Info About The Second Instalment Of The Terminator Series:
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (commonly abbreviated as T3) is a 2003 science fictionaction film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken. It is the second sequel to The Terminator (1984).
After Skynet fails to kill Sarah Connor before her son is born and to kill John himself as a child, it sends back another Terminator, the T-X, in an attempt to wipe out as many Resistance officers as possible, since Connor himself cannot be traced. This includes John's future wife, but not John himself as his whereabouts are unknown to Skynet. John's life is placed in danger when the T-X accidentally finds him.
Plot
Following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor (Nick Stahl) has been living off-the-grid in Los Angeles. Although Judgment Day did not occur on August 29, 1997, the date given by the Terminator in the previous film, John does not believe that the prophesied war between humans and Skynet has been averted. Unable to locate John, Skynet sends a new model of Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back in time to July 24, 2004 to kill his future lieutenants in the human Resistance. A more advanced model than previous Terminators, the T-X has an endoskeleton with built-in weaponry, a liquid metal exterior similar to the T-1000, and the ability to control other machines. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed T-850 model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect the T-X's targets, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) and John. The Terminator saves John and Kate from the T-X's initial attack, and the three visit the grave of Sarah Connor, who died of leukemia some years before. Inside the grave they find a weapons cache left by Sarah's friends as a backup in the event that Judgment Day was not averted. The T-X and police arrive and a battle ensues, but John, Kate, and the Terminator steal a hearse and escape. The Terminator has been programmed to take John and Kate to a safe location so that they may survive Judgment Day, which is to occur in a few hours, but John decides that they should attempt to prevent Skynet from being activated. The Terminator reveals that, in the future, John and Kate had married, and that Kate had reprogrammed him and sent him back in time after it had succeeded in killing John in 2032. After the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the United States Air Force took over the Skynet project and it is being headed by Kate's father, Lieutenant General Robert Brewster (David Andrews). However, the trio arrive too late to stop him from activating Skynet in an attempt to stop the spread of a massive computer virus. Skynet assumes control of the military's defense network just as the T-X arrives, taking control of various machines in an attempt to eliminate John and Kate. John asks the dying General for the location of Skynet's system core, hoping to still stop Judgment Day, and is instructed to go to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Before John and Kate can escape by plane, the T-X takes control of the Terminator and it attacks them. It is able to override its programming and shut itself down before it can kill John. As John and Kate arrive at Crystal Peak they are attacked by the T-X, but a rebooted Terminator crashes a helicopter into it. Even with its legs severed the T-X continues to pursue John and Kate, but the Terminator traps it under a blast door and detonates its last remaining hydrogen fuel cell in the T-X's mouth, destroying them both. John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak does not house Skynet's core, but is rather a Cold War-era fallout shelter for high-ranking government officials. General Brewster sent them there to protect them from the impending nuclear holocaust initiated by Skynet. Skynet in fact does not have a core but instead exists as software in cyberspace running on computers all over the world, making it effectively impossible to shut down. It begins a series of nuclear attacks on various cities, commencing Judgment Day. Soon after the attacks, the equipment at Crystal Peak picks up transmissions from amateur radio operators and Montana's civil defense, to which John responds.
Nick Stahl as John Connor: Edward Furlong, who played John in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, reportedly was not asked to reprise his role in T3 due to a substance abuse problem. In a 2004 interview, he responded, "I don't know [what happened]. It just wasn't the time. I was going through my own thing at the point in my life — whatever, it just wasn't meant to be".[2]
Claire Danes as Kate Brewster: In a 2005 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Danes revealed that she was cast for the role of Brewster as a last-minute replacement after actress Sophia Bush was thought too young to portray her.[3]
Mark Famiglietti as Scott Mason: Kate Brewster's slain fiancé was originally named Scott Petersen, but was changed in order to avoid association with the Scott Peterson case surrounding the murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner.[4] In the ending credits his name is still listed as "Scott Petersen".
Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman: Reprising his role from the first two films. Boen appears for one scene, attempting to comfort Claire Danes' character after she witnesses the acts of the Terminator. Prior to Terminator Salvation, Boen was the only actor to appear in all Terminator films, aside from Schwarzenegger.
Linda Hamilton was approached to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, but turned the offer down. She explained, "They offered me a part. I read it and I knew my character arc was so complete in the first two, and in the third one it was a negligible character. She died halfway through and there was no time to mourn her. It was kind of disposable, so I said no thank you."[5]
Production
James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. Tedi Sarafian wrote an early draft, and eventually earned a shared "story by" credit with screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who wrote the screenplay.
The studios had long wanted to make a sequel to the Terminator films. However, they were unsure whether Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in it. Schwarzenegger initially refused to star in Terminator 3 because Cameron, who created the character and helmed the first two films, would not be directing the third installment. Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Cameron to produce the third film. Cameron declined, however, as he felt that he had already finished telling the story upon the conclusion of T2. But feeling that the Terminator character was as much Schwarzenegger's as it was his own, he advised Schwarzenegger to just do the third film and ask for "nothing less than $30 million."[citation needed] Schwarzenegger received a salary of $29.25 million, plus 20 percent of the profits, for his role in the film.[6]
The film's production budget was initially set at $170 million,[7][8] making it the most expensive film ever to be greenlit at the time,[9][10] and with final production costs possibly as high as $200 million.[11] Other estimates put the initial budget at $169.3 million[12] and the final cost of the film at $187.3 million.[6] Schwarzenegger agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia, from Los Angeles.[13] Many pundits saw this as preparation to his campaign for California governor, in which he emphasized giving incentives to have movie productions stay in California, rather than film in less-expensive places elsewhere. Filming began on April 12, 2002.
Additional scene
A scene filmed during production gives a possible explanation as to why one particular model of Terminators all look like Schwarzenegger. A character named Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Schwarzenegger) explains in a Cyber Research Systems (CRS) promotional video that he was chosen to be the model for the Terminator project. Schwarzenegger's character has a Southern accent (dubbed by an uncredited actor); when Lieutenant General Brewster questions the appropriateness of Candy's Southern accent for the Terminator's voice, another scientist replies, "We can fix it" in Schwarzenegger's (overdubbed) voice. This scene is available as a special feature on the DVD release.
Terminator 3 earned a 70% positive rating on the film critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.[17] Shortly after the film's release, James Cameron told the BBC he thought the film was "in one word: great",[18] but later said he would not return to the franchise, saying "[The series] has kind of run its course" and that "frankly, the soup's already been pissed in by other film makers".[19] After the release of Terminator Salvation in 2009, he also stated he felt his two films were better than either of the later films.[20] In The New York TimesA. O. Scott said the film "is essentially a B movie, content to be loud, dumb and obvious".[21]Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars, remarking, "Essentially one long chase and fight, punctuated by comic, campy or simplistic dialogue."[22] Terminator 3 earned a total worldwide gross of $433 million, 17% less than its predecessor's worldwide gross of $519 million not taking into account inflation.[11]
Info About The Second Instalment Of The Terminator Series:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fictionaction film, the second installment of the Terminator franchise and the sequel to The Terminator (1984). Directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher, Jr., it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong. Terminator 2 follows Sarah Connor (Hamilton) and her son John (Furlong) as they are pursued by a new, more advanced Terminator, the liquid metal, shapeshiftingT-1000 (Patrick), sent back in time to kill John and prevent him from becoming the leader of the human Resistance against the machines. An older, less advanced Terminator (Schwarzenegger) is also sent back in time to protect John.
After a troubled pre-production characterized by legal disputes, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures emerged with the franchise's property rights in early 1990. This paved the way for the completion of the screenplay by the Cameron-led production team, and the October 1990 start of a shorter-than-originally-planned 186-day filming schedule. The production of Terminator 2 required an unprecedented budget of more than $94 million (1991 dollars), much of which was spent on filming and special effects. The film was released on July 3, 1991, in time for the U.S. Fourth of July weekend. Terminator 2, a box office and critical success, influenced popular culture and especially movies in the genres of action and science fiction.[5] The film's visual effects saw many breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character.[6] It received many accolades, including four Academy Awards for makeup, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects.[7]
Plot
In 1995, eleven years after the events of The Terminator, John Connor (Edward Furlong) is ten years old and living in Los Angeles with foster parents. His mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) had been preparing him throughout his childhood for his future role as the leader of the human Resistance against Skynet, but was arrested after attempting to bomb a computer factory and remanded to a hospital for the criminally insane under the supervision of Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen). Skynet sends a new Terminator, a T-1000 (Robert Patrick), back in time to kill John. A prototype which is more advanced than the Terminator sent after Sarah, the T-1000 is composed of a "mimetic poly-alloy", a liquid metal that allows it to take the shape and appearance of anyone or anything it touches. Though it cannot mimic complex machines such as guns or bombs, it can shape parts of itself into knives and stabbing weapons and can mimic the voice and appearance of humans. It assumes the identity of a police officer and goes in pursuit of John. Meanwhile, the future John Connor has sent back a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to protect his younger self. The Terminator and the T-1000 converge on John in a shopping mall, and a chase ensues in which John and the Terminator escape by motorcycle. Fearing that the T-1000 will kill Sarah in order to get to him, John orders the Terminator to help free her. They encounter Sarah in the midst of her own escape attempt. She is initially terrified by the Terminator but accepts its assistance after it helps them to escape the T-1000. The Terminator informs John and Sarah about Skynet, the artificial intelligence that will initiate a nuclear war on "Judgment Day" and go on to create the machines that will hunt the remnants of humanity.[N 1] Sarah learns that the man most directly responsible for Skynet's creation is Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), a Cyberdyne Systems engineer working on a revolutionary new microprocessor that will form the basis for Skynet. Sarah gathers weapons from an old friend and plans to flee with John to Mexico, but after having a horrific nightmare of a nuclear explosion she awakens and sets out to kill Miles Dyson to prevent "Judgment Day" from occurring. She wounds him at his home but finds herself unable to kill him in front of his family. John and the Terminator arrive and inform Miles of the consequences of his work and learn that much of his research has been reverse engineered from the CPU and arm of the previous Terminator sent after Sarah. Convincing him that these items and his designs must be destroyed, they break into the Cyberdyne building and retrieve the CPU and arm. The police and the T-1000 arrive and Miles is mortally shot and stays behind to trigger a detonator that will destroy his research. The T-1000 pursues John, Sarah, and the Terminator, catching up to them in a steel mill. In a climactic battle, the Terminator fires a grenade into the T-1000 and it falls into a vat of molten steel, where it is destroyed. John throws the components of the original Terminator into the vat as well. The Terminator then sacrifices itself, asking Sarah to lower it into the steel so that its technology cannot be used to create Skynet. Sarah looks to the future with hope, believing that if a machine can learn the value of human life, humanity may not be doomed to self-destruction.
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic organism—living tissue over a powerful, metal endoskeleton—reprogrammed and sent back in time to protect John Connor while he is still a child. Schwarzenegger was paid a salary of $12–15 million for his role as the Terminator.[8][9]
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, mother of the future leader of the human Resistance in the war against Skynet. Hamilton reprised her role from the 1984 film for a salary of $1 million.[10] In preparation for the role, Hamilton underwent an extensive thirteen-week training regimen with personal trainer Anthony Cortes, training for three hours each day, six days a week before filming began. She additionally lost 12 pounds (5.4 kg) on a nonfat diet, conducted throughout the film's six-month shoot. Actor and former Israeli commando Uzi Gal provided her with training for her action scenes. On her work with Gal, Hamilton stated that she undertook "judo and heavy-duty military training" and "learned to load clips, change mags, check out a room upon entry, verify kills."[11] Hamilton's twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren also portrayed Sarah when it was required that there be two of the character in the same shot.[11]
Robert Patrick as the T-1000, an advanced prototype Terminator composed of liquid metal, sent back in time to assassinate John. Billy Idol was Cameron's original choice for the T-1000, and Cameron had drawn storyboards to resemble him, but Idol could not accept the role following a motorcycle accident.[12] Cameron stated that he "wanted to find someone who would be a good contrast to Arnold. If the 800 series [the model played by Schwarzenegger] is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the 1000 series had to be a Porsche."[13][14]
Edward Furlong as John Connor, the ten-year-old son of Sarah, given survival training from a young age, but taken into foster care after his mother is institutionalized. Furlong was discovered by casting director Mali Finn while visiting the PasadenaBoys and Girls Club.[15] Furlong, who had no acting ambitions at the time, stated, "I fell into [acting], it wasn't something that I planned".[16] The adult John of 2029 AD is played by Michael Edwards.
Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman, Sarah's psychiatrist, skeptical of her prophecies of machines destroying humanity.
Joe Morton as Miles Dyson, director of special projects at Cyberdyne and considered the man most responsible for the creation of Skynet.
The cast was rounded out with Jenette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley, who portray John's foster parents, Janelle and Todd Voight. Cástulo Guerra plays Sarah's friend, Enrique Salceda, who provides her with weapons. Danny Cooksey plays Tim, John's friend. S. Epatha Merkerson plays Tarissa Dyson, the wife of Miles Dyson. Michael Biehn returned to the series as Kyle Reese, a soldier from 2029, in a cameo appearance, appearing in Sarah's dream. Biehn did not appear at all in the theatrically released version of the film,[17] but his scene was restored in extended versions of the film. Hamilton's then-twenty-month-old son Dalton plays her on-screen son in a dream sequence set in a playground.[11]
Production
Development
Talk of a potential sequel to The Terminator arose soon after the original's release, but several outstanding issues precluded such a production. There were technical setbacks regarding computer imagery, a vital aspect of the film that would be crucial in the creation of the T-1000 Terminator. The production of James Cameron's 1988 film The Abyss provided the proof of concept necessary to satisfactorily resolve the technical concerns.[18] Perhaps more serious were the intellectual-property disputes between Hemdale Film, which owned the franchise and stymied efforts to produce a sequel, and Carolco Pictures.[19] Given that Hemdale was then experiencing financial problems, Arnold Schwarzenegger urged Mario Kassar, head of Carolco, to bid for the rights: "I reminded Mario that this is something that we've been looking for four years, and that it should be him that should go all-out, no matter what it takes to make this deal."[19] Carolco eventually paid Hemdale $5 million for the franchise in 1990, resolving the legal gridlock.[18][19] The end of the legal disputes coincided with the willingness and availability of Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton to participate in the film; Schwarzenegger, who portrayed the Terminator in the first film, commented: "I always felt we should continue the story of The Terminator, I told Jim that right after we finished the first film."[20] He and Hamilton reprised their respective roles from the first Terminator film. After an extensive casting search, 12-year-old Edward Furlong was selected from hundreds of candidates to portray John Connor; Robert Patrick was chosen to play the T-1000 Terminator because his agility emphasized the disparity between the advanced T-1000 and Schwarzenegger's older T-800 (Cameron characterized the two as "a Porsche" and "a human Panzer tank" respectively).[18][19] Patrick had previously appeared in the action feature Die Hard 2, but Furlong had no formal acting experience.[18]Joe Morton was picked to portray Miles Dyson, a Cyberdyne scientist who helped develop the new microprocessor for the T-800 Terminators.[18] Calling themselves T2 Productions, James and co-producers Stephanie Austin and B.J. Rack rented an office in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, before starting to assemble the film crew for Terminator 2. Adam Greenberg, who worked on The Terminator and Ghost (1990), became director of photography, while Joseph Nemec III, who had worked with Cameron on The Abyss, was tasked with production design.[18] The team conducted a national search for a steel mill suitable for the film's climax, eventually selecting a dormant mill in Fontana, California, after weeks of negotiations.[18] Locating a potential Cyberdyne building was more difficult, as the site was to host numerous stunts, shootouts, and explosions. An industrial park in Fremont, California, was eventually rented for the duration of the film's production.[18] Cameron and William Wisher completed the 140-page screenplay draft on May 10, 1990, and by July 15, the first shooting draft had been distributed to the cast and crew;[18] particulars of the technically-detailed scripts were shrouded in secrecy.[19] Both the six-week turnaround for the script and the film's accelerated production schedule were to enable a 1991 Fourth of July release.[18]
Filming
Principal photography of Terminator 2 spanned over 186 days between October 9, 1990, and April 4, 1991, during which the crew filmed at the Mojave Desert before visiting 20 different sites throughout California and New Mexico.[18][21][22] These locations ran the gamut from the crowded Santa Monica Place shopping mall, where the two Terminators converged on John, to flood control channels in the San Fernando Valley, which played host to the chase between the Terminators and John; a river had to be redirected to allow filming on the otherwise wet channels.[18][23][24] Cameron and his crew also filmed Terminator 2 at The Corral Bar and the Lake View Medical Center (known as Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in the film), both located in Lakeview Terrace.[22][25] The external shots of Cyberdyne Systems Corporation were filmed on location at an office building on the corner of Gateway Boulevard and Bayside Parkway in Fremont, California.[22] Working with up to 1,000 crew members,[26] the production team oversaw numerous stunts and chase sequences, the most notable of which took place on the Los Angeles–Long BeachTerminal Island Freeway, prior to Terminator 2's climax. Ten miles (16 km) of electric cables were laid to illuminate the night-time chase, which saw a full-scale helicopter crash, a sliding tanker, and other elaborate paraphernalia.[18][27] Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, was used in some shots that required two Sarahs. She is the mirror image of Sarah in the scene where they open up the Terminator's head (deleted from the theatrical release), and in some of the shots as the T-1000 impersonated Sarah.[11] Gearren is playing whichever "Sarah" is farthest from the camera, alternating between the real Sarah and the T-1000 based on camera position. Another set of twins, Don and Dan Stanton, were used to play the psychiatric hospital security guard and the T-1000 copying him.[28] An unprecedented budget of $94 million (1991 dollars)—3.5 times the cost of the average film and approximately 15 times the $6.4 million budget of The Terminator[3][29]—was reserved for Terminator 2. A significant proportion of this was for actor and film-crew salaries. According to The Daily Sentinel and The Daily Beast, Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a $11–12 million Gulfstream IIIbusiness jet, while $5–6 million was allocated towards James Cameron's salary.[3][30] The production itself, which included special effects and stunts, totalled $51 million.[3] Despite the significant expenditure, the film had nearly recovered its budget prior to its release. Worldwide rights were sold for $65 million, video rights for $10 million, and television rights for $7 million.[29]
Effects
Terminator 2 made extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to vivify the main two Terminators. The use of such technology was the most ambitious since the 1982 science fiction film Tron,[31] and would be integral to the critical success of the film. CGI was required particularly for the T-1000, a "mimetic poly-alloy" (liquid metal) structure, since the shapeshifting character can morph into almost anything it touches.[18][32] Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for computer graphics and Stan Winston for practical effects.[33] Creation of the visual effects took 35 people, including animators, computer scientists, technicians and artists, ten months to produce, for a total of 25 man-years.[18][31] Despite the large amount of time spent, the CGI sequences only total five minutes of running time.[31] Enlisted to produce articulated puppets and prosthetic effects was Stan Winston's studio, who was also responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.[34] ILM's Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Muren, remarked, "We still have not lost the spirit of amazement when we see ... [the special effects on the T-1000] coming up."[35] Such was the role and creation of CGI that the visual-effects team was awarded the 1992 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.[36] For Sarah's nuclear nightmare scene, Robert and Dennis Skotak of 4-Ward Production constructed a cityscape of Los Angeles using large-scale miniature buildings and realistic roads and vehicles. The pair, after having studied actual footages of nuclear tests, then simulated nuclear blast by using air mortars to knock over the cityscape, including the intricately-built buildings.[18][37]
The film received a positive reception from critics[42], earning a score of 68 out of 100 from 16 critics on review aggregate websiteMetacritic[43] and garnering 98% "certified fresh" rating from 44 critics—an average rating of 8.4 out of 10—on Rotten Tomatoes, whose assessment reads: "T2 features thrilling action sequences and eye-popping visual effects, but what takes this sci-fi/ action landmark to the next level is the depth of the human (and cyborg) characters." The Montreal Film Journal called it "one of the best crafted Hollywood action flicks."[44]Screenwriting guruSyd Field lauded the plot of Terminator 2, saying, for example, "every scene sets up the next, like links in a chain of dramatic action."[45]Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the film 3.5 stars out of a possible 4, complimented Schwarzenegger's performance, saying that "Schwarzenegger's genius as a movie star is to find roles that build on, rather than undermine, his physical and vocal characteristics."[46] Hal Hinson, reviewer for The Washington Post, was also very positive in his review, writing that: "No one in the movies today can match Cameron's talent for this kind of hyperbolic, big-screen action. Cameron, who directed the first Terminator and Aliens, doesn't just slam us over the head with the action. In staging the movie's gigantic set pieces, he has an eye for both grandeur and beauty; he possesses that rare director's gift for transforming the objects he shoots so that we see, for example, the lyrical muscularity of an 18-wheel truck. Because of Cameron, the movie is the opposite of its Terminator character; it's a machine with a human heart."[32] Writing for Time, Richard Corliss was far less pleased, stating that the film was "[a] humongous, visionary parable that intermittently enthralls and ultimately disappoints. T2 is half of a terrific movie—the wrong half."[47]
Opening in 2,274 theaters in the United States, Terminator 2 earned $54 million during its Fourth of July opening weekend, $3 million behind Batman (1989) during its opening five-day weekend.[48][N 2] One theater chain owner was reported as saying "[b]ut nothing since Batman has created the frenzy for tickets we saw this weekend with Terminator. At virtually all our locations, we were selling out well in advance of showings, and the word-of-mouth buzz out there is just phenomenal."[50] Elsewhere, the film grossed $3.4 million in Australia and $7.1 million in Germany during their opening weekends in September and October 1991, respectively.[41] According to Box Office Mojo, the film's production costs was $102 million,[4] which, at the time, was the highest ever. However, if adjusted for inflation, Cleopatra (1963), which cost $44 million when it was made in 1963, would have been $219 million in 1995 dollars.[51]Terminator 2 was a box-office success, earning $204.8 million in the United States and Canada alone, and $519.8 million worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of 1991, beating Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and is TriStar Pictures' highest grossing film to date.[4][52] The film is ranked 110 in box office earnings of all time in the U.S. and Canada, and 84 worldwide.[4] The original Terminator grossed only $38 million in the U.S. in its theatrical run,[53] making Terminator 2's 434 percent increase a record for a sequel.
Home media
The movie was first released on DVD as a single disc in August 1997. Upon its release, the theatrical cut ran 139 minutes. On November 24, 1993, the Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Special Edition cut of the film was released to Laserdisc and VHS, containing 17 minutes of previously-unseen footage including scenes with Michael Biehn reprising his role as Kyle Reese in a dream sequence. however, the normal version was released in 1992. The subsequent "Ultimate Edition" and "Extreme Edition" DVD releases also contain this version of the film.[59] The Extreme Edition DVD has several DVD-ROM features, including Infiltration Unit Simulator and T2 FX Studio, an application where images of a person can be imported and morphed into a T-800 or T-1000, and Skynet Combat Chassis Designer, a program where viewers could build a fighting machine and be able to track progress online.[60] The Extreme DVD also contains a WMV-HD theatrical edition of T2, where the film can be watched, for the first time, in Full HD 1080p format. In 2006, Lionsgate released a Blu-ray of the film that is presented in a slightly washed-out 1080p transfer and included no special features and a DTS 5.1 audio track from the DVDs instead of a lossless audio track.[61] On May 19, 2009, Lionsgate re-released the film on Blu-ray with an enhanced and improved video transfer, as well as a THX certified DTS-Master Audio 6.1 audio. This "SkyNet Edition" also saw a limited collector's edition encased in an Endoskull. The limited collector's edition includes the 2009 Blu-ray, as well as the Extreme Edition and Ultimate Edition DVDs and a digital copy of the film.[62]
Impact and legacy
Recognition
In June 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked the film at number 77 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, a list of films considered to be the most thrilling in film history.[66][67] In 2003, the AFI released the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains, a list of the 100 greatest screen heroes and villains of all time. The Terminator, as portrayed by Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was ranked at number 48 on the list of heroes, as well as at number 22 on the list of villains for its appearance in the first Terminator film.[68] The character was the only entry to appear on both lists, though they are different characters based on the same model. In 2005, Schwarzenegger's famous quote "Hasta la vista, baby" was ranked at number 76 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes best film quotes list.[69][70] The film placed number 33 on Total Film's 2006 list of The Top 100 Films of All Time.[71] In 2008, the film was voted the eighth best science fiction film ever on AFI's 10 Top 10.[72]Empire ranked the film number 35 on its list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[73]
In 1969, during the Vietnam War, an American military squad receives orders to secure a village against North Vietnamese forces. Private Luc Devereaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) discovers members of his squad and various villagers dead, all with their ears removed. The culprit behind the mutilations is revealed to be leading officer Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), who has gone insane. Deveraux finds Scott holding a string of severed ears and also holding a young boy and girl hostage. Devereaux, who is near the end of his tour of duty, tries to reason with Scott, saying that the war is over and that he just wants to go home. Scott becomes infuriated and shoots the boy. He then orders Devereaux to shoot the girl to prove his loyalty. Deveraux refuses and stops Scott from shooting her. The girl attempts to escape but Scott kills her with a grenade. Devereaux turns on Scott and both shoot each other to death. The next morning, a U.S. Special Forces squad finds their bodies. The commanding officer orders the bodies to be bagged and iced and to officially cover up their deaths as "missing in action".
In 1992, terrorists have taken over the Hoover Dam and the police agencies are ordered not to intervene or make any attempt to rescue the hostages. Instead, the "Universal Soldiers" (or "UniSols"), an elite counter terrorism unit, are brought in. Among the team are the long-dead Luc Devereaux (now designated "GR44") and Andrew Scott (now designated "GR13"). They are wearing high-tech computer equipment over their left eye and have apparently been reanimated with no memory of their previous lives. Devereaux and Scott are sent in to dispatch several of the terrorists, with Devereaux using efficient means, but Scott using excessive force. Their camera feeds sent back to the command post cause concern among the project technicians that even though the UniSols are supposed to be emotionless, Scott is enjoying it. As the team infiltrate the area, they demonstrate their superior training and physical abilities against the armed terrorists, as one of them (Ralf Möller as GR74) is shown surviving close-range automatic gunfire. After the area is secured, Devereaux begins to regain patches of memory from his former life after witnessing two hostages who strongly resemble the villagers he tried to save in Vietnam. Turning around, he looks at Scott (who is also experiencing the same memory) but as a UniSol, he cannot say anything. This causes him to ignore radio commands from the control team and become unresponsive.
Back in the mobile command center, the Unisol technician team is trying to figure out what happened at Hoover Dam with Devereaux. They reveal that the UniSols are genetically augmented soldiers with enhanced healing abilities and superior strength but also have a tendency to overheat and shut down. They are also given a neural serum to keep their minds under control and their previous memories suppressed. All of the UniSols are ordered to go back into their cooling units and inject themselves with the serum. As a result of the glitch, Woodward (Leon Rippy), one of the technicians on the project, feels it may be better to remove Devereaux from the team until he can be further analyzed. However, Colonel Perry (Ed O'Ross), the commander in charge of the UniSol operation, disagrees with the suggestion. TV journalist Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) tries to get a story on the UniSol project in an attempt to get her job back, since she was fired while covering the Hoover Dam incident. Speaking with representatives from the project, she only gets evasive answers. She later sneaks onto the base with a camera to investigate, only to discover GR74, immersed in ice, who is still alive despite normally-fatal injuries.
When she tries to escape from the complex, Devereaux and Scott are ordered to bring her back. She gets to her cameraman's car, but they crash and overturn while trying to escape. Scott mercilessly executes the cameraman, against the orders of his superiors, while Devereaux intervenes, preventing him from shooting Roberts. Together, Devereaux and Roberts escape in a UniSol vehicle. After escaping, Scott mumbles about Devereaux being a traitor, but no one on the UniSol team hears it. Colonel Perry wants to chase Roberts and Devereaux down to prevent knowledge of the UniSols from getting out, not only to the public, but to the Pentagon, who does not know the true nature of the project. As Devereaux and Roberts flee and try to get evidence of the UniSol program to the media, they arrive at a motel. Roberts turns on the television and discovers she has already been framed for the murder of her cameraman. Scott's previously insane personality begins to emerge, causing him to kill innocents. Perry and the technicians are killed as they attempt to stop him. Scott then takes command over the UniSol team, ambushing a truck stop and a supermarket in his search for Devereaux. The remaining UniSol scientists try and fail to subdue Scott and are both killed.
Devereaux continues to rebuild his memory and realize that he is truly alive. Roberts tries to find more information about the UniSol program. They meet Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach), the creator of the program. He informs them that the UniSol project was started in the 1960's in order to develop the perfect soldier. Although they learned how to reanimate dead human remains, they were never able to overcome the body's need for constant cooling. The other major problem is that the memories of the last moments of life are greatly amplified. In Devereaux's case, he still believes he is a soldier who wants to go home, while Scott believes he is still in Vietnam fighting the insurgents. When Devereaux and Roberts leave the doctor's office, they are caught and arrested by the police. On the way to jail, the police convoy is ambushed by Scott and GR74. After an intense chase, they barely manage to escape when the police bus and the UniSol truck both drive off the edge of a cliff at Grand Canyon and explode. Presuming that Scott and GR74 are all dead, Devereaux and Roberts head to Devereaux's family's farm in Louisiana.
After Devereaux reunites with his family, Scott tracks them down and takes the family and Roberts hostage. A brutal fight ensues, and Scott's use of muscle enhancers enables him to mercilessly beat Devereaux. Roberts manages to escape from her bonds only to be seemingly killed by a grenade thrown by Scott. Even when Devereaux is enraged, he cannot gain an advantage. Scott continues to dominate until Devereaux grabs the muscle enhancers Scott used and injects himself with one. With their strengths now matched, Devereaux fights back and is able to impale Scott on the spikes of a hay harvester. Devereaux then starts the machine up, grinding Scott to death. Finally, Devereaux checks on Roberts, who survived the explosion and the two embrace.
Alternate ending
The Special Edition DVD release features an alternative ending which takes place shortly after Scott takes Deveraux's family and Roberts hostage. As Deveraux grabs a shotgun in the kitchen, the front door opens and he sees his mother before Scott shoots her to death. In the final fight between Deveraux and Scott, Deveraux does not use Scott's muscle enhancers. Shortly after grinding Scott to death, Deveraux is shot by his father before Dr. Christopher Gregor and his men appear.
Gregor explains that he had Deveraux set up to get to him and Scott, and that Deveraux was living with people posing as his parents. He then has his men shoot down Deveraux, but before Deveraux dies, police and Roberts' news crew arrive. The news crew douse Deveraux with a fire extinguisher to stabilize him while Dr. Gregor and his men are arrested. Roberts is given the microphone to cover the arrest, but she loses all composure while on the air, dropping the microphone to comfort Deveraux.
Several days later, Deveraux is reunited with his real parents. The film ends with a eulogy narrated by Roberts, who explains that Deveraux rejected all life-prolonging medications before dying a natural death.
Reception
Universal Soldier opened in theaters on July 10, 1992 where it grossed $10,057,084 from 1916 theaters with a $5,249 per screen average and taking #2 behind A League of Their Own's second weekend. From there, it made $36,299,898 in US ticket sales, becoming a moderate hit. Overseas, it was much more popular, mostly opening at #1, making over $65 million overseas, which earned the film a total of $102 million worldwide, on a $23 million budget.[2]
Despite being a box office hit, it was not well-received by critics. Mainstream critics dismissed the movie as a Terminator 2 clone, or as a typical, mindless action film.[4][5][6][7] The film currently holds a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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