The Special Effects in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
To watch the never-before-seen Terminator 2: Judgment Day Stan Winston Studio test clips, CLICK ON THE PLAYER above.
Today’s blog includes a couple of tiny bite-sized treats. Exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from Terminator 2: Judgment Day of just two of the hundreds of physical effects designed by Stan Winston Studio for the groundbreaking and remarkable, James Cameron feature film. First, we watch as an "ash dummy" from Sarah Connor's nuclear holocaust nightmare is blown to bits. Then we see Stan Winston Studio key artist Richard Landon as the subject for a test of the T-1000 blade arm kill effect.
Jump To Section
- Using Cyber Scanning and Puppet Sculptures for Sarah Connor’s Fiery Dream Sequence
- Making the Sarah Connor Puppets Look Realistic
- The Practical Effects Used to Create the Liquid Metal Blade Hand Kill
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day: One of the Most Difficult and Memorable Projects
(Stan Winston and friends during the making of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.)
Using Cyber Scanning and Puppet Sculptures for Sarah Connor’s Fiery Dream Sequence
For a dream sequence the script required a shot of Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton) who stands at the chain-link fence of a playground and bursts into flame, her charred skeleton still clinging to the fence as she lets out an anguished cry. The sequence would require three ‘Sarah’ puppets for three stages of disintegration. Rather than lifecast Hamilton in the screaming facial position — which would be impossible for the actress to hold for the length of time it took the material to set — Winston took advantage of a relatively new technology called cyber scanning, in which Hamilton’s head was scanned in a matter of seconds as she held the scream position. Data from the scan was output as a styrofoam bust, which served as the foundation for the puppet sculptures.
(For a sequence in which Sarah is disintegrated in a nuclear blast, the puppets built by Stan Winston Studio had to match live-action footage of Hamilton performing the scene.)
Making the Sarah Connor Puppets Look Realistic
The third and final puppet — an ashen form that blows away in the wind, exposing the charred skeleton beneath — was the most difficult, requiring much research and development. To create the effect, Shannon Shea reinforced a medical demonstration skeleton with a steel armature and then positioned it to match the ending pose of the stage two puppet. To create the ashen material, Shea laid tissue paper and tempera paint into the mold of the initial screaming Sarah form. When it dried, he pulled that ‘skin’ out of the mold and carefully laid it on the skeleton-like papier-mâché. Additional floating ash was simulated with gray and black paper napkins, shredded in a kitchen blender, and stuffed into the form. Just prior to cameras rolling, Winston’s crew scored the form with an X-acto knife. When the special effects crew blasted it with air mortars, all the delicate skin and shredded napkin material blew off the skeleton-like ash.
(Joe Reader applies hair to a burnt Sarah puppet.)
(The extreme facial expression of the puppet was captured by cyber scanning Hamilton as she held a scream.)
The Practical Effects Used to Create the Liquid Metal Blade Hand Kill
In another scene, the T-1000 kills John Conner’s foster mother Janelle (Jenette Goldstein) and takes her form. Stan Winston Studio sculpted and produced a tapered blade arm, attached by a strap to Goldstein, for a shot of the woman driving the blade through the head of her husband, Todd (Xander Berkeley). As the T-1000’s weapon of choice, blades built for the show would number in the hundreds. Although seemingly simple, the blades posed continual challenges to Stan Winston Studio artists and technicians, since the vacumetalizing process revealed even the most minute flaws in their form. The Janelle blade arm, for example, which was made of fiberglass and ABS plastic, had to be made and remade multiple times before the crew produced a perfect specimen.
(Ian Stevenson’s design for the T-1000 spike finger, a variation of the blade used to kill John Connor’s foster father, Todd (Xander Berkeley).)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day: One of the Most Difficult and Memorable Projects
Made on an incredibly tight schedule and featuring hundreds of character effects, Terminator 2 would go down in the Stan Winston Studio record books as one of its most difficult projects — ever. “Terminator 2 was all-encompassing, and often overwhelming,” Stan Winston Studio supervisor, and Legacy FX co-founder John Rosengrant noted. “There were so many gags, so many effects, it felt like we were always playing catch-up. There were lots of puzzles to solve, and very little time to solve them. There was never a moment to just stop and enjoy the process. Because of the number of effects, the variety of effects, the lack of time, and the intensity, Terminator 2 was the most difficult show I’ve ever worked on.”
(A still from Terminator 2: Judgment Day as Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is turned to ash in a dreamed nuclear blast.)
(A still from Terminator 2: Judgment Day as Todd (Xander Berkeley) gets stabbed by the Jeanelle/T-1000 (Jenette Goldstein).)
-Jody Duncan
TO WATCH THE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN TERMINATOR 2:JUDGMENT DAY STAN WINSTON STUDIO TEST CLIPS, CLICK ON THE VIDEO PLAYER AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.
Text excerpted from THE WINSTON EFFECT: THE ART AND HISTORY OF STAN WINSTON STUDIO by Jody Duncan, additional text by David Sanger.
Courses with the Creators of Terminator 2
- Animatronics Design Basics with Richard Landon
- Garage Monsters - How To Make Creature FX On A Budget with Shannon Shea
- The Business of Making Monsters with Shannon Shea
- Hybrid Characters: Blending Practical & Digital FX with John Rosengrant
- Special Effects Sequence Design with Shane Mahan
- Hybrid Character Design: Practical To Digital with Christopher Swift
- Animation For Animatronics: Intro To Pololu, Maya & AnimServo Software with Craig Caton-Largent
- How To Build An Animatronic Head - Creating The Mechanical Underskull with Craig Caton-Largent
- Mastering Effects Disasters - Explode A Head with Andy Schoneberg
- Remote Makeup Application Part 1: Prosthetic & Kit Preparation with Andy Schoneberg
- How To Sculpt A Character Makeup with Bruce Spaulding Fuller
- Character Makeup - Multi-Piece Prosthetic Application with Bruce Spaulding Fuller