[jmyeet]

I'm not sure that anyone under the age of 45-50 can truly appreciate just how big of a deal Terminator 2 was and how big movie releases can be. Like, nothing in the MCU era or the Star Wars prequels and sequels comes remotely close. Yes, they gross a lot of money but in terms of cultural significance, I've seen nothing close.

At the time I lived in a city when the local movie theaters would typically run major releases on 1, maybe 2 screens. Session times were like 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm 6 days a week and I think 1 less on Sundays. This was before the age of smaller theaters in the large multiplexes so a big movie theater might only have 4-8 screens.

3 weeks after T2 was released, it was still showing on screens in my local movie theater for 12-15 sessions a day, even on Sunday, from 8am til midnight. I actually waited a couple of weeks for the hype to die down and went on an 8am Sunday session knowing basically nothing (because that's how things worked then) and the movie theater was still full.

The CGI was a big part of it. It has some fan service to it. My movie theater cheered when Arnie came out of the bar wearing the leathers and hopped on the bike. But it's not overboard. It's actually a really great story, which is kinda unusual for a sequel. Like, James Cameron really has to be commended for that.

But there was another aspect too and that was Linda Hamilton. This was one of the first mainstream big-budget movies that changed the way women were portrayed in film. Lots of people had posters of her wearing the sunglasses, carrying weapons, etc. It was actually a really big deal.

The 90s really was a golden era for movies. Like I used to go 1-2 times a week and just watch whatever was on, basically. I don't think I've been to a movie theater since Avengers End Game and even in the 2010s it was a 2-3 times a year thing max.

But it is amazing how much they did with CGI in the early 1990s for T2.

[markus_zhang]

My initiation was the first Alien movie on VCR. I watched it maybe in 1990 or 1991, but definitely before I reach 10 years old. It was also the first movie that I watched. The movie scared the shit out of me for months afterwards.

When looking back, all these movies (Alien, Terminator 2, and Jurassic park) were very well done. They never tried to achieve anything that was out of reach back then, and story-wise they were simply very entertaining. They didn't rely on, say, pornography (some movies clearly had too many naked men/women) to appease to their customers. The characters felt like real human-being who can hate and love strongly. They were done so well that it felt like nature. Movies nowadays couldn't do that anymore, somehow.

[dhosek]

What I’m impressed by of late is that a lot of contemporary horror films (thinking of Weapons, Backrooms, Obsession) rely much more on a creepy mood than on gore to do their thing (which is not to say that they lack gore, but they don’t rely on it to the extent that horror films of the ’80s through '10s did (the Saw films probably being the apex of the splattercore aesthetic).

[mateo411]

> But there was another aspect too and that was Linda Hamilton. This was one of the first mainstream big-budget movies that changed the way women were portrayed in film. Lots of people had posters of her wearing the sunglasses, carrying weapons, etc. It was actually a really big deal.

Yes, a strong female character in big budget movies wasn't a common theme. Aliens 2 also had a strong female protagonist played by Sigourney Weaver. The movie was also directed by James Cameron.

Terminator 2 was a huge cultural phenomenon. I remember going to the movie theater with my Dad to see it. I think it was the first R rated movie I saw in the theater, so it was something that we bonded over. Many of my friends had a similar experience.

[markus_zhang]

I think Scully in the X-Files also inspired a lot of girls to study STEM.

[jeffbee]

Scully was always wrong, though. Is that really who people wanted to become?

[markus_zhang]

I wouldn't say she was always wrong. I get her methodology wasn't always right or appealing, but she did inspire a lot of girls, which is a good thing.

[speed_spread]

We knew she'd be right in the real world though.

[kobalsky]

> how big of a deal Terminator 2 was and how big movie releases can be. Like, nothing in the MCU era or the Star Wars prequels and sequels comes remotely close

I'm in that age range and I lived through T2 and Endgame and I'll have to disagree.

T2 is one of my favorite movies of all time but experiencing the Endgame premiere, as a hardcore fan, with the other hardcore fans, was something else, it had the whole teather howling during the climax.

I also get that T2 is "easier" to enjoy in the sense that you need to watch like 22 movies to really get into Endgame.

[actionfromafar]

Endgame is basically "camp" (though large as camps go) at this point, and I mean that in a nice way, like how Rocky Horror Picture Show evoke similar audience reactions.

But T2 references were everywhere and people not in to movies or action or sci-fi or pop culture knew and know them.

[snowwrestler]

It’s not in Endgame, it’s actually in Infinity War, but everyone knows The Snap. It’s a generationally iconic movie moment that seeped into the entire U.S. culture. I had 65 year old lawyers referencing it in work meetings, and these were not MCU people at all. Sort of like how everyone knows who Darth Vader is even if they know nothing else about Star Wars.

[actionfromafar]

That's impressive, from my vantage point "The Snap" or anything MCU doesn't come anywhere near Darth Vader or the Terminator in notoriety.

[encom]

It doesn't. MCU is slop that caters to Redditor man-child Funko-Pop people. No one will remember it in 10 years, and I've never heard anyone reference it outside.

[xienze]

> I'm not sure that anyone under the age of 45-50 can truly appreciate just how big of a deal Terminator 2 was and how big movie releases can be.

100% agreed. Really was a magical time.

For me what "infinite CGI" has done is completely dull the wow factor of literally any movie. Decades ago the effects of T2 and others blew everyone's minds in a way people who weren't around can't comprehend. CGI was brand new and special effects really felt like you were witnessing elaborate magic tricks (since that's what they were).

Now we've seen movies do basically everything and the answer to "how'd they do that???" is just "yeah they used CGI." And CGI still doesn't feel grounded in reality like practical effects do.

[windowliker]

This is true, it was a big cultural moment, but the level to which they sold the absolute heck out of that film should not be understated. It was one of the first times I can clearly remember where a film came along at roughly the same time as all the secondary IP like games and merch, and seemingly more and more kept coming. Another film from around that time which had a similar media blitz was Alien 3, released the year after.

[ButlerianJihad]

In an age where cabinet video games and arcades were passé and a dying breed, Terminator 2 introduced an absolutely epic pinball game that started a renaissance of these machines all over again.

[skhr0680]

They don’t call the designer Steve “The King” Ritchie for nothing!

[windowliker]

Yes, I remember that table with the T800 skull. It was indeed epic.

[jeffbee]

> I'm not sure that anyone under the age of 45-50 can truly appreciate

Another possibility that fits these facts is that everyone is impressionable at 10-15 years old.

[wiredfool]

I think Jurassic Park was pretty similar craziness. Definitely pushing the CGI aspect, and super super popular.

[xoxxala]

Like T2, Jurassic Park is a blend of CGI with practical effects and animatronics. JP only had 63 CGI scenes with many more practical effects.

https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20027-why-jurassic-park-s-s...

[chasd00]

i would like to see a plot of the population of paleontologists starting from about 6-10 years after Jurassic Park was released. I suspect we'd see a bump starting around the time all the kids who saw Jurassic Park when it came out started graduating college.

[rzzzt]

We had Denver and Barney and The Land Before Time but kids suddenly memorizing all the latin names of each species was not a thing before Jurassic Park. (I think.)

[Forgeties79]

Jurassic Park really is a great example of “movie magic.”

[xnx]

I saw it in theaters, but was too young to be tuned in to the cultural significance. As someone who has watched it 6-7 times (including on laserdisc and as recently as 3 weeks ago), I can attest that it is a perfect movie. Frame for frame, everything is done with a purpose.

[whartung]

What’s interesting to me is how today, something like Avatar 3 has seemingly no traction or notable impact.

Perhaps it’s generational. It clearly did well in the box office, so somebody went out and saw it. But nobody I know directly, indirectly, or remotely has seen it.

It got zero chatter in any of the places that I frequent, and that includes some SF themed communities.

Big picture. Lots of tech, very expensive, Cameron, the whole kit. But whatever impact it had, clearly I was out of its blast radius.

[s1artibartfast]

Mostly becasue the plot of avatar 2 and 3 were trash, recycling the same cliches over and over not only between films but within them.

[lgl]

45yo here, pretty much just testifying that this is exactly what I remember, and I was young at the time.

I still listen to Guns'n Roses "You should be mine" frequently mostly due to that movie.

Also, Robert Patrick is the best terminator.

[ak217]

Robert Patrick in T2 locations: https://youtu.be/g_weC1AnDYU?is=BCovDJI83JzV2Zlj

[anthk]

39 there; T2 was several times in TV reruns in my childhood. Before that, well... the best SFX I could see were in BTTF and the like.

[timedude]

T2 and Robocop.