Synopsis:

Now 25, John Connor (Nick Stahl) lives with no record of his existence -- no way he can be traced by Skynet. Out of the shadows of the future steps the T-X (Kristanna Loken), Skynet's most sophisticated cyborg killing machine yet. Now Connor's only hope for survival is the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), his mysterious former assassin. Together, they must triumph over the technologically superior T-X and forestall the looming threat of Judgment Day.

Intentions:

I honestly couldn’t stomach the original movie due to it feeling more like a parody than a sequel to one of my favourite movies, T2 and franchises of all time. So, I took this edit on with the goal of creating something that was a mixture of horror/thriller from T1 and the action of T2. I also wanted to make John Connor more of an empathetic but tougher character instead of the weak loser they portrayed him as in the original release. Also, adding some of the original score to help this feel more in sync with the prequels. Not only have I managed to fix all the issues, but I’ve now created one of my favourite Terminator movies.

Change List:

• Colour corrected the entire movie in order to create a pallet closer to T2 instead of the TV movie colour from the original. • Add MRDb Epic Volcano intro • Add Fanedit Disclaimer • Insert MR Blue Neon intro • Add the Main opening title theme from T2 • Modify the opening sequence from Terminator Salvation • Add Blue LUT over intro credits • Add new text credits, including MR and Alleyvoid names • Add “A Movies Remastered Presentation” text • Remove all the opening dialogue narrated by John (I originally used this as an intro to my Terminator 4 – The War Against the Machines edit and as this edit is a direct continuation of T2, it didn’t feel right have John do this intro. • Remove all images of Judgement Day. (This is also used in my T4 edit) • Remove older John Conner footage. (This looks so odd and breaks continuity with the old John we see in T2) • Open with John saying “there is no fate but what we make for yourself” • Open with visuals of HK’s flying overhead. • Add colour correction to Judgement Day footage to match T2 palette • Remove narrative of John not wanting his future • Remove footage of John drinking on the bridge (I loved this transition but it didn’t work in this edit) • Add dialogue of John not feeling safe over him waking up homeless. • Trim down bike sequence • Add “T-1000 arrival” track from T2 soundtrack • Use Open Matte wider shot of T-X arriving. (A closer shot was used to hide the characters female form). • Use all Open Matte wider shots of T-X walking naked. (A closer shot was used to hide the characters female form). • Use all Open Matte wider shots of T-X driving. (A closer shot was used in the original and it just felt too close). • Use Open Matte wider shot of police car chasing. (Again, these shots were cropped to close in the original) • Add “T-1000 arrival” track from T2 soundtrack as Police man approaches, this is to builds more suspense in a fairly flat scene. • Remove entire scene of Kate & boyfriend shopping. (This feels like a pointless introduction of them and her father. It just slows pacing). • Add “The Terminator Arrival” over the T-800 arriving. (This way audiences won’t know if the T-800 is good or bad this time around). • Add “The Terminator Arrival” over the T-800 approaching the bar (Also building suspense). • Add posterize effect to T-800 vision to be more in keeping with T1 (Thanks to Altern84m for the idea). • Remove camera zoom into “Ladies Night” poster. (This is not in keeping with the original at all). • Fix timing on following T-800 looking away to hide previous cut) • Add posterize effect to T-800 vision to be more in keeping with T1 (Thanks to Altern84m for the idea). • Add bone crunching sounds over hand crush. • Add Man screaming during hand crush. • Remove ridiculous scene of T-800 putting on Elton John glasses. • Remove T-800 breaking into car scene for later. • Insert T-X arriving at drive thru • Remove J-cut of TV transmission during transition. • Remove TV transmission scene. • Re-add T-800 breaking into car scene. • Remove T-800 looking for keys under blind. (This T-800 wouldn’t have any memory of this trick, and it breaks up pacing). • Re-use the T-X arriving at Drive-thru score to hide TV transmission scene cut. • Add a little Easter Egg for true 80s movie fans. • Add people in the background sound FX. • Add TV switching off sound FX to left channel. • Add “T-1000 arrival” track from T2 soundtrack • Remove T-X asking if the female is Kathrine Brewster. (This slows down the pacing and cuts suspense. The less T-X says, the more threatening she is). • Remove T-X saying “No!” (Again, this stops suspense). • Add “The Terminator Arrival” theme as the T-800 arrives. • Fade score into “Into the Steel Mill” from T2 soundtrack as T-X punches through the rubble. • Add “The Terminator Arrival” theme as the T-800 meets John Connor in the hallway. (At this point the audience still doesn’t know if the T-800 is good or bad). • Remove John saying “Are you here to kill me?” (This piece of dialogue is badly written and makes John look like an idiot). • Remove T-800 saying “No! You must live”. (The less they say, the more suspense is built). • Fix audio to hide the previous cut. • Remove jump cut to fire service entering the building. (They just arrived. No need for a jump cut here) • Cut to T-X arriving. • insert Fire service entering the build to make this one continues scene with T-800 waking up. • Remove T-800 saying “Get off!” (Far too many Arnie catch phrases in this film). • Add a more T2 Blue LUT to night shots leading into day. • Remove the random chatty guy saying “Who’s back there?” and “Shut up!”. (This guy just won’t shut up and becomes too annoying for the scene. Now he’s pissed off just enough without being a total Dick). • Remove the standard car not starting shots. (Been done a million times. This film didn’t need it as the suspense is already there with previous cuts). • Add “Helicopter Chase” score from T2 soundtrack during car chase. • Add “Tanker Chase” score from T2 soundtrack when Terminator changes vehicle. • Remove Van running off the road into people gardening. (These shots made this chase scene far too long and boring). • Add “Tanker Chase” score from T2 soundtrack as chase continues. • Add T-800 POV graphics (Thanks to CyberLynx) • Fade Night LUT to match a day colour tone. • Remove John looking back shot • Remove T-X bursting out the wreckage. (No other Terminator would stop if it could still see the vehicle so why does the T-X?). • Remove Van driving off shot. • Cut straight in with T-800 grabbing John • Fix Audio transition to hide previous cut. • Remove John saying “What? Do you guys come off an assembly line or something?” (Yet another line to make John look studio. He already knows this information from T2) • Re-insert the T-X bursting out of wreckage scene. (This delays our protagonists escape and shows they are out of range). • Re-use Van escaping shot for T-X POV shot. (This shows the T-X is malfunctioning after the crash • Create T-X POV overlay graphics. (VFX by Movies Remastered & CyberLynx) • Add Blue LUT to POV shot • Add “The T-1000 Arrival” score to T-X scene • Add T-800 saying “Affirmative!” (In the original the T-800 doesn’t reply to John when he asked if the T-X was a terminator, Terminator). • Remove T-800 shouting “Relax” to Kate. (This line delivery is a little too jokey and doesn’t fit the tone of the scene). • Remove “Talk to the hand” cringe joke. • Remove Kate’s comedic leg walking while being held up by T-800 • Rearrange the whole scene of John and Kate in the back of the Van. • Had John being Empathetic to Kate first. • The him mentioning Mike Kripke’s place • Followed by John offering Kate Jerking to avoid him talking about being “In the News”. (This also now gives Kate a reason to call him a “Bad Boy” • Remove John explaining what the T-800 is. (He’s just spent this whole time trying to help Kate relax. Now he’s going to bump cyborgs on here? Now he’s more empathetic and understanding of Kates needs. Helping them bond and not having John be just a “delinquent”). • Finally, have John conclude him not staying with Kate after the kiss. • Remove T-X killing Kates fiancé. (The T-X twisting and the goofy screams where just tonally off. Not seeing his death leave his next appearance more ambiguous to the audience, especially new views to this franchise). • Cut straight to door being knocked. (This way the audience just feels like there is something off about Kates fiancé, allowing a bigger surprise for later). • Add “Hasta La Vista Baby” score to our protagonists arriving at the cemetery. • Add rummaging tool box sound FX to the right channel to show the T-800 collecting weapons. • Remove frame of gun flash in T-800 mouth. (Why would there be a flash here?) • Remove jokey Bullet catch in T-800 mouth shot. • Remove entire scene of John being a Pussy and having a breakdown to T-800. (This slows the whole scene film down and makes John look so weak. I’ll uses the only good bit from this scene later). • Remove terrible fanservice scene with Dr. Silverman having PTSD • Remove Police man saying “and the Coffin” (More cringe jokes). • Fix audio to hide cut above, so the beat of the music matches perfectly. • Cut weird shot of T-800 walking with the coffin in a wide shot • Remove shot of Kate and Dr. Silverman looking. • Replace terrible T-800 POV shot with an actual POV from T-800 perspective. (VFX by Movies Remastered & CyberLynx) • Remove mid-wide shot of T-800 walking with coffin. • Add “T-1000 Arrival” theme to T-X arriving. • Add VFX shot of T-X healing (VFX by Alleyvoid, Idea by MR. We never really get to see T-X heal so we sped up a healing roto from T-1000 and colourised it to match this shot). • Add “T-1000 Arrival” theme to T-X arriving to above scene. • Remove John saying “OMG! Of course!”. (Badly acted and delivered line here). • Add Echo & Reverb to John shouting “Doesn’t have to be a war”. (Added to surround channels to echo in the mountains around then to give more weight to what he’s saying). • Add “Trust me” score from T2 soundtrack over John’s speech. (The original scene felt flat and needed more weight behind what is being said). • Remove the fact the T-800 says John “Will NOT pull the trigger”. Having him now say 83% chance that John WILL gives this scene a whole new direction and shows John isn’t messing around or weak). • Add day time LUT to driving scene to match T2 pallet. • Add cold blue hue to all Skynet office scenes. • Add “War Against the Machine” during T-X taking over the T-1 series. • Remove original scene. • Add darker LUT to power outage shot. (Fade in and out to make sound). • Remove T-800 saying “She’ll be back!” corny line. • Add green LUT and mosaic effect to T1-8 vision. (I was thinking of nostalgic ZX Spectrum colour for the first Terminators. The mosaic effect also makes it look like 8-Bit). • Remove weird action zoom on T-800 shots. (Again, this doesn’t suit the Terminator franchise). • Remove T-X head spinning 360 shot. (I didn’t like this effect at all). • Remove T-X and T-800 moving their heads side to said. (What is going on here? Pointless and breaks the pace of the fight). • Remove T-800 picking up T-X and smashing her body from left to right. (Bad FX and looks really odd). • Remove T-X grabbing T-800 by the balls, picking him up and walking through the walls with him. (WTF is going on here? Terribly executed and all round bad scene). • Remove T-X leg swivel shot. (Again, looks really odd and doesn’t feel right). • Insert John and Kate running down corridor scene To hide the above cut • Add Red LUT and posterize effect to mini HK POV shot. • Add “Sarah’s Dream” score to John and Kate’s moment to give it more gravitas. • Remove John saying “You remind me of my mother”. (It feels a little odd seeing as she’s going to be his future Wife). • Cut back to T-X and T-800 to avoid John and Kates jump cut. (This makes the scenes flow much better). • Add posterize to T-800 POV shot • Cut to John and Kate running into the room scene. • Remove second fire ball shot from T-X. (Why would she miss twice?). • Remove really out of place line from Kate saying “Just Die you Bitch!”. • Add “I’ll be back” score to T-800 approaching John in Hanger. • Add posterize to T-800 POV shots • Add missing sound FX of Headphones hitting Kate and hitting the floor. • Add dialogue of John saying “Fuck you! You fucking machine!” from the cut scene from the cemetery). • Use repeated footage of John saying “Fail” and “Mission” to lipsync above dialogue. • Add robotic and glitch sound FX to T-800 malfunctioning. • Add computer powering down sound FX to T-800 freezing. • Fix continuity error of wrong Airplane number on both B-Roll shots (Thanks to Alleyvoid) • Fix terrible reboot graphic for T-800. • Add Red LUT to inside Hanger. (This scene left flat and needed something to make it look more menacing. • Remove John firing gun into empty room. (Why would he draw attention to them?) • Had Red LUT fade as power switches on. (Leaving the red tint would also make it impossible for them to see the colour codes later). • Remove John saying “Thank you!” • Remove T-800 saying “We’ll meet again.” (These slow down the pacing and feel a little cheesy). • Add colder LUT to under ground bunker scene. (This needs to feel cold and unwelcoming. The original colour palette was a too warm). • Remove T-800 saying “You’re terminated!”. (I was 50/50 on removing this call back but the T-X matched so well I thought I’d remove the line to make it different. • Insert John turning of the bomb on the first time he looks. (I’ve no idea why he waits so long to switch off the bomb but this was a better placement for it). • Add metal switch off sound FX • Rebuild the 5.1 surround room sounds to replace the beeping bomb in the original. • Add another close up of Radio speak to cover the bomb switch scene used earlier. • Add “A Movies Remastered Presentation” text to credits • Add MRDb energy wave outro • Add MR outro logo

Additional Notes:

Available only on MR Discord to Initiate members who own can prove ownership of either the original Blu-ray or Digital amazon receipt. Invite link here: https://discord.gg/EBdQVXhDUh

Other Sources:

CyberLynx T-800 POV Graphics on YouTube. Mist FX YouTube Sound FX YouTube Terminator OST Terminator 2 Soundtrack Photoshop Premiere Pro After Effects Mocha

Special Thanks:

Alleyvoid Altern84m Cyberlynx Special thanks to all the MR Discord member who were extremely support from the start of this project many years ago.