Back in 1996 / 1997 James Cameron was at a point in his career where a third theatrical Terminator movie was very much on the cards; the director was just wrapping on Titanic, and a third Terminator movie would have been a great way to keep the momentum of his box office success going strong, though, understandably, James Cameron wanted to own the ip he had created before committing to a new Terminator movie.
As Terminator fans will know, James Cameron sold the Terminator rights early on to his then partner and Terminator Producer, Gale Anne Hurd, for the notorious price of a dollar cup of coffee – something that Jim has always danced around the edges of – though the deal was a way to open doors for his career, in a sense selling the Terminator rights for a dollar cup of coffee was a very good deal for Mr. Cameron. The Auteur quickly went on to become an incredibly wealthy and successful writer, director and entrepreneur, and while the Terminator ip and property rights may be a sore spot for Mr. Cameron, I doubt he regrets the phenomenal career he went on to have after 1984.
In 2019 James Cameron’s Terminator movie copyright, in the United States reverted back to him, just in time for Terminator: Dark Fate. The rest of the global rights are still held by Skydance and David Ellison; who will soon be unleashing a Terminator Anime Series via NETFLIX – instead of a sequel to Terminator: Dark Fate.
For Terminator 2: Judgment Day James Cameron was technically working for Carolco Pictures‘ producers Mario Kassar and the late Andrew G. Vajna. When Carolco Pictures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 1995, after the box office blunder of Cutthroat Island starring Geena Davis and Matthew Modine; James Cameron talked to 20th Century Fox, Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna about buying the rights back.
In the interim Mario and Andy retained a hold on the rights, figuring that James Cameron would play ball and work with them again but instead Jim likely felt cheated out of the chance to own his creation and walked away.
Kassar and Vajna would later carry the rights over to the new production company; C-2 Pictures, for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – a movie which did not meet the high expectations of fans, nor could it reach the bar set by James Cameron with T2.
“There was a point in time where I debated going after the rights. Carolco Pictures was failing and in bankruptcy and the rights were in play. I talked briefly to 20th Century Fox about it. At a certain point, I think I was finishing Titanic at the time and I just felt as a filmmaker maybe I’ve gone beyond it. I really wasn’t that interested. I felt like I’d told the story I wanted to tell.”
James Cameron told the LA Times
It is completely understandable as to why James Cameron previously walked away from Terminator, and also to an extent, why he prefers to work on his Avatar movies (which he owns the ip of) – projects which afford him far more creative freedom with far fewer diktats. Admittedly, as a Terminator fan myself, I was frustrated when James Cameron didn’t do T3 but as I discovered more information throughout the years I respect Jim for his reasoning.
In 1995, long before a potential Terminator 3 and before James Cameron emotionally distanced himself from the Terminator franchise, he did reimmerse himself in the Terminator universe once again; getting his teeth stuck into developing, writing and directing a Terminator theme park attraction, one that, in his mind, served as a stepping stone to a potential third Terminator movie.
“We went into it with the sense that we were, not just doing a kind of knock-off, uh, ride or themed attraction to kinda be just be spun out from the film, but one that would create a stepping stone to, to a third theatrical production.”
James Cameron
In the early 90’s Universal Studios made it clear from the offset that they wanted some form of a live Terminator stunt show / attraction at their Florida resort, this evolved into something more, as the next chapter in the Terminator story would end up becoming a stunt show which also extended the Terminator mythos with the added spin of being integrated with state-of-the-art 3D 70mm film.
From the offset James Cameron wanted to break new ground and didn’t want the project to be a gimmick.
“They’ll go in thinking it’s just some gimmick and they’ll see that it’s actually a continuation of the storyline; it’s almost like a third Terminator film. It’s just that you can’t go to see it at any theater in your neighborhood, there’s only one, or hopefully two, theaters in the world that you can go to see the next Terminator movie in.”
James Cameron
Universal knew that they were sitting on something special and decided early in production that they also wanted the attraction to open at their Universal Studios Hollywood resort too. The ride no longer exists at the Florida, or Hollywood resorts, but they had a very impressive run.
The ride was also lucky enough to establish a third location in Japan, which is still open today. Universal Studios Japan even recently ran a promotion with a new Terminator 2: Judgment Day food item to help celebrate the park’s 20th anniversary this year.
Starring key cast members from Terminator 2: Judgment Day; James Cameron would have Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick and Edward Furlong reprise their roles. Footage would also be filmed in a three week night-shoot in the Arizona desert to bring most Terminator Fans dreams to life: the future war.
Theme park visitors would witness Sarah and John Connor warning attendees about the nefarious Cyberdyne Systems, and it wouldn’t be long before two Terminators turned up in pretty much a mirror image to the second Terminator movie; one to protect (Arnold’s T-800) and one to Terminate (Robert Patrick’s T-1000). The difference this time being that the story jumps into the future as the T-800 takes John Connor on a journey to destroy SkyNet and its Central Processing Unit (CPU) but they have to fight machines along the way and experience a showdown with the most deadly Terminator yet, the T-1,000,000 (Terminator – One Million AKA T-Meg).
Edward Furlong described the ride as a continuation of the story.
“Me and Arnold are gonna jump into the screen into this 3D world, and you know, it’s kind of continuing the T2 story.”
Edward Furlong
James Cameron described the evolution of the story and characters and teased Terminator Fans that they may see this finished in a third film…
“The audience finds their way into a story like this through the characters, even beyond that, we’ve created new machines, new adversaries, uh, new problems for the terminator to face; those are in 3D. So you’re gonna see a step, in the evolution, of the story and of the characters in T2 Battle Across Time – which may be finished in the third film.”
James Cameron
Before James Cameron’s rights reversal in 2019, he had always insisted that he felt like he had told his story with the first two Terminator movies, and if we include T2-3D: Battle Across Time – which was technically a movie, a short movie, granted, but still largely a theater going experience – James Cameron did in fact direct three Terminator movies. A trilogy of sorts.
Though due to James Cameron’s involvement with the sixth Terminator movie (Terminator: Dark Fate) T2-3D: Battle Across Time’s “stepping stone” was to a future where John Connor is dead and a new malevolent A.I. called LEGION is eradicating mankind instead of SkyNet… that is unless James Cameron decides to retcon the latest installment by directing and writing a different / new ending to his creation.
It could essentially be said that this was a ride, and as such has nothing to do with canon storytelling, but that feels like a missed opportunity looking back. The story of T2 3-D: Battle Across Time does have major holes like the unexplained return of the T-1000 and Uncle Bob (T-800) after they were both melted and destroyed in the steelworks at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
This leads me to believe that everything James Cameron said about T2-3D being a “continuation” of the story was nothing more than marketing buzz words used to get people to go to Universal Theme Parks to experience the attraction. The ride more than deserved the attention organically, and if Jim had to carrot dangle a third theatrical Terminator movie for some extra buzz, then, if anyone had a right to – he did, but the fact we didn’t get the carrot eventually adds to the plentiful disappointment a lot of fans have experienced from this franchise.
I would have to conclude that T2 3-D: Battle Across Time is not the real Terminator 3, and is not canon for me, but if T3: Rise of the Machines, or Terminator: Dark Fate didn’t satisfy you, and if James Cameron never gets behind the camera for another Terminator movie… T2 3-D: Battle Across Time is probably the closest you’re going to get to that third James Cameron Terminator movie – not to mention the Future War Terminator movie you always wanted to see on the big screen.
Would you choose T2 3-D: Battle Across time over the other sequels and reboots? Do you have any stories to tell about a personal T2 3-D: Battle Across Time experience?
Is T2 3D your real Terminator 3?
Let us know in the comments below.
