Sound Design of Terminator 2

Hyperrealistic sounds

Gary Rydstrom:

In Terminator 2 Cameron's approach to sound was hyperrealistic. Everything had to be so much bigger than life. Every sound effect in Terminator 2 had to sound like it was injected with testosterone, it had to be inflated to unworldly possibilities.

It is hard because when you get the mix, you have one sound after the other which you have designed from the beginning to be the largest sound ever heard. The challenge turned out be more in the mixing than the creation. You have the dialogue, the music and larger than life sound effects thrown together. James Cameron really shaped the mix. He had a very distinctive idea of how he wanted to feuture music and effects in each scene. He saw things in terms of rhythm. Gary Rydstrom

Voice-type sounds

Gary Rydstrom likes sounds that have a vocal characteristic. He loves real-life sounds that have the same emotional envelope a voice does. He says that there are so many sounds in real life - squeals, squeeks, and air hisses - that reminds him of a voice. Gary Rydstrom likes sweetening non-voice events with voice-type sounds to give them intelligence and resonance.

The transformation of T-1000 Gary Rydstrom: My first instinct was to put a goopy mud, liquid sound to the transformation of T-1000. It would sound very low tech and I did not want that. So my first attemps at transforming metal were very musical, taking a violin string bow and sliding and sliding it across different pieces of metal and coming up with very rich tones that evolved. It was a very beautiful sound, but it just did not fit for the director James Cameron.

There is a definable moment when the sound you are making just snaps onto the film and meshes with what it is representing. It had not happening yet. - I was making too etheral a sound. So I went back to record back recording liquid effects  but I tried to record them in a unique way. Metallic, evolving quality

For the transformation sounds Rydstrom was spraying Dust-Off into a flour and water mixture, with a condom-sealed mic stuck in the goo. The Dust-Off would make huge goopy bubbles. The moment the bubble is forming, it has this sound that is similar to a cuppucino maker or a milk steamer. The slowly forming bubble has a metallic quality to it. It also had an evolving quality. The sound seemed to fit because it had beginning and an end. T-1000 passing through steel The basic element of the sound of T-1000 passing through steel bars is nothing more than dog food being slowly sucked out of a can. Bullets hitting T-1000

For the sound of the bullets hitting T-1000 Rydstrom slammed an inverted glass into a bucket of yoghurt, getting a hard edge to accompany the goop. The sound of the molten pit Gary Rydstrom: I wanted a deep sound of something huge and hot - the high sizzle of something hot and the liquidy goop of something you could splash. That was made by compressed air into a lot of mud, but there were also boiling sounds which have been pitched way down. Key sounds in T2 is metal

Gary Rydstrom: We did a lot of banging in all sorts of metal. The archive building at Skywalker Ranch was still under construction - all the girders were exposed. We recorded banging on big long girders in various ways so they would really resonate. I mixed together different piches of metal hits until they were matched and sounded like one metal hit. You would get the deep thud with a high ring-out. Some of the girder sounds were used for the rolling I-beam used to smash the Terminator. The wind in the opening scene The sound of the wind in the opening scene comes from a crack of an open door to main mix room at Skywalker sound. The sound of the crushed skull

The sound of the crushed skull is actually a pistachio beeing crunched by a metal plate. The silence and small sounds

When the Cyberdyne building blows up - when the big explosion of the building is preceded just by a long period of silence and the clic of the detonator. When Arnold shoots the frozen T-1000 n the steel mill, all background ambiences fades out in the split second before the gun goes off. When Arnold flies on Harley, the engine, the music, everything cuts out until he lands. Foley

All the incedential movements have been replaced as the leather creaks on the Terminator jacket, the buckle clinks, and the footsteps etc. Shining moment of foley is when Sarah is getting out of her straps in her hospital bed. She takes the paper clip, spits it out, it lands on the bed, she puts it in the buckle, she gets out of her strap, and she uses the paper clip to pick the lock of the door. The whole scene is nothing but Foley and music. And a lot of the tension is coming from focusing in on those little sounds from Foley - the paper clip into the tumblers of the lock. - What is foley? ADR

70 % of the diaglogue and most of the breathing is ADR - What is ADR?

OSCAR 1991 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Best Sound:

Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers and Lee Orloff,

Best Sound Effects Editing:

Gary Rydstrom and Gloria S. Borders SOUND GOOFS Sarah is barefoot, but it sounds like she is wearing shoes.



>> Listen to Linda's footsteps linda wav (56 k)

>> Read about Synchresis - the forging between something one sees and something one hears

>> The bullets come out of the minigun the Terminator fires through Cyberdyne's window faster than the sound.



During a chase scene, the T-800 (on a Harley) passes in front of a Honda CRX that honks at him, but the sound is not that of a Honda CRX horn.



After the helicopter pilot jumps out, the door slams shut. The T1000 reaches over and shuts it again.



John's bike's throttle sound doesn't match the throttle action.

John's bike has a four-stroke engine, but sounds like a two-stroke. Visit Film Sound Cliches for more stereotypes and common logic flaws Gary Rydstrom Links: Gary Rydstrom filmography (at IMDb)

Crafting big-screen sound

Sound Design of "The Haunting"

Gary Rydstrom Interview Terminator 2 Links The Terminator Movies



devoted to the Terminator Movies includes images, scripts, sounds, soundtracks and more. Terminator Video Video



clips and scripts from both Terminator movies. T2 Goofs (at Internet Movie Database)

Film Sound Cliches To Sound Design of Sci-Fi Films

GARY RYDSTROM (Director of Creative Operations/Sound Designer and Mixer, joined Skywalker Sound in 1983 as an operator in the machine room. Since then, he has contributed his talents to many projects as a sound designer, re- recording mixer, effects mixer and foley mixer. In 1998, Rydstrom was appointed Director of Creative Operations for Skywalker Sound, overseeing the creative and technological direction for the facility. Apart from his feature film and commercials work, Rydstrom has completed several television projects, rides and attraction films. Rydstrom holds a graduate degree from the USC School of Cinema and Television. He is the recipient of 7 Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing for his work on Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Jurassic Park, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.