Terminator 2's Visual Effects Get An Unofficial Update

When Terminator 2: Judgement Day returned to theaters in 2017 with a 3D re-release, it was refreshing to see how much the film still held up, even though the technology used to make movies has so drastically changed. However, there are a few things that stand out as looking rather dated.

One of those moments is when viewers see things from the Terminator's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) point of view. The user interface of the T-800 looked rather simple, old, and very red. With a sequel to Terminator 2 heading to theaters in 2019, though, the team at visual effects studio Territory partnered with Adobe to give Arnold's robot character a new view of the world.

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Territory Studio, the team whose recent visual effects work was featured in Avengers: Infinity War and Blade Runner 2049, put the Adobe XD user experience design software to the test and managed to created a reimagined heads-up display for the T-800 that visually seems a lot more believable when watching the film in 2018.

"The biggest challenge we faced in the project is taking such an iconic screen and building out something that is as complex as the technology that we know and making it feel a part of the Terminator canon," Territory Studio motion designer Brandon Mata says.

While it remains to be seen what the T-800's UI will look like in the next Terminator film--or if viewers will see anything from his point of view--what Territory and Adobe have come up with is exciting to see. The user interfaces of computers don't look quite like they did in 1981 anymore and given that the T-800 is from the future, perhaps it's time to start thinking with the future in mind. After all, every computer needs an upgrade at some point.

Whatever the case, it's interesting to look back and see just how wrong the world was about what the future would look like. Whether it's Demolition Man thinking cursing would be outlawed and Taco Bell would be the last restaurant standing after the so-called "franchise wars" or movies like Terminator 2 having very simple ideas about the technology that was to come, clearly those making the guesses were way off.

That's okay, though. Thanks to unofficial upgrades like this and the actual Demolition Man themed Taco Bell coming to San Diego Comic-Con, fans of these movies are getting the best of both worlds.