I decided to do this little trivia post because I realized that many fans don't know how the glowing eyes were achieved in The Terminator. Even some diehard fans aren't sure, and you can't blame them, because it's not an information that was ever put in print or in any of the extras on any format, be it Laserdisc, DVD or Bluray (well, Blurays nowadays, with some Collector's Editions exceptions, in comparison to what it was some time ago, are very thin on extras when it comes to classic films).
Many fans assume, like I did as well for many years, that it's an optical effect, like the laser beams, but it's actually a practical effect.
Franco Columbu, who played the Terminator in the bunker ambush scene wore special lit up glasses. Here's an excerpt from Columbu's interview with TheArnoldFans from March of 2013
And here is the only existing photo where you can actually see the goggles
Below, call sheets listing the eye effect, courtesy of The Terminator’s Prime Document Collector, Terminator1984Fan of Instagram. Those call sheets were the first clues that the glowing red eyes were not achieved via visual effects, before the rare behind the scenes photo surfaced in 2001 (In The Terminator Special Edition DVD) and before Franco was the first one to confirm it was a physical gag.
A one eyed version was made for the stunt driver who drove the tanker later in the film.
Franco only worked on the film for one day, and while he never criticized the glasses, he did dislike the dirt makeup quite a bit, according to the veteran makeup artist Jeff Dawn in an interview with TheArnoldFans in June of 2013
Taking this opportunity, for the curious ones, here's how the fantastic, expressionist style shot from the film looks like in different versions of the movie - the 1995 THX laserdisc, the first 2006 Bluray, and modern Bluray release
The image is so striking that it was used on the menu of the very first The Terminator computer game from 1990
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