T2-3D: Battle Across Time

The sign for this attraction.

**T2-3D: Battle Across Time** (also known as, **Terminator 2: 3D** and styled as **T2 3-D**) is a former 3D attraction at Universal Studios Florida that opened on April 27, 1996 based on the Terminator franchise. It then permanently closed on October 8, 2017 and got replaced by *The Bourne Stuntacular*.

## Experience

### Queue

The queue features dozens of television monitors that show a series of
video segments (which are being presented on the "Cyberdyne Interactive
Network," or C.I.N.) about the latest innovations and products of Cyberdyne Systems. The video also includes several special musical segments, including two songs from the film; "Bad to the Bone" and "Guitars, Cadillacs", as well as a "live" video feed from Costa Rica of a performance of the song La Bamba. Mixed into the video cycle are live images of the waiting audience (in the manner of a closed-circuit
 security system) and two brief comical sketches of "guests" running
afoul of Cyberdyne security – either being electrocuted by a security
device or being arrested by security staff. Just before entering the
pre-show auditorium, guests pass an unmanned kiosk where they pick up a
pair of "safety visors" (3D glasses)[9] for use during the main show.

### Pre-Show

The pre-show is hosted in the "Miles Bennett Dyson
 Memorial Auditorium" by Kimberley Duncan, Cyberdyne's Director of
Community Relations and Media Control. Here, the audience stands and
views a promotional video about Cyberdyne's numerous technological
contributions before the video feed is temporarily hijacked by John (Edward Furlong) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton),
 warning the audience about Skynet and the future war against the
machines and telling them to get out of the building before they are cut
 off. As the video continues, Duncan can be seen talking on a phone,
telling someone on the other line to find the Connors. Once the video
ends, Duncan tells the audience to ignore the Connors' warnings and
proceed forward.
The promotional video in the pre-show was updated in 2015 as some
 of the original pre-show featured "future" technologies that were now
in existence; new CGI and narration now accompanied the remastered
original footage alongside some newly-shot scenes.

### Main Show

Guests are ushered from the pre-show auditorium into a large theater
that seats 700 where they are to see a demonstration of Cyberdyne's
newest creation, the "Cyberdyne Series 70 Autonomous Infantry Unit"
(T-70 Terminators). Once guests are seated, they are told to put on
their "safety visors" to watch a demonstration of the T-70 Terminators
in action presented by Duncan. After this brief demonstration, John and
Sarah arrive and disrupt the proceedings. After disabling the security
alarms, they force Duncan to shut the T-70s. However, they are
confronted by a T-1000 Terminator (Robert Patrick)
 from the future whom they engage with automatic-weapons. Duncan is
killed by the T-1000 while attempting to stop him, mistaking him as a
police officer. A T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) bursts through the movie screen through a "time portal" on his signature Harley-Davidson
 motorcycle – via actual actor/stunt double riding into auditorium – to
rescue John. He takes John back through the portal and into the future
war between humans and machines while Sarah stays behind in the present,
 with the T-1000 in pursuit. After defeating him, John and T-800 make
their way across the war-ravaged landscape as they head towards Skynet. Along the way, they are chased by a flying Hunter-Killer, four Mini-Hunters, and a Terminator endoskeleton.

The duo successfully penetrate the Skynet facility and descend with the
audience into Skynet's Central Core, where they battle the "T-1000000", a
 giant liquid-metal spider-like construct similar to a very large
T-1000. The T-800 sends John to a nearby time machine that will take him
 back to the present while he stays behind to blow up Skynet and the
T-1000000. The show ends with the ground-shaking destruction of Skynet,
leaving Sarah and John alone in the present time once again. During the
destruction of the T-1000000, water is sprayed from the ceiling onto the
 riders and then during the explosion, smoke is blown into the audience;
 the seats of the auditorium also lurch with a sudden drop, giving
guests a final scare. Sarah finishes the show by saying that she feels
that she owes her life to the Terminator for saving John's life. During
this narration, the face of a Terminator endoskeleton fills the screen,
morphing into Schwarzenegger's face before the film fades to black,
during which John and Sarah mysteriously disappear.

## Production

The initial planning for *T2 3-D: Battle Across Time* began in the early 1990s. Jay Stein, Universal Parks & Resorts' Chairman and CEO at the time, asked Gary Goddard and his team at Landmark Entertainment to develop a stunt show based around the Terminator franchise. Goodard sought permission from MCA Planning and Development (later Universal Creative) to morph this concept into a theater-based presentation featuring a 3-D film,
 live action and pyrotechnics. After a year-and-a-half of development,
MCA Planning and Development and Landmark Entertainment approached James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment
 for ultimate approval. Although Cameron was originally against the idea
 of Universal taking his Terminator franchise and converting it into a
ride, he found the storyboards and the whole concept to be "great", so
the project was green-lit.

A full-scale mock-up duplicating the dimensions of the planned Florida venue was created in an airplane hangar at the Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley. The set consists of a stage surrounded by a triptych of adjoined silver screens. Each of these three screens measured 23 by 50 feet (7.0 by 15.2 m). A total of six Iwerks projectors were used to run the 3-D, 70mm film simultaneously at 30 frames per second. Several elements of *T2 3-D: Battle Across Time*
 have been patented by Universal, including the seat drop effect, the
blending of live action and film, the trio of projection screens, and
the simulated assault weapons.

The film was shot at the abandoned Eagle Mountain iron ore mine, just north of Desert Center in California. The cast and crew from the first two Terminator films returned for the shoot, including Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, Robert Patrick as T-1000, and Edward Furlong as John Connor. To achieve the 3-D effect on a 70mm projected film, a two-camera rig weighing 450 pounds (200 kg) was used.

As a sequel to the 1991 film, *T2 3-D: Battle Across Time* introduced two new Terminator characters. The first is the Cyberdyne's latest invention, the T-1000000. It is a large spider-like version of the T-1000 that defends Skynet's
 CPU from attack. Like the T-1000, it is made of mimetic polyalloy,
allowing it to form its legs into stabbing weapons. The only known
T-1000000 was destroyed when Skynet's core was destroyed.

The demonstration featured as the premise for the film involves several large practical effects robots called T-70s, designed as mechanical soldiers, with large miniguns on their arms. They are the earliest terminator models shown to have a humanoid
 form with arms and legs, and are a direct predecessor to
Schwarzenegger's T-800. The T-70s stand 8 feet (2.4 m) tall and line the
 walls of the arena.

## Other Operations

Terminator would also open in Universal Studios Hollywood in 1999, replacing a show related to An American Tail and coming with Aquazone, later Coke Soak. It would also open in Universal Studios Japan in 2001 with the rest of the park. It would close in Universal Studios Hollywood December 31, 2012, and be replaced with Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem in mid 2014. It is still open in Japan however.