasker was known for commandeering when the need presented itself, and another of the film’s memorable moments involved him chasing Art Malik’s Salim Abu Aziz from the back of a police horse right up onto the roof of the Marriott hotel. While speaking with fans during a 2014 Reddit AMA, Schwarzenegger revealed that he did indeed ride the horse on a rooftop, but the spooked animal almost plummeted them both over the building’s edge.

Explaining that when a camera arm accidentally dropped on the horse’s nose when setting up the shot, his mount began rearing while on a narrow ramp with no railing. “I realised it was a bad situation,” Arnie explained, “and I slid off the horse right away, and a stuntman grabbed me. That one was really scary. If the horse stepped a foot the wrong way, we would have fallen 90 feet to a cement floor.”

Don’t miss your opportunity to meet True Lies star Tia Carrere when she joins us at Supanova in Sydney (21-22 June) and Perth (28-29 June). In the meantime, Supa-Fans can relive all the True Lies magic for themselves via Disney+.