Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in the United States on July 3, 1991, by TriStar Pictures.
At the time of its release, with a budget of $94–102 million, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the most expensive film ever made. Its visual effects saw breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character.
Principal photography began in October 1990 and lasted until March 1991. In 1990, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights from Hemdale and production immediately began, with Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and Cameron returning. Talks of a follow-up to The Terminator arose following its release, but its development was stalled because of technical limitations of the vital computer-generated imagery required to realize a liquid metal Terminator, and legal issues with original producer Hemdale Film Corporation, who controlled half of the franchise rights. The resistance sends back its own reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator-a highly advanced killing machine-back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance, John Connor, when he is a child. It is the sequel to the 1984 film The Terminator, and the second installment in the Terminator franchise. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong, and Joe Morton.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also promoted as T2) is a 1991 American science fiction action film produced and directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher.