Terminator 2: Judgment Day

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For video games based on the film, see Terminator 2: Judgment Day (video game).

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	James Cameron
Produced by	James Cameron
Written by	James Cameron William Wisher Jr.
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Linda Hamilton Edward Furlong Robert Patrick
Distributed by	USA Theatrical TriStar Pictures France, Spain, Argentina Columbia TriStar Films UK Theatrical Guild Film Distribution UK DVD Momentum Pictures
Release date(s)	July 3rd, 1991
Running time	152 min. (original version) 137 min.
Language	English
Budget	$100,000,000
Preceded by	The Terminator
Followed by	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (commonly abbreviated T2), released on July 3, 1991, is a science fiction film directed by James Cameron. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick.

The film is a sequel to The Terminator, which was released on October 26, 1984. The film spawned a ride at Universal Studios, Terminator 2: Battle Across Time. Another sequel, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, was released (in the [United States]]) on July 2nd, 2003.

Shooting began on October 9, 1990, and was completed on April 4, 1991. The movie was made for approximately $100 million, and at the time was the most expensive movie ever made. It was a box-office smash, earning $204.8 million in the United States alone, and was the highest grossing film of 1991. The original Terminator grossed only $38 million in the U.S. in its theatrical run (on a much lower budget of $6.5 million), making Terminator 2's 434% increase a record for a sequel. The film is currently on the IMDb's list of the Top 250 films of all-time [1].

Upon its release, the theatrical cut ran 137 minutes (2 hours, 17 minutes). On November 24th, 1993, the Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Special Edition cut of the film was released to Laserdisc and VHS, containing 17 minutes of never-before-seen footage including scenes with Michael Biehn reprising his role as Kyle Reese (in a dream sequence). The subsequent "Ultimate Edition" and "Extreme Edition" DVD releases also contain alternate extended versions of the film.

[edit] Plot

Ten years after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) destroyed the original Terminator that was programmed to kill her, two Terminators arrived in Los Angeles from the post-apocalyptic year 2029. The first was the T-800 model 101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the same type of cyborg that Sarah first encountered, while the second was the T-1000 (Robert Patrick).

John Connor (Edward Furlong) was now living with foster parents Todd and Janelle (Xander Berkeley and Jenette Goldstein). He had grown up being told by his mother that he would someday lead the remnants of the human race to ultimate victory against the machines. Sarah’s experiences had significantly changed who she was. She was no longer the frail woman that she was in the first film. Aware of what could ultimately happen to mankind, she became far tougher and more vigilant, and suffered recurring nightmares about the end of the world. Her personality had led those around her, even her own son, to think that she was insane. She had therefore been imprisoned in a mental institution, Pescadero State Hospital.

Meanwhile, both Terminators eventually located John Connor. The twist, given away by advance publicity, was that this time the T-800 had been captured and reprogrammed by the resistance group of humans from the future in order to protect John, while the T-1000, an advanced prototype terminator, had been sent by Skynet to kill him. The newer, sleeker model Terminator (a "mimetic polyalloy") was constructed of "liquid metal" and was able to emulate the physical form of any solid object of equal size that it sampled through touch (excluding complex machines with moving parts like guns and explosives), including another human being.

After being rescued by the T-800 from the T-1000’s initial attempts to kill him, John realized that his mother had been telling the truth and decided that he must rescue her from Pescadero. The T-800 then revealed that it was programmed to follow his orders. When John saw it nearly shoot a man in the parking lot while carrying out its mission to protect him, he ordered it not to kill anyone. He decided to use his power over the T-800 to his advantage and ordered the T-800 to help him rescue his mother. When they broke into Pescadero, the T-800 shot the security guard at the gate in the legs, then took his keys and weapons. The T-800 told John, "He'll live," upholding John's order not to kill anyone else.

Sarah was understandably frightened at first upon encountering another T-800. She was told by her son that this time it was here to protect them both, but she initially had a difficult time accepting it as an ally. Incidentally, Dr. Peter Silberman, the psychiatrist who scoffed at both Reese and Connor's supposedly delusional claims of being hunted by a robot assassin, was profoundly shaken at seeing two such machines in action before his eyes. After Sarah was rescued, she questioned the T-800 about the creator of Skynet, the supercomputer fated to destroy humanity in favor of machine rule. The T-800 told her of Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), a top-level computer scientist at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, and recounted the history of Skynet’s development, all the way up to August 29, 1997, the day Skynet became self-aware and launched nuclear weapons against mankind (Judgment Day).

Eventually, Sarah, John, and the T-800 arrived in the desert at Enrique Salceda’s camp. Ever since Sarah gave birth to John, she had traveled everywhere, dating military men and trying to provide her son with a strong military background. Enrique was one of the men from her past (though the precise nature of their relationship was never established), and he preserved a weapons cache for Sarah and John for use in the event nuclear devastation actually came to pass. Sarah planned to flee over the Mexican border with John and the T-800 Terminator, armed with weapons from the cache.

Sarah witnessed their bonding and noted that a machine is the closest thing to a father that John had ever had. Then she fell asleep at a table and had a nightmare about Los Angeles being destroyed by nuclear weaponry. She watched in horror as people, buildings, and cars were all incinerated in the blast, and although she tried to warn them, no one in her dream could hear her, and she was graphically incinerated herself. She suddenly woke up and discovered that she had scratched "NO FATE" into the table she was sitting at, an allusion to the key message that was sent to her in the first film by the future John Connor via Kyle Reese:

"The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."

Sarah realized what she must do, armed herself, and drove off in one of Enrique's cars. John recognised the allusion to the message and he and the T-800 realized that she planned to kill Miles Dyson. At John's insistence - and over the T-800's objection - they went after her. At Dyson's home, Sarah broke in and shot the computer programmer in the shoulder, but was unable to kill him in front of his wife and son. John and the T-800 arrived and the machine revealed its origin to Dyson. Sarah, John and the T-800 convinced Dyson that they must destroy all Cyberdyne technology used in building Skynet, including the heavily-guarded remains of the CPU and cybernetic arm left from the previous T-800 destroyed by Sarah.

Sarah, John, the T-800 and Dyson infiltrated the Cyberdyne building and prepare explosives for detonation while retrieving the cybernetic arm and CPU from the first T-800. However, their activities attracted the attention of police and SWAT. While the Connors and Dyson finished their work, the T-800 created a diversion, strategically shooting and exploding several police cars in such a way that he killed none of the police officers. During the firefight, however, Dyson was shot. Realizing his wounds were fatal, he stayed behind with the detonator to allow the T-800, Sarah and John to make their escape. With his death, he released the trigger, activating the bombs just after the SWAT team retreated from the area.

Meanwhile, the T-1000 arrived at Cyberdyne. John, Sarah and the T-800 flee, leading to a pursuit on the highway, which ended at a steel mill. Single combat between the two Terminators ensued, ending with the T-800 firing a grenade into the T-1000. The grenade exploded, causing the T-1000 to lose its balance and fall off a platform into a pool of molten steel. The T-1000 was unable to survive at such extremely high temperatures and melted.

John then threw both the first T-800’s cybernetic arm and CPU into the molten steel. The T-800 then pointed out that it must also be destroyed in order to completely destroy all evidence of Skynet technology. John refused to accept this and ordered the T-800 not to go. The T-800 refused his command. Seeing tears on John’s face, the T-800 stated that it finally understood why people cry.

John and the T-800 embraced for the first and last time; then, the T-800 and Sarah shook hands. The machine stepped onto a chain overlooking the molten steel pool and bidded both of them farewell; then Sarah lowered the chain, and the T-800, into the molten steel. As they watched from above, the T-800 slowly disintegrated in the sizzling pool of fire. The last actual image of the T-800 was its outstretched hand forming a thumbs-up.

In the closing scene of the film, depicting a dark highway at night, Sarah Connor concluded in voiceover that the future was not predetermined and whatever happened depended on the choices we make. She also stated that if a machine can learn the value of human life, maybe humanity can too.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Versions of the film

Two versions of the film exist, the standard theatrical cut that was shown during the film's initial theatrical run and a "Special Edition" director's cut of the film that has been made available on Laserdisc, VHS and DVD.

The special edition version of T2 has been the same from release to release, with all the scenes that Cameron reinserted intact. There are, however, two scenes that Cameron shot but chose not to reinsert into the film which have been included as an accessible extra on most - but not all - of the "Special Edition" home video releases. The first scene introduces the audience to the T-1000's tactile approach to acquiring information about the physical world, "scanning" John's room with his fingertips, and eventually finding a hidden shoebox containing pictures of Sarah from circa 1984. The second scene is an epilogue set in the future with an aged Sarah Connor reflecting on how Judgment Day was averted. The scenes can be viewed separately from the film on the director's cut Laserdisc releases of the film and on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD release (now out of print). While not a scene exactly, an explanation as to why Sarah attacks one of the wardens so violently during her escape with the broom handle is seen, showing two of the men attacking and harassing Sarah as to make her take her pills.

As a side note, the "Ultimate" and "Extreme" editions of the DVD contain different supplements:

The "Ultimate Edition" contains an older Dolby Digital mix of the film's soundtrack along with a DTS track mixed specifically for the DVD. It also contains bonus featurettes that are not present on the newer release, including an "Easter Egg" (hidden bonus material) wherein the viewer can see the original Japanese-market trailers for the film. The final deleted scenes can be re-integrated into the film on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD by entering 82997 - 8/29/97, the date of Judgment Day - on the main menu screen with the DVD remote. Both the Terminator's eyes turn red if this is successful, and the message "The future is not set" will be displayed.

The newer "Extreme Edition" has a clearer picture made from a newer, more advanced High Definition film transfer, a Dolby Headphone soundtrack in addition to a newer, re-mixed Dolby Digital track (the older DTS track is not present) and its own set of bonus supplements, along with a High Definition (nearly 1080p) version of the film in WMV HD format that can be played on high-end PCs. The Extreme Edition also has both the Special and Theatrical versions of the movie. Both DVDs contain both the theatrical and special edition versions of the film, although accessing the theatrical version on the Extreme DVD requires using a hidden "Easter Egg". WMV HD format of this movie is not licensed for playback outside the US and Canada.

[edit] Alternate versions

• There were storyboards for an extended version of the Future War backstory, including the Resistance's discovery of the Terminator factory and the time displacement equipment, but it was dropped for budgetary reasons and never filmed. However, it was detailed in the screenplay, described below.

• In the opening scene of Terminator 2, John Connor is seen to survey the battlefield through binoculars before the opening credits; the screenplay describes the following scene:
  • This battle was taking place against the main Skynet facility in the American Cheyenne Mountains, where the MX LG-118A Peacekeeper ICBMs are located (there was a coordinated attack against the other 2 Skynet centres in Europe and Australia to stretch Skynet's resources). Shortly after Connor surveyed the scene, the machines stopped, with the aerial vehicles falling from the sky, indicating his soldiers had 'pulled the plug' on Skynet. Connor was escorted across the battle ground to the Complex which had been infiltrated by his sappers. Entering a control room deep below the ground, he was escorted into the computer core where floorboards had been removed and sappers with notebook computers had hacked into Skynet and shut it down. In the room was a sapper named Kyle Reese whom Connor acknowledged with a nod.
  • Connor was approached by a sapper who stated there was a massive electrical discharge just before Skynet was taken off line (assuming this is what they expected, having been briefed by Connor on Skynet's intentions to send the T-800 back in time kill his mother); however, the sapper also stated that a second electrical discharge had been detected (presumably the T-1000 sent back to terminate Connor as a child).
  • Connor was escorted to the time displacement equipment room. The door was frozen over, the air having converted to ice by the time displacement process. The door was opened and was it found to be a solid structure with 2 halves, each having a mould of The Thinker, which closes on the person inside it.
  • Inspecting the floor of this mould, a single drop of silver liquid metal is seen (assumed to be from the last object sent back in time, the T-1000). A soldier nudges it with his rifle and it is absorbed into the rifle.
  • Connor then inspects an adjacent room with racks of completed, but powered down T-800's. Walking past the Terminators, Connor stops and sees a T-800 in his image.
  • The screenplay for this act ends and rolls into the opening credits.

• The omitted original ending of the movie shows an alternate future that negated the entire future man-machine war. In this future, Sarah (now an elderly woman) recalls the Terminator, the future, and the events that took place after the movie. Also in this future, John is a U.S. Senator and has a daughter. It was dropped by Cameron in editing, claiming it was "inappropriately ending a thoroughly dark movie with a cherry on top."

[edit] Production

Terminator 2 revolutionized the special effects world, with ground-breaking computer graphics and visual images, particularly in the T-1000's scenes. The film won four Oscars, all for technical aspects (Best Sound, Best Make Up, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing). Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light and Magic (on the computer graphics side), and by Stan Winston (on the practical effects side). The external aspects of the spectacular scenes at the Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, including the massive explosion towards the end of the movie, were filmed on location at an office building in Fremont, California.

• According to Cameron on the Extreme Edition commentary, he received a letter from "some scientists" regarding the dream sequence in which Sarah is killed by a nuclear blast. They said it was the "most realistic" depiction of a nuclear explosion ever put on film.
• Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie was used in three scenes (the scene where John and Sarah open the T-800's head to access his chip, she is the mother in the playground before the nuclear attack, and the scene that features "two Sarahs" where Leslie played the "real Sarah" and Linda played the T-1000 imitating Sarah). In addition to the Hamilton twins, twins Don and Dan Stanton were also used in the scene where the T-1000 kills a mental hospital guard, Lewis. Dan played the "T-1000 Lewis guard."
• The four weapons used by Arnold Schwarzenegger are a custom-made Coltonic (Detonics slide on a Colt 1911 frame) (from bar scene to the steel mill), a 10 gauge Winchester model 1887 lever-action shotgun (from bar scene to Enrique's compound), an M79 grenade launcher (Cyberdyne headquarters scene to end), and the M134 Minigun used at the Cyberdyne building. It was the same gun that was used in Predator. Linda Hamilton uses the same Coltonic (at the mental hospital), a Colt XM177E2 carbine, a Detonics long-slide .45 pistol and a Remington 870 shotgun.

[edit] Academy Awards

[edit] Cultural references

• Cyberdyne was rumored to have been modeled after Microsoft, and Judgment Day the result of the public's blind trust in technology.^{[citation needed]}
• The chemical used to blow up the Cyberdyne building, "polydichloric euthimal", is named after the fictional amphetamine drug featured in Outland, an homage to the film.
• The logo of Benthic Petroleum, a reference to The Abyss (also directed by Cameron), appears on the pumps at the gas station where the trio spend the night.

[edit] Terminator 2 in pop culture

• Shortly following the film's release, the comic strip FoxTrot featured a week of strips in which Jason acts like the Terminator. At the end of the storyline, he claims that his alter-ego "killed himself to save my life."
• In the video game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Inferno Scorpion sinks to the bottom of the Netherrealm's molten magma, giving a thumbs-up after his defeat, parodying the destruction of the Terminator.
• In the anime series Video Girl Ai, the male lead character, Youta Moteuchi, waits in a movie theater lobby; a television setup inside shows a preview of Thermulator 2, with the characteristic metal background and title font of Terminator 2.
• Robert Patrick spoofs his role as the T-1000 in the film "Wayne's World" when he pulls over Wayne in his motorcycle cop outfit and asks him, "Have you seen this boy?" while holding a picture of John Connor.
• The promotional poster of Terminator 2 (Arnold as the T-800 on the motorcycle with his shotgun) was parodied in Last Action Hero; it retained the exact same image, but instead of Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone was featured as the Terminator. Schwarzenegger's character in the film praised Stallone's work in the film.
• Also in Last Action Hero, Robert Patrick spoofs his role when the character of Danny Madigan sees the T-1000 exiting the police station as he arrives with cop Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger).
• In the video game Silent Hill 3, Heather Mason finds a shotgun in a package greatly resembling the box of roses the T-800 put his own shotgun into when he goes to the mall to find John Connor.
• In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a level in the game (and the following cutscene) show CJ and one of his Grove Street homies riding a motorcycle in between various buildings and into a drainage pit much like the one in this film. Not long after (in a cutscene), a giant pickup truck crashes down from an overpass into the "pit" in pursuit of the two on the bike. CJ is then instructed to fire at the truck, which ends up with it exploding like semi in T2.
• In the video game Sonic Adventure 2, at the end of the first level, City Escape, Sonic must outrun a giant semi on the streets. The way the chase ends is similar to how it ends in the movie, as Sonic runs under a low bridge and the truck crashes.
• Another reference in the Sonic games is in Sonic Heroes. Metal Sonic, the game's antagonist, can assume the form of a puddle of liquid metal to change shape, similar to the T-1000.
• In the anime Black Lagoon, the character Roberta's fighting skills are compared to those of the Terminator, she emulates the T-1000's running style from the escape from Pescadero, and uses a trench knife to stab into the trunk of the car before climbing onto the roof.
• In the video game Burnout: Revenge, a signature takedown in Angel Valley's drainage pit is called Terminated, a reference to the chase in storm drain. There is also a crash mode in the game called Crash Da La Vista, another reference to the film.
• There are scenes in several episodes of X-Files during season eight, that feature Agent Doggett (Robert Patrick) discharging his firearm many times at a "super soldier/alien hybrid" and unable to harm him. There is also a scene where the "super soldier" sticks his arm through an elevator door, and an other scene where they jump in a car in a parking garage and a "super soldier" is running after them. In addition, Patrick's character on one occasion utters the line, "So you're saying this guy has become some kind of a metal man? That only happens in the movies, Agent Scully."
• Shortly after Terminator 2 was released, Linda Hamilton hosted Saturday Night Live. In one scene, SNL combined a parody with a recurring sketch, Toonces the Driving Cat. The scene opens with a car driving in the distance, and it is revealed to be Hamilton, as Sarah Connor, with her son John in the back (played by Edward Furlong in a cameo). Phil Hartman plays the T-800, running along side the car, pulling off the door and jumping in. The Terminator informs that they have sent another cyborg from the future, "worse than a Terminator... he's the Tooncinator!" Toonces appears in full Terminator apparel, though like in all other Toonces sketches, "he can drive, just not very well," which is showcased by his driving off a cliff twice. At the end, after the Terminator becomes "scared" and hysterical, a hunch on Sarah's part has them pick up Toonces because, "he just wanted to be our kitty!" Subsequently, the car drives off a cliff.
• The climatic scene in the Discworld novel Feet of Clay, in which the golem Dorfl fights the more powerful, insane Golem King is closely based on the battle between the T-800 and T-1000. Earlier in the book, the Golem King rebuilt himself after being smashed, another similarity to the T-1000.
• In the Simpsons episode, Homer Loves Flanders Homer chases Flanders' car with two golf clubs in the same way the T-1000 chases the stolen Police Car in the film. Homer also walks through the hedge in the Flanders' yard in much the same way as the T-1000 morphs through the metal bars.
• In another episode, after a bomb that Sideshow Bob intended for Krusty and Bart exploded in the executives office, the executives were revealed to be liquid metal, and reformed, similar to the T-1000 in the film.

[edit] Trivia

• Director James Cameron included a visual pun on the band Guns N' Roses by having the T-800 hide its shotgun in a box of roses to carry it through the mall. The band's 1991 song "You Could Be Mine" was featured in the film.
• The music video for the song "You Could be Mine" features scenes from the film as well as the T-800 walking through the "Guns 'n Roses" concert to get at the band. It is assumed that in the video clip, the T-800 was programmed to terminate Guns N' Roses, but in the end of the clip he assesses the band and declares the mission as "a waste of ammo".
• During her escape attempt Sarah says that there are 215 bones in the human body. An adult human has 206 bones on average, although this can vary slightly from individual to individual, depending on the number of small bones that fuse during growth (a baby is born with approximately 270 bones).
• Skynet machines that did not make it into the movie:
  • FHK Bomber
  • Silverfish (the Silverfish does show up, however, in T2: The Arcade Game)
  • Centurion (the Centurion makes appearances in the many comic books set in the Terminator universe)
• Robert Patrick had to mimic the head movements of a Bald Eagle in order to attain his role as the T-1000.
• In the Spanish version of the film, T-800's Spanish catchphrase Hasta la vista, baby was changed because it did not sound ominous enough. In that version, T-800 shouts Sayonara, baby!
• In 2003, The American Film Institute released its list of the 100 greatest screen heroes and villains of all time. The Terminator appeared as number 48 on the list of heroes as well as number 22 on the list of villains: the only instance where the "same" character appears on both lists.
• (per the special edition DVD commentary) The production crew underestimated Robert Patrick's running abilities while shooting the mall chase scene. They pulled the bike mockup(with Edward Furlong "driving") at a speed they felt "looked fast" on film, but was slow enough for Robert to keep up. Not only did he keep up, he got close enough to reach out and tap Edward on the shoulder.
• According to a televised biography TV program, Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to reprise his role after convincing James Cameron to make his character family-friendly.
• Throughout the film, Reese (in the Extreme Edition) and John made references to a message that Reese gave to Sarah in The Terminator; they constantly repeated "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves." However, that second sentence was deleted from the final version of T1. Reese's message in the final cut of The Terminator reads, "Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist."

[edit] See also

• The Terminator
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Terminator argument
• Terminator 2 video games
• Terminator series

[edit] External links

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day at the Internet Movie Database

The Terminator series

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