James Cameron might be an iconic director now, but in the early '80s, he was a little-known creator just starting. His first film, 1982's Piranha II: The Spawning, wasn't great, to put it mildly.

In 1993, two years after Robert Patrick terrified moviegoers as the T-1000 in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," he led the cast of an altogether different science fiction film. "Fire in the Sky" is a ...