T2 3D: Battle Across Time is an attraction at Universal Studios Florida. The participants enter a building that looks like the Cyberdyne systems building from T2. They are told that they are there to see the unavailing of Cyberdyne's new cyborg the T-70. Before entering the main theater John and Sarah Connor warn everyone to leave before they blow the place up. The Cyberdyne people assure everyone that their is no danger of John and Sarah really attacking the place. Everyone is given 'safety glasses' (which look remarkably like polarized 3-D glasses.) Inside the theater Sarah and John Connor break in through the ceiling. Before they can act the Cyberdyne logo on the screen morphs into a T-1000. A time portal opens up and a T-800 comes through. John and the Terminator ride a motorcycle through the portal and into the post-apocalyptic future. They battle their way to, and destroy, Skynet.
When Universal studios acquired the rights to do an attraction based on James Cameron's immensely popular Terminator movies they went straight to Cameron himself. They wanted to integrate two kinds of attractions together a live action stunt show and a 3-D movie. They had the idea of getting a big guy putting him in a leather jacket and a pair of sunglasses and having him be a generic terminator. Cameron wisely pointed out that there is only one Terminator. So with his help they signed Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick to reprise their memorable roles from T2.
The first part of the attraction is a demonstration of the T-70s, which rise from the floor and shoot at some targets. Than John and Sarah breaking into the Cyberdyne theater to blow it up. Two stunt players repel in from the roof. The T-70s try to kill the intruders. Than the Cyberdyne logo, which is being projected onto the screen in 3-D, seems to jump off the screen and morph into a stunt man playing the T-1000. The screen becomes a time portal and a stunt man as the Terminator comes riding in on a motor cycle. The illusion of our heroes battling it out is furthered by playing the characters lines, as recorded by the real actors, on the surround system. Sarah stays to hold off the T-1000 as John and the Terminator ride back through the time portal.
Once they ride into the time portal they are transported to the future and we watch the real actors on the screen on 3-D. Since this is James "have to break some new ground" Cameron they had to invent some new technology just to film the sequence. Cameron wanted to shoot with 70mm film because it looks better when projected onto a big screen. A 3-D camera is basically 2 cameras put together one camera filming for the right eye one camera filming for the left eye. Just one 70mm camera is heavy enough. Since he also likes to keep the camera moving and get lots of close ups they had to build a new kind of 70mm 3-D camera. They finally got one that weighed about 300lbs and was slightly smaller than a washing machine, no having a guy carry this thing around on a stedi cam rig here. To move it they had to haul it on the arm of a crane, or pull it between two poles with a cable/pulley set-up. To create this post apocalyptic future the film makers went to an abandoned mettle refinery/mining area. They build and demolished a lot of construction material to create the illusion that they were in the middle of down town LA after a nuclear attack.
The 12 minute 70mm film is divided into 3 sections. Cameron directed the first one. John and the Terminator arrive in the future. They look back at the time portal and the T-1000 comes through and chases them. They battle the T-1000 and than are chased by a flying HK (Hunter Killer.)
The second part was directed by veteran makeup and mechanical effects man Stan Winston. Trying to escape the HK they run into a parking garage and are followed by some mini Has and Terminator endoskeletons. The Terminator grabs one of the mini Has and as uses its gun against the other machines.
The final segment was the directoral debut of visual effects man John Bruno (who went on to direct Virus) John and the Terminator go into Skynet's building to destroy it. They are attacked by the T-1,000,000 which is a gigantic liquid metal spider. On the stage two stunt men act out John and the Terminator's parts as they do battle with the T-1,000,000. They finally freeze and shatter it's liquid metal before blowing up Skynet.
In the end around $60 million was spent on the 12 minute attraction. It opened in Universal Studios Florida in 1996 to huge crowds. It was so successful that Universal Studios Hollywood will soon have a Cyberdyne theater to run the attraction in.