Was The Terminator really inspired by a fever dream James Cameron had?

The answer

In 1981, James Cameron was in Rome, sick with a high fever during the troubled production of Piranha II: The Spawning. During a feverish night, he had a vivid nightmare of a chrome skeleton emerging from flames and dragging itself across the floor toward him with kitchen knives. Cameron sketched the image the next morning and built an entire screenplay around it. He was so broke at the time that he sold the script to producer Gale Anne Hurd for just $1, on the condition that he would direct. The Terminator, released October 26, 1984, was made for $6.4 million and grossed $78.3 million worldwide. The franchise has since generated over $2 billion across six films.