When Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled back through time to 1984 to squash a future rebellion against an evil artificial intelligence, the concept of AI was still deeply rooted in the realm of science fiction. But four decades later, AI seems to be on the cusp of taking over our world in a (hopefully) less apocalyptic way.

Hollywood actors and writers are currently on strike over a long list of grievances against studios like Disney and Netflix, including the lack of safeguards against artificial intelligence. But regardless of how those negotiations play out, it feels inevitable that by 2029 (the year Schwarzenegger’s Terminator traveled back from in that movie), the first AI-generated movies will arrive — for better or worse.

As he prepared to shoot the opening scene of Cujo, Jan de Bont began experimenting. Instead of gathering generic wide shots of a playful Saint Bernard chasing a rabbit throughout a green pasture, the cinematographer wanted to capture something more visceral. So he took a small camera with a 60-foot magazine, attached it to a farm shovel, lowered it to the ground, and began running (and sometimes tripping) around with it directly behind his furry friends.

“I could move it and chase it through the grass and follow the rabbit wherever it went,” de Bont tells Inverse. “I had never done that before, but it worked really, really well.”

40 years later, de Bont reflects on the movie that made his career.