I was long spoiled before I eventually watched this movie, but the dude kinda has an evil presence to him anyway, so I'm wondering how many viewers fell for it after only being familiar with the original movie. Is the first shootout in the mall the scene you realized something was up?
shareI have a slightly different story. I saw T2 before T1 and when I was watching the original, at first I thought "hey, it's Arnold. He was a good guy in T2, so he's probably a hero in this one also". This of course changed after like 5 minutes into the movie
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Interesting, now that you say it, I feel like I had a similar experience because T2 is so much more prevalent in pop culture. I don't think I had this moment while watching T1, but I do remember learning that he was the bad guy in T1 at some point and being surprised.
shareIt wasn't until the T-1000 tried to run over John Connor that you knew it was not the "good terminator".
shareUnless you saw the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRRlbK5w8AE
Didn't the T-1000 kill the cop before that?
shareThe killing was off screen, and it's vague what happened to him. Could've been injured or knocked out. It wouldn't necessarily give anything away considering Reese fought a cop immediately after arriving.
shareI always took it that he died. Never occurred to me it was anything else.
shareSure, but the killing was shot off screen and vague for a very specific reason. That's not a coincidence or lazy filmmaking.
shareIt's not that I thought it coincidence or lazy. I've just never viewed that scene as ambiguous before.
shareI never thought it was anything else either, but it's clear to me Cameron's intention is to kind of keep you confused until the mall hallway shootout. That includes little hints like not killing bikers, or "did this other guy just punch-kill a cop in the stomach?" It's all vague on purpose. However, looking back at the time, all of the marketing revolved around T800 being good, so for almost all of the audience, there was no question what was happening.
share'looking back at the time, all of the marketing revolved around T800 being good, so for almost all of the audience, there was no question what was happening'
True, maybe the marketing at the time did have at least some influence on how I read that scene.
There are a ton of movie reactors on YouTube who have watched and look genuinely confused what's going on until Arnie explains himself after the truck chase. But they are always suspicious of T1000 after he kills the cop. I find it entertaining. So I can see if you're new and going in blind and not spoiled, the movie does keep you guessing.
shareI'll have to give those a look.
shareFor sure. I thought it sounded stupid until I started watching them. There's lots of people out there who are too young or have always been sheltered from classics like T2, Aliens, BTTF and more. Now I find it fascinating. It's like watching movies for the first time vicariously.
shareI was too young to see it in theaters when it came out but I already knew Arnold was the good guy when I saw it a few years later on VHS because of the Terminator 2 action figure commercials I saw on TV. Here's a youtube video of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew109tRRK7w
Nope. When I first saw this movie I was so young I didnt even know about the existence of the first terminator movie. I remember believing at that time that the "2" just meant 2 terminators, not a sequel.
Couple that that at that time Commando was so popular, you couldnt even picture Arnold in your mind as a bad guy.
You're being very silly. Commando came out just 1 year after The Terminator. How could you have known about one but not the other?
shareI was talking about Terminator 2, which came after Commando.
Either way, it doesnt even matter, in those times you would watch a VHS when some guy your father knew had some movies that you and the other kids would gather around and watch at some house party(at least in communist countries). It mattered close to zero at what point the movie was released in cinema in the "civilized world" .
I am not being silly, it's just the way things were.
No now I equate his appearance to that Murderous cop Derek Chauvin he is A Fictional Expy for Him
Now thinking about it Arnold's Terminator in this attacks a bunch of evil biker gangsters. Robert Patrick's Terminator attacks a police officer who was investigating what he thought was someone doing damage to property. Some might not agree but police officer>biker gangsters. Robert Patrick is therefore more evil.
shareLots of the hype and even the marketing at the time revolved around the idea that T-800 switched sides, and kind of ruined it. It was a very open secret. Watching it now, you can kind of see Cameron is saving the reveal for the mall hallway shootout. I guess the studio had other plans.
shareYea the director didn't want the audience to know. I saw trailer clips but couldn't tell them apart. Always thought it was 2 Arnolds since he was a Terminator. The T1000 in the clip was just a tough cop trailing them to me lol.
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