50 Fun Facts About Terminator 2: Judgment Day

What did the studio behind Terminator 2 hand Arnold Schwarzenegger to cover most of his salary?

A private jet, a Gulfstream III, made up most of his fee because paying that way eased the studio's immediate cash burden.

Who doubled for Terminator 2's Sarah Connor actress when two Sarahs appear on screen at once?

Her twin sister Leslie played the real Sarah in scenes where the star was portraying the T-1000 impersonating her.

Which gesture does the T-800 give John Connor as it is lowered into the vat in Terminator 2?

A thumbs-up was added during filming, although the actress playing Sarah Connor thought it too sentimental.

In Last Action Hero, which actor replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger on a poster for Terminator 2?

Sylvester Stallone appears as the T-800 on the poster, and the 1993 film also slips in a cameo by the T-1000 itself.

Which rock band recorded "You Could Be Mine", the tie-in single for Terminator 2?

Guns N' Roses were Arnold Schwarzenegger's own pick, and he appears in the music video as the T-800 pursuing the band.

What is the shape-shifting T-1000 made of in Terminator 2, letting it copy people it touches?

Liquid metal, which the film calls mimetic polyalloy, lets it imitate any person it touches but not complex machines with moving parts.

Which disguise does the T-1000 wear for most of Terminator 2 so it can move around unquestioned?

A police officer could operate with less suspicion, and the writers saw the uniform as a symbol of people who should have empathy becoming machine-like.

Which singer was considered for Terminator 2's T-1000 before a motorcycle crash badly injured his leg?

Billy Idol was ruled out by the crash, and James Cameron later admitted he probably would not have cast him in hindsight.

Which actor plays Terminator 2's T-1000, having trained to sprint without visibly breathing hard?

Robert Patrick studied hunting animals such as cats and sharks for the part, and learned to reload a pistol without looking or even blinking.

Which actress returned as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 after months of judo and military training?

Linda Hamilton worked with a trainer three hours a day, six days a week, and later described the gruelling preparation as sheer hell.

Which newcomer plays the young John Connor in Terminator 2, having never acted before?

Edward Furlong beat hundreds of other hopefuls at his last audition, then had to take acting lessons and learn to ride a motorcycle.

Which artificial intelligence sends the T-1000 back in time to hunt John Connor in Terminator 2?

Skynet becomes self-aware in the story's timeline and triggers a nuclear holocaust when its creators try to switch it off.

Where does the final showdown between the T-800 and the T-1000 take place in Terminator 2?

A steel mill hosts the finale, filmed in a closed Kaiser plant in Fontana that was frigid and dangerous despite appearing to be smelting.

Which order from John Connor does the T-800 obey for the rest of Terminator 2?

Never kill anyone is John's rule once he learns the machine is programmed to obey him, so it takes to wounding its opponents instead.

Which machine does young John Connor hack early in Terminator 2, in a scene filmed in Van Nuys?

An ATM is his target, in a scene filmed at a bank; the house of his foster parents, in Canoga Park, was picked for its generic look.

Which company employs Miles Dyson, whose chip research threatens the future in Terminator 2?

Cyberdyne Systems has Dyson as its director of special projects, and he ends up helping to blow up his own lab there.

Which rock song plays as the T-800 puts on a biker's clothes early in Terminator 2?

Bad to the Bone, by George Thorogood & the Destroyers, was the co-writer's suggestion, which James Cameron used despite disliking the idea at first.

Which Hollywood record did Terminator 2 set before a single ticket had been sold?

Most expensive film ever made at the time, it cost an estimated $94–102 million with marketing, and news reports predicted it would bankrupt its studio.

Which of these Academy Awards did Terminator 2 win at the 64th Oscars ceremony?

Best Visual Effects was one of four Oscars for the film, which also won for makeup, sound and sound effects editing but lost for cinematography and film editing.

Terminator 2 was the top-grossing film of 1991 in North America; which film finished second?

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves had been tipped as the year's biggest hit, but it finished about $40 million behind the sequel.

Terminator 2 ended its run as the third-highest-grossing film ever, behind Star Wars and which film?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial led the list with about $619 million, while Terminator 2 became the first film to gross over $300 million outside the US and Canada.

James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger reunited soon after Terminator 2 for which action film?

True Lies followed in 1994, by which time the two were close friends who had formed what they called a midlife crisis motorcycle club.

Which later sequel is a direct follow-up to Terminator 2, with James Cameron back as producer?

Dark Fate picks up from the 1991 film's events, and it put the actress who played Sarah Connor back on screen in the role.

Which theme park brand opened T2-3D: Battle Across Time, an attraction based on Terminator 2?

Universal Studios Florida opened the show in 1996; its 12-minute 3D film reunited the four lead actors and cost $24 million, a record per minute at the time.

Miles Dyson's research in Terminator 2 draws on a chip and which other relic of the 1984 machine?

Its arm and the chip are retrieved in the break-in at the lab, and John later throws both into the molten vat.

Which company created the groundbreaking computer-generated T-1000 imagery seen in Terminator 2?

Industrial Light & Magic needed a team of up to 35 people for about five minutes of footage, and rendering 15 seconds of it could take ten days.

Which future Breaking Bad star plays the SWAT team leader in Terminator 2?

Dean Norris, later famous as DEA agent Hank Schrader, has played more than 40 law enforcement roles across his career.

Which 1989 underwater film had computer-generated water imagery similar to Terminator 2's T-1000?

The Abyss was James Cameron's previous film, and the same company that animated its water tentacle went on to build the shape-shifting villain.

Which star declined to play Miles Dyson in Terminator 2 because the part mostly meant acting scared?

Denzel Washington was the preferred choice for the engineer, and the role of Dyson was scaled back after he turned it down.

Which actor plays Miles Dyson, the engineer shot while destroying his own lab in Terminator 2?

Joe Morton avoided mixing with the rest of the cast during filming so that their on-screen relationships would seem believably distant.

Which California institution is Sarah Connor locked inside at the start of Terminator 2?

Pescadero State Hospital holds her for violent efforts to avert the coming war; a hospital in Lake View Terrace stood in for it on screen.

James Cameron said that if the T-800 was a human Panzer tank, Terminator 2's T-1000 was which car?

A Porsche summed up the sleeker model, so he looked for a lean actor who resembled a fresh recruit, to contrast with his muscular star.

Which character from the first film appears in Terminator 2 only in a deleted dream scene?

Kyle Reese, John's father, appears to Sarah in a dream and urges her to keep fighting; the scene was among several cut to reduce the running time.

Whose studio built the puppets, prosthetics and animatronics used in Terminator 2?

Stan Winston also directed the film's $150,000 teaser trailer, which shows a T-800 being constructed.

Which composer returned from the first film to score Terminator 2, working in his garage?

Brad Fiedel swapped the first film's synthesizers for recordings of real instruments that he then altered, aiming for a warmer tone.

Which independent studio bought the rights and made Terminator 2, then filed for bankruptcy in 1995?

Carolco Pictures spent about $17 million acquiring the rights, a deal its owner called the most difficult the company ever conducted.

Which US institution selected Terminator 2 for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2023?

Library of Congress curators add films judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, and the 1991 sequel joined 32 years after its release.

A spectator's videotape of Terminator 2's biker bar shoot also captured the beating of which man?

Rodney King was beaten nearby after the shoot, and the amateur tape that recorded it also holds footage of the film crew at work.

Which 1992 comedy features a cameo by the T-1000 from Terminator 2, still hunting for John Connor?

Wayne's World has the villain hold up a photo of the boy and ask whether Wayne has seen him, at which Wayne drives away screaming.

Which singer's 1985 song about Cold War fears inspired the John Connor character in Terminator 2?

Sting's single "Russians" set James Cameron thinking that nuclear war is the opposite of life itself, and the boy's character grew from that thought.

Which lasting injury did Terminator 2's Sarah Connor actress suffer filming the elevator shootout?

Hearing loss, partial but permanent, followed when she went without earplugs for the scene in which the T-800 opens fire inside the confined lift.

In Terminator 2's scripted alternative ending, set in 2029, the adult John Connor holds which job?

A US senator in a peaceful future, John plays with his daughter in a playground while an aged Sarah narrates; James Cameron replaced the scene with a view of the open road.

Which Harley-Davidson model earned a place in American pop culture by appearing in Terminator 2?

The Fat Boy had only been in production since 1990, and one of the motorcycles used in the film is displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Which Aliens actress plays John Connor's foster mother in Terminator 2?

Jenette Goldstein won a Saturn Award as the marine Vasquez in that film, and later took a small role in James Cameron's Titanic as well.

Which co-writer of Terminator 2 makes a cameo as a bystander photographing the T-800?

William Wisher, who had also worked on the 1984 original, spent four weeks at James Cameron's home developing the first half of the story.

Which real mall's interior hosts the first clash between the two Terminators in Terminator 2?

Santa Monica Place supplied the interiors, while the exterior footage was captured at a different shopping centre because it had less traffic.

The composer of Terminator 2 built the T-1000's theme by sampling which musicians as they warmed up?

Brass players improvising were recorded, then slowed down and lowered in pitch until the result sounded to him like artificial monks chanting.

Terminator 2 opened in US cinemas on a Wednesday, leading into which holiday weekend?

Fourth of July weekend brought a record opening for an R-rated film, although the distribution deal had originally called for a Memorial Day release.

Which language did the young actor cast as John Connor have to learn for Terminator 2?

Spanish lessons joined acting classes on his list of homework, along with learning to ride a motorcycle and repair firearms.

Terminator 2 was the favourite film of which Russian opposition politician and political prisoner?

Alexei Navalny shared his admiration with filmmakers such as Ryan Coogler, Kevin Feige and Hideo Kojima, who have all named the film as an influence.