Throughout the various Hollywood blockbusters released within the past handful of decades, many of them had a common trend/object in each series: a particular vehicle for the main characters to use.
In Miami Vice, it was the Ferrari 365 GTB Daytona and Ferrari 512 Testarossa, respectively. In Vanishing Point, it was a Dodge Challenger. Then so on and so forth. These are all awesome vehicles, but what about some of the other examples? Perhaps those who have been forgotten more so than the rest.
Today, we want to delve into one such vehicle; all but erased from the average person's memory. No, it's not a car, but a Honda motorcycle. Though it's no ordinary street bike.
We present the motorcycle from the first Terminator film - What bike it is, the role it played, and what ended up happening to it...
Terminator I: The Honda CB750 Four
In 1984, the world would get its first glimpse at a movie franchise that'd last generations - Terminator. With the latest installment released in 2019, the series is still running strong to this day. All of this success was because of the first two films: The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
The story has since changed a great deal from the original movie in the 1980s. At the start, Arnold Schwarzenegger's T1000 was the antagonist, but that's no longer the case; helping Sarah and John Connor to save humanity.
However, before T2, Schwarzenegger's character was on a tear - Ripping through the past to kill Sarah Connor. In one scene (where the T1000 is chasing down the protagonists), Sarah escapes in a truck, while the Terminator hijacks a 1969 Honda CB750 Four to pursue her.
This CB750K/ Four was no ordinary CB750, though. Contrary to the stock appearance, the one in the film had exterior modifications; making it more like a cruiser/café mix. Besides that, the internal components were all but unchanged.
On average, the '69 Honda CB750 Four would put out ~65-hp from its 736cc, which is pretty good for the time. Not only that, but it was also one of the first production street-bikes to utilize disc brakes. Though, by 1984, it was outdated, to say the least.
Long Since Forgotten
As the scene progressed, Sarah Connor continues to evade the T1000's shots driving down the highway. Eventually, after her passenger, Kyle Reese is shot, she attempts to stop the Terminator in his tracks - Slamming him into the bridge's wall and destroying both the Honda and her truck in the process.
As a result, the on-screen Honda CB750 was destroyed during filming. Unlike the 'Fat Boy' Harley-Davidson from Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the first movies' Honda didn't come out of the production unscathed.
Because the scene in which the CB750K/ Four was only a tiny bit beyond two-minutes, most viewers didn't get a chance to remember or think about it. After all, many of those two-minutes were shaky cam or reaction shots of Sarah.
Thankfully, though, the ol' Honda CB750-series is beginning to gain traction once again (no pun intended). What had been relegated to the backrooms of motorcycle culture was, slowly, returning to the public eye.
Even though we don't know exactly what happened to the on-set Honda CB750K used in The Terminator, there are tons of stock models that could be transformed into a decent lookalike. Who knows, perhaps it'll be worth way more in the future.
New Movie, New Bike
As we hinted at in the section above, the motorcycle that people remember from the Terminator series is not the first film's Honda CB750. Instead, a lot of attention has been diverted to the second film's vehicle of choice: the Harley-Davidson 'Fat Boy'.
In our experience, we've encountered many "fans" who mistake the two bikes. Some believe that the Fat Boy from T2 was also the main motorcycle in the first film, others thinking the Honda never made an appearance, to begin with. This may be anecdotal, but it goes to show the level to which the CB750 was overshadowed by the sequel's Harley-Davidson.
Luckily, the Harley 'Fat Boy' from Terminator 2: Judgement Day survived its shooting (unlike the Honda CB750 Four). In fact, those very same Harley's still exists to this day!
Recently (in 2018), the T2's Fat Boy was put up for sale by the Icons Legends of Hollywood Auction. Up until that point, the bike had been in the Milwaukee Harley-Davidson museum where it underwent a full restoration. To us, it looks better than the day it rolled off the production line!
T2's Harley-Davidson Fat Boy was expected to sell for around $350,000 at the time. When the bidding ended, it turned out to be $480,000 instead. That's a heck of a lot of money! Now, just imagine how much the Honda from 1984 would've gone for...