T2: Judgment Day is 30

[King Kamala]

The Oral History of ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’

Three decades ago, James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton joined forces again to make the biggest, baddest, most eye-popping sequel ever. Here’s the story of how the machines took over Hollywood.

www.theringer.com

It's kind of cool that '80s action movies and '80s hard rock both had one of their last truly great moments at the exact same time. And incidentally a bunch of '80s hard rock bands were on the soundtrack to Ahnuld's failed followup to T2 (Last Action Hero)

 

[Hawk 34]

You can fuck all the way off for even suggesting Last Action Hero was in any way a “failure”.

T2 was cool but he didn’t kill Mozart.

 

[King Kamala]

I should've known this was the last place to call out LAH's mixed reputation. It was definitely my favorite Schwarzenegger movie before I was able to watch R rated movies. Which granted isn't saying much unless you love his comedies.

(oh shit now @Hawk 34 is gonna be mad at me again)

 

[Hawk 34]

Arnie has always been a comic actor what are you talking about? Sometimes it involves children and other times it invokes space aliens in a jungle. Always knee slapping.

 

[King Kamala]

Yeah, even in non comedy films, he always played his roles comedically until his post governorship movies that I think only @Brocklock watch.

(oh shit now HE'S mad at me)

 

[Brocklock]

I want to be cool and say I stopped after Sabotage, but I was hanging in there through Aftershock. I think Killing Gunther is the first one I said no too.

 

[King Kamala]

SIR! WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO IGNORE TARAN KILLAM'S DREAM PROJECT? HE LEFT SNL FOR THAT!

 

[BruiserBrody]

Yeah, even in non comedy films, he always played his roles comedically until his post governorship movies that I think only @Brocklock watch.

(oh shit now HE'S mad at me)

I have every Arnold movie from Hercules to the most recent Jackie Chan one on DVD (except Around the World in 80 days). Killing Gunther is horrible.

I liked Genesis (I'm pretty sure I am botching the wacky spelling they used.) The most recent Terminator was instantly forgettable to me. T3 at least had the graveyard scene.

Anyway, T2 was absolutely mind blowing when it came out. I am almost positive I would have first seen it at my uncle's on HBO or something. I haven't watched it in a while, so I'm not sure how well the CGI holds up, but for it's time it earned 5/5 on just about every scale one could rank with,

 

[Incandenza]

Saw this opening weekend. The theater I saw it in would later be turned into an Office Depot. It's currently an empty storefront.

 

[Brocklock]

I still think the effects look really good for today. Newer viewers would snicker, but compared to a lot of other movies in the 90's, it's simple enough that it just works. Some of Edward Furlong's dialogue and performance dates it more than the special effects.

T2 is still my favorite movie. It's not flawless (Furlong does grate on me at points), but it's so god damn watchable and the other actors in it are almost all delivering career bests from Linda Hamilton (Should've got an Oscar Nom) to Joe Morton (the heavy breathing scene alone). Arnold is fantastic and Robert Patrick still feels underrated in it since not enough people list him as one of cinema's greatest villains. He's so incredible in it. I will usually watch T2 at least once a year around Fourth Of July and I love it more every time. There are still around 5 action set pieces that are all timers. Maybe more.

 

[King Kamala]

This Ringer article is a good reminder I need to rewatch this since I haven't seen it since the mid '00s (and CGI still looked good then although I bet they're slightly goofy now).

 

[Brocklock]

I think the simplicity helps it compared to other cgi from the era. It's not a goofy fat dragon like Mortal Kombat Annihilation or whatever that Cat Demon Goat thing from Spawn is supposed to be. It's just a liquid metal man.

 

[HSJ]

T2 is the first big HBO movie of the week/month I remember watching. 30 years later and it still holds up.

 

[geniusMoment]

I like the effects used in T2 better than modern action/superhero movies. All the new Marvel stuff is too CGI for my tastes. I feel like T2 was the sweetspot of live action and CGI.

 

[Laz]

Fun fact: most of the effects in T2 are practical. CG is only used in a handful of scenes.

 

[Gary]

Fun fact: most of the effects in T2 are practical. CG is only used in a handful of scenes.

Same with "Jurassic Park". It's something I wish more movies would do (Guillermo Del Toro and Christopher Nolan have done this/do this), as it makes the CG look all the more lifelike IMO.

I think the simplicity helps it compared to other cgi from the era. It's not a goofy fat dragon like Mortal Kombat Annihilation or whatever that Cat Demon Goat thing from Spawn is supposed to be. It's just a liquid metal man.

A lot of 90's CG looks terrible. "Blade" is awesome, but the CG blood and effects in it are really bad.

 

[Brocklock]

Yeah and Blade does also have some great practical effects like the big blob vampire. The blood at the end is hilariously bad though.

I'm at the point where I find bad 90's CGI more charming than terrible. It's so cheesy looking.

Also, did my usual Fourth Of July watch of T2. Still a 9.5/10 movie. Fast talking Furlong and "Bad To The Bone" dock it just a tad from perfection for me. The more I watch, the more I think Sarah's scene hunting the Dyson's at their house and then her breakdown afterwards is the best scene of the movie. Also, Robert Patrick is one of my 3 or 4 favorite villains in film history. The running is so cool.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Yeah and Blade does also have some great practical effects like the big blob vampire. The blood at the end is hilariously bad though.

I'm at the point where I find bad 90's CGI more charming than terrible. It's so cheesy looking.

Also, did my usual Fourth Of July watch of T2. Still a 9.5/10 movie. Fast talking Furlong and "Bad To The Bone" dock it just a tad from perfection for me. The more I watch, the more I think Sarah's scene hunting the Dyson's at their house and then her breakdown afterwards is the best scene of the movie. Also, Robert Patrick is one of my 3 or 4 favorite villains in film history. The running is so cool.

I saw somewhere that Robert Patrick actually caught up to Furlong on his motorcycle when running in earlier takes so he had to be told to slow down(!)

 

[Brocklock]

Yeah, that was all Patrick. It is amusing watching Patrick and Hamilton doing a lot of their own stunts while spotting the 25 different Arnie stuntmen throughout the movie.

 

[King Kamala]

It seems like Robert Patrick should've had a moderately better career. Like he's been a very solid character actor but I feel like he should've been the more commercial Christopher Walken, ya know?

 

[Brocklock]

Well at least we will always have his performance and hairstyle in Double Dragon.

Yes, he's supposed to be Asian and his name is Koga Shuko.

 

[Laz]

Also, did my usual Fourth Of July watch of T2. Still a 9.5/10 movie. Fast talking Furlong and "Bad To The Bone" dock it just a tad from perfection for me.

If George Thorogood is worth knocking points off then I don't wanna hang with you.

 

[Brocklock]

That's cool. I just associate that song with Problem Child and I can't take it as seriously as a badass anthem with Junior's face in my head.

 

[Laz]

Junior was personally responsible for how many serious injuries at that carnival, AND thwarted a convicted murderer on the run from prison? Yeah. Sounds like a badass to me.

 

[HSJ]

Now that I think about it, being a kid and watching T2 so many times growing up - I was surprised when I found out that it was a sequel. I remember the first time I watched Terminator, I wasn't super into it and have only given it a few watches over the years compared to the 100s of T2.