After a rat that was used to demonstrate the oxygenated water technology in The Abyss drowned during filming, James Cameron saved the rodent by performing CPR. The rat “sprang back to life” and Cameron then adopted ‘Beanie’ as his pet. Beanie would sit on Cameron’s desk while he wrote Terminator 2.

On The Abyss, a rat used to demonstrate the film’s oxygenated water technology drowned during filming. Faced with the prospect of a dead rat — and losing the production’s “No Animals Were Harmed” certification — Cameron performed CPR on the rodent. The rat sprang back to life, and Cameron adopted “Beanie” as his pet.
One can understand why a do-anything-for-the-job director like Cameron would go to extremes to protect his film’s reputation. But why did a man running one of the most tortuous shoots in Hollywood history, who was reportedly saying things to crewmembers like, “Firing [you] is too merciful” … Why did that guy open his home to a mere rat?
“Beanie and I bonded over the whole thing,” he says. “I saved his life. We were brothers. He used to sit on my desk while I was writing Terminator 2, and he lived to a ripe old age. He didn’t seem particularly traumatized, though I know the film is outlawed in the U.K. because of ‘animal cruelty.’“

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