Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the most important action movies ever made – and maybe even the greatest. The movie revolutionized The Terminator franchise, the action genre in general, and the use of special effects in action films. Seeing this movie in 1991 was an indescribable experience.
Then again, such is what you typically experience with a filmmaker as absolutely brilliant as James Cameron. And, as audiences could probably imagine while viewing the movie, making the movie was certainly a task. A difficult, arduous, painstaking, incredibly interesting task. These are ten things you didn’t know about the making of Terminator 2.
The Abyss Allowed The Movie To Be Produced
James Cameron knew he had a hit on his hands with The Terminator, and ideas were immediately floated for a potential sequel. During these preliminary brainstorming sessions, the concept of the T-1000 was created – that being a robot made of liquid metal that can shapeshift and mold its way through solid bars.
However, ’80s tech didn’t allow for such ambitious filmmaking. Cameron went on to create The Abyss, a movie that revolutionized the use of CGI. In fact, six months were spent on just 75 seconds of screen time for “the creature.” The technology allowed Cameron to begin thinking seriously about T2.
The Movie Faced A Legal Gridlock
It wasn’t just technical limitations that stymied work on T2; it was also boring old business. Two companies owned half of the Terminator name – Hemdale Film Corporation and Carolco Pictures. Hemdale never wanted to produce a sequel, and because they owned half the rights, work couldn’t proceed without their say so.
However, they soon began to experience severe financial problems, so a work-around was created: Carolco would pay Hemdale $5 million for their share in the franchise. Hemdale agreed, the rights fully belonged to Carolco, and work could finally begin.
Robert Patrick Was Cast For His Physique
Robert Patrick can really sell a scowl, but he was mainly cast for his relatively “slender” physique (slender compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger, at least). Cameron and the producers didn’t want to have two massive, hulking creatures duking it out. Rather, the T-1000 was always meant to contrast with the T-800.
Not only in terms of physicality, but story implications as well; the T-1000 is new, fast, and “slick,” the T-800 is old, slow, and bulky. Robert Patrick proved the best fit (both in terms of physicality and acting ability), and the movie had its T-1000.
Filming Spanned 20 Locations & Two States
Filming Terminator 2 was a large and expansive process, spanning tons of different locations. The film was shot in both New Mexico and California, including the Mojave Desert, and visited locations like Hollywood, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Palmdale, and Fremont.
Many real-life locations (rather than sets) were used for filming, including Santa Monica Place, the flood channels of San Fernando Valley, the Lake View Medical Center, the Terminal Island Freeway, and an abandoned Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana.
A River Needed To Be Redirected
One of the most popular scenes of the movie sees The Terminator and John riding through the dry flood control channels of Los Angeles and avoiding the pursuing T-1000. As previously stated, this sequence was shot in dry, empty flood channels located in the San Fernando Valley.
A nearby river needed to be redirected in order to ensure the channels remained dry throughout the lengthy filming process. The shot in which the T-1000 busts through the barrier and enters the channel is located at the intersection of Plummer St. and Hayvenhurst Ave.
Linda Hamilton’s Twin Sister Was Used
When it comes to replicas, different movies use different techniques. Terminator 2 used the simplest (and oldest) one in the book – use a twin! Linda Hamilton has a twin sister named Leslie Hamilton Gearren, and she was used whenever the movie required two Sarahs to be on-screen at the same time.
She alternated between “real Sarah” and “T-1000 Sarah,” as she was always the “Sarah” furthest away from the camera. This wasn’t the only Hamilton relative to be used in the film. Her infant son, Dalton, plays toddler John Connor in Sarah’s nightmare.
The Visual Effects Took 25 “Man Years” To Complete
Terminator 2 was an enormously ambitious film, utilizing a mixture of both computer-generated imagery and good old fashioned practical effects. The former was provided by both Industrial Light & Magic and Pacific Data Images, while the latter was provided by iconic effects master Stan Winston.
The visual effects alone cost upwards of $5 million and required 35 people to work for ten months. All told, the effects work took 25 “man-years” to complete – that being “a unit of measurement for the amount of work done by an individual throughout the entire year, expressed in the number of hours.”
The Most Ambitious Use Of CGI In Nearly Ten Years
James Cameron is nothing if not ambitious. Computer-generated imagery was not a new thing when Terminator 2 was released in 1991. It was just the first movie to really show what the stuff could do. As stated before, The Abyss utilized CGI to some success.
But it was used before that – most notably in 1982’s Tron and 1984’s The Last Starfighter. The latter was particularly ambitious for its time and is often credited as a pioneer in the use of large-scale CGI. Terminator 2 was often heralded as the most ambitious film since its release – seven years after the fact.
Mini Los Angeles
The nuclear destruction sequence is perhaps the most horrifying of the entire movie, aided in no small part by its realism. The realism was attained by building an entire mini Los Angeles.
4-Ward Production’s Robert and Dennis Skotak created a large-scale Los Angeles out of miniature models, complete with intricate roadways and mini vehicles. They then studied real footage of nuclear tests and blew away their mini set with air mortars, effectively creating a convincing nuclear destruction.
The Most Expensive Movie Ever Made (At The Time)
If all this sounds very expensive, that’s because it was. Very expensive. To the tune of $102 million, making it the most expensive movie ever produced at the time (not adjusted for inflation).
$50 million went to the special effects and action scenes. $6 million went to James Cameron. Schwarzenegger even received a Gulfstream III business jet, which is purported to cost upwards of $12 million. Luckily, every single cent is seen on the screen of this magnificent movie.
