Terminator 2: Judgment Day

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

The film is a sequel to The Terminator, which was released on October 26, 1984. Another sequel, Rise of the Machines, was released (in the United States) on July 2, 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 US 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 ^*.

Upon its release, the theatrical cut ran 137 minutes (2 hours, 17 minutes). On November 24, 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.

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator (T-800 Model 101)
Linda Hamilton - Sarah Connor
Edward Furlong - John Connor
Robert Patrick - T-1000
Earl Boen - Dr. Peter Silberman
Joe Morton - Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson
S. Epatha Merkerson - Tarissa Dyson
Castulo Guerra - Enrique Salceda
Danny Cooksey - Tim
Jenette Goldstein - Janelle Voight
Xander Berkeley - Todd Voight
Leslie Hamilton Gearren - T-1000 Sarah
Ken Gibbel - Douglas

Plot

About 10 years after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) destroyed the original Terminator that was programmed to kill her, two Terminators arrive in Los Angeles from the post-apocalyptic year 2029. The first is the T-800 model 101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the same type of cyborg that Sarah first encountered, while the second is the T-1000 (Robert Patrick); one of them has been sent to protect, while the other has been sent to kill.

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

Meanwhile, both Terminators eventually locate John Connor. The twist, given away by advanced publicity, is that this time, the T-800 has 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, has been sent by SkyNet to kill him. The newer, sleeker model Terminator (a "mimetic polyalloy") is constructed of "liquid metal" and is able to emulate the physical form of any solid object of equal size that it samples through touch (discluding complex machines with moving parts like guns and explosives), including another human being. Terrifyingly, this also makes it seemingly indestructible.

After being rescued by the T-800 from the T-1000’s initial attempts to kill him, John realizes that his mother has been telling the truth (and is thus not crazy) and decides that he must rescue her from Pescadero. The T-800 then reveals that it is programmed to follow his orders, and when John sees it nearly shoot a man in the parking lot while carrying out its mission to protect him, orders it not to kill anyone. He decides to use his power over the T-800 to his advantage and orders the T-800 to help him rescue his mother.

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

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

Sarah witnesses their bonding and notes that a machine is the closest thing to a father that John has ever had. Then she falls asleep at a table and has a nightmare about Los Angeles being destroyed by nuclear weaponry. She watches in horror as people, buildings, and cars are all incinerated in the blast, and although she tries to warn them, no one in her dream can hear her. She suddenly wakes up and discovers that she has scratched "NO FATE" into the table she was sitting at, an allusion to the key message 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 realizes what she must do, arms herself, and drives off in one of Enrique's cars. John recognises the allusion to the message and he and the T-800 realize that she plans to kill Miles Dyson. At John's insistence - and over the T-800's objections - they go after her. At Dyson's home, Sarah breaks in and shoots the computer programmer in the shoulder, but is unable to kill him in front of his wife and son. John and the T-800 arrive, and the machine reveals its origin to Dyson. Sarah, John, and the T-800 convince 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 infiltrate the Cyberdyne building and prepare explosives for detonation while retrieving the cybernetic arm and CPU. However, their activities attract the attention of police and SWAT, and in the process of escaping, Dyson is fatally shot. He decides to sacrifice himself in order to detonate the bombs, allowing Sarah, John, and the T-800 to reach safety.

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

John then throws both the first T-800’s cybernetic arm and CPU into the molten steel. The T-800 then points out that it must also be destroyed in order to completely destroy all evidence of SkyNet technology. John refuses to accept this and orders the T-800 not to go. The T-800 refuses his command, showing that perhaps he truly is no longer simply a machine. Seeing tears on John’s face, the T-800 reveals that it finally understands why people cry.

John and the T-800 embrace for the first and last time; then, the T-800 and Sarah shake hands, proving that she has finally accepted the T-800 as an ally…and as a father figure. The machine steps onto a chain overlooking the molten steel pool and bids both of them farewell; then Sarah lowers the chain, and the T-800, into the molten steel. As they watch from above, the T-800 slowly disintegrates in the sizzling pool of fire. The last actual image of the T-800 is its outstretched hand forming a thumbs-up, signifying that the T-800 has managed to understand humanity.

In the closing scene of the film, depicting a dark highway at night, Sarah Connor concludes in voiceover that the future is not predetermined and whatever happens depends on the choices we make.

Plot holes

As it is stated, the T-1000 is made of a "mimetic poly-alloy", or a simplified "liquid metal". In the first Terminator movie, Kyle Reese is asked, "Why didn't (he) bring a ray gun to kill his friends," by sarcastic police detectives. Reese responds that only living flesh can pass through the time machine. Assuming that Reese's statement is true, some people have assumed that the T-1000 should not be able to use the time machine because the T-800 could only transport backwards because its mechanical body frame was surrounded by a surface of living tissue. The text commentary on the Extreme Edition acknowledges three theories: 1. The T-1000 has the ability to simulate any material it chooses, which would most likely also include that of human tissue. In other words, a bio-metal. This makes it capable to travel through time under the stipulations outlined in the first film. 2. If this is implausible, The T-1000 could have been encased in living tissue, which it shed offscreen. 3. The third theory is jokingly referred to as, 'Don't ask!'

In the first film, Reese said that the time-displacement equipment in 2029 was destroyed after he and the first Terminator were sent to 1984, so it is unclear how and when the T-1000 and the T-800 from T2 were sent back to 1995. Early versions of the T2 script had the adult John Connor about to send the second, reprogrammed T-800 back in time after sending Reese to 1984.

Throughout the film, Reese (in the Extreme Edition) and John make references to a message that Reese gave to Sarah in The Terminator; they constantly repeat "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves." However, that second sentence never appears in T1 (The line does appear in the script, however, and was presumably shot and subsequently deleted from the first film). Reese's message in 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."

It is very hard to reconcile the apparent rules of time travel in T2 with those of The Terminator. A central element of the original film was that even after what seemed to be an incredibly disruptive event to the "original" timeline (the sudden appearance in 1984 of a cyborg and a human warrior from the future) the chain of events leads to Sarah in the Mexican desert seven months later having a polaroid photograph taken of her that is identical to the one Reese possesses in the future of the "original" timeline. This suggests that there is only one history and that the terminator and Reese were always a part of it in 1984, despite the fact that Reese expilicity stated in the first film that he came from "one possible future." Therefore, it appears that we have a single timeline in which time travel creates loops, not diverging or alterable timelines. T2 disregards this core aspect of the original film and instead uses a model in which multiple, branching histories exist following a time travel event (or the original history is wiped out completely, inviting the problematic question of what happened to the people in it, and particularly why John Connor and co. would even have had a chance to send anyone to intercept the terminator after it had been sent back rather than being wiped out immediately). This makes it very hard to come up with a consistent set of rules for a single narrative universe that encompasses both stories.

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 director's cut 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 shows the T-1000 visiting John's dog in the backyard of his foster parents' Reseda home, and confirming that the T-1000's imitation of John's foster mother has failed, because he didn't know the dog's name. 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 badly during her escape with the broom handle is seen, showing two of the men attacking and harrasing 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 director's cut versions of the film, although accessing it on the Extreme DVD requires using a hidden "Easter Egg."

Alternative 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.
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."

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 was written to by "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 Hamilton 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"). 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 most frequently used weapons by Arnold Schwarzenegger are a Colt 1911A1 pistol (from bar scene to the steel mill), a 10 gauge Winchester model 1887 lever-action shotgun (from bar scene to Enrique's compound), a M79 grenade launcher (Cyberdyne headquarters scene to end), and the minigun used at the Cyberdyne building. It was the same gun that was used in Predator. Linda Hamilton uses the same Colt 1911, a Colt M4 carbine, a Detonics long-slide .45 pistol and a Mossberg 590 shotgun.

Academy Awards

]] ]]

Award	Person
Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing	Gary Rydstrom Gloria S. Borders
Best Effects, Visual Effects	Dennis Muren Stan Winston Gene Warren Jr. Robert Skotak
Best Makeup	Stan Winston Jeff Dawn
Best Sound	Tom Johnson Gary Rydstrom Gary Summers Lee Orloff
Nominated:
[[Academy Award for Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
[[Academy Award for Editing	Conrad Buff IV Mark Goldblatt Richard A. Harris

Trivia

While The Terminator was set in the year it was released (1984), the events of 1991's Terminator 2 take place in the then-near future of 1995. Although the date is never directly stated, it can be clearly calculated from information provided in the film. Early in the film, the T-1000 commandeers a police cruiser and looks up John Connor on the police computer, which gives his date of birth as 28 February 1985, and his age as 10. This clearly indicates that the events of T2 take place in the year 1995 (or possibly in early 1996, before John's eleventh birthday). (NB In Rise of the Machines John Connor contradicts the T2 timeline, saying he was 13 years old at the time of the events of T2, which would date them to 1998, assuming the date of birth given in T2 is correct. But the events of T2 take place some time before the anticipated Judgment Day of 29 August 1997.)
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", a lightgun-based platform for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.
- Centurion.
  - The Centurion does make appearances in the many comic books set in the Terminator universe.
Skynet was rumored to have been modeled after Microsoft, and Judgment Day the result of the public's blind trust in technology.
Robert Patrick had to mimic the head movements of the American Bald eagle in order to attain his role as the T-1000.
John Connor can be seen wearing a Public Enemy t-shirt throughout the film
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!
The chemical used to blow up the Cyberdyne building, "polydichloric euthimal", is named after the fictional amphedamine drug featured in Outland (1981) -- an homage to that movie.
The logo of Benthic Petroleum, a reference to The Abyss (1989, also directed by James Cameron), appears on the pumps at the gas station where the trio spend the night (and, in the special edition, where they activate the T-800's learning capability).
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 villians: the only instance where the 'same' character appears on both lists.
Shortly following this 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 Shaolin Monks, Inferno Scorpion sinks to the bottom of the Netherrealm's molten magma giving a thumbs-up after Liu Kang and Kung Lao defeat him in the story, parodying the "death" of the Terminator in this film.

External links

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