Hard Times
Frequent readers of our Lost Legends series will know what’s coming next. In the early 21st century, Universal started to get serious about its studio park. To do so, they had to face two debilitating facts.
First, that the age of the “studio” park was over. The ‘90s had seen a half-dozen “studio” parks open, each populated by big boxy showbuildings, light theming (which, in the “studio” case, meant exposed lighting rigs, flimsy facades, and bare “behind-the-scenes” motifs).
But a new era of themed design – led by Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Universal’s own Islands of Adventure – had made such barren, beige “studio” parks look like cheap cop-outs.
Second, that their movie park’s movies were looking dated. As the new millennium dawned, it became very clear that Universal Studios Florida’s contents were almost entirely movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s – movies that audiences of the 2000s were unlikely to have much connection to.
Compared to the ageless and timeless stories brought to life in the new park next door (super heroes, adventure, mythology, comic books, and Dr. Seuss), the movies embodied at Universal Studios Florida had exact years they could be tied to… and for every year that passed, 1975’s Jaws, for example, fell further and further from the minds (and importantly, hearts) of young audiences.
Put another way: It was only a matter of time.
Hasta la Vista, Baby
When Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, Terminator was at its height – a seemingly unstoppable story elevated to among the era’s best. Terminator 2: Judgment Day only solidified the story and its characters as a viable franchise, with T2 3-D as its apex.
Though James Cameron had promised a Terminator 3, other projects (including a little pet project called TITANIC) sidetracked its development.
Though Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines did debut in 2003, Cameron wasn’t involved. Then came 2009’s Terminator: Salvation, 2015’s Terminator: Genisys, and the Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that purposefully ignored them all.
Even as each made big bucks at the box office, diminishing interest and reviews hinted that Terminator might’ve been best left to the 20th century with two strong entries, lest it become yet another overwrought, unending, creatively-confused franchise with dozens of declining entries.
Still, even as third, fourth, and fifth entries declined, T2:3-D continued on, more and more necessarily self-aware and self-deprecating as its costumes, style, and Cyberdyne’s “advanced technologies” (VIDEO PHONE CALLS?) became more laughably retro. In fact, its ‘90s campiness might’ve been what saved T2 3-D and made it such a pleasure to watch on each visit.
2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate was meant to be the series’ grand revival, returning James Cameron as producer, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Conner, and 71-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger as an aging T-800 model Terminator. With Cameron on board once again, it was announced that Dark Fate would reboot the franchise, officially expunging the third, fourth, and fifth films from canon and making Dark Fate the official follow-up to Terminator 2.
Director Tim Miller even alluded to the idea that the film responsible for rebooting the franchise could also lead to a rebooted Terminator theme park attraction.
However, even though Dark Fate made money against its production budget, when accounting for marketing costs and revenue splits with theaters, Paramount and 20th Century Fox shared a $130 million loss on the film, officially cancelling any further entries.
While movie-based attractions tend to have less repeat-appeal than rides, T2 3-D: Battle Across Time was a sincerely industry-changing attraction that was thrilling, groundbreaking, and astounding for every single day of its 21 year run. Think, for example, of its closest counterpart – Disney’s own star-studded 3-D spectacle Lost Legend: Captain EO – which felt quite long in the tooth at the close of its original decade-long run, and even overstayed its welcome during a 4-year “Tribute” run from 2010 – 2014.
But still, time moves on, and as we missed Judgment Day (1997, remember), we find ourselves at a chronological crossroads… We’re closer to John Connor’s world (2029) than Sarah’s (1984… nearly 40 years ago!). Yet another hint that Terminator’s time was growing short…
Modus operandi
Universal Studios Hollywood shuttered its T2 3-D in 2012 (after a 13 year run, thanks to Hollywood’s delayed 1999 opening of the attraction). Not only would its loss provide a home for Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, but Terminator’s enormous showbuilding could be subdivided into two Minion Mayhem theaters, providing double the capacity of Orlando’s (which had replaced Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast).
Five years later, on September 7, 2017, Universal announced that – after more than twenty years – Universal Studios Florida’s original T2 3-D: Battle Across Time would close forever on October 8, 2017… one month later.
It’s not at all surprising that the holdover from 1996 would finally close… After all, Universal’s not exactly holding its cards close, here. Their plan is pretty public: aggressive determination to keep its Studio park packed with whatever’s hot, now. Sentimentality aside, lineage be damned, nothing is safe from progress, and Universal will remove even the most cared-for classic to keep up with the continuous upkeep that a studio park demands.
In Terminator’s case, the theatre remained closed for nearly 3 years, undergoing major renovations to reemerge in 2020 as The Bourne Stuntacular. We might argue that Matt Damon’s Bourne film franchise (2002’s Identity, 2004’s Supremacy, 2007’s Ultimatum, 2012’s Legacy, and 2016’s Jason Bourne) actually has less cultural relevancy than Terminator, but it is a Universal franchise where Terminator is not. Plus, comparing the most recent entries in each, Jason Bourne outperformed Terminator: Dark Fate, and in Universal’s playbook, being a “classic” doesn’t get you any bonus points.
The Bourne Stuntacular uses the same premise as T2 3-D (a live stunt show mixed with multimedia – in this case, live actors, massive sets, and a giant LED screen). It’s a fun, impressive, and spectacular stunt show. Will it play for two decades and go down in Park Lore history as a legend? Probably not.
The single remaining T2 3-D at Universal Studios Japan opened alongside the park in 2001.
Lost Legend
The unimaginable mix of special effects, thrills, self-deprecating humor, live action, and an actual, worthwhile plot made T2 3-D worth having around, even as Hollywood moved on. It was, understandably, a long-lived holdout of Universal’s early days, crafted by James Cameron himself, designed by Gary Goddard, and starring the very real stars of Terminator in a high-class production.
For that reason, this sensational attraction was a one-of-a-kind fusion of thrills. Far outlasting most “3D” theme park shows, Battle Across Time was a different breed… a treasured fan-favorite, and a sensational Universal classic. If you enjoyed our look back at this cinematic adventure, make the jump to our Lost Legends to pick up with another closed classic.
Now we want to know what you think. In the comments below, share your memories of T2 3-D: Battle Across Time. Was it time for this once-groundbreaking attraction to disappear, or was it somehow “timeless” even in its distinctly-90s style? What do you hope or expect Universal Orlando will bring to the table next in its attempts to keep its Studio park current? We can’t wait to read your ideas.