A 20th Anniversary retrospective: Terminator 2

In the summer of 1991 there were a raft of film's that came out that formed the crop of a bumper box office, but only one redefined the special effects industry. This film used computer technology that today is taken for granted, yet in 1991 they had to think of new ways to bring this concept to the screen. They would use animatronics, pyrotechnics, motion capture and a new technology called morphing to bring a cold calculating killing machine to the big screen. That film celebrates it's 20th anniversary this year (2011) and in my opinion is THE best action movie ever made - Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

I remember seeing the various trailers the original teaser being unique in that it featured absolutely zero footage from the movie in it since it was put together by Stan Winston on the recommendation of James Cameron himself. But nothing would prepare me for the leviathan that is Terminator 2: Judgement Day and the impact it would have upon me. Seeing it on opening day in a packed theater was very similar to seeing Star Wars in the cinema for the first time in 1977. The gasps from the audience when the Terminator and the T1000 face off in the corridors of the Galleria mall as the bullet holes disappear from the T1000 and he rises up to take on the T800. The T1000 emerging from the flames as the tow truck explodes and Robert Patrick has that killer shark hunting its prey look on his face. The linoleum floor at Pescadero that slowly becomes the T1000 and then morphs into the security guard climaxing with a sharp stabbing weapon in the eye. This movie made Steven Spielberg sit up and realise that he could use this technology to bring dinosaurs to life for Jurassic Park. Scene after scene had the audience gasping as the T1000 came back again and again.  If not for this movie then the term CGI wouldn't even exist nor would the prolific use of morphing used after T2. The combination of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) from ILM and animatronics from Stan Winston Studio's and Gene Warren's Fantasy II SFX would bring the T1000 to life and it's this melding of traditional special effects and new school that makes this film so memorable.

The enviable task of creating the T1000 would fall upon the shoulders of the late, great Stan Winston and his FX studio for it was his team that would produce hundreds of liquid metal effects. It was the combination of these effects and ILM's computer generated images that brought the mimetic poly-alloy killing machine to life. For me the opening sequence in the Future War is the one that sticks in my mind the most. The opener has an endoskeleton's foot crushing a baby's skull as the camera then pans up towards the endoskull and it's pulsating red eyes, it's head turning to look for it's next victim. That endo was a full sized animatronic puppet that required a team of eleven operators to accomplish those movements and at that time was a real achievement in special effects. The combination of Gene Warren's Fantasy II SFX team, Stan Winston's studio and ILM made that opening sequence a jaw dropping all out action set piece yet to be equalled in the two inferior mediocre sequels that purport to be  set in the Terminator universe. It's those chase sequences using an array of cars, trucks, tankers and helicopters that elevate this movie above others that followed. The sequence through the storm drains as the T1000 chases

down John Connor even after meticulous storyboarding and planning using toy cars onset had to be rethought by Joel Kramer's stunt team. When the crew arrived on location they found that the cab the T1000 is in wouldn't fit under the overpass and the decision was made to rip the top off during the chase.

However no amount of special effects could prepare you for the change in Linda Hamilton who looked amazing in this film and worked out intensely. While they were in pre-production Linda underwent extensive weapons training from the weapons technical advisor and former Israeli commando the aptly named Uzi Gal. Linda trained with Uzi and her personal trainer, Anthony Cortes for three hours a day, six days a week for 13 weeks before filming started. Under the expert tutelage of Gal and Cortes she did weight training, judo and heavy military techniques. All of that had to combine with a demanding non-fat diet during filming which led her to lose 12 pounds. Now that's commitment to the role and it shows onscreen and brings a level of believability to the character of Sarah Connor as she goes from waitress to mother of the future.

Another scene that had audiences choke on the ice in their drinks was in Pescadero Mental Institute when the T1000 hones in on his target John Connor and his mother and passes through the bars. When you see a film there are so many integral components that go into making a movie memorable and the sound effects by Gary Rydstom completely add another dimension to this movie. So extensive is the Foley teamwork in T2, just about every incidental movement on screen is replaced: the creaks of the Terminatorʼs 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. For instance the sound effect as the T1000 passes through the bars was achieved by Rydstom inverting the sound of a can of dog food being opened and it's content as they slowly oozed out. The sound that the T-1000 makes when transforming was created by putting a condom over a microphone and dipping it into oatmeal. When the T1000 is transforming and flowing like mercury, Rydstrom created its "metallic" sound by spraying Dust-Off into a mixture of flour and water, with a condom-sealed mic submerged in the goo.

A few scenes later as the T1000 runs toward the lift at Pescadero a carefully aimed shot by the T800's Rosebox shotgun splits his head into two. This particular scene represented a major challenge for Winston and his team who referred to the task as the 'splash head' effect. The SFX team constructed detailed clay sculptures of Robert Patrick's head and split it down the middle pulling it open and sculpting a 'splash' into the maquette. From those moulds a foam rubber puppet was constructed. The puppet then had a hinged fibreglass core made that would spring open with the pulling of a pin. The effect of the head splitting open as the shotgun goes off was all done onset using various maquettes and a pulley system and the head 'healing' itself was down to the wizards at ILM. One of the challenges that became apparent is that a lot of the CGI effects needed to bring the T1000 to life would require a lot more computer work than initially thought. So whilst the film was in pre-production the computer department at ILM consisted of 6 people and grew to almost 36 to accommodate for the work required to bring the T-1000 to life, which ultimately amounted to only three minutes of screen time. Cameron being the consummate professional and master of the universe controlled all aspects of the filming and once the camera's stopped rolling their was over a million feet of film.

The scene at the Cyberdyne building with the T1000 on a motorbike jumping out of a window and landing on the helicopter is another amazing scene and required meticulous preparation in order to get it right. Stuntman Bob Brown took a running start of 190 feet inside the building to bring his Kawasaki 650 to a speed of 35 mph. A moment before he reached the window, explosive caps shattered the glass Brown flew through the pieces and traveled another 35 feet before a safety cable attached to his back went taut, yanking him off the bike and letting him drop onto a cushioned landing pad. Joel Kramer the

stunt co-ordinator had only six weeks before shooting began to put the action together which featured trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, and enough high explosives to blow the roof off a modern office building. One of the most complex was the first big stunt of the picture, when Schwarzenegger runs his motorcycle off a culvert to rescue a young John Connor. Although jumps are commonplace in action pictures, director Cameron insisted that this one use a real 780-pound Harley-Davidson, not a stripped-down dirt bike. To ease the behemoth bike's descent, Kramer set up two huge construction cranes to the right and left of the shot, 600 feet apart. A one-inch cable was strung between the cranes, and at the center of the cable an eight-foot spreader bar was attached. The motorcycle, with stuntman Peter Kent on board, was then hung from the bar like a marionette. As the cameras rolled, another cable, leading to a truck in the canal bed, pulled Kent and the bike off the embankment at 35 mph. The bike and rider sailed 85 feet, but before the Harley's wheels hit the canal floor, the cable attached to the cranes was pulled tight so that only 180 pounds of Kent and bike made full impact with the pavement. The bar and cables were removed from the scenes using the wonders of computer technology and the talented minds at ILM.

Another scene that stands out is the nuclear nightmare sequence Sarah has at Pescadero Mental Institute whilst she is on her medication and then later at the desert whilst on the run. In it Sarah walks towards a playground and stands at a chain link fence and watches the children playing. We see a younger Sarah herself wearing her waitress' uniform playing with a young John Connor as a bright light envelopes the skies and a mushroom cloud forms. The older Sarah's skin starts to melt as do the people in the playground and we then see in vivid detail the city torn apart by a nuclear blast. Special F/X guru Stan Winston and his crew studied hours of nuclear test footage in order to make Sarah Connor's "nuclear nightmare" scene as realistic 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". Again using a combination of location shooting for the playground in Los Angeles with Linda Hamilton and an indoor replica of said playground on a soundstage, animatronics, puppetry, pyrotechnics and CGI you get this terrifying depiction of a nuclear device going off and the destruction it creates.The chase sequence after the escape from the Cyberdyne building to the finale at the steel mill would also represent a number of challenges for the Location Team, Stunt Team, SWS (Stan Winston Studio's) and the helicopter pilot. It took three takes to get the helicopter crashing on the freeway and this chase scene also has a great sight gag where the T1000 has four arms while in the helicopter. Two for flying it and the other two for firing and reloading the MP-5K submachine gun.

The brilliance of the first film is that the story is told to you by Reese as he and Sarah are being relentlessly pursued by the Terminator and the sequel in a clever role reversal makes the Terminator Sarah Connor herself. With cold blooded forethought and the desire to end the war before it starts she takes aim at Miles Dyson through the sights of her Colt AR-15 Sporter 1 Carbine whilst her son teaches a killing machine the sanctity of human life. "Don't you get it, don't you know why you can't go round killing people" as John Connor himself put it.There are so many lines in this movie that I use everyday (No problemo, hasta la vista, baby and my favourite my cpu is a neural net processor) and there are a lot of the Austrian Oak's movies I love but this one is just - amazing, awesome and groundbreaking to say the least. The combination of James Cameron, Stan Winston Studio's, Gene Warren's Fantasy II FX, ILM, Joel Kramer's Stunt Team, Brad Fiedel's score, Gary Rydstom, Arnold, Linda Hamilton, John Furlong, Robert Patrick and everyone else who worked on this film brought us a sci-fi action movie like no other. No matter how many times I see this film and i lost count after around 300 it doesn't bore me, it doesn't drag it is pure action movie perfection everytime I see it. It's amazing that twenty years have passed since this monster of a movie first came out because it's still fresh and for me will never date. Over the years of all the action movies to come out since 1991 none shall surpass the brilliance of Terminator 2:Judgement Day.