In 1995, John Connor is ten years old and living in Los Angeles with foster parents. His mother Sarah Connor had been preparing him throughout his childhood for his future role as the leader of the human resistance against Skynet, but was arrested after attempting to bomb a computer factory and imprisoned at a mental hospital under the supervision of Dr. Silberman. Skynet sends a new Terminator, designated as "T-1000", back in time to kill John. An advanced prototype, the T-1000 is composed of a "mimetic poly-alloy" that allows it to take on the shape and appearance of anything it touches (short of complex devices such as guns or bombs), and transform parts of its anatomy into knives and stabbing weapons. The T-1000 arrives under a freeway, kills a policeman and assumes his identity. Meanwhile, the future John Connor has sent back a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator to protect his younger self.
The Terminator and the T-1000 converge on John in a shopping mall, and a chase ensues in which John and the Terminator escape together by motorcycle. Fearing that the T-1000 will copy and kill Sarah in order to get to him, John orders the Terminator to help free her. They encounter Sarah escaping the hospital after severely injuring Dr. Silberman's staff and himself. The three escape the T-1000 in a police car. The Terminator informs John and Sarah about Skynet, the artificial intelligence that will initiate a nuclear war on "Judgment Day" and go on to create the machines that will hunt the remnants of humanity.[N 1] Sarah learns that the man most directly responsible for Skynet's creation is Miles Dyson, a Cyberdyne Systems engineer working on a revolutionary newmicroprocessor that will form the basis for Skynet.
Sarah gathers weapons from an old friend and plans to flee with John to Mexico, but after having a horrific nightmare of a nuclear explosion she awakens and sets out to kill Miles Dyson to prevent "Judgment Day" from occurring. She wounds him at his home but finds herself unable to kill him in front of his family. John and the Terminator arrive and inform Miles of the consequences of his work. They then learn that much of his research has been reverse engineered from the damaged CPU and the right arm of the previous Terminator. Convincing him that these items and his designs must be destroyed, they break into the Cyberdyne building and retrieve the CPU and the arm. The police arrive and Miles is shot, but stays behind to trigger the explosives that destroy his lab and his research. The T-1000 pursues the surviving trio, eventually cornering them in a steel mill.
In a climactic battle in the mill, the T-1000 succeeds in severely damaging and shutting down the Terminator. However, The Terminator's emergency backup system engages and brings him back on-line. He surprises and shoots the T-1000 with a grenade launcher, causing it to fall into a vat of molten steel, where it is destroyed. John throws the arm and CPU of the original Terminator into the vat as well. Just as Sarah felt relieved that the whole ordeal was over, the Terminator then explains that it must sacrifice itself so that its technology cannot be used to create Skynet, and asks Sarah to help lower it into the steel. John begs for the Terminator to stay, but he says goodbye to John and Sarah and is lowered into the vat. The Terminator gives a tearful John an encouraging thumbs up as it disappears into the steel and shuts down. Sarah looks to the future with hope, adding, "Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too."
Cast[edit]
- A cybernetic organism—living tissue over a metal endoskeleton—reprogrammed and sent back in time to protect John Connor while he is still a child. Schwarzenegger was paid a salary of $12–15 million for his role as the Terminator.[7][8]
- Mother of the future leader of the human Resistance in the war against Skynet. Hamilton reprised her role from the 1984 film for a salary of $1 million.[9] In preparation for the role, Hamilton underwent an extensive thirteen-week training regimen with personal trainer Anthony Cortes, training for three hours each day, six days a week before filming began. She additionally lost 12 pounds (5.4 kg) on a nonfat diet, conducted throughout the film's six-month shoot. Actor and former Israeli commando Uzi Gal provided her with training for her action scenes. On her work with Gal, Hamilton stated that she undertook "judo and heavy-duty military training" and "learned to load clips, change mags, check out a room upon entry, verify kills."[10] Hamilton's twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren also portrayed Sarah when it was required that there be two of the character in the same shot.[10]
- Robert Patrick as the T-1000:
- An advanced prototype Terminator composed of liquid metal, sent back in time to assassinate John. Billy Idol was Cameron's original choice for the T-1000, and Cameron had drawn storyboards to resemble him, but Idol could not accept the role following a motorcycle accident.[11] Cameron stated that he "wanted to find someone who would be a good contrast to Arnold. If the 800 series (the model played by Schwarzenegger) is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the 1000 series had to be a Porsche."[12][13]
- The ten-year-old son of Sarah, given survival training from a young age, but taken into foster care after his mother is institutionalized. Furlong was discovered by casting director Mali Finn while visiting the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club.[14] Furlong, who had no acting ambitions at the time, stated, "I fell into [acting], it wasn't something that I planned".[15] The adult John of 2029 AD is played by Michael Edwards.
- Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman:
- Sarah's psychiatrist, skeptical of her prophecies of machines destroying humanity. Boen is also reprising his character from the 1984 film.
- Joe Morton as Miles Bennett Dyson:
- Director of special projects at Cyberdyne and considered the man most responsible for the creation of Skynet.
The cast was rounded out with Jenette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley, who portray John's foster parents, Janelle and Todd Voight. Cástulo Guerra plays Sarah's friend, Enrique Salceda, who provides her with weapons. Danny Cooksey plays Tim, John's friend. S. Epatha Merkerson plays Tarissa Dyson, the wife of Miles Dyson. Michael Biehn returned to the series as Kyle Reese, a soldier from 2029, in a short appearance in Sarah's dream. Biehn's scene was not featured in the theatrical release of the film,[16] but it was restored in extended versions of the film. Hamilton's then-twenty-month-old son Dalton plays her on-screen son in a dream sequence set in a playground.[10]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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Talk of a potential sequel to The Terminator arose soon after the original's release, but several outstanding issues precluded such a production. There were technical setbacks regarding computer imagery, a vital aspect of the film that would be crucial in the creation of the T-1000 Terminator. The production of James Cameron's 1989 film The Abyss provided the proof of concept necessary to satisfactorily resolve the technical concerns.[17]Perhaps more serious were the intellectual-property disputes between Hemdale Film Corporation, which owned the franchise and stymied efforts to produce a sequel, and Carolco Pictures.[18] Given that Hemdale was then experiencing financial problems, Arnold Schwarzenegger urged Mario Kassar, head of Carolco, to bid for the rights: "I reminded Mario that this is something that we've been looking for four years, and that it should be him that should go all-out, no matter what it takes to make this deal."[18] Carolco eventually paid Hemdale $5 million for the franchise in 1990, resolving the legal gridlock.[17][18]
The end of the legal disputes coincided with the willingness and availability of Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton to participate in the film; Schwarzenegger, who portrayed the Terminator in the first film, commented: "I always felt we should continue the story of The Terminator, I told Jim that right after we finished the first film."[19] He and Hamilton reprised their respective roles from the first Terminator film. After an extensive casting search, 12-year-old Edward Furlong was selected from hundreds of candidates to portray John Connor; Robert Patrick was chosen to play the T-1000 Terminator because his agility emphasized the disparity between the advanced T-1000 and Schwarzenegger's older T-800 (Cameron characterized the two as "a Porsche" and "a human Panzer tank" respectively).[17][18] Patrick had previously appeared in the action feature Die Hard 2, but Furlong had no formal acting experience.[17] Joe Morton was picked to portray Miles Dyson, a Cyberdyne scientist who helped develop the new microprocessor for the T-800 Terminators.[17]
Calling themselves T2 Productions, James and co-producers Stephanie Austin and B.J. Rack rented an office in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, before starting to assemble the film crew forTerminator 2. Adam Greenberg, who worked on The Terminator and Ghost (1990), became director of photography, while Joseph Nemec III, who had worked with Cameron on The Abyss, was tasked with production design.[17] The team conducted a national search for a steel mill suitable for the film's climax, eventually selecting a dormant mill in Fontana, California, after weeks of negotiations.[17] Locating a potential Cyberdyne building was more difficult, as the site was to host numerous stunts, shootouts, and explosions. An industrial park in Fremont, California, was eventually rented for the duration of the film's production.[17] Cameron and William Wisher completed the 140-page screenplay draft on May 10, 1990, and by July 15, the first shooting draft had been distributed to the cast and crew;[17] particulars of the technically detailed scripts were shrouded in secrecy.[18] Both the six-week turnaround for the script and the film's accelerated production schedule were to enable a 1991 Fourth of July release.[17]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography of Terminator 2 spanned over 171 days between October 9, 1990, and March 28, 1991,[20] during which the crew filmed at the Mojave Desert before visiting 20 different sites throughout California and New Mexico.[17][21][22] These locations ran the gamut from the crowded Santa Monica Place shopping mall, where the two Terminators converged on John, to flood control channels in the San Fernando Valley, which played host to the chase between the Terminators and John; a river had to be redirected to allow filming on the otherwise wet channels.[17][23][24] Cameron and his crew also filmed Terminator 2 at The Corral Bar and the Lake View Medical Center (known as Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in the film), both located in Lakeview Terrace.[22][25] 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.[22] Working with up to 1,000 crew members,[26] the production team oversaw numerous stunts and chase sequences, the most notable of which took place on theLos Angeles–Long Beach Terminal Island Freeway, prior to Terminator 2's climax. Ten miles (16 km) of electric cables were laid to illuminate the night-time chase, which saw a full-scale helicopter crash, a sliding tanker, and other elaborate paraphernalia.[17][27]
Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, was used in some shots that required two Sarahs. She is the mirror image of Sarah in the scene where they open up the Terminator's head (deleted from the theatrical release), and in some of the shots as the T-1000 impersonated Sarah.[10] Gearren is playing whichever "Sarah" is farthest from the camera, alternating between the real Sarah and the T-1000 based on camera position. Another set of twins, Don and Dan Stanton, were used to play the psychiatric hospital security guard and the T-1000 copying him.[28]
An unprecedented budget of $94 million (1991 dollars)—3.5 times the cost of the average film and approximately 15 times the $6.4 million budget of The Terminator[2][29]—was reserved forTerminator 2. A significant proportion of this was for actor and film-crew salaries. According to The Daily Sentinel and The Daily Beast, Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a $11–12 millionGulfstream III business jet, while $5–6 million was allocated towards James Cameron's salary.[2][30] The production itself, which included special effects and stunts, totalled $51 million.[2] Despite the significant expenditure, the film had nearly recovered its budget prior to its release. Worldwide rights were sold for $65 million, video rights for $10 million, and television rights for $7 million.[29]
Effects[edit]
Terminator 2 made extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to vivify the main two Terminators. The use of such technology was the most ambitious since the 1982 science fiction film Tron,[31] and would be integral to the critical success of the film. CGI was required particularly for the T-1000, a "mimetic poly-alloy" (liquid metal) structure, since the shapeshifting character can transform into almost anything it touches.[17][32] Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for computer graphics and Stan Winston for practical effects.[33] Creation of the visual effects took 35 people, including animators, computer scientists, technicians and artists, ten months to produce, for a total of 25 man-years.[17][31] Despite the large amount of time spent, the CGI sequences only total five minutes of running time.[31] Enlisted to produce articulated puppets and prosthetic effects was Stan Winston's studio, who was also responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.[34] ILM's Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Muren, remarked, "We still have not lost the spirit of amazement when we see ... [the visual effects on the T-1000] coming up."[35]Such was the role and creation of CGI that the visual-effects team was awarded the 1992 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.[36]
For Sarah's nuclear nightmare scene, Robert and Dennis Skotak of 4-Ward Production constructed a cityscape of Los Angeles using large-scaleminiature buildings and realistic roads and vehicles. The pair, after having studied actual footages of nuclear tests, then simulated the nuclear blast by using air mortars to knock over the cityscape, including the intricately built buildings.[17][37]
Release and reception[edit]
Terminator 2 had its worldwide premiere at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas in Century City, Los Angeles, on July 1, 1991, attended by VIPs including Nicolas Cage,[38] Christian Slater,[39] Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver.[40] Following its domestic release two days later, the film was progressively distributed to cinemas in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Spain, and at least ten other countries by the year's end.[41]
Critical response[edit]
The film received a positive reception from critics.[42] The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 8.4/10 based on 60 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "T2 features thrilling action sequences and eye-popping visual effects, but what takes this sci-fi/ action landmark to the next level is the depth of the human (and cyborg) characters."[43] It also earned a score of 68 out of 100 from 16 critics on Metacritic.[44]
The Montreal Film Journal called it "one of the best crafted Hollywood action flicks."[45] Screenwriting guru Syd Field lauded the plot of Terminator 2, saying, for example, "every scene sets up the next, like links in a chain of dramatic action."[46] 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."[47] 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 firstTerminator 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."[32]
Halliwell's Film Guide rated the film as an improvement on its predecessor, giving it two stars out of four and describing it as a "thunderous, high-voltage action movie with dazzling special effects that provide a distraction from the often silly narrative."[48] Writing for Time, 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 movie—the wrong half."[49]
Box office[edit]
See also: List of highest-grossing films
Opening in 2,274 theaters in the United States, Terminator 2 earned $54 million during its Fourth of July opening weekend, $3 million behind Batman (1989) during its opening five-day weekend.[50][N 2] One theater chain owner was reported as saying "[b]ut nothing since Batman has created the frenzy for tickets we saw this weekend with Terminator. At virtually all our locations, we were selling out well in advance of showings, and the word-of-mouth buzz out there is just phenomenal."[52] Elsewhere, the film grossed $3.4 million in Australia and $7.1 million in Germany during their opening weekends in September and October 1991, respectively.[41]
According to Box Office Mojo, the film's production costs was $102 million,[3] which, at the time, was the highest ever. However, if adjusted for inflation, Cleopatra (1963), which cost $44 million when it was made in 1963, would have been $219 million in 1995 dollars.[53] Terminator 2 was a box-office success, earning $204.8 million in the United States and Canada alone, and $519.8 million worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of 1991, beating Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and is TriStar Pictures' highest grossing film to date.[3][54] The film is ranked 110 in box office earnings of all time in the U.S. and Canada, and 84 worldwide.[3] The original Terminator grossed only $38 million in the U.S. in its theatrical run,[55] making Terminator 2's 434 percent increase a record for a sequel.
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