The first time I've read about the existence of Terminator 2 3D: Battle Across Time was around 1998, in a magazine special on Arnold Schwarzenegger. My jaw dropped when I stumbled upon an article on it with a photo of Arnold which was clearly from a new footage and not from T2 - he was surrounded by rubbles and wore sunglasses with the grey shirt, which he hasn't in T2 (he lost the sunglasses in the hospital before changing the shirt from black to grey at the gas station). I couldn't believe there was a third Terminator film and I knew nothing about it, or worse yet, I didn't and couldn't see it (I lived in Europe up until 2003). And it had a full cast back with James Cameron behind the camera and Brad Fiedel providing music again (one track was reused from T2 which was 'Escape From Hospital", and a cue from The Abyss is used briefly, but the rest is original score by Fiedel). I just hoped it'll get around to me someday.
The fact that it's in the attraction park and that other companies had bought the rights to the Terminator name/brand and quietly buried T2 3D's existence, doesn't change the fact it's a sequel anyway you look at it. And now when it's gone from two out of three theaters it played in, and with many theatrical features bearing the Terminator name, bought from company to company, a "forgotten" James Cameron third film is almost never mentioned and flat out ignored. For example, Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger's on-set reunion was for this mini sequel - they shared a scene when the T-800 arrives from the future, a fact never mentioned or ignored in the media which wrongly states they reunited in 2019 for the first time since 1991.
Outside of the pre-show video message, Linda Hamilton is seen in the "closeup" video feed. Those closeups from the monitors were also shot by James Cameron himself, and this is what actors onstage imitate and match with their movements. In those videos we can see the major reunion of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Eddie Furlong. This footage is rarely seen on any video recordings. Below, a screen from Popcast Network video and a closeups from HopeoftheFuture
While the 70mm motion picture is 12 minutes long, it's only a part of the story. It starts presented with video monitors in the queue area, which showed Cyberdyne press people along with Dr Silberman and other returning character from T2, and as live theater performance. And it's not a ride where you ride some cart or train, you just sit down and enjoy a live theater and a film which simply tell a story.
A continuation of the popular Terminator franchise
'My initial contribution was to sell Universal on the idea that we get the actual cast and do it like a real movie" - James Cameron (Cinefex 1996)
"Sure its only 10 minutes long but its definitely the next film - it's not a rehash of things you've seen. We take John Connor and the Terminator into the future war, an environment they never interacted with in the past films. T2-3D is actually a continuation of the storyline. It's a whole new ballgame, something people have never seen before" - James Cameron
So we went into it with the idea that we weren't just doing this knocked off themed attraction, we were actually creating a third movie - albeit a small one (Cinescape 1996)
The director had definite ideas for what essentially would be the third installment in the franchise. "Terminator 2 3-D is only about 12 minutes long, but it's definitely the next film - not a rehash of things you've seen" explains Cameron. (American Cinematographer 1996)
"Cameron saw this as a perfect opportunity to do a mini sequel that didn't repeat the same story and broke new ground by exploring the future with Skynet. At the same time, it didn't make any significant changes to the Terminator Universe "Adam Bezark [co-developer] explains. "It's like in comics where you have an annual which breaks new ground but doesn't significantly disrupt the regular book's storyline" (Starlog 1996)
The next installment of the Terminator saga (...) mini-sequel (Cinefantastique 1996)
Just because 1/3 of the story is presented as a live theater, and just because the film was exclusive to three theaters in the world, it doesn't change the fact that it was simply a continuation of the story. Even if you disregard numerous statements from James Cameron and the press that T2 3D was an actual sequel, it should be pretty clear that T2 3D: Battle Across Time is simply a sequel. It tells a story set few years after the events of the previous film, continuing the whereabouts of the characters. That's what just about every sequel does. Think of it - T2 3D is not based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day AT ALL. It doesn't recreate scenes from the film, it doesn't even take place in the same time frame. Just the opposite - numerous characters recall the events of T2 as the past, from Sarah Connor in her speech in a hijacked broadcast,
to the Cyberdyne Security Chief's recount of the Cyberdyne attack (the same one who finds Gibbons tied in the toilet in T2),
to Dr Silberman's warning about Sarah and her son John still on the run
(if you're wondering where Dr. Silberman is in T2 3D: BAT than you've only seen the youtube amateur videos of the show from which none shows the "story" in its entire form. See HERE). The entire story, even shortly described at the back of Kenner's packaging is also clearly a continuation. The story of the film in a pill: Cyberdyne Systems had recovered and has already developed Skynet and first humanoid Terminators, T-70s. Sarah and the now teenage John attack Cyberdyne but get ambushed by the T-1000. The T-800 arrives from a different time portal and takes John into the future to fulfill his destiny to destroy Skynet's core.
How is the T-1000 still "alive"? Simply, you can assume he wasn't destroyed after all. How is the exact same T-800, who was acknowledged in this very story to be melted in the pit be back, and with the same undamaged clothes? It's a time travel story and Back To The Future series was very creative with returning characters. As there's isn't time or much need for explanation, it is left to you as a creative viewer. There's one theory that works that involves the T-800 being snatched back to the future and then back into T2's story unknowingly to his companions, but it's no more or less valid than your creative idea.
So T2 3D BAT is a story taking place some time after T2, and really not being based on T2 at all. It has the same characters, but continues their story few years later and concludes it. That's what sequels do. They carry the characters and their whereabouts and create new plots for them and continue the story from the previous film. Calling Battle Across Time "based on T2" is like calling Return of The Jedi a film based on Empire Strikes Back, or Empire Strikes Back 3D. It's not the same film and it isn't based on it at all other than taking characters from it , which again is what just about every sequel does. So why is it called T2 3D and not have the '3' in the title? Two reasons:
One, the show was originally greenlit as a show based on T2. Therefore, before plunging it into development and even larger masses of money, licenses and deals have been made and secured for large bucks, and a lot of fuss and permissions had to happen to secure the T2 rights. It wasn't until deeper into development that it was decided not to do a T2 show but to create a new story set years after.
Gary Goddard, developer and co-writer of the script : Once we got into things a bit, we found out it was ONLY Terminator 2 that we could base the new attraction on due to legal and ownership issues (...)
You cannot re-create a moment from a movie in a live setting BETTER than the movie. The movie has close ups and cutting, pacing - all kinds of things that we don't have when we are LIVE with an audience. To try and retell the same story on stage is only going to come off inferior.
So all of this suddenly comes flooding into my head - we're not retelling T2 here
Being that Edward (Furlong) was now 5 or 6 years older than when T2 was made, we had decided (in the event we could get the stars on board) that we were slightly ahead of the last movie's timeframe - dictated by Edward being a young man now. (excerpts from JamesCameronOnline.com interview)
The last quote bring us to reason number two, that the decision to actually do a SEQUEL that would take time years later, and tell a completely different story, was made later, after numerous concepts of translating T2 into screen and giving up on that idea. That was already after the license has been given and the show was officially billed and legalized as T2 show. To have a '3' there would mean entirely new licensing entity, which would stop the show for a very long time in order for Carolco to secure and legalize the brand with a '3' and then renegotiate licenses with Universal and on and on and on. No company would do that when everything is already taken care of with the licenser just to change a number in the title. Instead, it was referred to by Jim Cameron as "T2 and a half"
The entire film looks absolutely stunning visually, and while Adam Greenberg has not returned this time as a cinematographer, he was replaced by Russel Carpenter - another Oscar winning artist who had worked on True Lies prior to this film and on the mighty Titanic right after this. Just as a bonus, a couple of examples of the beautiful Cameron/Carpenter cinematography, which continuous the style of extreme contrast, with white highlights and steely cold blue tone
And here is a full view of the triple screened, massive 3D image of Skynet's core chamber from the epic climax of Universal Studio's Terminator 2 3D: Battle Across Time, best viewed on a larger screen. Visible also is the gigantic T-1000000 guard in the center, and on the Jumbotron on the left a scene between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong in which the T-800 explains to the teenage John how they will blow up the Skynet core.
Go back to http://www.jamescamerononline.com/TerminatorTrilogy.htm
