James Cameron, director of the sci-fi thriller The Terminator acknowledges that a takeover by machines is a significant risk to the economy.

“I think it’s a much more valid threat than it was when Terminator was made in 1984,” he said. “Now we’re facing job displacement due to automation.”

Terminator features a cyborg assassin, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which travels back in time to kill the mother of John Connor, the boy who grows up to lead the resistance against the machines. In Cameron’s portrayal of the future, the machines are initially developed by humans to advance society. However, this came with all sorts of unintended consequences.

Job displacement became a hot-button issue during the recent U.S. presidential race. President Donald Trump’s platform blamed unfavorable labor market conditions on globalization and immigration.

Cameron argued that it was actually automation that was displacing workers, which is the leading explanation among economists.

“Everyone’s always talking about ‘those damn foreigners taking our jobs,'” he said. “Guess what guys, it’s not foreigners, it’s robots.”

He also pointed to the rise of artificial intelligence, which he characterized as “a significant threat.”

The Terminator (Source: IMDB) More

Pandora World of Avatar

The Terminator came up during a conversation Yahoo Finance had with Cameron, who was participating at the grand opening for Pandora World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The park is based on James Cameron’s box office hit Avatar and its upcoming sequels. It welcomes guests to the land of Pandora years after the human conflict with the native Na’vi inhabitants, depicted in the first film, has ended.

This is “literally a dream come true,” Cameron told Yahoo Finance. “A lot of my imagery for the movie came from dreams I had as a teenager.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger came to Cameron saying Disney wanted to do a land based on his vision. So, Iger turned it over to them.

“The Imagineering team brought it to life,” Cameron said. “My animators [at Lightstorm Entertainment] worked very closely with the Imagineering team. But I didn’t try to guide it or micromanage it.”

Bob Iger and James Cameron attend the Pandora The World Of Avatar Dedication on May 23, 2017. (Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images) More