RATINGS: IMDB ―8.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 93%, ME ― 90%
Sarah Connor: [voiceover] 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.
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Trivia (From IMDB):
Until Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), this was the only sequel to win an Academy Award when the previous installment(s) received no nomination.
For the storm drain sequence, Arnold Schwarzenegger was in pain because, since he couldn't wear a glove while cocking the gun, his fingers would get stuck in the mechanism. He tore the skin from his fingers and hand many times before he mastered it; and he achieved this while trying to act and control a Harley at the same time as James Cameron told him where to look. He couldn't dart his eyes either because it would have ruined the shot. Shooting the gates also took weeks of practice because he had to also act cool while doing it.
In the audio commentary, James Cameron says that not only was the biker bar scene filmed across the street from where LAPD officers beat up Rodney King, but that they were filming the night of the beating.
A female passer-by actually wandered onto the biker bar set thinking it was real, despite walking past all the location trucks, cameras and lights. Seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in the bar dressed only in boxer shorts, she wondered aloud what was going on, only for Schwarzenegger to reply that it was male stripper night.
Special Effects guru Stan Winston and his crew studied hours of nuclear test footage, in order to make Sarah Connor's "nuclear nightmare" scene as real as possible. In late 1991, members of several U.S. federal nuclear testing labs unofficially declared it "the most accurate depiction of a nuclear blast ever created for a fictional motion picture". For Sarah's nightmare of the nuclear holocaust, some of the materials used in the miniature Los Angeles model that mimicked all the destroyed masonry were Matzos crackers and Shredded Wheat. After each take, it would take on average two days to set the model up to shoot again.
Linda Hamilton learned to pick locks for the scene in the mental hospital where she does precisely that with a paperclip.
Linda Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren was used as a double in scenes involving two "Sarah Connors" (for example, when the T-1000 was imitating her), and in a scene not in the theatrical release (but on the DVD) as a mirror image of Linda.
Industrial Light and Magic's computer graphics department had to grow from six artists to almost 36 to accommodate all the work required to bring the T-1000 to life, costing 5.5 million dollars, and taking eight months to produce, which ultimately amounted to 3.5 minutes of screen time.
According to James Cameron, Linda Hamilton suffered permanent hearing loss in one ear during the elevator shootout because she had not replaced her ear plugs after removing them between takes.
Robert Patrick trained in a rigorous running regime in order to be able to appear to run at high speeds without showing fatigue on film.
Given Arnold Schwarzenegger's fifteen million dollar salary, and his total of seven hundred words of dialogue, he was paid 21,429 dollars per word. "Hasta la vista, baby" cost 85,716 dollars.
One of the main percussive sounds of Brad Fiedel's score - the metallic beats of the Terminator theme - is not created by a synthesizer. It's Fiedel striking one of his cast-iron frying pans.
The Terminators seen at the beginning of the movie were fully workable animatronic models.
Carolco studio executives were nervous and concerned when the original budget of 75 million dollars ballooned up to 88 million dollars, with more to come. In order to keep the budget manageable, they proposed to eliminate a few scenes, particularly the opening biker bar scene where the Terminator was introduced. They tried to get Arnold Schwarzenegger to persuade James Cameron to remove that scene, but Schwarzenegger turned them down, saying, "Only a studio guy would cut a scene out like that."
This is the only Terminator film to win or be nominated for an Oscar. It won four, and was nominated for two others.
Robert Patrick mimicked the head movements of the American bald eagle for his role as T-1000.
The original script did not call for the top of the truck to be ripped off during the chase through the storm drain beside/beneath the freeway, but when they arrived on location they found that the cab wouldn't fit under the overpass so James Cameron decided that the roof was going to have to come off.
With the film's domestic box-office adjusted for inflation, it is the top grossing R-rated action film of all time AT THE TIME. It is now 14th.
Pilot Charles A. Tamburro actually flew the helicopter under the overpass in the final chase scene. The camera crew refused to film the shot, because of the high risk involved. James Cameron did the filming with the help of the camera car driver.
Despite the film's R-rating, numerous children's toys were released, and were a financial success.
The sound used for Arnold Schwarzenegger's shotgun is actually two cannons.
The damaged Terminator look in the climax of the film took five hours to apply and an hour to remove.
Most of Edward Furlong's voice had to be re-dubbed by Furlong again in post-production, because it changed during shooting. His young voice is left intact only in the scene where he and Terminator are talking about why people cry, because James Cameron wanted it to sound dramatic, and thought it was better if left intact.
James Cameron asked Stan Winston to direct a teaser trailer. Cameron didn't want the trailer to just be early footage, and so with a budget of 150,000 dollars, Winston created a trailer that showed a futuristic assembly line churning out copies of Terminators, all of which looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cameron was pleased with this trailer, as he had fears about audience reactions to trailers showing Schwarzenegger returning as a Terminator (after the Terminator in the first film was clearly destroyed).
The idea to destroy the Cyberdyne Systems building to prevent the future war was in the first Terminator movie but was cut from the final release (you can see it in the deleted scenes section of The Terminator (1984) DVD.) James Cameron said it was lucky that he chose to cut that scene in 1984 as it forms the "nucleus" of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
The "forced medication" scene (Special Edition only) had to be re-shot several times because Ken Gibbel wouldn't hit Linda Hamilton properly with his nightstick. The scene was very physically demanding, and Hamilton was furious with Gibbel, because he repeatedly botched it. She got her revenge in a later scene where she beats Gibbel with a broken-off broom handle - the blows are for real.
The T-800's bike jump into the storm drain was performed by stuntman Peter Kent. The motorbike was supported by one-inch cables, so that when they hit the ground, the bike and rider only weighed 180 pounds. The cables were later digitally erased.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a slightly used Gulfstream III airplane (worth about fourteen million dollars) by producer Mario Kassar for accepting the role.
The T-1000 has four arms while in the helicopter: two for flying the helicopter and two for firing and reloading the MP-5K submachine gun.
Held the world record for highest opening-weekend gross of an R-rated film (with 52,306,548 dollars) until The Matrix Reloaded (2003).
Arnold Schwarzenegger's young daughter screamed the first time she saw her father's face made-up to show the robotics appearing underneath the skin tissue.
After the release of The Abyss (1989) (featuring the infamous pseudo-pod scene), James Cameron felt he was ready to start working on this film. However, he knew that half of the film's rights were owned by Hemdale (producer of The Terminator (1984))―ultimately went bankrupt―and the lack of funding prevented him from working. While working on Total Recall (1990), with Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, Arnold Schwarzenegger learned of Cameron's intention to work on the film, and it was him who urged Kassar and Vajna to buy the rights from Hemdale. Finally, they bought them in February 1990, and Cameron would only start work the following month.
For the scene where the Terminator tells Sarah Connor about Miles Dyson and the history of Skynet, Arnold Schwarzenegger read his lines from a card taped to the car's windshield.
Linda Hamilton trained with former Israeli commando Uzi Gal and with personal trainer Anthony Cortes for three hours a day, six days a week for thirteen weeks before filming. Under both, she trained intensely with weights and learned judo and heavy military training techniques. She had to maintain a demanding non-fat diet, even during filming, and lost twelve pounds. Because of this punishing regimen, she declined to reprise her role for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Ironically, her identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was only required to "hit the gym" for a few hours a week, and the difference is noticeable in the two scenes, in which they appear together.
James Cameron cast Robert Patrick as The T-1000 after seeing him in Die Hard 2 (1990).
Local residents in Lakeview Terrace held a protest outside the Medical Center when it was dressed up to be the Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. They quickly realized it was in fact only a film set.
The world-famous phrase "Hasta la vista, baby" is translated to "Sayonara, baby" in the Spanish version of the film, to preserve the humorous nature.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't sure initially about the Terminator not being able to kill people. He suspected the studio were trying to soften the violence like in Conan the Destroyer (1984). He felt that had destroyed the Conan franchise, and didn't want to see it happen with this series as well, but since Terminator 2 was rated R, he relaxed a little.
James Cameron was so impressed by Linda Hamilton's acting, that he campaigned unsuccessfully for her to be nominated to win an Academy Award for Best Actress.
The photos of the 1984 attack were still shots of a re-shoot. James Cameron had a hallway set built, dressed Arnold Schwarzenegger in his original Terminator outfit and had him recreate one take, from which they took the pictures. (Check out Arnold's hair and facial structure to spot the telltale signs.)
When the project was first announced in late 1984, the projected budget was twelve million dollars. The final budget was 102 million dollars.
The steel mill effects were so convincing, some former workers from the plant (which had been closed for over ten years) thought it was up and running again.
For the sound of T-1000 passing through metal bars, Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom simply inverted an open can of dog food and recorded the close-packed food as it oozed slowly out. When transforming and flowing like mercury, the "metallic" sound is the spraying of Dust-Off into a mixture of flour and water, with a condom-sealed microphone submerged in the goo. For the sound of bullets striking the T-1000, inverted glass was slammed into a container of yogurt creating a combo sound of hard edge and goop.
Billy Idol was James Cameron's original choice to play the T-1000. A motorcycle accident prevented him from taking on the role. This is somewhat ironic, since the T-1000 rides a motorcycle in many scenes.
While a central point in Terminator 2, the phrase "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves" is not said in The Terminator. The phrase comes from a deleted scene.
As of 2014, this is still TriStar Pictures' highest grossing film.
On the DVD, by highlighting "Sensory Control" and pressing the right navigation button five times until the words "The Future is Not Set" appear, then selecting the phrase, the menu will alter, offering the Theatrical Version of the film instead of the Special Edition for viewing.
The artificial substance used instead of melted steel (which would've been far too dangerous to use, sometimes impossible) actually needed to be kept pretty cool to maintain the right density. This meant that the temperature on set was really quite cold, so the actors had to be sprayed with fake sweat in between takes.
The foreign distributors eagerly signed up Terminator 2, even though it had more than ten times the budget of the original film, making Terminator 2 the most expensive film in history at that time. This is something James Cameron would outdo on his successive three films, True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009).
In one scene, The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) asks a red-haired girl (Nikki Cox) if she knows were John Connor is and she replies that he is at the Galleria. In the following instalments Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009), John Connor's future wife Kate Brewster (Claire Danes and Bryce Dallas Howard) had red hair. It is believed that the red-haired girl is indeed Kate Brewster, and in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Kate mentioned that she attended the same school as John, and the day before the T-800 and the T-1000 arrived, they both met and had made out in the basement of another boy they went to school with, Mike Kripke. If so, it's most likely, John would have told Kate he was going to go to the Galleria with Tim the next day.
The mall where the T-800 goes to look for John and fights the T-1000 is the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which has been used for many films. Arnold Schwarzenegger previously filmed another fight scene there in Commando (1985).
Identical twins Don Stanton and Dan Stanton played the hospital security guard and the T-1000.
The film is set either in 1994 or 1995. The police database states John Connor was born on February 28, 1985 and is ten years old. However, the Terminator says Judgment Day (scheduled for August 1997) will happen in three years' time, which would make the film set in 1994, and John Connor nine. Edward Furlong was thirteen at the time of filming.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron had always wanted to do a sequel to The Terminator (1984), but Cameron didn't get the rights and financing until 1990.
An alternate ending was filmed, but cut, which saw an elderly Sarah sitting at the park, telling the story about The Terminator, watching John playing with his daughter and tying her granddaughter's shoes. James Cameron decided not to use the ending and replaced it with the "unknown road" ending that was used in the final cut.
For the scene where the nude Terminator walks into a biker bar, Arnold Schwarzenegger was actually wearing a pair of purple board shorts.
Linda Hamilton's then twenty-month-old son, Dalton, plays an infant John Connor in a playground dream sequence.
The date of the fictional Judgment Day―August 29, 1997―is the anniversary of the Soviet Union's first detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949.
Outperformed the full gross of The Terminator (1984) after four days of release.
Because the film was shot out of sequence, Arnold Schwarzenegger was unsure if the Terminator was supposed to be played as too human or not human enough in some scenes.
Over one million feet of film was shot and printed.
Eleven cameras were used to capture the explosion at Cyberdyne Headquarters.
Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom added some lion roars to the sounds of the tanker truck that the T-1000 drives down the freeway to add some extra menace.
A segment showing the design of the Time Displacement Machine, which sent the first Terminator and Kyle Reese back in the time in the first film, was rejected for the sequel, as it was too complicated, and not necessary for plot development (plus it featured another rating problem for additional nudity, as Reese was required to go through the portal while naked). It would have consisted of three rings independently rotating around each other, with the subject to be displaced levitating in their center. The design ultimately resurfaced in 1997 as Jodie Foster's space traveling device in Contact (1997).
The film has over three hundred effects shots, which total almost sixteen minutes of running time.
The name of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator is the Terminator Series 800 (shiny metal endoskeleton) model 101 (Arnold's actual skin on that skeleton).
The make-up artists mixed KY jelly into Arnold Schwarzenegger's make-up for the Terminator in "normal" mode to give him a slightly synthetic look.
Lead singer of heavy metal band WASP, Blackie Lawless, was considered for the role of the liquid-metal T-1000, although his height proved to be a problem. The role of the original Terminator had been written for a man of average stature, who could easily blend in to a crowd, and James Cameron wanted to apply that original concept to dramatic effect for the T-1000. In an AOL chat, Lawless explained: "Probably the biggest regret that I have, though I didn't turn it down, was a part in Terminator 2 that Robert Patrick got. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted me to do the part, but when he found out I was 6'4", I couldn't. I regret not being able to do that."
When moving through a crowd, Robert Patrick patterned himself after a shark moving in on its prey.
The T-1000 tells the helicopter pilot to "get out!". This is a parallel to The Terminator (1984), in which the Terminator gives the same command to a truck driver under similar circumstances.
The highest-grossing movie of 1991.
All the electrical cabling meant to light the five-mile section of freeway during the liquid nitrogen truck chase was stolen. Not having enough time to replace all of it, the company had to rent or borrow every wire connected to the lighting on the freeway. That lasted for five days.
The pumps in the gas station forecourt, shown prior to the chip surgery scene, display the Benthic Petroleum logo. Benthic Petroleum was the company that owned the submersible drilling rig in James Cameron's previous movie, The Abyss (1989).
In the ATM scene, John uses an Atari Portfolio laptop computer.
This was the first film to break three hundred million dollars at the international box-office.
More explicit shots of the arm cutting scene were removed, as director James Cameron felt they were tasteless and unnecessary.
Scenes filmed but not included in DVD or Special Edition releases: 1) After a resistance soldier destroys an endoskeleton, another soldier enters into view and picks up the plasma rifle. 2) When the T-1000 asks the location of the Galleria, the two girls giggle in disbelief. He replies, "I am kind of new here." 3) After the Terminator injures the gatehouse guard, John says "Sorry" to that poor bloke. 4) The nurse asks the T-1000 (as Lewis) what he is carrying. He replies, "Just some trash." before dragging the real body into the closet. 5) When the T-1000 arrives at Sarah's cell, Douglas, the guard whom Sarah beat up, is screaming for his release. The T-1000 ignores him, and changes back to his default form. 6) During the escape from the asylum, Sarah asks the Terminator whether the T-1000 can be destroyed. Terminator answers that this is unknown (this shot was in the trailer).
Because of the amount of make-up Arnold Schwarzenegger had to wear for the climax, he was blinded in one eye and had no depth perception.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said during the making of this film that he would never play another evil character again, but he later played the villain Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin (1997).
James Cameron fought over the ending with Mario Kassar. Cameron wanted to end the film with the alternate Coda Ending (the older Sarah in future) as a bookend, but Kassar wanted to end the film in an another way (as a measure for possible sequels). He eventually relented when test audiences and Kassar himself reacted negatively over the coda ending, and he went with the existing one, commenting that this coda was way too positive compared to bleak and dark tone of the rest of the movie.
The special effects crew had to incorporate Robert Patrick's football-injury limp in their animation of the T-1000. Next, they filmed the stuff with the T-1000 pretending to be driving from the right-hand steering wheel (wearing a mirror-image police uniform), while the real driver was hidden under a black hood at the lowered real steering wheel. For the final film, the scenes were flipped left-to-right to make it all look right, and combined with footage shot with a normal truck driving in the drain. This was done so that Patrick could concentrate on acting rather than driving. They accidentally caught a street sign; after they mirror-imaged the scene, they digitally reversed the text on the sign so it would appear correct.
So extensive is the Foley teamwork in this movie, just about every incidental movement on screen is replaced: the creaks of the Terminator's leather jacket, his buckle clinks and footsteps. The entire sequence where Sarah escapes from her hospital bed using a paper clip to pick the strap buckle and door lock was nothing but Foley and music.
The Cyberdyne building in the movie is in fact a two-story structure in Fremont, California. A phony third floor was constructed on top for the movie. Much of the structure was rebuilt after the filming, and the building exists to this day.
According to Sound Supervisor Gloria S. Borders, approximately seventy percent of the dialogue, and most of the breathing, is ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement/Dubbing). General rule of thumb: the more action in a movie, the more ADR and Foley processing.
Robert Patrick got weapon training under technical expert Uzi Gal, and James Cameron was so amazed by Patrick's performance, particularly for the T-1000 shooting scene at the Galleria mall, that he used the actual footage shot, without speeding up the frame rate.
Shot in eight months, compared to the first film's six-week filming schedule. It had to be ready for the Summer of 1991 to meet its financial commitments.
The Terminator says "I need a vacation", which Arnold Schwarzenegger previously said in Kindergarten Cop (1990). It was previously suggested the line was not in the script, but ad-libbed. However, the book "Terminator 2: Judgment Day- The Book of the Film- An Illustrated Screenplay" shows this line was written in the script from early on.
After its release, its worldwide box-office was the third biggest of all time, behind E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).
The game that John plays in the Galleria is Missile Command. You protect your base by blowing up incoming missiles. Skynet's original intention was to be a missile defense system much like the game Missile Command.
Linda Hamilton turned down a part in another movie, after hearing a simple outline of the plot by James Cameron.
Film debut of Edward Furlong. He won the part of John Connor after being discovered by Casting Director Mali Finn at the Boys' Club of Pasadena, California.
Because of Edward Furlong's small stature during filming, his stunt double, who was older and larger, used a bigger version of the dirt bike for filming the chase scene.
Shot over a period of 171 days.
The last Terminator film to be written and directed by James Cameron. Cameron did not write or direct the following sequels and was only credited as the creator of the characters.
When John takes off on his motorbike from the mall chased by the T-1000, he is riding a Honda XR 80 or 100, which has a 4-cycle engine. It was dubbed with a 2-cycle sound, to create a strong contrast with the Terminator's Harley.
In the first chase scene, the T-800's shotgun has an extra-large finger loop in its lever to make it easier to cycle the action by twirling. This trick was performed by John Wayne in several of his Westerns, including True Grit (1969), Stagecoach (1939), and El Dorado (1967).
When the Terminator arrives at the mall to look for John, he is carrying a box of roses with a gun (shotgun) inside. The theme song for the movie, "You Could Be Mine", is by Guns N' Roses.
Although playing a character of nine or ten, Edward Furlong was thirteen at the time of filming.
Scenes in the screenplay but not filmed: - Extended Future War sequence where the resistance wins and enters a SkyNet lab where they find the time-portal and a storage facilities of Terminators. Reese talks to John before he volunteers to be sent through time; it is implied that Reese learns that he is in fact John's father. After Reese is sent, John enters a storage cabinet full of Terminators (different types even). One of the 101-models is missing (being the Terminator from the first movie). John hints that he needs to send another one himself. After that, the rest of the movie is effectively one long flashback of John. - Sarah's ECT where Sarah is fitted for electro-convulsive therapy and voltage is pumped into her. She relives several moments from her life, most prominently the T-800 chasing her through the factory in the previous film. - Alternate nuclear nightmare scene. Sarah dreams that the Terminator takes her out of the asylum towards the fence, where she sees nuclear silos opening, firing their missiles. One nuclear bomb goes off, ripping off both her flesh and the Terminator's. Then she wakes up. - Salceda's death sequence. Sal's dog starts barking, Sal goes out tries to shoot the T-1000 and fails. T-1000 uses the pointed finger/sword trick to Sal's shoulder blades saying "I know this hurts. Where is John Connor". Sal curses him and his hands search around the ground near some crates that hold grenades. He blows himself up and hopefully the T-1000 with one. No luck. T-1000 head falls off but like the little piece in the asylum escape sequence, it oozes back into his boots. Yolanda sees this and hugs the baby as T-1000 steps closer. T-1000 picks up the baby and gets the info from her as where John and others had gone. - Gant Ranch. This section was a longer version of Sal's and refers to Travis Gant, "crazy ex-Green Beret" that John mentions his mother seeing before she was caught. Longer and has romantic notions between the two. After Sarah, John and the Terminator left, T-1000 kills Gant as he did like with John's "Mom". Disguised as Gant's lover, he easily stepped up to him and tortured him for answers before killing him. Dyson's Vision Sequence. Dyson, the creator of the new processor had a dream sequence before he died and dropped the device on the trigger. In it he saw a picture of his family before a nuclear inferno turned it to ash. He sees his family running and then a scene of the sun as it pulls back to reveal Dyson's dying eye before he closes it and drops the section of the enlarged chip onto the trigger (Dyson has a copy in his house that gets shot up by Sarah, and the original is shot at the same time as he is by the S.W.A.T. Team, thus he uses his creation to destroy it). Scenes of the blazing inferno were ultimately used during the movie's opening credits.
It took three takes to properly capture the helicopter crashing on the freeway.
It took two takes to get the van crashing into the Cyberdyne lobby, and they sprayed adhesive onto the floor to stop the van from skidding too much.
Franchise Trademark: When John and the Terminator rescue Sarah from the hospital, the Terminator says to her, "Come with me if you want to live."
James Cameron once owned a German Shepherd dog named "Wolfie", (short for Beowulf). The dog appeared in the original movie, The Terminator, at the Tiki Motel.
The liquid metal CGI effects of the T-1000 were rendered on a Silicon Graphics IRIS Indigo workstation.
The liquid-metal T-1000 was actually intended for the first film, but could not be done, due to budget constraints, and the limits of technology at the time.
Ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sci-Fi" in June 2008.
In the audio commentary, James Cameron says the opening sequence was filmed using three hundred frames per second.
The Terminator's "point-of-view" scenes at the biker's bar identify a Harley Davidson "Fatboy", and a carcinogen in the cigar smoke.
Linda Hamilton's stunt double Maryellen Aviano can be seen as the woman next to the tourist photographer in the mall.
James Cameron was paid five million dollars to return to direct the film.
The ten-gauge shotgun, used by Arnold Schwarzenegger during the majority of the film, is a six-shot Winchester Model 1887. It was invented by gun designer John Browning, and was the first commercially successful repeating shotgun. James Cameron confirmed that it is a ten-gauge shotgun, not a twelve-gauge, in the commentary.
When Sarah leaves her sniper's position in Dyson's yard, she walks past the pool. The pools surface should be still, but it is undulating like stormy waters in an open bay for a dramatic effect.
In the original script, the initial encounter between John and The T-1000 took place at an amusement park.
One of the tag lines for the movie was 'It's nothing personal'. This was a play on the cliché tag line 'This time, it's personal', which originated with Jaws: The Revenge (1987), and was subsequently adopted by countless other sequels from that era.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(James Cameron): [nice cut]: During the opening credits: the cut from the playing children to the dark future.
The badge on the T-1000's uniform reads "Austin" (after Producer Stephanie Austin's name), although it is not fully visible in the film. Austin is also the name of Robert Patrick's daughter.
In the teaser trailer, we see the T-800 put into a machine called the "Bio-Flesh Regenerator" at the Endoskeleton factory, which grows and generates living human tissue onto the T-800, giving him his human form and emerges as Schwarzenegger. Kenner released a "Bio-Flesh Regenerator" play-set, which came with T-800 Terminator action figures. Which the T-800 Terminator endoskeleton is put into a clear plastic mold of Arnold Schwarzenegger. A flesh-colored substance, similar to Play-Doh, was injected into the mold around the endoskeleton, creating a "flesh" body that could be peeled off in places to reveal the endoskeleton beneath, mimicking the damage seen in the movie.
Charlie Korsmo was offered the role of John Connor, but he could not accept the role, due to obligations to What About Bob? (1991).
Due to the tight schedules, there were three editors involved - Mark Goldblatt, Conrad Buff IV and Richard A. Harris - who all worked on separate segments of the film.
Denzel Washington turned down the role of Miles Bennett Dyson - "No offense to Jim Cameron, but when I read the script, I thought: All he does is look scared and sweat. I had to pass."
The sound of the T-1000 eye-spiking the prison guard was the sound of Gary Rydstrom's Jack Russell terrier, Buster.
The movie's line, "Hasta la vista, baby," was voted as the #76 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
James Cameron mentions on the DVD commentary that the Terminator does not blink in the film. However, this is not exactly true. For example, the T-800 can be seen blinking right after he gets on the motorbike at the beginning of the film when the bar owner fires a shotgun into the air. Additionally, the T-1000 can be seen blinking very briefly when firing in the hallway at the Galleria.
The mall scenes were spread out over two malls. The scenes shot outside the mall were filmed outside of the Northridge Fashion Center in Northridge California. This mall was closed for months after the Northridge earthquake destroyed much of it in 1994. Parts of the parking garage in the movie were destroyed in that earthquake.
In the beginning, Sarah Connor says three billion people died on August 29, 1997. When this film was released, the world's population was 5.365 billion, while in 1997, it was 5.862 billion.
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Dean Norris has a small role as S.W.A.T. team leader. Norris had previously worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger in science fiction film Total Recall (1990), which he played the mutant Martian freedom fighter Tony.
Originally the Terminator was going to use a MAC-10 to shoot at the police, but James Cameron decided to revisit the gun used in Predator (1987). The gun used the same custom Y-frame as in Predator with some modifications. The modified M60 fore-grip assembly was removed in its entirety. To replace it a "chainsaw" grip was mounted on the Y-frame and the M16-style carry handle was removed. This style of carry has become the "standard" for hand-held Miniguns in movies and video games. The Y-frame is still attached to the weapon's mounting lugs, though with no carry handle, the weapon lost its sling attachment point, forcing Arnold to carry all the weight of the weapon in his hands. In order to fire it, the Terminator carries a duffel bag full of ammo and possibly the batteries as well, as there are some shots that show what appear to be cables leading from the gun and into the duffel bag. It is also possible that the duffel bag was simply used to hide the fact that the cables trailed off set to the power supply and gun control unit.
The address given in the movie for the Cyberdyne Building is 2144 Kramer Street. This is likely a reference to Joel Kramer, the Stunt Coordinator for the film.
The wind sounds in the opening sequence began through the crack of an open door and were completed in the main mix room at Skywalker Sound by Gary Rydstrom using a Synclavier keyboard.
The Terminator uses the following weapons throughout the movie: - Colt/Detonics 1911 9mm - Winchester 1887 lever action ten-gauge sawed-off shotgun, minus trigger guard - M79 'Blooper' Grenade Launcher - Hawk MM-1 37mm twelve-shot gas grenade launcher - GE-134 Minigun 7.62x51mm cycle rate geared at six hundred r.p.m. On the other hand, Sarah uses the following weapons: - Detonics 1911 custom long slide 45ACP - CAR-15 rifle (at Dyson's house and at the truck) - Remington 870 shotgun with folding stock twelve-gauge (steel mill).
John's t-shirt bears the logo for the group Public Enemy. One of the members of Public Enemy was named "Terminator X".
In 2017, James Cameron has commissioned his company Lightstorm to do a 4K transfer of the movie, and then convert that into 3-D for re-release.
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The film includes Robert Patrick's first nude scene.
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In one take of the aftermath of the motorcycle chase, Arnold Schwarzenegger accidentally hit Edward Furlong in the eye with the shotgun prop.
Since the film's release the three of the four Winchester 1887 shotguns have been publicly sold- one is owned by Jason DeBord- the president of the original prop blog, LLC and two were sold in an auction posted by Little John's Auction Service in June 2007, the fourth has been rumored to be in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Personal Collection.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said James Cameron "did an extraordinary job creating that character (The Terminator) and whole phenomenon. I never thought we would do a sequel, catchphrases like "I'll be back" or "Hasta la vista, baby" would catch on and be repeated or think that thirty years later, I would be asked to come back to a franchise like this, playing The Terminator, unlike Batman or James Bond."
Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite moments from the franchise, are when the Terminator tries to be human, because it's something funny, and not just action and violence, and the most important thing to the Terminator is to blend in, and when he does, he fails miserably, and that always gets a big laugh from the audience.
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Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
The second of two movies starring Linda Hamilton that involved alternate time lines. The first was Mr. Destiny (1990). Also, in Mr. Destiny, her character's maiden name was Ellen Ripley, the role played by Sigourney Weaver in James Cameron's Aliens (1986).
For the bad guy in the movie, James Cameron and co-Writer William Wisher, Jr. briefly considered another 'bad' T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) to fight against John and Sarah Connor, but this was quickly dropped. Another unused idea involved two Arnold T-800s being sent back in time, one good, and the other bad, before settling on the T-1000 being the bad Terminator.
The last Terminator movie to show a payphone. In The Terminator (1984), there was a biker using one to ask for a ride after his bike broke down, and the terminator yanks him out to use the phone book to look up Sarah Connor. In this movie, John Connor uses one in a failed attempt to warn his foster parents Todd (Xander Berkeley) and Janelle (Jenette Goldstein) Voight.
After throwing the T-800 out the store window in the mall fight scene, T-1000 examines a mannequin's silver colored head, similar looking to his own.
The bullets Sarah Connor pulls out of the Terminator are slugs from a Browning Hi-Power. James Cameron fired them himself saying he wanted the authentic "smushed" effect.
The only sequel of the 1990s to be the #1 movie of the year. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) was also the biggest of its year, but it was a prequel.
At 137 minutes (for the theatrical cut), and 156 minutes (for the 2009 Blu-ray Skynet Edition), this is the longest Terminator movie in the franchise.
The police helicopter in the climactic chase scene (registration number N830RC) is a Bell 206B JetRanger II.
Arnold Schwarzenegger believed James Cameron stretched it beyond belief with visual effects on this film.
At the beginning of the movie, the song playing at the biker bar is Guitars Cadillacs by Dwight Yoakam.
In the film, which takes place ten years after the original film, Dr. Silberman states that Sarah is 29 years old, which meant Sarah was eighteen in 1984 and was born in 1965. But, in Terminator Genisys (2015), which took place in an alternate timeline. Sarah tells Kyle Reese that Pops saved her in 1973, when she was nine, which means that she was born in 1964, not 1965, and was twenty in alternate 1984, and would be 21 in 1985.
On the DVD commentary, James Cameron states that Arnold Schwarzenegger initially didn't like the idea of the T-800 not killing anyone, and it took a little while for Cameron to convince him.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick each appeared in HBO's Tales from the Crypt (1989) show at one point. Schwarzenegger directed the episode, "The Switch", and did a cameo in the episode. Patrick starred in the episode, "The New Arrival".
James Cameron said Terminator Genisys (2015) was the natural follow up to this film. Arnold Schwarzenegger believes it exceeds Terminator 2 technologically, action-wise, and in intensity.
Terminator 2 was released in 1991, the same year the Minnesota Twins won the World Series. Miles Dyson's son is wearing a Twins hat in his scenes.
A critic called Terminator Genisys (2015) "The best Terminator film since Judgment Day".
John Connor's dirt bike is a 1990 XR 100.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wore boxer shorts for the biker bar scene.
The 1997 Region 1 DVD from Artisan Entertainment includes an Audio Descriptive Track.
This is the second R rated Terminator film in the franchise. Its predecessor and successor, The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), respectively, are also rated R. However, Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015) are both rated PG-13, which many people felt contributed to their underperformances at the U.S. box-office. Although, all five films have made money worldwide.
Edward Furlong's first film.
In the novelization for Terminator Salvation (2009), Marcus Wright thinks about snapping Dr. Serena Kogan's neck "like a desiccated broomstick; Sarah Connor snaps off a mop handle in this film when escaping from Pescadero.
The first of four movies with the word that had Arnold Schwarzenegger, in which three of them he had a starring role and the title has a biblical reference; The others were End of Days (1999), The 6th Day (2000), and Around the World in 80 Days (2004).
The last Terminator movie to show the use of a payphone. It's when John Connor (Edward Furlong) calls his foster parents Todd (Xander Berkeley) and Janelle (Jenette Goldstein) Voight.
The second of five movies with Earl Boen as a psychologist, the others were the first and third Terminator movies, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000).
Cameo ―
William Wisher Jr.: Co-writer Wisher is the photographer during the mall fight when the Terminator is thrown through the galleria window. Wisher was also violently carjacked in The Terminator (1984).
Joel Kramer: Stunt Coordinator Joel Kramer appears as the guard in the hospital security room.
Van Ling: The DVD Producer and Special Effects Coordinator appears as Dyson's assistant in the lab.
Director Trademark ―
James Cameron: [White Frame] When Sarah clocks Douglas in the face with the mop handle, a single solid white frame is spliced in at the moment of impact. This trick accurately conveys the flash a person sees when they get hit in the head. It was also used in The Abyss (1989) when Cat punches Coffey in the face.
James Cameron: [nuke]
William Wisher Jr.: Co-writer Wisher is the photographer during the mall fight when the Terminator is thrown through the galleria window. Wisher was also violently carjacked in The Terminator (1984).
Joel Kramer: Stunt Coordinator Joel Kramer appears as the guard in the hospital security room.
Van Ling: The DVD Producer and Special Effects Coordinator appears as Dyson's assistant in the lab.
Director Trademark ―
James Cameron: [White Frame] When Sarah clocks Douglas in the face with the mop handle, a single solid white frame is spliced in at the moment of impact. This trick accurately conveys the flash a person sees when they get hit in the head. It was also used in The Abyss (1989) when Cat punches Coffey in the face.
James Cameron: [nuke]
Spoilers ―
The scene where the Terminator reboots after being "shut down" by the T-1000 was not in the script, and was added during editing, because James Cameron felt that the audience will not be able to understand how the Terminator returns to deliver the final blow against the T-1000. According to the Arnold Schwarzenegger book 'The Life and Times', Cameron contacted Schwarzenegger, who was to go visit his friend Bruce Willis for Christmas, to come back for shooting that crucial scene. Ultimately, Schwarzenegger had to cancel his plans and film the scene. The scene where the Terminator pulls the impaled metal rod off was shot on Christmas day itself.
Michael Biehn was the first choice for the role of the T-1000, in a complete reversal of roles with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was now a hero. But this idea was abandoned as it was judged too confusing for viewers.
In the final scene, the lines "I cannot self-terminate. You must lower me in the steel" were looped by Arnold Schwarzenegger in post-production, because a test audience didn't understand why Terminator needed Sarah to help him terminate.
James Cameron's own screams are used for the death throes of the T-1000.
The effect of the T-1000 freezing and breaking up was achieved through prosthetics attached to an amputee and with Robert Patrick's real limbs buried underneath the set.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick share several scenes together, they never exchange a single line of dialogue face to face. The only instance seen where dialogue is spoken between the two is when the T-800 tells the frozen T-1000, "Hasta la vista, baby", which the T-1000 could not hear (they do however exchange words over the phone, with the T-800 speaking in John's voice and the T-1000 speaking in Jenelle's).
For the early promotion of the movie, media material avoided showing Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, the T-800, together with John Connor (Edward Furlong), in order to hide the fact that Schwarzenegger played a 'good' Terminator this time. Later trailers and pictures would reveal that he did not play the 'bad guy' this time.
As the Terminator's arm is being crushed by the gear, at the steel mill, you can see the initials "JC" for James Cameron written in blood on the Terminator's exposed leg.
The Terminator is the only character to be listed in the American Film Institute's 100 Heroes and Villains as both a villain (for The Terminator (1984)) and a hero (for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)). Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the only two actors to be on the list as playing a villain and a hero, but Pacino played two different characters. Thirteen other actors and actresses appear twice or more, but either all as heroes, or all as villains.
In the fight scene in the steel mill between the two Terminators, the set was literally dressed with rubber, so the actors wouldn't hurt themselves when being flung around.
Franchise Trademark: The Terminator loses its left arm, and hauls itself forward with its right.
Filmed scenes not included in the theatrical release (all but two were restored in the Special Edition):
Michael Biehn was the first choice for the role of the T-1000, in a complete reversal of roles with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was now a hero. But this idea was abandoned as it was judged too confusing for viewers.
In the final scene, the lines "I cannot self-terminate. You must lower me in the steel" were looped by Arnold Schwarzenegger in post-production, because a test audience didn't understand why Terminator needed Sarah to help him terminate.
James Cameron's own screams are used for the death throes of the T-1000.
The effect of the T-1000 freezing and breaking up was achieved through prosthetics attached to an amputee and with Robert Patrick's real limbs buried underneath the set.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick share several scenes together, they never exchange a single line of dialogue face to face. The only instance seen where dialogue is spoken between the two is when the T-800 tells the frozen T-1000, "Hasta la vista, baby", which the T-1000 could not hear (they do however exchange words over the phone, with the T-800 speaking in John's voice and the T-1000 speaking in Jenelle's).
For the early promotion of the movie, media material avoided showing Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, the T-800, together with John Connor (Edward Furlong), in order to hide the fact that Schwarzenegger played a 'good' Terminator this time. Later trailers and pictures would reveal that he did not play the 'bad guy' this time.
As the Terminator's arm is being crushed by the gear, at the steel mill, you can see the initials "JC" for James Cameron written in blood on the Terminator's exposed leg.
The Terminator is the only character to be listed in the American Film Institute's 100 Heroes and Villains as both a villain (for The Terminator (1984)) and a hero (for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)). Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the only two actors to be on the list as playing a villain and a hero, but Pacino played two different characters. Thirteen other actors and actresses appear twice or more, but either all as heroes, or all as villains.
In the fight scene in the steel mill between the two Terminators, the set was literally dressed with rubber, so the actors wouldn't hurt themselves when being flung around.
Franchise Trademark: The Terminator loses its left arm, and hauls itself forward with its right.
Filmed scenes not included in the theatrical release (all but two were restored in the Special Edition):
- Directly after the pre-med students peer into Sarah's room, the doctor reminds the orderlies to make sure she gets her medication. The cut scene was of the staff coming in to give her the pills. She refuses, so they smack her in the gut with their batons and force the pills down her throat, then kick her while she's on the floor doubled over in pain.
- Another hospital scene was cut that took place after John Connor robs the ATM and heads for the mall. Sarah Connor was to have a dream where Reese appears and warns her that THEIR son is in danger. She has to save him, etc. They kiss and hug, but Reese disappears and walks out. Sarah chases him outside, to find herself in the same spot as the nuclear nightmare scene later in the movie. She sees the large white flash, and then she wakes up. This is the only scene that Michael Biehn was in, and appeared in some promotional trailers. Cameron cut the scene because he thought that audiences who had not seen the first movie would be confused by the appearance of Kyle.
- A scene showing the T-1000 at the scene of the crashed truck in the canal, where he steals a police car.
- After the T-1000 kills John's foster parents, he ventures outside and kills the dog to check it's nametag, which is stamped with the name "Max". The T-1000 does this because the Terminator hung up as soon as the T-1000 confirms the wrong name by calling the dog "Wolfie" and now knows John will not trust his 'parents' and so gives up waiting for John to return home.
- After killing the dog, the T-1000 goes to John's room to try to find any clues as to where John might be. He stalks around the room waving his arms and "feeling" things on the shelves, on the walls, etc. He eventually stops in front of a poster, realizes there is something behind it, rips it down and finds a box of mementos (pictures, and the like). This must be where the T-1000 figures out about Sarah's current whereabouts, and the desert compound that Sarah, John, and the Terminator head to after the hospital. Director James Cameron decided to cut it because the T-1000's sampling abilities were already sufficiently conveyed in earlier scenes, so this scene became redundant (and because it made the T-1000 look too much like it had x-ray vision). This scene was NOT included in the SE.
- At the abandoned gas station, a scene involved Sarah and John talking with the Terminator about learning. He tells them that his CPU was switched to read-only before being sent out. Skynet doesn't want them to learn too much while on their own. John asks if it can be reset. You then see the Terminator's face in a "mirror" talking Sarah through the procedure. A puppet was used for the foreground Sarah to work on and Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was in the mirror mimicking Linda's hand movements. After the CPU is removed, the Terminator shuts-down and Sarah places it on a table. She picks up a hammer and tries to smash it to render him inoperative. John stops her and says they need him. He starts to show authority for the first time and asks her how he is supposed to be a great military leader if even his own mother won't listen to him. She reluctantly reinserts the chip back into the Terminator's head.
- A scene at a truck stop before John, Sarah and Terminator arrive at the Salceda farm. John points out to the Terminator that he shouldn't be so serious all the time. He encourages him to smile once in a while. The Terminator tries to perform a smile, but the result is less than convincing, so John encourages him to practice in front of a mirror.
- Directly after Terminator tells Sarah about Miles Dyson, there is a scene where Dyson is seen in his private residence, where his wife tells him he is much too focused on finishing his microchip, and Miles explains how his design will revolutionize artificial intelligenc3.
- Some more dialogue between John and the Terminator as they assemble weapons in the desert. John tells about his unusual childhood, and ask Terminator if he experiences emotions.
- Before Sarah takes aim at Dyson, she is seen approaching the house and setting up weapons.
- A scene in Cyberdyne, where Dyson destroys the model of his revolutionary microchip.
- In the steel mill, the T-1000 experiences some negative effects from being frozen earlier. It has difficulties maintaining his form when it touches other materials, like steel bars and the floor. This leads to another deleted shot, where John sees the two Sarahs and recognizes the fake one because its feet seem fused to the metal floor.
- A scene in a Skynet-free future, with Sarah Connor as an older woman giving a monologue about how Judgment Day no longer occurred, and John becoming a senator. This scene was NOT included in the SE, because James Cameron felt it just didn't fit the dark, gloomy atmosphere of the rest of the movie.
In each Terminator film the villainous character's death is greeted with the word "terminated" in some way: John Connor asks "is it dead?" (of the melted T-1000) to which the Terminator replies "terminated".
The Terminator makes good on his promise to not kill anyone before he even meets John. For all of the mayhem and violence in this movie, sixteen (at the most) characters actually die, and only one of these by gunfire. Of the people who get killed, there are three soldiers, the armored truck driver and his gunner, the cop on patrol, Lewis the guard, a mall employee, Todd and Janelle Voight, the cop on the motorcycle (copied by T-1000 and therefore implied to have been terminated off-screen), Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson, and the tanker truck driver. The trucker pulled from his truck by T-1000 as he is in pursuit of John makes a bad fall, but probably survived. It's not exactly certain if the police helicopter pilot dies (he falls from a high place but may have suffered only some broken bones). The pickup truck driver is probably not in danger of dying as he does not jump off of the bridge, but only jumps over the center divider in the middle of the bridge. A subplot was scripted where the T-1000 tracks down Enrique Salceda and kills him, but it was not filmed and not alluded to in the finished movie (Sarah even suggest that he go into hiding himself). The T-1000 is directly or indirectly responsible for most of the deaths. The Terminator only injures people. According to a biographical documentary, Arnold Schwarzenegger only agreed to do the sequel if his role was more family-friendly, hence the "no killing" rule written for his character. However, on the DVD audio commentary, James Cameron states that he had to convince Schwarzenegger that his character could no longer kill people.
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This is the second time that Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) kills a Terminator by pushing a machine control button. Both times, the Terminator is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It is revealed on the DVD audio commentary that the Terminator's alternate source of power in the steel mill comes from thermocouples, which convert the heat from the surroundings into electrical power which Terminator can use.
It's possible that the red haired girl, who talks to the T-1000 and tells him that John went to the Galleria, could be Kate Brewster, played in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) by Claire Danes, and Bryce Dallas Howard in Terminator Salvation (2009). Kate Brewster attended the same school as John, and is John's wife and second in command of the human resistance in the future war.
The second and last film in the Terminator franchise in which Sarah kills The Terminator. In The Terminator (1984), Sarah kills the T-800 by crushing him. In this film, Sarah assists the battle damaged T-800 in terminating his own life, by lowering him into molten steel.
In 2008, a television series based on the Terminator films entitled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) premiered in the United States on January 13, 2008. The series takes place two years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and ignores Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and the series followed Sarah (Lena Headey) and John Connor (Thomas Dekker) and a female Terminator called Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) as they travel forward eight years across time, as they set out to continue the fight against Skynet and to stop Judgment Day from happening. The series ran for two seasons and was canceled on April 10, 2009.
The Terminator (1984), this film, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) have shown Terminators to be anatomically correct.
Sarah's recurring nightmare about the nuclear war, her aggressive behavior when she attacks Dr. Silberman, her attempted assassination on Miles Dyson, freaking out when she meets the T-800, and her behavior towards John are possible signs that Sarah is suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), following her deadly encounter with the T-800 in 1984. Among the symptoms of PTSD are upsetting dreams about the traumatic event, diffculty maintain close relationships, hopelessness about the future, irritability, angry outbursts, or aggressive behavior, and always being on guard for danger.
In the narrative behind Sarah freaking out when the T-800 walks out of the elevator during Sarah's escape attempt. Sarah thinks the T-800 is the same T-800 Terminator which tried to kill her back in 1984, which she crushed and destroyed, and doesn't know that this T-800 is a reprogrammed Terminator, sent back to protect John, and to obey John's commands.
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