The original Terminator had numerous scenes lost between script and screen, and the blockbuster sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day suffered the same fate during production. Released in 1984, The Terminator is a slasher-infused sci-fi action film that combines a complex time travel plot with fast-paced action set pieces and an unforgettable villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robot lead. Although the film underwent many changes to ensure the director’s ambitious vision was achievable on a relatively modest budget, The Terminator was an immediate hit in theaters, with audiences eagerly awaiting a sequel.
Avatar director James Cameron soon began work on a sequel, but the second Terminator film spent years of reworkings and rewrites before it was finally released seven years after the first film. The sequel was worth the wait, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day remains an action classic. However, as earlier in Cameron’s career with the original film, many of his ambitious ideas were beyond the scope of even the much larger budget of Judgment Day.
Like Cameron’s original, Terminator 2 could have turned out very differently if the first project had been the one shown before the cameras, as Cameron’s original concept did not feature the icy T-1000, Dyson’s expanded role and a completely different one, though and a friend, an antagonist. Like the original Terminator, the finished Terminator 2 may be beloved, but Cameron’s sequel underwent significant changes during filming, and some of the missing sequences would have made for incredible viewing, while others were mercifully cut.
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Two Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminators
The original villain of Doomsday was another T-800, initially identical to the heroic one, and eventually reduced to a metal skeleton. While the images are undoubtedly striking, Cameron himself feared that the idea was too gimmicky and that Arnold might be upset by the idea of playing dual roles. There was also the fact that good and evil T-800s would be equally equal in terms of combat capabilities, meaning that the threat would not increase in any major way. This prompted Cameron and co-writer William Wisher to opt for a visually stark contrast between the towering original Terminator and the lithe, diminutive T-1000, with the director likening them to a tank and a Porsche, respectively. 
A More Diverse Terminator 2 Cast
Shaquille O’Neal was offered the role of the black Terminator in the sequel, and while Rise of the Machines featured a female T-X, more diverse faces for the robot villains is something the Terminator franchise took years to return to after the star turned him. down. Meanwhile, Denzel Washington was offered the role of Dyson, but he turned down the role because the character did nothing but look scared (which forced the creators to cut the role further). It’s a shame, but it’s also hard to argue with Washington’s summation of Dyson’s role, even in the script’s original form. However, actor Joe Morton did a great job in this role.
Kyle Reese As The T-1000
As hard as it may be to imagine, the T-1000 was not originally a cop Robert Patrick, but rather the first film’s hero, Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn. This would have made fighting the villain much worse for the emotionally scarred Sarah, but Cameron felt it was simply too confusing for viewers. As with the misguided decision to change the dark ending of Terminator Salvation, these creative fears are harder to defend because the twist could have been outlined and explained in the film. Later Terminator films even relied on the reveal that characters previously believed to be human were secret agents of Skynet for shock value. It’s a shame that this twist, later used to less impressive effect in 2015’s Terminator Genisys, was left out of Terminator 2, where it could have been both effective and tragic for the series’ heroine Sarah.
The Gant Camp Attack
Originally, Travis Gantt (the “ex-Beret guy” mentioned by John Connor) had an expanded role that included an attack on his ranch house. In one of the slasher-style scenes from the Terminator sequel, a deleted scene was supposed to show the T-1000 killing everyone in the camp. Meanwhile, the Salceda camp sequence included in the finished film also almost included a more violent version of events. In the original version of Camp’s attack, Salceda heroically blew himself up to kill the T-1000 and theoretically save everyone – only for the T-1000 to quickly reform without a scratch and find out where John of the camp’s children was. Anyway. It’s a cold-blooded turn that showed what an effective villain the T-1000 is, but scenes like this are something Terminator 2 doesn’t have, and an unnecessary character death might have been too dark.
Dyson’s Missing Dream Sequence
Terminator 2 originally included a dramatic dream sequence of Dyson’s death, a scene in which he looked at a photo of his family before they were consumed by a nuclear fire. Dyson would then see his family running away as he dropped the device on the trigger. It’s a shocking episode that could give viewers a glimpse into the psyche of a Terminator character who, while crucial to the plot of the franchise as a whole, doesn’t have much depth.
However, while Dyson’s most important scenes may have been cut from Terminator 2, footage of the fire that turned his family photo to dust did make it into the finished film as part of the fires that can be seen in the film’s opening credits. It’s a shame that Dyson didn’t get an expanded role and the creepy sequence was cut, but ultimately, like most story decisions that were made during the making of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it was obvious that the scene was cut to save budget. and also for saving.