Video summary
The narrator begins by recounting their experience of rewatching *Terminator 2: Judgment Day* after a long hiatus at a thrift store, where they acquired the elusive Special Edition Extended Cut on VHS. This version runs significantly longer than the theatrical release and contains crucial footage that makes narrative sense much clearer, yet it remains difficult to find on modern streaming platforms like Amazon Prime in many regions. The video highlights how this extended cut is superior for understanding the film's plot holes but notes that YouTube has altered some footage from previous uploads to avoid copyright strikes, making the full experience of this specific version a challenge for casual viewers today.
One of the most significant realizations concerns the timeline and character ages within the movie. Although released in 1991, clues such as John Connor's listed birth year on police computers suggest the story takes place around 1995 when he would be ten years old, yet actor Edward Furlong was actually fourteen at the time of filming. The narrator argues that director James Cameron intentionally left dates ambiguous to hide flaws in his own timeline construction rather than explicitly stating a date that contradicted reality. Additionally, several visual effects are criticized for being dated or poorly executed even by 1990s standards, including a stuntman wearing a rubber mask instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger and rear projection techniques used in driving scenes that resemble low-budget sitcoms from the 1960s rather than high-tech sci-fi.
The analysis also delves into logical inconsistencies regarding the antagonist T-1000 and its connection to other horror icons, noting striking similarities between its liquid metal abilities and *The Thing*, as well as its menacing demeanor echoing Michael Myers. The narrator questions why no one in law enforcement investigates Sarah Connor's claims despite physical evidence like her severed arm and microchip being found at Cyberdyne Systems, pointing out a major character flaw where the protagonists fail to scout for a second security guard before entering the building, leading to an avoidable shootout that kills Miles Dyson. Furthermore, the video praises Cameron's decision to use Brad Fiedel's synthesizer score instead of hiring a full orchestra, arguing that the machine-like quality of the music perfectly mirrors the film's themes about artificial intelligence and technology mimicking humanity.
Finally, the summary addresses two major production oddities: the elaborate mirror shot involving Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton was cut from the final release despite being filmed using twins to create a seamless reflection effect without visible camera angles. The video concludes by discussing the infamous original ending featuring Star Trek Next Generation costumes, which the narrator describes as tacky and out of place compared to the film's gritty tone, likely included only because the budget ran low before production wrapped. These observations collectively illustrate how even one of the greatest sci-fi action movies contains quirks, continuity errors, and creative decisions that stand up to scrutiny upon repeated viewings.
Read the full video transcript
Have you ever watched a movie like a
million times and on the million in one
viewing, if that's even a word, after
watching it a million in one times, you
suddenly realized a bunch of things
about the movie you've never noticed
before? Or maybe they're things that you
have noticed subconsciously, but you've
pushed them to the back of your mind.
Well, that's exactly what happened to me
the last time I watched Terminator 2.
Now, some of these things I'm going to
mention may sound like I'm nitpicking,
but really they're just realizations.
Don't get me wrong, I love Terminator 2.
It's probably the best sci-fi action
movie of all time, if not one of the
best movies of all time. [music] And
every movie, no matter how good it is,
has its quirks and conundrums. So,
here's 10 strange things I noticed the
last time I watched Terminator 2. First
of all, don't worry. This channel is not
turning into one of those 10 things you
didn't know, but actually really new
type channels. I just want to talk about
Terminator 2 and some of the things I
noticed last time I popped it in.
Secondly, if you are watching this
episode, that means that it hasn't been
flagged by YouTube for any copyright
issues. We have had trouble with
Terminator 2 before in the past. The one
and only time we ever had an episode
completely removed from YouTube was
because we used an image from Terminator
2. That was for our original upload of a
review of Near Dark, but a lot of the
guidelines have changed. So, if you are
watching this, the footage from
Terminator 2 has probably been altered
to avoid copyright issues. And that also
the YouTube gods are in my corner. So,
my story actually starts at the good old
thrift store. I was rumaging around one
day and noticed on a cart, [music] not
even put out on the shelf yet, was this
bad boy. The Terminator 2 Special
Edition Extended Cut on VHS. This also
has a bonus featureette on a second VHS
tape. Now, back in the day in the 90s, I
had a copy of this, but it was so hard
to store with the rest of my tapes cuz
the size of the box, it's so awkward. I
couldn't really display it with the rest
of my collection. So, like a total
idiot, I threw away the box, kept the
tapes, and slid the tapes into the
collection. Well, over time I've lost
the tapes and was only left with the
theatrical cut. So, I was very happy to
find this guy at the thrift store. So,
that weekend I popped in the tape and
that's when I started to make some of
these realizations about the movie that
I'm going to talk about right now.
Number one on my list. Why isn't this
special edition the definitive version?
I think it really should be. I think
it's superior to the theatrical cut. The
movie makes a lot more sense in the
extended cut with the footage added back
in. There's a lot less holes in the
movie. But still, this version is pretty
elusive. Like, especially on streaming.
If you want to try to stream T2, good
luck finding this. All you have to do is
look at the run time. The run time for
this is 157 minutes. Theatrical version
is about 130 something. So, just scan
through and look for a longer version.
Good luck finding it. It's always going
to be the theatrical version.
Apparently, Amazon Prime is streaming
the extended cut. I clicked on the link.
It says unavailable. Maybe that's just
here in Canada. Maybe you guys can see
it elsewhere. But it kind of sucks that
the only way to find this version is to
buy a physical copy. Like in the day and
age of streaming and everything being so
accessible, you think you can find this
much easier. The second thing I noticed
about T2, or actually didn't notice. So,
I was kind of wondering, well, what the
hell year is this movie even supposed to
take place, it was released in 1991.
Okay. But there's no way it can actually
take place in 1991 because John Connor
at that point would only be 6 years old.
Does this look like a six-year-old to
you? So, I did some digging and there
are some little clues and Easter eggs to
give away what the date is. On the
police computer, it says that John
Connor's date of birth is February 1985.
Age 10. Okay, 10 years after the first
movie. That clearly puts this movie
taking place in probably 1995. What
10-year-old looks like this? What
10-year-old is zooming around on dirt
bikes and scamming ATM machines? So then
I looked it up and Edward Furlong was 14
years old when he made this movie. Are
they trying to pass a 14-year-old off as
a 10year-old or was Cameron just hoping
no one would ever notice any of this and
just take it all at face value? Now, I
think that Cameron was actually trying
to be very ambiguous with the date,
trying to hide some flaws in the
timeline. And I think that's why in the
movie, they don't actually just stamp it
on the bottom of the screen saying, you
know, 1995 or whatever, because they
know that they kind of [ __ ] up with
John Connor's age and couldn't pull it
off of the 10-year-old, so they were
just simply ambiguous with the date.
Number three on my list. Though this
movie has a massive, massive Hollywood
budget and some of the best cutting edge
effects of its time, most of which still
hold up today, how did some of these
terrible, horrible, awful effects slip
into the movie? I'm sure there's more,
but these three always stood out to me
from day one. First of all, the stunt
man on the motorcycle with a rubber
Arnold Schwarzenegger Halloween mask.
Like this always looked bad even on the
VHS version, let alone a cleaned up HD
version. I know it's a super dangerous
stunt and it's hard to make anyone look
like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but come on,
that's totally not Arnold. Or how about
this totally horrible rear projection in
this driving scene? That's like a 1960s
sitcom effect. This is clearly on a
sound stage. I know it was probably way
too dangerous to shoot this at the
driving speed they're supposed to be
going, but come on. This looks like
something out of [ __ ] Seinfeld. This
scene I've always noticed, too. The pay
phone is smashed before Arnold hits it
with his fist. They hoped we wouldn't
notice by panning down really quick, but
it's clear clear plain as day that that
thing is destroyed before he ever hits
it. And that's just like a handful that
I noticed. I'm sure there's many, many,
many more bad effects that has creeped
its way into the movie. So, if you've
noticed more, please let me know. Number
four, strange things about the T1000
that just never added up or made much
sense to me. As cool as the concept is,
a liquid metal robot. It just doesn't
make any sense. First of all, how do
they make such a giant leap in
technology from the T800 to the T1000?
Like that's a huge huge leap in
technology and what happened to the
T900? How do we go from this to that?
Second of all, I've always thought that
the T1000 needed a bit more explanation.
Like there's a lot of holes. What's its
weakness? How do you kill it? What's the
T800's plan in dealing with this thing?
To send the T800 into the past with no
[ __ ] plan is kind of bizarre. How
does this thing actually function? Where
is its chip? Like, doesn't every machine
have a microchip? Is the microchip
liquid metal as well? Liquid metal can
somehow recreate skin, but not a complex
machine. It can recreate human flesh. It
just doesn't really make much sense.
Like, we're very much left in the dark
with the T1000, which is probably a good
thing because the more you think about
it, the more it starts to unravel. So,
if you want to enjoy Terminator 2 like
we did as kids, don't think about the
T-1000. It's going to kind of wreck the
movie for you. There's also a few lines
by the T1000 that struck me as strange
or out of place. Like, when he looks at
the photo of John Connor, it says,
"Good-looking boy." Why does he say
that? Is he supposed to be coming off as
kind of creepy? Because, yeah, he does,
but not in a good way. It's not a good
creep. It's like a rapey pedto kind of
creepy. Like if that was my foster son
whether or not I like the kid or not and
the policeman says good-looking boy, I
would be asking this guy, "What are your
plans with my son? Why are you
mentioning that he's a good-looking boy?
What the hell do you plan to do with
this kid? Shouldn't you be blending in
and not saying things that are going to
give you away as some sort of like
creepy rapey cop?" Another line or
delivery of the line which always struck
me as odd is when the T1000 is asking
those girls if they've seen John Carter
and they say, "Yeah, he went to the
Galleria." And T1000's response is the
Galleria. Like he's surprised or taken
aback that a teenager might be at the
mall. And also like he's a machine,
doesn't he really like not supposed to
show much emotion unless when he really
needs to to disguise himself? But I just
always thought that the delivery of that
line was hilarious. But Galleria, and
I'm not [ __ ] on Patrick's
performance, he's [ __ ] awesome. He
was totally the best choice to play the
T1000. And from what I can tell, he's
just an all-around cool dude. A couple
of years ago, I was at a con and he was
there signing autographs. But then when
he wasn't signing autographs, he was the
only celebrity I've ever seen at a con.
Just chilling out, walking the grounds,
taking selfies with people. Like, that's
a cool dude with not much ego. And
there's one scene that was cut from the
movie that was so bad they didn't even
put it in the extended cut, which also
is kind of a weird creepy T1000 scene
where he goes into John Connor's bedroom
and starts like groping the walls and
feeling up the walls and doing all this
weird kind of stuff. Again, it's creepy,
but not in a good way. Thank god that
was cut. While we're on the topic of
T1000, here's number five on my list. I
realized the last time I watched this
movie was that the T1000 really is the
thing in Michael Myers rolled into one
character. I'm not sure if James Cameron
was influenced by John Carpenter. Like,
he must have been to some degree. Like,
who wasn't at the time? I'm sure he's
seen Halloween and The Thing. I'm not
sure if it's a conscious or subconscious
decision, but T-1000 is 100% inspired by
The Thing. And Michael Myers, like, how
can that be pure coincidence? The
shape-shifting aspect in comparison to
The Thing? Well, come on. Like, it it's
the exact same thing. Death scene of
T1000 looks like it's lifted right out
of John Carpenters's The Thing. But
Michael Myers, you might ask me. Well,
how does uh T1000 resemble Michael
Myers? Well, just look at him. Look at
the way he walks, his mannerisms, even
his uniform to some degree looks like
Michael Myers. He even does the Michael
Myers head tilt. Paint Robert Patrick's
face white. And this son of a [ __ ] is
Michael Myers. Once you see it, you'll
never unsee it again. And I think that's
why it works so good. It's two of the
best ever villains out of sci-fi and
horror rolled in to one nice tiny
package. It's perfect. And I hope other
people have noticed this too because it
can't just be me. Number six on my list,
nobody believes Sarah Connor to some
degree, even if there's physical
evidence to somewhat back up her story.
I know she's in the mental institution
for a different reason cuz she tried to
blow up factory. But still, after the
events of part one, I find it hard that
all that's left is an arm and a
microchip. You still see like the
crushed skull of the original T800 at
the end of Terminator 1. So, there is
some sort of physical evidence that at
least some of her story might be true.
And nobody believes her. Not one member
of the police department's going to be
backing her up or looking into this. The
FBI isn't looking into where the ARM and
the microchip came from. I just find it
so weird that they just end up in
Cyberdine systems and nobody is checking
out where these came from. It's just
don't ask where it came from. Well,
shouldn't someone be looking into it?
But there's no talk about any of that,
which I find kind of odd. And you know,
that's just me being a nerd digging too
deep into it. Not one person kind of
slightly believes what Sarah Connor had
to say when there's physical evidence to
back it up. Number seven on my list, the
shootout at Cyberdine Systems was
totally avoidable by this character
writing flaw. They didn't know there was
a second security guard on shift at
Cyberdine. Why the hell didn't they take
a moment to scope this place out with a
pair of binoculars or something and
notice there's two security guards
there? There's another security guard
that ducks out literally seconds before
they walk through the door to go take a
[ __ ] Miles Dyson would have known
there's two security guards. He walks in
and out of that place several times a
day probably. Even the T800, a strategic
war machine, or Sarah Connor, who's
practically a mercenary at this point.
Don't think to check the [ __ ]
bathrooms. The whole shootout, Miles
Dyson's death, them being tracked down
by the T1000 in the helicopter, all
would have been avoided if they checked
the [ __ ] bathroom or took 2 minutes
to scope the place out with a pair of
binoculars. We're getting close to the
end here. Number eight on my list. The
most elaborate shot using twins was cut
from the movie.
>> It had to go.
>> This comes from tape two on the special
edition box set. A lot of people already
know that T2 used twins to pull off a
lot of the shots where T-1000 is
replicating somebody else in the same
shot. It's so simple. It's so effective
and so brilliant. But the coolest, most
elaborate shot using twins in the movie
was actually cut from the film. You
could only see it in the extended cut,
and it actually has nothing to do with
the T1000. So, the breakdown of the shot
is this. They take the chip out of
T800's head, and he goes dead. And they
pull off a shot where T800's looking at
a reflection of himself in the mirror.
And you have to see everyone in the
mirror and pull off the shot without
seeing the camera. What they did was not
use a mirror at all. They have a dummy
T800 which you see from behind. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is actually in the
mirror. He's sitting on the other side
of the mirror and Linda Hamilton's on
one side and her twin sister is on the
other side of the mirror making her
reflection. And they had to kind of
coordinate their movement slowly to go
and dig the tweezer and to dig the plier
and to dig the screwdriver and all those
things and to work in sync.
>> Brilliant. Brilliant. Fabulous movie
making magic. And it's such a shame that
that awesome shot was cut from the film.
>> It had to go.
>> Number nine on my list is the music.
Anyone who knows anything about me knows
that I'm a big music nerd, especially
when it comes to electronic music and
synthesizers. I'm a synth nerd. The
first Terminator was a really low-budget
movie. And like most low-budget movies
of the8s, the music was done on the
cheap. And the way to accomplish this is
to hire one man and his synthesizer. In
the case of Terminator 1, it is Brad
Fidel, a Profit 10, and a DMX drum
machine. So when they go to make the
huge big budget blockbuster Hollywood
movie, you'd think they hire like a big
orchestra and a composer to conduct a
huge massive orchestral score. But no,
thankfully Cameron brought back one man
and his synthesizer. And I find that
super cool because he shows allegiance
to this man and he trusts this man.
James Cameron choosing Brad Fidel and a
synthesizer over a big huge orchestral
score makes me very happy for two
reasons. Number one, I'm a big
synthesizer nerd. I'm a synth nerd. And
also, I think it works much better on a
psychological and conceptual level than
an orchestral score would have. And I'll
tell you why. To listen to the
Terminator 2 score, it sounds like an
orchestra, but it's not. It's a
fereralite synthesizer which samples
real audio and plays it back at the
proper pitch. It's a machine emulating a
real thing or a real person. And that's
exactly what the Terminator is. And
that's why this score created by this
technology is so fitting to the concept
of this movie and also why I think it
stands the test of time. Number 10 and
the final thing on my list of strange T2
realizations, the original ending with
the Star Trek Next Generation costumes.
I have to mention how bad the original
ending is for this movie before it was
cut from the film. Go check it out.
Watch it, please, because it is abysmal
and kind of hilarious. You can find it
online, I'm sure. It takes place in the
future where Sarah Connor is now a
grandmother and Jon's playing with his
child in the playground. It's tacky as
hell. Like, I can't believe that they
went this route for the film. Linda
Hamilton's makeup is so hilariously bad
and fake. And the one thing I noticed,
too, the last time I watched this scene
was all the really bad futuristic
costumes that are in this scene. It's
almost like they ran out of money,
bolted to the Star Trek NextGen set,
grabbed a bunch of costumes off the
racks, came back, put the people in it,
and filmed the scene. Like, the movie is
dark and gritty, and despite the subject
matter, very realistic. And then they go
and shoot an ending like this. Thank god
they cut it. Not just because it's lame
in its concept in general, but it looks
horrible. It looks so out of place and
it looks more like a tacky '9s sci-fi
show than a huge Hollywood movie. And if
you're a Star Trek fan and you don't
notice that those costumes look like the
civvies that a lot of people wear in
NextGen, tell me I'm wrong. That
concludes my top 10 strange realizations
on Terminator 2. I'm sure there's a lot
more, so if you have your own, please
let me know in the comments. I hope you
enjoyed the episode. but it was
something a little different for me to
do on a rainy day while we're waiting to
get back to filming our regular content
which should be coming out soon as well.
So, keep an eye out for that and I'll
see you next time.
>> [music]