Synopsis:

What if Terminator 2 was a smaller scale, lower budget horror movie— like Terminator 1? This edit transforms Terminator 2 from an epic action adventure into a more brutal horror flick with older production values and a 1980’s aesthetic. While it’s still “bigger and better” than T1, the focus is now on smaller scale horror rather than epic grandness from a director trying hard to outdo "Die Hard."

Intentions:

Makes T2 into an 80's horror flick.

Change List:

1. Used the longer ultimate edition as a base but some of the extended material is still cut or trimmed. 2. Updated some of the musical scoring to shift to a sci-fi horror theme. Used scoring from T1 and similar sounding music. 3. The Scribbling Man, a talented faneditor and musician, produced amazing T1 style score, tailored for multiple scenes. 4. Converted screen size to the less wide Terminator 1 aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Feels more retro. 5. New post processing and color grading, radically changing the aesthetic to match up with Terminator 1. 6. Added notice about fanedits / owning the source. 7. Tweaked Orion logo. Stabilized, glowier. 8. Added acknowledgments to VFX artists. 9. No more opening narration by Sarah informing us of the plot we are about to watch. 10. The original future scenes are removed from the intro. Some future footage used for later in the edit. The footage of older John Connor is completely cut. 11. Completely reworked, new introduction with focus on horror elements. Sarah’s Dream with new future war footage (VFX by Jamie Martin) and a recut version of Sarah’s vision of Reese. Then she wakes up in a dark room. 12. New opening credits. Blender work by shietze. Normal titles by krausfadr. 13. Trimmed crappy VFX from when the T-800’s time displacement bubble forms. 13. Added more mist as the T-800 slowly rises up. 14. Removed comedy from T-800’s arrival at the biker bar, including the women gawking. This Terminator arrives dead serious. 15. Trimmed various moments of over emphasis on every action with the bikers. 16. The T-800 is no longer “Bad to the Bone.” He’s much more violent before riding away from the biker bar, maintaining a better horror theme. 17. Removed the T-1000’s time displacement arrival. 18. Replaced 90’s Guns N Roses with 80’s Guns N Roses in multiple scenes. 19. Toned down Janelle’s (John’s stepmom’s) negativity. 20. A little Danzig plays on the boombox as John and his sidekick hack the ATM. 21. Trimmed John’s dialogue at the ATM to reduce cringe and make him more likable. 22. Sarah doesn’t do pull ups or ask Dr. Silberman about his knee. First we see of her is the videotape recounting her nightmares. 23. New scoring as we see Sarah’s videotape. Similar theme used in other scenes. 24. Removed Sarah's line about sunblock. 25. Trimmed Sarah’s meeting with Dr. Silberman. Made him less of a jerk so her violence against him is less justified. Sarah says less weird stuff. 26. Trimmed activity with Cyberdyne employees. 27. Silberman sarcastically doesn’t call Sarah a “model citizen.” We need Sarah’s attacks on him later to be more brutal, less justified. 28. We don’t realize the cop (played by Robert Patrick) is a Terminator at first. The first time we see him is when he looks for John at the foster parent’s house. Presumably he’s a just a police officer investigating John’s thefts. 29. The T-1000 doesn’t comment to the foster parents about the big biker looking for John. 30. Trimmed some of the footage of T-800 and friendly officer Robert Patrick strolling around the mall. 31. New score by The Scribbling Man when the T-1000 chases John into and through the service hallway. 32. Removed the random guy from the service hallway at the mall who flail danced as he was shot. 33. Trimmed the mall brawl between the two Terminators. 34. Less of the guy with the camera as the T-800 gets up from the floor. 35. Less of the T-1000 sprinting super fast after John on the dirt bike. Some of it looked too goofy. 36. New score by The Scribbling Man as the T-1000 chases after John, including the big rig chase scene. 37. Shortened and scaled back the sequence with the big rig chasing after John with various cuts and trims throughout. The rig doesn’t careen off an overpass to keep chasing John. 38. The T-800 keeps up in the motorcycle chase without shooting gates open with the shotgun. 39. No slo-mo when the T-800 rides the motorcycle off the ledge. 40. Trimmed big rig explosion, no rolling tire on fire. 41. Trimmed T-1000 walking out of the fiery wreck. Less dated 90’s CGI. 42. The T-800 doesn’t bash a pay phone to get quarters. 43. New VFX, SFX, and overall atmosphere at the foster parent’s house during the phone call, maintaining a horror theme. 44. After T-1000 kills the dog, kept a trimmed version of him searching John’s room. It had a good horror vibe going but we just don’t need to see him fondling every last object in the room. 45. The T-800 badly injures and kills some more people before going to rescue Sarah. 46. The T-800 is more violent when they arrive at the mental hospital, and John complains about it. 47. Moved conversation “you just can’t kill people” to later. 48. The orderly does not lick Sarah. 49. Scored and recut the T-1000 killing the cop (the security guy at mental hospital) getting his coffee. 50. Less Sarah skulking around the halls of the asylum for no good reason. 51. Trimmed Sarah giving Dr. Silberman and his colleague a beating. 52. Now right after John tells the T-800 not to kill people we cut to Sarah with a syringe in Silberman’s neck. 53. Removed epic camera action / spins as Sarah threatens to kill Silberman. 54. When the tough female hospital worker goes to punch the T-800 in the face she is immediately thrown back like a rag-doll. 55. New score by The Scribbling Man when the T-1000 walks through the bars all the way until he giving up chasing John, Sarah, and the T-800. 56. The T-800 doesn’t run like a dainty ballerina as he heads toward the elevator while being shot repeatedly by the T-1000. 57. Trimmed Sarah and the T-800 stealing the police car. 58. Trimmed the T-1000 chasing John, Sarah, and the T-800 fleeing in the stolen police car. 59. No lifeless dummy T-1000 attached to the the back of the car being drug around. 60. Sprinting T-1000 stops chasing the car sooner. 61. No family drama in the car after the escape from the T-1000. 62. John doesn't call the T-800 a lug nut. 63. Sarah and John remove the T-800’s chip and flip the switch so he learns (he stops killing after this). Trimmed the scene throughout for pacing. Less annoying / obvious instructions from the T-800. No contrived debate about smashing the chip. 64. In the car, the T-800 doesn’t go into details about the future rise of Skynet. Moved this dialogue for use later. 65. Cut John trying to get the food service cashier to smile. 66. Trimmed the T-800’s smile so we see the very beginning of the attempt but not the goofy end. 67. When Sarah is lost in a daydream, ignoring John, we see she is remembering years ago being in the Jeep, pregnant with John. 68. John doesn’t ask to help with car maintenance so the T-800 doesn’t deny the request for help. 69. Less annoying comments from John as the kids play fight. 70. Toned down Sarah when she starts asking the T-800 about Dyson. 71. Sarah doesn’t announce that John and the T-800 are on weapons detail. 72. Trimmed extended scene of John asking the T-800 if he is afraid of dying. 73. Less of John’s expository about his father, Kyle Reese, recounted to the T-800. 74. No inner monologue from Sarah about the T-800 being a surrogate father that never gets drunk. 75. Recut and changed Sarah’s nuclear nightmare, incorporating future footage. Sarah watches kids on swings but doesn’t see herself in the waitress uniform. The nightmare is now more intense. 76. Replaced score with Sarah’s theme (The Coming Storm) from T1 after the nightmare sequence. 77. John doesn’t cry out that his mom is going to blow Dyson away. Also the T-800 is now figuring out what Sarah is up to without being led by the nose by John. 78. Less military Sarah prepping for her suburban sniping. 79. Trimmed the remote control truck at Dyson’s house. 80. Less bullets riddling Dyson’s home office. 81. Dyson’s wife doesn’t do a weird dance-like move in fear for her life. 82. Less Sarah’s anguished face at Dyson’s. Trimmed after school special conversation with Sarah and John. They hug, we get the point. 83. Re-scored and recut the T-800 removing his arm flesh, revealing his endoskeleton to Dyson. 84. Replaced Sarah’s narration with the T-800 telling Dyson details about the Skynet becoming sentient and starting a nuclear war. 85. Cut Sarah talking about feeling a life growing inside you. 86. Dyson just says he’s going to be sick without complaining about being judged for things he hasn’t done yet. 87. Removed the epic-ness from the group’s arrival at the Cyberdyne building. 88. John doesn’t menacingly hold out duct tape at Cyberdyne after Sarah pulls the gun on the security guard. 89. Dyson doesn’t go into immediate coward mode at the first sign of trouble. 90. Trimmed much of the over the top epic action and explosions throughout the scenes at CyberDyne to scale back Die Hard on steroids. 91. Cut John’s line to Dyson “we got Skynet by the balls.” 92. Trimmed arrival and movements of the SWAT team. 93. No slo-mo when the SWAT teams bursts in and shoots Dyson. 94. Dyson detonates the explosives as the SWAT team is still right next to him. Much less wheezing / panting. 95. The T-800 doesn’t blow up the police cars ( Dyson got ‘em good enough!) 96. Cut the T-1000 initial glorious epic arrival on the motorcycle. 97. Reduced the obvious schmarm around the T-800 telling Sarah “I’ll be back” as he leaves her and John in the elevator. 98. Trimmed the long barrage of SWAT team bullets hitting the T-800. Removed the mannequin. 99. Various trims as the T-800 gasses the cops outside and returns to rescue Sarah and John. No more "hold this" line. 100. No slo-mo as the T-1000 careens the motorcycle out the skyscraper window. He isn’t as kind to the helicopter pilot. Continuing the horror element. 101. Cutting back to the T-1000 piloting the helicopter, there is blood on his face. He heats up his face and steams it off. 102. Trimmed the helicopter chasing the SWAT van. 103. Re-scored, added blood VFX and horror SFX when the T-1000 kills the trucker. 104. Trimmed bad looking shots (and sped up) the T-800 doing stuff and truck surfing. 105. Trimmed various repetitive and drawn out final action in the Industrial area. 106. No more "call to John." 107. No more flaming thumbs up. 108. Did not use the ”ultimate” alternate ending with Sarah made up to look old. 109. Updated highway ending to include some mushroom cloud imagery. Replaced Sarah’s ending narration. 110. New custom end credits. 111. New end credits music.