James Cameron Finally Sets the Record Straight on That 90s Classic He Allegedly Ghostwrote

James Cameron just tossed a grenade into 90s action movie lore: he says he wrote Point Break. Yes, the surf heist classic directed by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. And no, he does not feel properly thanked for it.

What Cameron said

"I wrote Point Break. I flat out got stiffed by the Writers Guild on that. It was bullshit."

That came up casually in a new Hollywood Reporter interview, which is very on-brand for Cameron. He tends to drop these industry bombshells like it is nothing, but it still caught a lot of people off guard.

The credit situation, explained

On paper, the movie is written by W. Peter Iliff. Cameron says he wrote it and that Bigelow developed the script with him. He is not asking for a medal here. He is saying the Writers Guild shut him out and he is not thrilled about it.

Remember where Cameron was in 1991

When Point Break hit theaters, Cameron was in the middle of that absurd 10-year run where he wrote and directed The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and True Lies. So if he was moonlighting on a sun-bleached crime movie about surfers and bank robbers, it would have been during prime peak-Cameron.

Point Break basics

• Released: 1991, directed by Kathryn Bigelow
• Stars: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty, Gary Busey
• Premise: An undercover FBI agent (Reeves) infiltrates a crew of bank robbers led by a thrill-chasing surfer-philosopher (Swayze), and the line between duty and obsession gets messy
• Box office: A modest $83.5 million at the time
• Afterlife: Slowly became a cult classic
• Legacy spinoffs: A 2015 remake and, as of last week, a TV series reportedly in the works

So where does that leave us? With Cameron plainly claiming authorship of a movie a lot of us can quote in our sleep, and a guild dispute that clearly still bugs him. Whether anyone redraws the credit map is another question, but the man is not exactly shy about staking his claim.