Michael Biehn says James Cameron began working on an Aliens treatment just 48 hours after filming ended on 1984’s The Terminator. The recollection highlights Cameron’s unusually intense work ethic before he became one of Hollywood’s most influential directors, and suggests how quickly he turned from one landmark science-fiction film to another.

Biehn told Collider that The Terminator involved 11 weeks of night shoots, with him typically working 12 to 13-hour days and Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd possibly working 16 to 18 hours. When Biehn visited Cameron to watch a rough cut of the Tech Noir scene, he found the director deeply focused on writing Aliens; Biehn later joined that film after replacing James Remar as Corporal Dwayne Hicks during production.