Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the best science fiction movies ever made and is easily among the top of the list for James Cameron movies. However, despite going down in history as a classic, the 1991 film also has a reputation as being the film whose trailer gave away a massive spoiler – Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the franchise as a reprogrammed good guy Terminator.
One of the major plot twists in Terminator 2 was that the killer robot from the first Terminator movie wasn’t the movie villain this time around. Instead, the robot was reprogrammed and sent back in time to protect a young John Connor from a liquid metal-based T-1000 sent by Skynet. The first trailers for the ’90s movie gave away this big plot change, as Schwarzenegger’s T-800 arrives in the Galleria mall just in time to save John from the upgraded killing machine.
Many fans took issues with this teaser, giving away the revelation of Schwarzenegger’s character switch-up before the flick even hit the big screen. However, during an interview with Empire, Cameron has come forward to defend his decision to include the ‘good’ Terminator reveal in the film’s original run of marketing.
“All of us have had our battles with the Suits, but the case you mention was not a battle. The Carolco guys, Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna, were good partners with me on T2, and I led the charge on marketing, including showing Arnold as the good guy,” he explained.
“It wasn’t a Sixth Sense kind of twist that’s revealed only at the end of the film,” Cameron continued. “He’s revealed as the Protector at the end of Act One. And I always feel you lead with your strongest story element in selling a movie.”
As Cameron pointed out, Judgment Day’s ‘good’ Terminator change is a plot point that is introduced early in the film and isn’t a mega narrative revelation like twists in M Night Shyamalan movies tend to be. The trailer spoiler also didn’t stop the film’s success, as it still managed to gain $520.9 million at the worldwide box-office – making it the highest-grossing movie of 1991.
Fans can check out James Cameron‘s new movie, Avatar: The Way of Water in cinemas now. For more information on the film, read our Avatar 2 review, find out more about the Avatar 2 cast, and read about everything we currently know in regard to the Avatar 3 release date.