1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.