How Terminator 2 Achieved Iconic Special Effects

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is often lauded as one of the greatest cinematic sequels of all time. Its effects represent groundbreaking achievements in makeup, puppetry, practical rigging, and CGI that still predominantly hold up even today. And while the mystique of movie magic may be enough for some viewers, curious fans can’t resist peeling back the layers that make the Terminator movies work.

In honor of the in-world “Judgment Day” being August 29, let’s take a look at the explosive, innovative, and purely ingenious techniques behind Terminator 2‘s stunning on-screen legacy.

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Four Different Effects Houses Brought the Film to Life

Four core organizations were brought in for the laborious effects work on Terminator 2. This included Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Stan Winston Studio, Fantasy II Film Effects, and 4-Ward Productions. Additional effects were also provided by Pacific Data Images and Video Images, but the majority of special lighting, practical prop work and makeup effects, construction of miniatures, and various explosive and ballistic elements were covered by the core groups.

In total, approximately $17 million of the film’s budget went towards these effects, with $5 million alone being put towards the execution of the T-1000’s distinct visuals.

• ILM managed the CGI effects.
• Stan Winston Studio brought the animatronics and prosthetics to life.
• Fantasy II Film Effects was in charge of creating miniatures and additional optical effects.
• 4-Ward Productions was primarily responsible for creating the visuals for nuclear explosions.

About $1 million was spent on the film’s action stunt budget.

Stunt actions for the film were achieved with a mix of practical live-action work and cutting in footage of miniature recreations, like shots of the tanker truck for the highway chase, for specific moments that could not be achieved practically. With director James Cameron’s aim being long, exhilarating sequences, a stunt helicopter carrying cameras during the continuous water channel chase even had to fly beneath a bridge with only 5 feet of clearance either above or below. Stunt pilots were hired to pull this off.

Other logistical challenges involved in the production included elements like achieving proper vehicle rollover with a variety of truck cabs, allowing the T-800 to climb onto the side of the truck in live action, and properly planning out a 60-foot jump from a 750-pound motorbike into the water channel. For the latter, a rig had to be built to carry the bike and rider to the ground because the bike’s particular model was too heavy to survive the dangerous maneuver (which is to say nothing of the stunt actor’s safety too!).

The T-1000 truck scene had to be captured within one day of shooting due to studio agreements with the San Fernando Valley region, and failure to capture sufficient footage of the stunt sequence would have lost the production at least six figures. Ultimately, it had to be altered in post-production due to flipping the footage. Cameron felt the scene had a better impact with the truck crashing in the opposite direction than was filmed. This, however, required further digital changes to be made when a street sign and the dummy driver’s position in the cab suddenly became illogically inverted.

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The Terminator‘s unique visual perspective was dubbed “Termovision.”

Termovision, or the sequences when the audience sees through the T-800’s computerized perspective, was only intended to be seen in eight shots, but given the narrative and character-building impact it had, more of these scenes were added in. Each was uniquely storyboarded and composed of live-action footage and the infographic overlay. They were conceptualized by Van Ling and produced by Video Image, photoshopped with red colorization over the footage while trying not to obscure the visuals beyond recognition.

Elements like image enhancement, scanning and analysis of people and objects, and other abilities were added to the T-800’s repertoire following the effect’s appearance in The Terminator. Ling used interpositive footage transferred to a high-resolution scanner to create the Termovision screens. The resulting image had about 1 million pixels which had grayscale values from 0 (black) to 255 (white). This allowed for each pixel in the image to be manipulated across a spectrum of black, white, and intermediate red tones to achieve the desired digitized look.

Scanned subjects in Termovision were rotoscoped to provide animation and outline as the T-800 studied them. For “image enhancement” sequences, high-resolution images were overlaid with digital mosaics to decrease the image quality, and then the footage was played in reverse.

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Balsa wood, cornflakes, and crackers were used in the nuclear blast.

Under 4-Ward Productions’ management of the nuclear explosion effects, a miniature cityscape of Los Angeles was created along with a miniature 8-foot-tall nuclear blast made of plexiglass and fiberfill. Cameron wanted the visuals to evoke a “God-like dissection” of the event while being as realistic and harrowingly extreme as possible. It was a cautionary scene, and 4-Ward effects supervisors Robert Skotak and Elain Edford wanted to convey the physical brutality through the light and energy — making it as palpable as possible for the viewers.

Robert and Dennis Skotak scoped out areas of Los Angeles that would be most interesting to explode in miniature for the high-angle scenes. On-location footage of locales was taken and then faded into painted representations of the same areas as they were destroyed. Then, miniature models were blown apart with various techniques, including high-powered air cannons.

But to achieve the proper crumbling and shattering effects the team wanted, building models (the average of which was 5 feet tall) were filled with materials like balsa wood, cornflakes, and crackers. The external facades featured pyrocel, plaster, wire to simulate rebar, and additional durable but breakable substances. Buildings also had to be visually detailed front and back as debris scattered and there was no way to tell what would end up visible in the rubble.

They also exploded a model of Linda Hamilton.

For the scene where Sarah Connor is reduced to ash in the shockwave, multiple waist-up puppets were created. Linda Hamilton’s expression was based on scans, as it would have been difficult to maintain the pained expression during a plaster lifecast.

This effect moved in stages; catching fire in the blast, skin burning and melting, and finally, her ashes flaking away to reveal the skeleton. The primary puppet featured articulation controlled by cables for her arms, her jaw, and her neck — this model was set on fire and the puppeteer had to wear a Kevlar suit.

The next stage of the puppet featured flammable rubber cement with squibs (small explosives often used to create bullet holes/remote bursts) to create the effect of Sarah’s charred skin. This puppet had jaw articulation, but the wires controlling the limbs could not withstand the heat applied to the mechanism.

Finally, the third-stage puppet featured a reinforced medical demonstration skeleton. The mold of Hamilton was covered with tissue paper and tempera paint to create an extremely fragile, flaky texture that was then blown away with high pressure air, leaving only the skeleton behind.

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Linda Hamilton’s twin was used in multiple sequences requiring a second Sarah Connor.

Did you know Linda Hamilton had an identical twin sister? Although she was a nurse by profession and not an actor, Leslie Hamilton was able to stand in for several scenes filmed throughout the course of T2. The first of these was a theatrically deleted scene when Connor is cutting into the T-800 to help modify his CPU. This was achieved both with actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, as well as a prosthetic bust of Schwarzenegger and Leslie Hamilton.

Linda acted alongside the prosthetic, while Leslie and Schwarzenegger performed the inverse actions “in the mirror” — using a glassless pane and the T-800 makeup applied in reverse to simulate the effect. Aspects of the set were also duplicated in reverse to add effect to the background of the “mirror.”

Leslie Hamilton later portrayed Sarah Connor as impersonated by the T-1000 to deceive John. This is also the film’s only direct transformation of the T-1000 into another character without the chrome interlay. The film was overlaid with a morphing effect, but the background of this shot was specially developed and carefully shot. Final scenic color corrections finished the transformation.

Sadly, Leslie Hamilton passed away in 2020 at the age of 63.

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The T-1000’s unique metal body led to incredible and challenging effects.

An incredible amount of work and consideration went into the many effects showcasing the T-1000’s unique “mimetic poly-alloy” body. Between computer generated graphics and animation, plus practical materials (including liquid mercury, which is somewhat toxic), it took every creative trick in the book, plus that $5mil budget, to realize the character’s abilities.

The T-1000’s body was also unique in that the film production had to invent the physics of its liquid-like form, meaning they didn’t always have exact real world reference for how the shifting and transforming materials should perform. One of the most difficult sequences to animate was the moment when the T-800 punches through the T-1000’s head, given that the material had to be animated around Schwarzenegger’s fist before it continued to ripple and shift.

Forget the Terminator’s shotgun in a rose box, the T-1000 had custom “chrome flowers.”

Especially memorable are the T-1000’s bullet wound effects, which the production team compared to chrome flowers. Latex and foam pieces were sculpted and then coated in metal to create the final burst appearance. But to achieve the action of “bursting” when hit with gunfire, they had to create a chest plate for the actor that held the segmented flowers. A spring mechanism pushed the metal pieces through pre-cut holes in his costume. Strong springs ensured the pieces would all burst simultaneously, but occasionally a take would be ruined by a piece activating prematurely.

To save budget on the wound-closing animation, the team also waited until the T-1000’s body had sustained multiple wounds in a shot before having the Terminator heal itself. This way, all the impacts could be closed in one visual take — a custom animation program detailed with the rippling effects and poly-alloy coloration was used to enhance the visuals.

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This is just a small look at the countless special effects and tireless efforts of many skilled filmmakers that went into Terminator 2: Judgment Day. To this day, the techniques involved entertain and inspire audiences and industry creatives alike.

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