This 1996 Action Classic Almost Starred Arnold Schwarzenegger Instead of Nicolas Cage

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t need more movie credits to secure his place as a legend of action cinema. Through films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Predator, Commando, and True Lies, by the mid-1990s, Schwarzenegger was already an icon of the genre. But there were other classic action films that almost made his resume even more impressive.

Looking back now, it’s hard to imagine anyone but Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery starring in Michael’s Bay 1996 film The Rock, but believe it or not, there’s a version of that movie that would have put Schwarzenegger in one of the leading roles.

More on Arnold Schwarzenegger

Terminator 2 was Almost Arnold vs. Arnold

The Scene That Was Too Wild for Schwarzenegger’s Commando

How Stallone and Schwarzenegger Pushed Each Other with 80s Movie Feud 

Why Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down The Rock

According to Schwarzenegger, speaking in to Empire back in 2012, he first heard of The Rock when producer Don Simpson approached him with a script…sort of. According to Schwarzenegger, the script was incomplete, and was covered in notes from Simpson’s fellow producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. It was all enough to make the action star, who had a packed schedule already, back away from an unfinished concept.

“[Simpsons] has 85 pages with him and there are handwritten notes all over it by Jerry Bruckheimer,” Schwarzenegger recalled. “He says, ‘Here, look at this script. But don’t read it! Just, here’s what the premise is…’ He was all over the place. I said, ‘Look, Don. I can’t make a commitment based on what you’re showing me here. You won’t even let me read the script! Why don’t you bake it some more, develop it some more and then we’ll talk again.’ He was very upset.”

Speaking on Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast last year, Schwarzenegger elaborated a bit more on what happened next. With him out of the picture, the lead in The Rock of Dr. Stanley Goodspeed went to Nicolas Cage, fresh off his Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas and primed for a blockbuster run. With Cage on board, the script was doctored and re-tooled to better fit Cage’s style, and the results were, for Schwarzenegger, hard to argue with.

“Even though I was not in it, Nicolas Cage did a fantastic job,” Schwarzenegger said. “Sean Connery was great. The directing, the writing, everything was really a straight 10. So I really enjoyed the movie but that was one movie for instance that I thought I wished I would have taken.”

Of course, Schwarzenegger went on to many more films, and now it’s hard to imagine The Rock without Cage as the nervous, overwhelmed Goodspeed, a scientist inserted into a world of soldiers and master criminals. It would have been a very different movie if Schwarzenegger had taken the role, but as the man himself said, what we got turned out to be pretty great.

The Rock airs Monday, July 21 on SYFY. Check the Schedule for complete listings.