James Cameron Reveals Why 'TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY's' Biggest Twist Was Spoiled In Trailers

In 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger played the menacing T-800 in James Cameron’s ‘THE TERMINATOR’ and a Sci-Fi franchise was born. At the end of that film we see Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese defeat the walking killing machine with a satisfying crunch. So when the trailers for ‘TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY’ came about a few years later, they made it clear that the cyborg Schwarzenegger terrified us as, was going to be playing for the good guys team instead.

Since then, fans have been wondering why such a big spoiler would be put into the films marketing before it dropped in theaters.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power co-showrunner Patrick McKay recently posed that question to the Avatar: The Way of Water helmer as part of an Empire Q&A. Cameron was quick to confirm that he never intended the T-800's heroic role in the follow-up to be a secret.

 "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 recalls. "It wasn’t a Sixth Sense kind of twist that’s revealed only at the end of the film."

"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."

For Cameron, the goal was to get the audience intrigued by the idea that the once-evil cyborg had somehow become a hero. 

"I believed our potential audience would be more attracted to seeing how the most badass killing machine could become a hero than they would be to just another kill-fest in the same vein as the first film," the director says. "Sequels have to strike a delicate balance between honoring the most loved elements from the first film, but also promising to really shake things up and turn them upside down. Our marketing campaign for T2 was exactly that promise, and it worked."

It sure as hell did work as ‘T2’ went on to smash the box office and showed who ruled the sci-fi world with a robotic fist.

Do you think the twist should have been kept a secret till the films release?

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