While filming Piranha II: The Spawning, director James Cameron had a fever dream that would lead to him creating a slasher horror science fiction epic called The Terminator. The film would defy all odds, grossing nearly $80 million dollars on a $6.4 million dollar budget. Putting the world on notice that both Cameron and his star, Arnold Schwarzenegger had arrived. How do you top that? I guess you make arguably the greatest action movie of all time, and one of the greatest films to ever grace a movie screen in general. This is the story of what the f*ck happened to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
One thing Judgment Day has in common with all other sequels in the franchise, is that the story begins with a battle for the rights. This story included an almost physical fight between Cameron and Hemdale Production Company’s John Daly after Daly attempted to alter the ending of The Terminator against Cameron’s wishes. There were other matters of contention as well: According to Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Daly had owed some financiers a favor and had tried to pay that favor back by featuring them in a pivotal scene in the film. Specifically, where it is explained how Cyberdyne came into possession of the Skynet technology. A scene that Cameron decided he would cut from the film entirely rather than release it featuring inexperienced actors in a scene he didn’t approve of. As Hurd put it, Cameron was “never satisfied with ‘okay’, even back then”.
Cameron wanted out from under the Hemdale Film Corporation, who he, along with Stan Winston, Hurd, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were currently suing for unpaid profits from The Terminator. Enter Carolco Pictures, who would buy out the rights from both Hemdale and Hurd for around $17 million. Before they even started on the film’s eventual $100 million dollar budget. A hundred million for a summer blockbuster may not seem like much in modern times, when your run of the mill Santa Claus CG-fest runs more than double that price tag. But at the time, it made Judgment Day the most expensive movie ever.
The original ideas Cameron had for his script would have been even more expensive: Admitting he didn’t consider the cost while writing it, the Aliens director had to cut a bevy of intended scenes. Ranging from a nine minute opening taking place in 2029, to the massacre of a faction of folks attempting to help Sarah Connor. Moments there simply wasn’t enough money nor running time for.
Regardless, six years after the original film, the sequel rights were finally secured and Cameron’s newfound enemies had been bested. But did he even want to direct a Terminator sequel? It helped that Arnold was already on board, telling Cameron even as they filmed the final scenes for The Terminator that they should continue the story and keep pumping. Throw in the fact that Mario Kassar of Carolco told Cameron he’d be forced to make the film with or without him, and it was enough to entice Cameron to return. Kassar would ultimately pay him $6 million to write and manage the film. Leaving all of us in the best timeline to be in. Terminator 2 wise, at least.
Cameron would once again team up with Terminator collaborator and future Judge Dredd writer William Wisher to write the script. In a mere seven weeks. The script would bring back the T-800 villain from the first film, only this time as a protector and friend of John Connor. An idea Wisher thought was a joke at first. Who could blame him? We just watched this thing blow away an innocent perm-headed women at her front door before horrifically clawing out its own eyeball. Now, we’re supposed to root for him as our hero? I can just picture Cameron lighting a cigar (clip of the video of him lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar bill) and confidently replying “yes” to a room of bewildered faces.
A more family friendly Terminator or not, the plot once again skirted the lines of horror (though maybe not as much as the original). There’s the slasher element of an unstoppable murderous villain who can melt through floors and walls; stabbing Todd through his mouth-hole while he’s just trying to enjoy some g*ddamn milk; The turning of a playground full of children into a fiery hellscape; Or Arnold ripping the flesh off his arm from the elbow down as a family looks on in horror. It’s there if we’re looking.
Other possible ideas discussed between the two included an Arnold VS Arnold face-off where The Resistance and Skynet each sent back their own T-800’s. Wisher found it “boring” though it’s something we would witness in some fashion in later sequels. There was the thought of bringing in a “Super” Terminator for our newly minted good guy T-800 to face off against as well. In the end, they decided on the glorious and frightening T-1000, which Cameron employed a few unrealized ideas he’d had for the original film to formulate. They decided they would dress the T-1000 up as a cop so that he could maneuver with greater autonomy and rouse less suspicion. Cameron had wanted a character that was a stark contrast to the physically intimidating T-800, explaining, “If the 800 series is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the 1000 series had to be a Porsche”.
Finally, swinging the earth’s hottest bat, they made another perfect decision, hiring a mostly unknown at the time in Robert Patrick to play the role. Though, Cameron originally wanted to cast Billy Idol and would have, had a motorcycle accident not kept Idol from accepting. The lead singer of the band W.A.S.P., Blackie Lawless was also at one point in the running but was deemed too tall. No disrespect to these legends, but once again, we’re living in the best T2 timeline with Robert Patrick.
Patrick had been living in his car and even battling a substance abuse problem at the time but was thankfully able to overcome it; giving his all, knowing he would have to be in peak physical condition for the role. Not to mention butt naked on screen in a moment he would call the “most embarrassing” of his career. Nothing to be ashamed of there, pal. At least you didn’t have to pull a Kyle Reese and go raw commando inside a homeless dudes pants, right? Some things don’t wash away. The commitment paid off for Patrick as his cold portrayal of the T-1000 would become one of the most legendary villains of all time. Wanting to keep the roles sanctity intact, Patrick would later refuse roles as other robotic type characters and even a Budweiser commercial asking him to return as the T-1000. The physical work paid off as well. The production would eventually have to up the speed on John Connor’s dirt-bike to keep a physically fit Patrick from catching up to it during chase sequences.
Speaking of John Connor, the psyche of the character took inspiration from a surprising place: Jim Cameron dropping ecstasy (We call him Jim when he’s high). Legend has it Cameron was high on “E” and listening to Sting’s song ‘Russians’ when he became inspired by the song’s lyrics about nuclear warfare and how it was quote, “so antithetical to life itself”. Which, inspired the way he wrote the character of John. The man, or teen rather, cast as the character, Edward Furlong, was discovered at a Boys & Girls club in Pasadena. Cameron felt like the other, more experienced actors auditioning (of which there were hundreds) seemed too “happy” based on their previous experiences. Furlong only won the role in his last audition and still had to bone up on his acting abilities. Whereas Robert Patrick had to go through a lot of physical and tactical training for his role, Furlong would take acting and motorcycle lessons.
Schwarzenegger had been on board but was definitely taken back by the fact his character was supposed to be a good guy who didn’t kill anyone. This is a Terminator we’re talking about! The human version of Schwarzenegger had just beaten a guy to death with his own severed arm in Commando for crying out loud. Now the robot version of him was supposed to be chill? In the end Arnold submitted to his friend’s vision, telling Cameron, “Just make me look cool”. It helped that the actor would make more than $12 million dollars for T2, most of which was paid off with a Gulfstream III jet.
It doesn’t feel like it’s mentioned enough what a transformation our Sarah Connor, Linda Hamilton, went through between films. Last time we saw her she was an unknowing waitress forced into survival mode. When we meet up with her in Judgment Day she’s a hellbent emotionally damaged warrior full of scary. Not to mention a physical specimen to behold. Something ironically offset by the fact that we find her caged by bureaucrats and face licking IT Professionals. Hamilton received a fraction of her co-stars’ financial rewards to return at a paltry $1 million dollars….and she wasn’t happy about it. But she earned it. Hamilton trained three hours a day six days a week for her physical physique on top of military training for the role.
Joe Morton was cast as the pivotal Miles Dyson character and unknowing future catalyst of Skynet. Though he’s a wonderful actor, whenever I see him in another movie my brain goes immediately to this frightened character shaking and sweating profusely just trying not to blow everyone up. It’s an amazing performance and it actually makes you feel genuinely uncomfortable. This is perhaps exactly why Denzel Washington turned the role down, leaving Cameron to adjust the characters screentime. Denzel allegedly couldn’t come to terms that his character would spend most of the film in fear.
With the cast in place Cameron and crew embarked on Los Angeles to film Terminator 2: Judgment Day under a tight schedule. Locations included several notable LA locations like the Bull Creek spillway and Santa Monica Place mall. Set pieces of 2029 in war and ruin were filmed in an abandoned steel mill using burned wreckage from a 1989 fire on the Universal Studios lot. Not having the time for mistakes or adjustments on special effects, Cameron used toy cars and trucks to create pivotal scenes before printing the footage for storyboard artists. His job was demanding and he in turn demanded a lot of others, leading crew members to wear shirts that read “You can’t scare me, I work for James Cameron”. He worked through Christmas and kept a schedule and demeanor that left even Arnold calling him a “demanding taskmaster”.
Finally, in March of 1991 and about three weeks behind schedule, filming wrapped. But the production wasn’t in the clear. Even with Cameron helping out editing and many scenes being cut to reduce the films running time, Terminator 2: Judgment Day ended up being delivered a mere two days before its theatrical release.
Looking back, in many ways Judgment Day itself seems as though it’s a film not from the past but from the future. A future that in 2025, we still haven’t realized. This because Industrial Light and Magic created, save for maybe Jurassic Park, the most memorable Special Effects in the history of cinema. Special Effects that, as we live and breathe today, over thirty years later, are still unmatched. This sort of feat doesn’t come easily. For the T-1000’s five minutes of special effects shown on film alone, ILM had a team of up to 35 people working on a process that would take up to ten days for just fifteen seconds of footage.
But Terminator 2 isn’t a movie instantly recognizable for its sights alone. The returning Brad Fiedel’s score may be one of the most recognized in film history. He intended to give the score a “warmer” sound to encapsulate the relationship between the T-800 and John and he did so without it losing an ounce of badassery. Arnold himself was able to choose a rock band to work with on a tie in single. He chose Guns N’ Roses on the account that there were both guns and roses in the film. This led to the one and only Stan Winston directing the band’s music video for “You Could be Mine” featuring Arnold. Though Robert Patrick’s unrealized idea for Nine Inch Nails “Head Like A Hole” being added to the soundtrack would have been equally bad ass. Throw in George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone for the iconic bar scene and we’ve achieved the sound of Terminator 2. A movie about to achieve the love and adoration of just about the entire world.
In the marketing of the film, Stan Winston would again become pivotal, directing a $150,000 trailer showing a T-800 being put together. This trailer was aided by countless advertisements across toy and food merchandising and it was hard to look anywhere in 1991 and not be excited for what was to come. But who knows if that was even necessary? Terminator 2 seemed destined to be a monster in the cultural zeitgeist of a 1991 looking for some heavy metal escapism.
The film was first screened at a couple of private screenings that left the audience clapping for 15 minutes after the credits had rolled. Then, despite a metric buttload of great box office competition that included Backdraft, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Point Break (God, I miss the nineties), Terminator 2 still managed to thrive. The action classic ended up making over $500 million worldwide. A certified phenomenon at both the bank and in the papers, with critics and audiences wildly praising the special effects and surprising heart of the film. Even the Oscars took notice of the spectacle, offering up a multitude of nominations from Best Cinematography to Best Editing and wins for Best Makeup, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. There were no “Best Picture” nods….but would anyone really have minded?
It’s not a bad consolation prize that the Academy finally recognized horror that year with The Silence of the Lambs taking home the top award. But let’s be honest….Judgment Day doesn’t need a “Best Picture” trophy of a little gold man for us to all know what we all know. And what we all know is that Terminator 2, at the time the most expensive independent film ever; predicted by many in the industry to completely bankrupt its studio…is now widely known as one of the greatest movies ever created. In the history of cinema.
And that, is what the f*ck happened to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
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