THX Trailer - Cavalcade (2001)

9th Trailer (2000-)
Nicknames: "Cavalcade", "T-1000-HX", "Sphere of Doom"
Trailer: In a darkly-lit environment, we zoom in toward a glassy blue sphere, which has clouds rolling and lightning flickering. As the environment illuminates, we see that the sphere is barely hovering over a textured blue floor. Suddenly, the sphere shatters, and the sky is revealed to contain several rolling gray clouds. The glass then liquefies and gathers in the center. Some lightning strikes it and forms a silver THX logo. Then, the environment fades to black as a shimmering blue rectangle is drawn clockwise around it (like a laser). The logo fades out as the URL www.thx.com fades in.
Variants:
* There is an early variant where the THX web address is absent.
* There is also a rare full screen variant of this logo. This only appears on The 2005 DVD release of The Incredibles and the 2005 Paramount Ultimate Disc Box Set DVD of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
* On the 2003 DVD release of Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets, the screen is more wider than the other DVD releases.
* On some releases, after the THX logo fades out, the text "Digitally Mastered for Optimal Audio and Video Performance" (from the Broadway trailer) appears in the blue line. At one point from 2001 (when Lucasfilm still owned it), "Lucasfilm Ltd." was seen (exactly the way it was in the 1995 Broadway variant) above the THX logo.
* On the DVD release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the sphere disappears into light, which then scans, and the metallic rectangle with the T2 logo carved out appears, zooming toward us. Then, the rectangle gets blown by T-800 with the shotgun, as seen on the reflection. Pieces turn into T-1000 liquid metal and forms the THX logo. After that, the THX logo fades out, and then it contains a message reading "The Best Sound, The Best Picture. You're Watching a THX Certified Feature" appears one by one as each text fades out before the other. Also, the Deep Note in this variant (the Terminator 2 variant) is the same as Broadway 2000 version. This is also on the Blu-ray release with some differences: the THX logo fades into the standard logo, the "DIGITALLY" and "MASTERED" (a la Broadway '95) are replaced with "CERTIFIED," and the www.thx.com URL with a copyright notice appears. This is the basis of Cavalcade, and appears on its Ultimate, eXtreme, and Skynet DVD editions.
* On the DVDs of The Final Countdown, Fox Demo Disc #1, and The THX Ultimate Demo Disc, the logo fades out before we get to the "Digitally Mastered for Optimal Audio and Video Performance" text.
FX/SFX: The sphere, as well as it shattering, the thunder, the shards liquifying and merging, the blue box being drawn, and the text fading by Industrial Light and Magic. Just top-notch CGI all around.
Music/Sounds: Thunderclaps/electric shocking sounds, followed by glass shattering, then the Deep Note. A laser-like sound is heard as the rectangle is formed.
Music/Sounds Variant: In the T2 variant, music from Terminator 2 is heard which fades into the Deep Note used in Broadway 2000; the sound design and mix is by Gary Rydstrom at Skywalker Sound according to the credits of the T2 Ultimate Edition DVD.
Availability: Seen on several THX DVDs such as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (debut), Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume One, the first four Harry Potter films, The Incredibles, Bayside Shakedown 2, THX 1138 (fitting enough), the 2004 release of the Star Wars Trilogy, Fox Demo Disc #1, and X-Men 1.5. The trailer's first theatrical appearance was before Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It also appears in THX theaters, and on the video game MLB 09: The Show. It's also the intro to the menu of The THX Ultimate Demo Disc.
Editor's Note: This logo has a dark atmosphere, but also has very incredible CGI all around.