There are few people who can argue that Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the greatest movies of all time, and certainly one of the Top 5 sequels in anyone’s book. However, that doesn’t mean there are some niggles that have bothered people about the movie over the years, and Robert Patrick has his own bone to pick for one choice made by James Cameron – and it is all about bikes.
While speaking to ScreenRant, Patrick reflected on how Arnold Schwarzenegger getting his muscly leg over a Harley-Davidson is “pretty darn badass.” However, when it comes to the Kawasaki police bike that his T-1000 rides in the movie…he is not quite so much a fan of how that looks.
“Rock and roll is sexy, adventurous, and it’s got that edge to it. Harleys are sexy and adventurous, and they have that edge to them too. So it’s a nice blend.
Even in the film culture, you think about my big film, Terminator 2, when Arnold throws his leg over that fat boy. Nothing says bada– more than Arnold Schwarzenegger throwing his leg over a fat boy. You’ve got the Terminator, T-800 on a fat boy Harley-Davidson, that’s pretty gosh darn badass.
And you’ve got me, the T-1000, riding a little Kawasaki police bike. That’s what happens, Los Angeles police department, when you put your officers on a Kawasaki, they put it in a film, and it looks bad. It’s authentic, but do you really want your public image to be on a foreign motorcycle? American-made, baby!”
As a motorcycle enthusiast, it is clearly something that Patrick has a strong view on, and you have to admit, in the movie, Arnie’s Harley-Davidson FLSTF Fat Boy blows the Kawasaki KZ1000P out of the water.
‘Terminator 2’ Stands Up Against Many Modern Sci-Fi Movies
When you consider that Terminator 2 was made around the same time as the atrocious “Stephen King” movie, The Lawnmower Man, the film’s effects stand with the likes of Jurassic Park (released two years later) as being ahead of their time. The film still holds a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its $517 million box office gross was huge at the time.
The combination of Cameron’s decision to flip the T-800 to be the good guy, and introduce a much smaller, but more deadly T-1000 adversary, was a genius move that took a huge risk – making audiences root for the same character they were actively wanting to be defeated in the previous movie – and paid off in a massive way. While the Terminator franchise have never quite reached those heights again, Cameron seems to be working on a new sequel, which will take things in a new direction and could be the savior of the franchise that didn’t quite manage to convince everyone that self-aware AI is not necessarily a good thing.
- Release Date
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July 3, 1991
- Runtime
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137 minutes
- Producers
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Gale Anne Hurd
- Prequel(s)
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Terminator
