What editions are available?

The Terminator was true to his words when he said he’d be back – He returned seven years later with a bang in 1991. Since then, Terminator 2: Judgement Day has had a special place in hearts of most sci-fi and action fans. It’s a grand spectacle of elaborate action scenes and visual effects, and almost three decades later it still holds up. The film has been released in three different cuts: theatrical cut, Special Edition and Ultimate Cut. The latter, Ultimate Cut, is simply the Special Edition cut with two added deleted scenes. The latest US and UK Blu-ray releases include all three cuts.

In 1993 Terminator 2 was released on VHS and Laserdics as a Special Edition where director James Cameron had added 16 minutes to the film. Pioneer produced the Laserdisc that came with a letter from Cameron where he opens up by saying:

“People sometimes ask why I would want to do a special edition of T2. Why “fix” something that ain’t broken? I see it not as a fix, but as an opportunity to do greater justice to the characters who live and breathe within the 136-minute confines of the film. This Special Edition in no way invalidates the theatrical cut. It simply restores some depth and character made omissible by theatrical running time and now made viable again by the home theatrical/laserdisc format.” Source: A letter by James Cameron to owners of the 1993 Special Edition Laserdisc from Pioneer

The letter is quite ambiguous on which edition Cameron prefers but in his 2003 recorded commentary for the Special Edition DVD he flat out gives his preferred cut of the film: