"Thank God I didn't shake his hand" is all I can think as I stare at the sheer size of the man sitting next to me. Worn tightly around Arnold Schwarzenegger's thick upper-body is a wool COLLATERAL DAMAGE jacket, which hides nothing. Sprouting from the collar like a tree-trunk is his neck. Around a finger on his right hand is a ring (which is approximately the size of a golf ball) that resembles the Terminator's cyborg skull. In RESERVOIR DOGS, when lost for ways to describe Laurence Tierney, Tim Roth says simply, "Remember the Fantastic Four? The Thing. The motherfucker looks like The Thing." Let me put it this way: Remember Silver Surfer? Galactus. Arnold looks like fucking Galactus! I can picture this guy eating planets for lunch. Thank God, I didn't shake his hand.

There aren't many actors or actresses that can be recognized by their first name. I say Tom and you can say Cruise? Hanks? I say Julia and you can say Roberts? Stiles? I say Arnold and you say Ah-nuld! Arnold Schwarzenegger. The man whose middle-name should be "fucking" as in Arnold-fucking-Schwarzenegger. And if you grew up in the late 80s/early 90s as I did, you saw the man kicking ass time and time again in films like COMMANDO, THE TERMINATOR, PREDATOR, TOTAL RECALL, and the list goes on and on. You can make your arguments on how cinematic each film was, but admit this - without Arnold, these films would've been nothing more than a bottom-shelf video rental. A human catch-phrase machine, there wasn't one movie that didn't leave kids across the country doing their best "Arnold" while playing Manhunt or War (my personal fave was hiding and yelling "C'mon! Kill me! I'm here! Do it now!" to the opposing team).

Unfortunately, all good things must end, as did Arnold's reign of successful and enjoyable films. If you trace his filmography back, the downfall starts with the cinematic disaster, BATMAN AND ROBIN. After that came END OF DAYS and THE SIXTH DAY, two brutally unwatchable films (and when a film, like END OF DAYS, has a mother/daughter lesbian scene and still sucks...you know it's bad). The days of TRUE LIES and TERMINATOR 2 were over. It became increasingly apparent that audiences had grown smarter (somewhat). Tastes changed and the name Arnold alone, meant little to a new generation growing up on anime, Jackie Chan and THE MATRIX. With COLLATERAL DAMAGE, comes more hope that the man can return to pre-B&R form and start a Schwarzenegger resurgence. And hell, if this film doesn't work, it's just a stumbling block onto next summer's TERMINATOR 3.

In another attempt to redefine the Arnold mystique, this isn't your typical Schwarzenegger character. He's not adept at kicking ass, or shooting guns or getting the bad guy every time. And his name's Gordy for chrissakes. Gordon Brewer is just an average firefighter mired in frustration and bent on revenge after the U.S. Government does little to capture the terrorists responsible for killing his wife and son. In fact, Arnold wasn't even the first guy considered for the movie.

"Harrison Ford was first asked to do the movie. And while that was going on and he was trying to sort out his life, my wife got the script from (producer) Steve Reuther, she then read it and was very persistent on pursuing the script and pursuing for me to do the movie. I didn't want to interfere with Harrison Ford's situation because if you're interfering with that it looks like you're trying to take someone's job away. That happened to me one time with Bruce Willis on BATMAN AND ROBIN. He was promised the part or something like that. I didn't interfere or anything like that but Joel Schumacher came to me and asked if I wanted to do the movie. And I said, I want to do a movie with you, whatever it is. He said Batman 3 (sic) and I said yeah, OK, let's do it. But the agents and the studio was talking to Bruce at the time and I don't know if they had a deal or anything but it's one of those uncomfortable situations that you don't want to happen. So I said, let Harrison Ford finish his negotiations but then eventually Steve called me and said he's not gonna do it, he's doing something else. He asked if I was interested, I said yes I am interested, I love the story, and that's how we got into that whole thing."

Once he had officially signed on, the research and training began. "I spoke with Los Angeles Firefighters. They're the ones who helped me train for the various different fire scenes that were shot in Los Angeles. They helped me with getting…how to get dressed with all the uniform and how to do it by yourself; how to put the oxygen tank on; how do you put the mask on; at what point do you put the hood over it; the fireproof hood; and then you put the helmet on, how do you take the helmet off; how do you give someone oxygen if they're lying there dying, like the woman was (in the film) not being able to breathe; how you do that so it looks authentic, so it looks real; and how do you carry this hundred pounds of gear around, with all these axes and belts and this and that; how do you get up the ladder; get up the stairs with all these different kinds of equipment. (Takes deep breath.) So there were a lot of things to go through in order to make it look realistic. And there were some fantastic fire people, firemen from Los Angeles who helped me to do all that stuff."

A fireman. Involved in a terrorist bombing. Sounds eerily familiar. I'm sure you've heard by now about how COLLATERAL DAMAGE was originally scheduled to open last October, and how in the wake of September 11th, it was pushed back indefinitely. Arnold says understandably, on the morning of 9/11, it was the furthest thing from his mind. "My wife and I got a phone call about ten after seven and NBC said, 'Turn on the TV. There's been an accident. A plane has crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York.' And so we turned on the news and basically watched the whole thing and then everyone was realizing that it wasn't an accident." The call from NBC wasn't one of courtesy. When his wife Maria Shriver, a reporter with the channel, was called to duty - sent by the network to interview families waiting at LAX for the flight from Boston (which was one of the planes that crashed into the towers) - Arnold was left to care for their four children. "Kids don't know the difference between a replay and reality. So my kids told me on the way to school that morning, 'Daddy, there were 20 to 30 buildings that planes have run into.' So they thought that every time there was a replay again and again that more buildings were attacked. So they were confused about that and my wife and I decided it was better to just turn off the TV. And also, we explained to them and talked to them about it and the things involved. We tried to be as comforting as possible."

It was only later that the thought of a potential conflict with DAMAGE materialized. "She (Maria) turned to me and said 'You know this means you can forget about your COLLATERAL DAMAGE movie. And I didn't even think about it, you know? At that point all you could think about was this thing and…shock. But I said, you're right and I went to call Warner Bros. So I dialed the phone and called Warner Bros and they were saying, 'We were just trying to call you because we want to set up a meeting and talk about pulling the movie."

And the movie was pulled. There was no opposition from anyone involved. The advertising stopped, certain sensitive components of the website came down and the release date was still to be decided. In the time between the film's original release date and now, Arnold said that he had time to reflect on the real heroes - the real firefighters who lost real loved ones. "(Firefighters) just care about saving lives. That's what it's all about. I mean, walking up 80 stories with all that crap on you. Talk about tough. I was practicing with 10 stories. And it was unbelievably tough. It was like squatting with 200 pounds for an hour." Something is tough for this man? I can't believe that. But apparently he's actually human. And even feels pain (?!?!). Case in point, his well-publicized motorcycle accident that left him with broken ribs, a punctured lung and a scratched Harley.

"It was worse than heart surgery because every time you move you feel a tremendous amount of pain, you can't get up by yourself, you sit down and you just want to get up because it contracts your ribs and there's pain again, and you cough and you think you're going to die. It's a really wild thing. And I was very upset about the fact that my whole Christmas ski vacation was destroyed. My family likes to ski every year and my kids would come over every day and say (in a child's voice) 'It was so beautiful out there Daddy. There were no clouds and the snow was in perfect condition.' That was, you know….I was in misery. The good thing was the accident was 2 miles away from the house. My wife was right there within a few minutes making sure my life insurance was paid up."

As we talk more and more, I'm beginning to see the man less as ARNOLD and more as Arnold, a guy...just like me. OK, maybe not quite like me at all, but not a Terminator either, he just plays one on TV. Speaking of THE TERMINATOR, you just knew a question about the third and final film in the trilogy would come up didn't you? And the most pressing question? Who will star as the Terminatrix, the new, deadlier breed of Terminator (who also happens to be a woman)? Arnold has his own ideas.

"I hope she (Chyna) comes in for an interview. I'm a big fan of hers. The question is now do we go - this is what's being debated right now and it's a very interesting debate - do you go with a woman that is petite, that is young, that looks innocent and that looks like a very ordinary, beautiful girl and then create a certain drama when she walks innocently to this woman in a car on Beverly Boulevard or Rodeo Drive, says 'Nice scarf' and crack! (mimes breaking someone's neck) kills her? 'Jesus Christ I thought this was just a beautiful girl.' Or should it be Chyna? Should it be a woman that appears to be right away you know 'This is sooo the female Terminator' and appears to everyone you know what to expect after dead bodies are flying around. So I don't know what the answer is. But that is the big debate. I suggested Chyna and the director said, 'That's a great concept'. Which is funny because after me talking to him about it for months now, all of a sudden one day a limo drove by us and we were just about to go for lunch and Andy Vajna the producer and (director Jonathan) Mostow were sitting in the car and the limo rolls down the window and all of a sudden this women sticks out her head with this big straw hat on. She starts waving at us, and I said, "This is Chyna. This is the girl.' So we roll down the window. This is like a week ago in Los Angeles, so I said 'Here is the director, here is the producer. Are you going to come to an interview?' She said great, I said to her 'Where are you coming from?' She said from the Playboy Mansion. I have now idea what she was doing at the Playboy Mansion, don't ask me. But I mean she's been on the cover twice, you know. I've never seen anybody twice in the cover of Playboy. She must have special talent…"

Stay tuned for more from COLLATERAL DAMAGE and my day with Arnold!!

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