Richard Roeper Reviews: Terminator 2: Judgment Day - The Director's Experience

Richard Roeper Reviews: Terminator 2: Judgment Day - The Director’s Experience

By Richard Roeper

My top three action films are “Die Hard” (1988), “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) and “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), and please don’t ask, “In what order?” because they are all four-star classics. With “T2” arriving in theaters for a special theatrical re-release marking its 35th anniversary, I thought it would be a great time to listen to the full audio commentary from director/producer/co-writer James Cameron and co-writer William Wisher.

What a joy it was, from start to finish. As you’d expect, Cameron and Wisher take deep dives into behind-the-scenes machinations—but what makes the commentary so special is that they also share personal anecdotes about how events in their lives shaped the creative process, and discuss larger philosophical and moral issues surrounding the film.

Sometimes they interrupt one another. Occasionally they have mild disagreements about the details of a particular shoot. Always, though, they sound like two old friends reminiscing about a very special time they shared together. (Cameron isn’t known for being the cuddliest filmmaker or biggest team player, but I admire how often he singled out the work of stunt personnel, crew, technical advisors and day players.) It’s Cameron who takes the wheel, but Wisher adds valuable insights and warmth to the dialogue. He’s the storyteller who counterbalances Cameron’s techno-visionary persona.

The details are fascinating, e.g., the opening sequence. The apocalyptic imagery of a nuclear hellfire is one of the most indelible and chilling sequences in film history—and Cameron shares that a team of nuclear weapons experts wrote him a letter saying it was the most accurate depiction of how such a cataclysmic event would unfold. Cameron reveals it was shot in a way to mimic the eerie, terrifying look of 1950s atomic test footage. He later digs into the thematic leap between the first two “Terminator” films. “The core concept is fate vs. free will,” says Cameron. “Are we able to be the architects of our own destiny…” Whereas the original movie leaves it up to question whether fate is pre-ordained, “T2” is a bold and forceful argument for free will.

Cameron reveals that when he contacted Linda Hamilton about reprising the Sarah Connor character, she agreed to do it under one condition: Sarah would basically have to be crazy. And who wouldn’t be after what she experienced in the first film, knowing that nobody is going to believe her version of events? As Wisher puts it, “If you really did have to kill a robot from the future and you knew the world was coming to an end, what would you do?”

The filmmakers also discuss the bait-and-switch pulled on viewers in the opening scenes of the film, where we are led to believe that Robert Patrick’s liquid metal T-1000, outfitted as a police officer, is the good guy, while Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is still hell-bent on killing Sarah Connor. “It was a pretty scary thing [to turn Arnold’s character into a good guy],” says Wisher. Cameron recalls a breakfast meeting with Schwarzenegger where he explained that his character wouldn’t kill anybody in the movie, and Arnold responding, “But Jim, I’m the Terminator.”

I found the commentary to be particularly entertaining and insightful precisely because I have seen “Terminator 2” so many times. I was never distracted by Cameron and Wisher “talking over” the dialogue, because I knew what the characters were saying to one another; I knew what was going to happen in the next scene. It added so much context to hear them talk about the logistics behind a particular scene, as when Cameron tells us that when we see a helicopter flying under a freeway overpass with little room to spare, we’re actually seeing a helicopter flying under a freeway overpass with little room to spare. No CGI, no green screen, no miniatures or movie trickery of any kind.

Both men also speak fondly of young Edward Furlong (they call him “Eddie”), who had zero acting experience before being cast as John Connor. (His voice broke halfway through the making of the film, and he had to return to loop much of his dialogue.) As Wisher notes, “T2” is at heart the story of “a boy and his Terminator,” and it was an incredible leap of faith to risk a $100 million movie on the shoulders of an untested young performer.

For every moment when Cameron geeks out about the computer and visual effects wizardry of Industrial Light & Magic or the brilliant make-up effects work by Stan Winston or the type of camera used for a particular shot, there’s another interlude where Cameron and Wisher discuss the morality of “T2.” One moment, Cameron is gleefully telling us, “If you look closely, you can see the stunt driver’s head in the back window.” The next moment, he’s ruminating, “The metaphor is that most parents think the well-being of their children…is equal to the survival of the planet.” In Sarah’s case, they’re one and the same. Yet as the story progresses, it’s the Terminator who becomes more human—a father figure to John—while Sarah is more like a terminator.

Even Cameron and Wisher seem impressed at how well it all worked. Says Wisher, “I did this with you, and even I’m amazed that this worked.”

That’s the understatement of the decade.

See complete review on Instagram.