The Terminator franchise, created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd (who also teamed up to produce Aliens) dates back to the wildly successful 1984 film. It encompasses not just the science fiction action flicks, but also comics and novels. For those not familiar, the general storyline involves a total war between Skynet’s synthetic intelligence — a self-aware military machine network — and John Connor’s resistance forces comprising the survivors of the human race. Skynet’s most famous products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800, which was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Terminator film in 1984. By 2010, the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
And let’s not forget the video games still that are still popular — a new trailer for an expansion to Terminator: Resistance just dropped, for example. And the recent 2019 film brought back franchise producer Cameron plus stars Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong. As the franchise is clearly still popular today, let’s look back at its most successful film to date: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Celebrating 30 years this year since its release to the masses, the groundbreaking sequel has a bit of everything. Let’s look at why it’s the franchise’s best of the best.
World Changing Special Effects Of T2 Judgment Day
Tri-Star Pictures
T2 — as it became known to the world thanks to a successful marketing campaign — is one of just a handful of films that changed the world of visual effects forever. The sequel is a rare instance where a second installment arguably surpasses the original; other instances include The Godfather and the Alien franchise (but both have been heavily debated). T2’s premise is set 13 years after the events of the original flick and leans on a reprogrammed T-800 (Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to protect an adolescent John Connor (Edward Furlong) from another cybernetic assassin, the hyper-advanced T-1000 (Robert Patrick). The T-1000 is made of “memetic poly-alloy,” a liquid metal allowing it to change its shape at will to mimic any human it comes into contact with and turns its limbs into bodacious bladed weaponry. The movie’s dazzling effects are highlighted among the two car chases, a helicopter crash, an epic police shootout and a chemical truck collision at a steel mill as the T-1000 does everything it can to destroy Connor, who’s also protected by his mom Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton reprising her role).
When the movie hit theaters, the storyline quickly rang familiar to fans of the budding franchise, and those who favor the original film over T2 will argue that the sequel’s script is just a redo of the first one — with some obvious modifications, of course. However, T2’s perks far outweigh this story-related dispute — and one of those perks is the groundbreaking effects that won the film both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award.
T2 was the first time that mainstream audiences had seen CGI visual effects on this level, based on technology Cameron had experimented with on his previous film The Abyss. T2’s effects were mind-blowing at the time and earned Cameron his forward-thinking reputation. The action set pieces are some of the best ever filmed, and the upgraded liquid metal Terminator undoubtedly redefined the sci-fi action genre. It also works as one of the bleakest and saddest “big blockbusters” ever made, which nonetheless became the third-biggest global grosser ever at the time.
“I think it all looks pretty good. Would it be better today? Yes, it would be a little bit better, but it wouldn’t be so much better that it would be noticeable to anybody but other effects people, I would think,” said Cameron in an interview with Female.com.au. “And it was in that transitional space between full rubber prosthetic make-up and full CG, because we are much closer to full CG today, but we were in that period where we were still mixing and matching. So, Stan Winston did a lot of the gags and wounds opening on the body. Today we’d do all that CG, but then it was actual, practical effects, like the head-splitting open, things like that. There are only 42 CG shots in the whole film. It’s nothing! On Avatar, there were probably 2800.”
Ironically, one of the film’s best effects was achieved without any sort of CGI. At one point during the final battle in the steel mill, the T-1000 imitates Sarah to lure in his target John. The real Sarah ultimately puts a shotgun blast through the T-1000’s body. Both Sarahs are onscreen at the same time for a bit, and contrary to what might seem obvious, no special effects were used. In actuality, Terminator 2 simply employed the services of Linda Hamilton’s identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren to play the imitation Sarah. Gaerren appears in a couple of other scenes in the film as well, such as Sarah’s nuclear explosion nightmare.
Award Winning Performances
Via: Terminator 2
In addition to its countless technical achievement accolades at awards shows, the film’s principal actors were also recognized for their performances. Hamilton and Furlong won at both the Saturn Awards and the MTV Movie Awards, for example. There’s a rawness to the first two movies, but it’s in T2 where Hamilton’s “mother of the future” turn really gets fleshed out. And let’s not forget Joe Morton’s heartbreaking side plot as Dyson, the creator of Skynet. Both Morton and S. Epatha Merkerson (playing his wife) add much with their limited screentime. And of course, there’s Ah-nold, whose good-guy turn far exceeds his similar appearance years later in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Schwarzenegger’s deadpan comedy, which provided endless quotable lines for years to come, is another reason why this film certainly has a bit of everything.
Arnold’s role also brought more heart to the film to supplement the Dyson family side plot. Narrating the film, Hamilton’s Sarah Connor said it best: “Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there and it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.”
Terminator 2 Had A Large Influence On Pop Culture
Terminator 2 was a bonafide phenomenon when it was released in the summer of 1991. It seemed like everyone in the world was talking about this movie, and it went on to become the biggest movie of the year, the biggest of both Schwarzenegger and Cameron’s respective careers at the time, and the biggest R-rated movie made thus far in cinematic history. “There was a standing ovation that went on for about 12 minutes,” said co-producer Austin to Gizmodo when discussing the film’s first public screening. “People were really experiencing this visceral, emotional thrill from watching this film. So we looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe there’s more to this.’”
Four Terminator feature films followed T2, which has also been referenced countless times in pop culture, from shows including Growing Pains and Full House to movies such as The Last Boy Scout and Wayne’s World. Terminator 2 video games were released, along with a hugely popular thrill ride at Universal Studios that ran for years.
