Wenn Schon, Denn Schon — The story behind my favorite scene in Terminator 2

Spoiler alert: For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, I’m about to ruin one of the surprises:

One of my favorite movies is Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And one of my favorite scenes is when Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, who we have just learned is now the good guy, is speeding John Connor away from an even scarier new Terminator, blasting open the locked gates in their path with his shotgun, which he re-loads with a one-handed flip move so he can keep the other hand steering his motorcycle.

 

That was cool.

Even cooler? Learning how much time the actor spent making that scene look so cool.

 

In his latest book, “Be Useful: Seven tools for Life,” Schwarzenegger describes how he practiced the “shotgun cocking flip so many times my knuckles bled, for what amounted to two seconds of screen time,” because he was determined to put in the time required to get it right.

 

That, Schwarzenegger says, is an example of the German phrase “Wenn schon, denn schon,” which he describes as basically meaning: “If you’re going to do something, DO IT. Go all out.”

 

And I am glad he did go all out, even for something as arguably trivial as a cool-looking stunt in a movie. Because what are movies, really? A collection of carefully crafted scenes designed to excite, entertain, and maybe even educate their audience, though most viewers likely just want to watch something absorbing enough to take us out of ourselves and our lives for a while. And that movie still does that for me, every time.

But I’m even more glad my husband bought me Schwarzenegger’s book, because I’ve found even better things in it than the story about my favorite scene, such as how he urges readers to “never think small.” 

Write down your biggest dream, he suggests, then write another one even bigger. Then give everything you can to making your biggest dream come true.

Because it’s the trying that matters — the trying and not quitting when you fail. The trying, the failing, then the trying again and again until you finally reach your goal. And by not giving up, he argues, you will not only have improved your life, but maybe even the lives of others, since what you achieve “could make a real difference in the world, far beyond what you can directly impact yourself.”

Especially, he notes, because you never know who is watching you. Your actions could inspire someone else to just keep plugging away at their dream, and maybe end up achieving one of the coolest, or most meaningful, things anyone’s ever done.

 

Or, maybe you could just inspire someone to get out of bed, make another pot of coffee, and try again to just be a good person doing good things. Because that’s cool, too.