“Hasta la vista, baby!” Those iconic four words, spoken by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the blockbuster 1991 film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, might be the most famous line spoken in American cinematic history. It might be the most quoted line too, only rivaled perhaps by another iconic Terminator line: “I’ll be back“. But from where in the recesses of James Cameron’s extremely creative mind, when he wrote the script for T2, did that line come from? Well the mystery has been solved Terminator fans!
James Cameron revealed the true inspiration for “Hasta la vista, baby” recently when talking to Fandom, and he really didn’t know for sure (at the time) how quotable the line would be:
JAMES CAMERON: “Well I didn’t know it would become quotable. Look, you always hope that something is going to work, but when I think when I wrote that line ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ I said alright this has to be the signature line for T2 like ‘I’ll be back’ in the first film.
“I was probably working out before I went to write for the day and there was a Tone-Loc video, I think it’s ‘Wild Thing’, and he says ‘Hasta la vista, baby.’ And I thought Oh that works! Inspired by Tone-Loc. I can say it now!”
To see Cameron’s inspiration for yourself, watch the below “Wild Thing” music video by Tone-Loc and advance to minute 4:00:
Yes Terminator fans, everybody’s favorite iconic line from T2 was ripped from the end of the Tone-Loc music video.
We’ll be back.
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