Classic 90s Movie: “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Jonathan Slattery.
Movie Title: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Year: 1991
Writers: James Cameron, William Wisher Jr.
Lead Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Director: James Cameron
IMDB Plot Summary: A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her teenage son, John, from a more advanced cyborg, made out of liquid metal.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 90s Movie: Unquestionably, the most important development in 90s filmmaking was the birth of CGI. With this new technique, filmmakers could create effects, characters and even whole worlds that would have been otherwise impossible to achieve with standard special effects. It was a colossal achievement and it completely revolutionised the landscape of filmmaking.
From today’s perspective, it is easy to see the potential of CGI, however, when it was first created no one really knew what the possibilities were. It was going to take a bold filmmaker to try it out and see what they could do with it.
If you look at a list of the greatest ever film villains you are likely to find the T-1000 in the top ten. Without wanting to take anything away from Robert Patrick’s excellent performance (modelling his movements on a bald eagle and on a shark — similar to how Benedict Cumberbatch modeled his movements on lizards for his portrayal of the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), the real power of the T-1000 as a character comes from his visual design. From his delicious ability to contort his body into blades to his shape-shifting skills to his capacity to reform even if shattered into a thousand pieces, the T-1000 was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before (and perhaps since) and without CGI he simply could not have been realised.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The sad farewell at the end of the film. It is at this point when we realise just how much we care for the characters, especially the Terminator.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: This movie is packed to the gills with great dialogue, but no line reverberated more throughout the 90s than “Hasta la vista, baby.” Incidentally, as Schwarzenegger’s fee for the film was $15,000,000 and he has 700 words of dialogue (equating to $21,429 per word) the cost of that line was $85,716.
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: Apart from the CGI, look for some fantastic stunt work in the motorcycle jump into the storm drain and the incredibly unnerving moment when the helicopter flies under the bridge (the camera crew refused to film the shot because of the high risk involved, so Cameron himself stepped in to helm the camera).
The perceptive viewer will also notice the significance of the arcade game John plays at the Galleria (Missile Commando — Skynet was originally designed to be a missile defence system) as well as what John’s name would be if he took his foster parent’s surname.
Lastly, don’t just look, but listen to the driving theme by Brad Fiedel and the wonderful sound design, notably, the T-1000 moving through the jail bars (dog food sliding out from a can) and the T-1000’s death throes in the molten steel (Cameron’s own screams were used).
Thanks, Jonathan. To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
We already have a set of 80s Movies. This month we cover 90s movies. So thanks to all of you for your participation in this project, creating a resource for writers, movies they should watch to help learn the craft of screenwriting!
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