James Cameron is revealing why the marketing for Terminator 2: Judgment Day made it very clear that Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 was a hero in the sequel rather than the villain he portrayed in the film's predecessor.
During a Q&A with A-list creatives for Empire, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power co-showrunner Patrick McKay asked Cameron why did the marketing campaign for Terminator 2 give away the twist that Schwarzenegger's T-800, who was a villain in 1984's The Terminator, was actually a hero this time around. As the Avatar and Titanic director pointed out, it was never his intention to keep the twist a secret. Cameron said, "All of us have had our battles with the Suits, but the case you mention was not a battle. The Carolco guys, Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna, were good partners with me on T2, and I led the charge on marketing, including showing Arnold as the good guy. It wasn’t a Sixth Sense kind of twist that’s revealed only at the end of the film. He's revealed as the Protector at the end of Act One. And I always feel you lead with your strongest story element in selling a movie."
In The Terminator, Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg assassin that is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) because her unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by a hostile artificial intelligence called Skynet. In 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Schwarzenegger returns as a less-advanced reprogrammed cyborg that is sent back in time to 1995 to protect John Connor (Edward Furlong) from being killed by the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a highly advanced killing machine sent by Skynet to prevent the future of humanity.
From Terminator to T2
Cameron admits that the intention of the marketing for the Terminator sequel was to make the audience intrigued by the concept that this once evil cyborg was now in a position to be the film's hero. The Titanic director said, "I believed our potential audience would be more attracted to seeing how the most badass killing machine could become a hero than they would be to just another kill-fest in the same vein as the first film. Sequels have to strike a delicate balance between honoring the most loved elements from the first film, but also promising to really shake things up and turn them upside down. Our marketing campaign for T2 was exactly that promise, and it worked."
Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a hit with critics and audiences upon release, even outperforming its predecessor by a considerable amount. Released ahead of Independence Day weekend in 1991, the sequel opened to a five-day total of $52.2 million, making it the second-highest-grossing opening five-day total ever behind 1989's Batman ($57 million). By the end of its run, T2 grossed $204.8 million at the domestic box office which improved upon the $38.3 million final gross of the first film.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day can currently be streamed on HBO Max.
Source: Empire