Before “Titanic” and long before his “Avatar” franchise, James Cameron wasn’t just making waves at the box office; he had made one of the best sequels in cinematic history with “Aliens” (earning Sigourney Weaver a Best Actress Oscar nomination) and would eventually follow up his landmark 1984 sci-fi film “The Terminator” with 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” The movie was a smashing success not only in theaters, but also made a heap of cash in merchandise sales (yes, they used to make children’s toys for R-rated films, and it even spawned a theme park ride at Universal Studios), and also helped push the video rental and VHS home video business into the stratosphere.
With that in mind, “T2” is celebrating its 35th anniversary, and the fine folks over at StudioCanal are set to re-release Cameron’s epic cyberpunk blockbuster in theaters this summer with a director-approved, restored 4K/3D version.
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In the Oscar-winning and beloved sequel, Arnold Schwarzenegger reprises the role of the nameless T-800 model (briefly referred to as Uncle Bob), but instead of being the mindless killing machine he was portrayed as, he is instead a reprogrammed Terminator sent back in time by the Human Resistance to protect a young John Connor (Edward Furlong), the big twist of the film. As an even more deadly assassin, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick ended up playing the villain after pop star Billy Idol wasn’t able to do the in-camera running) is able to shapeshift, and the VFX employed some impressive early CGI sequences. John enlists the biker-coded Terminator to help spring his bad-ass paramilitary mother, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), from an insane asylum as the T-1000 is in hot pursuit of them both. They ultimately try to take out a new iteration of Skynet at Cyberdyne Systems (housing surviving Terminator technology from the first film in a vault) with help from Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton) before it becomes sentient and destroys the planet.
“‘T2’ was made for theaters, and our lovingly prepared 3D version, coming back to the big screen, is the absolute best way to see the film. I believe it’s safe to do spoilers after 35 years, so SPOILER ALERT: the good guys win against the AI superintelligence! And maybe that’s a message of hope we all could use this summer,” Cameron said in an official statement.
The full global rollout dates are as follows:
27 AUGUST 2026: GERMANY, LATAM, CZECH REPUBLIC
28 AUGUST 2026: US, ITALY, POLAND
29 AUGUST 2026: JUDGMENT DAY
2 SEPTEMBER 2026: FRANCE
3 SEPTEMBER 2026: AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, NETHERLANDS, SWEDEN, HUNGARY
4 SEPTEMBER 2026: UK
Check out the new trailer for the re-release of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” below, as the movie returns to the big screen on August 28.
- Christopher Marc
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