“In the first film, the Terminator’s not really a character, he’s the embodiment of the ultimate tidal wave. So the idea of this little guy who could kick Arnold’s ass was fun. I wanted the effect of the T-1000 to look like a spoon going into hot fudge.

The last 25 pages were written non-stop – we’d been up for 36 hours – and we shot the film in under 13 months. The first time I saw the film with an audience, the moment Arnold walks down the steps of the bar got the biggest reaction.

I thought, ‘Why are they reacting so strongly? Because they got it. He’s back. Now we can do anything.’”

Effect On Avatar: Big budget, earth-shattering special effects, jaw-dropped cinema audiences. Things changed with T2. They’re about to change again.