Terminator 2 is now online!

Here are the technical specs:

Lossless 1080p

Running time: 2 hours and 25 minutes
File type: MKV
Resolution: 1920 x 816
Frame rate: 24p
Audio tracks: 5.1 and 2.0 FLAC 16-bit audio lossless
File size: 17.7gb

Lossy 720p

Running time: 2 hours and 25 minutes
File type: MKV
Resolution: 1280 x 720
Frame rate: 24p
Audio tracks: 5.1 and 2.0 AAC
File size: 6.38gb

As I’ve toiled my way through a long and tiresome move, I’ve been entertaining a lot of ideas to play around with during my spare time when I’m not moving boxes around (and while I still have an internet connection). One of those ideas happened to be James Cameron’s legendary sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Like a lot of folks, I enjoy this film. I don’t think that will come as a shock to anyone. However, I’m also a very indecisive viewer when it comes to which version of the film to watch. For most of us, there are two versions: The 137-minute theatrical version and the 152-minute special edition. Both versions have their strengths, but they also contain several weaknesses that I find hard to glance over. There are scenes in the Special Edition that I wish had seen the light of the film projector back in 1991, but there are also some things that I’m glad were left on the cutting room floor for the theatrical version. So, my motivation for making my own version of T2 was to create a compromise. Of course, my version is still its own thing, and I’ve even removed a couple of things that were around in both versions. However, my main concern was to create a balance between both versions of the film.

For this edit, I brought out my trusty ol’ Skynet Edition Blu-Ray. This edition contains both the theatrical version and the special edition, plus a secret third version that adds 2 more minutes to the special edition, labeled as “the future is not set” if you answer the 5-digit code on the blu-ray menu correctly (If you’re stumped about the code, here’s a hint: it’s the date for Judgment Day). I ripped the theatrical version and this “future is not set” version. These two versions alone should contain every last bit of footage that’s available for the home consumer. That said, though, the Skynet Edition isn’t perfect, as these two reviews below perfectly illustrate:

https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37191
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Terminator-2-Judgment-Day-Blu-ray/4024/#Review

The video quality is perhaps the biggest elephant in the room for the Skynet Edition. For this reason alone, I’m planning on doing some color grading to the edit in an attempt to fix some of the issues with the video. While the picture quality isn’t “terrible” per se, it could use some improvement. Plus, I really want to experiment with a lot of the ‘film look’ LUT’s I have on DaVinci Resolve, and this is a perfect opportunity to exploit that desire (In fact, that picture of Arnold up there is using a Rec. 709 Fujifilm LUT with a D65 color temperature. The more you know). Hopefully, if I’m playing my cards right, this edit is gonna look really cinematic.

Otherwise, that’s about all I want to say for an introduction. I will conclude this with a list of the changes I’ve decided on so far, plus a couple that I’m still feeling indecisive about. Feel free to state your thoughts on the indecisive ones.

Special Edition changes I’m keeping

Sarah Connor’s Kyle Reese dream sequence
John and Sarah’s CPU reset scene
T-800 smiling scene
Sarah’s extended conversation with Enrique
John and T-800’s extended conversation during the weapon stock-up
John and T-800’s extended conversation on why killing Miles Dyson is a bad idea
Dyson chopping the Cyberdyne CPU

Special Edition changes I’ve removed (updated 12-7-21)

T-1000 stealing the police car
T-1000 killing the dog and scanning of John Connor’s room
Miles Dyson talking about going to Raging Waters theme park
All moments of the T-1000’s glitching up during the final battle to keep the tension going
Alternate ending (updated 12-7-21)

Things that are different from both versions (updated 11-22-21)

Re-edited Sarah Connor’s assassination attempt on Miles Dyson as follows:
https://youtu.be/AKjmOWYBN0E (updated 11-21-21)

Changes I’ve removed from both versions (updated 11-21-21)

The opening 2029 action sequence, so that Sarah Connor’s narration takes center stage
T-1000’s line, “Thanks for your cooperation.”
Miles Dyson’s introduction at Cyberdyne
T-1000 talking to the girls about John Connor being at the Galleria
That subplot involving Sarah Connor and the “pervert”
Removed a couple of shots where Sarah Connor beats her oppressor senseless, since that subplot no longer exists
Shot of the T-800 and John Connor riding the motorcycle to the asylum (updated 11-21-21)
The lines, “John, you’ve got to go now.”, and “John!”

G&G-Fan said:

SparkySywer said:

epic reveal: Vader was on weed the whole time

Makes perfect sense. Anakin always seemed to be high on something starting with Episode II.

SparkySywer said:

Add clouds coming out of Vader’s mask, because his suit is a massive THC vape

Every time the clouds appear, insert Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “The Next Episode” into the soundtrack.

Alright, it’s been a while. Time for an update!

The move is taking a lot longer than I expected. I will be moving to a friend’s place temporarily at the start of next year, and I’m planning on moving somewhere else in the summer of next year (provided things go according to plan). I haven’t forgotten my work on the prequels at all, but it’s obvious why things are a little hectic at the moment.

On the bright side, this move has given me plenty of time to mull over things while I’m preparing to pack up. And for that reason, I’ve been entertaining a few interesting ideas for what to do next. I’m still deciding which ones to commit to, but here’s one I’d like to try out in the future to whet everyone’s appetites.

After a lot of difficulties with LUT’s, I’d like to give a gigantic thank you to this video down below, as it completely demystified a lot of issues I’ve had with LUT’s:
https://youtu.be/A2OLQNSIJgU

After that YouTube video, I decided to try my hand at seeing if it brought the results I hoped it would.

Here’s what v3 looks like at present:

And here’s what it looks like when I added a DCI-P3 Fujifilm 3513DI D55 LUT using the technique described in the video above:

Although I do have my opinions, I’m curious to hear what others think about it. Keep in mind that the bottom example is the LUT itself. I haven’t done any color corrections to it at all, with the exception of adding a broadcast safe node and a node containing the Cineon film log Color Space Transform, as described in the YouTube video. So naturally, I’m not expecting it to be perfect.

And yes, I’m working on that commentary track. In fact, I recorded a few sound bytes this evening. I’m still on the pod race (and yes, you can blame the move for it taking so long), but I’m still here.

So, I think that’s everything for now. Things are a little on the crazy side, but I think once the dust has settled, expect some interesting developments to occur.

To make Rey seem less powerful, digitally add a clown nose and change her hair to a rainbow wig.

While we’re on the subject of The Room, let’s make sure we add in a moment where Luke pets Chewy on the head and says, “Hi, doggie!”

Change the color of Palpatine’s lightning from blue to pink.

To make the franchise more realistic, have all of the human characters speak in an unknown alien language. To make it even more realistic, do not add subtitles.

Begin TFA with Randy Marsh’s speech to President Garrison on how terrible the new Star Wars movie was.

Randomly insert the phrase, “I am the walrus! Goo-goo-ga-joog!” into all 9 movies without any explanation why.

Oh yeah, and when Qui-Gon dies in Obi-Wan’s arms, this is played:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wc3kwv0Ddw

DMC said:

Servii said:

Every time a Jedi or Sith does a flip, add an audio clip of Mario saying “Yahoo!” Or “Wahaa!” from Mario 64.

When Anakin gets burned by lava

When Qui-Gon gets stabbed by Darth Maul:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pn27GEzEsU8

Aleksis Pakarinen said:

i actually thought giving R2 dialogue in The Phantom Menace might be funny, and have him talking with the other R2 units and droids in scenes where they are together and imply the only reason Aniken can fly the fighter or launch it is because R2 needed to wait for a pilot to be in the seat before he could take off, and basically R2 turns out to be the real pilot for most of the flying and the reason the fighter autopilots into the battle zone is because that is R2 literally leading him into battle and using him as a meat shield to join his fellow astromech brethren in the glory of combat against the taller droids. Eventually Anakin grows on R2, but it starts out a very rough and abusive relationship where R2 is just trying to fit in with his fellow astromechs. He even volunteers for the suicide mission of flying into the droid ship and blowing it up from the inside out, that is why anakin spins out of control and ends up in their, hes fighting for control of the fighter from R2 and basically losing the entire way.

The beauty of this edit is it explains alot of how events happen and why Anakin becomes such a famous pilot, because of his droid using him for his own glory among his droid brethren

I would’ve been just fine with R2-D2 having the voice of Samuel L. Jackson. That way, when C-3P0 tells R2 “you watch your language” in ANH, it makes perfect sense because we can now hear every f-bomb R2 has uttered.

“Blow that piece of junk out of the sky!”
“But my lord, is that legal?”

Anakin Starkiller said:

Give Luke a green milk mustache in TLJ and a blue one in ANH.

Add a “Got Milk?” logo on the bottom right of the screen every time Luke has the 'stache.

Servii said:

I think the crawls do set the mood for the audience. They tell the viewer that what they’re watching isn’t going to be just another action movie, but something grand and operatic (though that feeling has diminished with the films after the OT). Also, they help enable that more “in medias res” form of storytelling that can throw the viewer right into the action without being confused by the time jump between films. Though I’d argue that some of the films (namely RotJ and TLJ, and possibly ESB) don’t need the crawls and would be perfectly understandable without them.

I wouldn’t say that the crawls are unnecessary. When executed right, they do a good job of giving the audience foreshadowing and something to pay attention to (ANH is a classic demonstration of this). Unfortunately, that became sort of a lost art once TPM was released.

Going back on topic now. Let’s give Holdo a Hitler mustache.

Servii said:

Change Obi-Wan’s Krayt Dragon call in ANH to a Godzilla roar.

Or DMX’s X Gon’ Give it to Ya. You know, to be hip with millennials.

Atom-88 said:

Some really cool changes Eyepainter 👍

Thanks, Atom! My apologies for not responding sooner, although that’s mainly because my family is moving. My mind has been preoccupied with that for the time being. Rest assured, though, that I’m still at work on the edit (just not as much until I’ve come up with a plan for the move). I’ve also been entertaining some exciting fanediting ideas for the future. I don’t want to announce those ideas yet, but I’m strongly considering them.

The next thing I’ve changed is a small one, but nevertheless, a technical improvement.

One little bit that I was quite nitpicky about was Mace Windu’s mentioning Anakin’s name twice. It’s a small annoyance, but one I wanted to fix. In v1, I cut out Mace Windu’s “Anakin” in the middle of Yoda’s shot. At the time, I didn’t know how sound editing worked, so all I did was cut it out visually. Right in the middle of Yoda’s shot. So for v2, I decided to cut out Mace Windu’s line via sound editing instead, thus leaving this shot unbroken for v2.

The next change is something different. For once, I’m going to discuss something I’ve deleted.

Yes, this is the ever so wonderful moment where Obi-Wan orders Anakin not to leave Naboo without consulting him or the council. I wasn’t sure if I could cut this line out because of fear that cutting it might affect the plot later on. Admittedly, this was never a good moment, especially since it only gives us more of the antagonism between Obi-Wan and Anakin. So, I’m happy that I was able to cut this bit out for v2 (not to mention this useless subplot, but that’s for a later post). The more antagonistic moments of Obi-Wan and Anakin that I can remove, the better.

“There’s been no one for so long. Who are you?”

“Bond. James Bond.”

“Where is Padme? Is she safe? Is she alright?”
“It seems in your drunkenness, you had sex with Obi-Wan in front of her.”
“I… I couldn’t have. She was unconscious! I felt it!”

arabian said:

This sounds interesting. Can I get a link, please for v3?

Yes, you may!

In other news, I have a quick update. My family is going to be moving over the next 9 months. I will continue to work on the commentary track for as long as I can while I’m packing things. However, I think the inconveniences speak for themselves on this one. My apologies in advance. I will update everyone on the move as things go on.

Hal 9000 said:

Makes me wonder where Jedi Rocks could be edited into each of the movies, as an audio-only alteration.

So many suggestions and no mention of the cantina scene from ANH?

Still commenting my way through the pod race.

The next change I’ve made is at the end of the assassination attempt on Padme’s life:

Once again, I feel like I applied “enter late, cut out early” too much. I took out the line, “Are you alright, my lady?” from v1. When I first cut this moment out, my logic was best described as “Come on, this is pointless. We don’t really need that, right?”

But looking back, ending the scene with Anakin running out of the room seemed oddly paced. Not to mention that reinstating this moment where Padme’s handmaiden asks if she’s alright gives the scene a better transition to the ensuing action sequence that’s about to occur.

My next alteration is arguably the biggest one. This change alone is responsible for why v2 is 2 minutes longer than v1. What I’ve done is simple. I’ve added back more shots of Zamm in her cockpit:

Let me explain.

With v1, I wanted to add in a mystery element to the bounty hunter chase sequence. I accomplished this by taking out a lot of shots where we see Zamm’s face. I took inspiration from the sniper scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket where the first time we recognize her existence is when she fires a bullet at Obi-Wan. Then gradually, as Obi-Wan and Anakin pursue her, they see her face. Well, at least Anakin does.

I wanted to make sure that mystery element still existed for v2, but I feel like the approach I took in v1 was rather clunky. I was trying to reveal Zamm’s face as late as possible, but I think that might’ve been a mistake. We see Zamm’s face for the first time in the middle of the scene where Anakin is trying to grip onto the speeder. And looking back, her first official shot wasn’t that good either.

So, I decided to show her face earlier in the scene rather than later. Now, for v2, Zamm’s face is revealed the moment Anakin jumps out of his speeder and latches onto her speeder instead. This meant bringing back a lot of Zamm’s reaction shots and an extra shot of Anakin trying not to fall off the speeder from Zamm’s POV. While there is a part of me that wishes Zamm’s face could be revealed later, I think revealing it at this point instead feels more natural and intuitive by comparison.