Directed by James Cameron Written by James Cameron and William Wisher
William Wisher is the man snapping pics of Arnold after he flies through the glass of the store in the mall
Twenty years after its initial release, Terminator 2 still stands as not only one of the finest action films ever made, but one of the few sequels to equal or surpass its predecessor in quality.
AV Club said:
The first Terminator film is a cult classic, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the greatest action films ever made, and a crowning achievement for writer-producer-director James Cameron, who picked up the torch for top-flight summertime action-adventure filmmaking after Steven Spielberg moved on to prestige projects in the late '80s. (Cameron himself soon left for Oscar-friendly pastures with Titanic.) "Bigger is better" is the standard equation for summer sequels, butTerminator 2 is the one of the few examples where more money, more special effects, and more pretension added up to a superior film. Finding time for nuanced characterizations and a poignant father-son relationship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong amid a series of staggeringly exciting action setpieces, Terminator 2 is equal parts style and substance, and all awesome.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated T2, is a 1991 science fiction action filmdirected, co-written, and co-produced by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick. A sequel to 1984's The Terminator, it follows the characters of Sarah Connor (Hamilton, reprising her role from the original film) and her son John(Furlong) as they are pursued by a new, more advanced Terminator, the T-1000 (Patrick). Schwarzenegger reprises his role as the Terminator, but while the character was the antagonist of the first film, in Terminator 2 he is a protagonist, defending John and Sarah from the T-1000 and assisting them in their attempt to prevent Judgment Day, a future event in which machines will begin to exterminate humanity.
Shooting began on October 9, 1990 and was completed on April 4, 1991. Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic for computer graphics and Stan Winston for practical effects. The external shots of Cyberdyne Systems Corporation were filmed on location at an office building on the corner of Gateway Boulevard and Bayside Parkway in Fremont, California. Of the fifteen minutes that the T-1000 displays its morphing and healing abilities, only six of those minutes were accomplished with pure computer graphics. The other nine were achieved in camera with the use of advanced puppets and prosthetic effects created by the Stan Winston studio, who were also responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.
The budget, which was believed to have been $90 million at the time - 3.5 times the cost of the average film - was already nearly earned back prior to the film's release. Worldwide rights were sold for $65 million, video rights for $10 million, and television rights for $7 million. Schwarzenegger received a salary of $1215 million for his role as the Terminator,[15][16] Linda Hamilton received $1 million to reprise her role of Sarah Connor.
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. It currently holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" score on the popular review-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and 91% by those who are considered as being "Top Critics" with 10 positive reviews and 1 negative. The similarly themed Metacriticrates the movie 68/100. Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the film 3.5 stars out of a possible 4, complimented Schwarzenegger's performance, saying that "Schwarzenegger's genius as a movie star is to find roles that build on, rather than undermine, his physical and vocal characteristics." Hal Hinson, reviewer for The Washington Post, was also very positive in his review, writing that "No one in the movies today can match Cameron's talent for this kind of hyperbolic, big-screen action. Cameron, who directed the first Terminator and Aliens, doesn't just slam us over the head with the action. In staging the movie's gigantic set pieces, he has an eye for both grandeur and beauty; he possesses that rare director's gift for transforming the objects he shoots so that we see, for example, the lyrical muscularity of an 18-wheel truck. Because of Cameron, the movie is the opposite of its Terminator character; it's a machine with a human heart."
Writing for Time Magazine, Richard Corliss was far less pleased, stating that the film was "[a] humongous, visionary parable that intermittently enthralls and ultimately disappoints. T2 is half of a terrific moviethe wrong half."
In 2003, the American Film Institute released its list of the 100 greatest screen heroes and villains of all time. The Terminator was ranked number 48 on the list of heroes for its appearance in T2, as well as number 22 on the list of villains for its appearance in the first Terminator film. This is the only instance where the "same" character appears on both lists, though technically they are different characters based on the same model. T2was ranked number 77 on 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. Arnold's famous quote "Hasta la vista, baby" was named the 76th best movie quote on AFI's 100 Years 100 Movie Quotes list. In 2008, the film was voted the eighth best science fiction film ever made on AFI's 10 Top 10.
Released on July 3, 1991, Terminator 2 had an impressive (for the time) opening weekend of $31.7 million. It went on to become the highest grossing film of 1991 with a total tally of $204 million. Worldwide it grossed over $519 million. It still resides in the top 10 top grossing R rated films of all time, and adjusted for inflation it would have grossed $384 million.
The Effects
The special effects for Terminator 2 were groundbreaking for their time, and most of the film still holds up twenty years later.
It was not the first film to feature CGI effects, but it was one of the first to push the boundaries of what could be done using computers. Over 300 special effects shots were used in the film, compared to over 2000 used in many modern effects heavy films.
This was also one of the first films to do digital wire removal for stunt work. The shot in which the T-800 jumps the motorcycle off the overpass and into the canal had to be doctored to remove the wire rig supporting the bike during the jump.
But they didn't hide the fact that it was a stuntman on the bike instead of Arnold
The film was nominated for six academy awards, and won four of them. It won for Best Sound, Best Make Up, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound Editing. It lost Best Cinematography and Best Editing to Oliver Stone's film JFK.
It also won two BAFTA awards. Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.
Deleted Scenes
There were many scenes edited out of the film for theatrical release, and many were implemented back into the film for its many home video releases.
The most famous of these scenes was Sarah's dream about Kyle Reese.
The one that was never officially included in any version (except hidden easter egg versions on DVD) was the alternate ending. This ending showed an aged Sarah Connor sitting on a playground watching her grandchildren play with their father, John.
Memories
I remember going to see this opening morning when it released in 1991. I was only 11 at the time, and there was a huge neighborhood picnic in the town I lived in a the time. My older sister (22 years old at the time) and I were too excited to see this, so we showed up for the picnic late.
I remember sitting in the theater waiting for the lights to go down, and my sister sitting next to me excitedly talking about the first movie, especially the line "You're terminated fucker!"
The lights go down, the movie starts. This was one of the iconic film going experiences for me growing up. One of the best moments being when the T-1000 is shot for the first time. He lays there, covered in holes. Suddenly, the holes in his chest shrink and reform him again. An audible gasp went over the audience at this point, with quite a few people yelling "WHOOA!" as it happened. We all knew that there was never anything quite like this before, and there have been very few movies quite like it since.
Arnold may be a disappointment lately with his infidelity issues and bad taste in women, but the man was the biggest star in the world once. And his films still kick ass.
I remember, so very vividly, the first time I saw a trailer for this movie back in 1990. I was 18. This was before the internet, before the days of constant info and media leaks, where seeing a trailer in the cinema was often the first time you knew about a new movie.
I remember hearing the familiar theme music and thinking... "oh shit, are they making another Terminator?... no they can't be, that would be too awesome..." and then as the trailer progressed it turned into "oh shit it IS another terminator... FUCK... and this time there's TWO of them... and fuck one of them is some kind of LIQUID MORPHING THING... OMGWTF"
Closest I ever came to a genuine geekgasm.
I miss the days before the internet. In some ways it was better.
Here's the trailer I'm talking about - just watching this again gives me chills.
I just wish they hadn't blown the reveal that Arnie was the good guy in the trailers, it's such a cleverly done reversal if you don't know it's coming.
I remember walking into the theater with my family to see the movie when I was real little. But that's the only thing I remember. Would have loved to see this opening day as a teenager.
And I never saw the Arnie twist in the trailers until after it came out. I read it in a magazine a few weeks before release, and a lil bit about the liquid metal stuff. But seeing it for the first time on screen, and especially since half the audience didn't know what to expect, was so damn awesome.
And I never saw the Arnie twist in the trailers until after it came out. I read it in a magazine a few weeks before release, and a lil bit about the liquid metal stuff. But seeing it for the first time on screen, and especially since half the audience didn't know what to expect, was so damn awesome.
I remember walking into the theater with my family to see the movie when I was real little. But that's the only thing I remember. Would have loved to see this opening day as a teenager.
The last time I watched it, I remember thinking that there were more F bombs than I had previously remembered there being. Probably the effect of having seen the edited-for-TV version.
It saddens me when T2 lovefests usually fail to mention one other person who made the movie memorable besides Arnie: Robert Patrick. It's classic superhero theory, the good guy's awesomeness is measured against the barometer of bad guy's evilness/baddiness. Without T-1000, Arnie is lame. Without T-1000, T2 would have been about a cyborg babysitting a teen brat in a pleasant suburban town. Three cheers for Robert Patrick, the most iconic and evil cop in cinema's history.
And I never saw the Arnie twist in the trailers until after it came out. I read it in a magazine a few weeks before release, and a lil bit about the liquid metal stuff. But seeing it for the first time on screen, and especially since half the audience didn't know what to expect, was so damn awesome.
I love the dark highway ending, without a doubt, and the alternate ending is too much of an "everything worked out great!" ending, but I just think that in retrospect something a *bit* more definitive would have worked out better for the franchise.
I love the dark highway ending, without a doubt, and the alternate ending is too much of an "everything worked out great!" ending, but I just think that in retrospect something a *bit* more definitive would have worked out better for the franchise.
God, this movie is awesome. T1 is great in its own way, but T2 takes the Terminator formula, twists it quite nicely, and adds a dramatic relationship at the core that I think is a lot more well-limned and convincing than the more predictable love story of the first. Plus, Robert Patrick is a better villain than Arnold in the first, despite him being less physically intimidating. It's easily a modern masterpiece.
Of course, realizing this film is now 20 years old makes me feel even older.
