According to IGN, the Ultimate Edition DVD of Terminator 2 “features all three versions of the film” , while the new Extreme Edition DVD has 2 versions of the film. What I want to know is, what is the difference between the three cuts, and which is generally considered the best?
http://us.imdb.com/AlternateVersions?0103064
As to which version is best, I have no idea.
The Ultimate Edition has
- The original theatrical release
- The “extended version” of same, which is the version on the new Extreme DVD
- The “oops, we can’t use that, now” version
Version #3 is the extended edition, plus two more removed scenes, which are also available on the Extreme DVD, but not integrated back into the film.
IMO, the extended version available on the Extreme disk is the best of the bunch; there’s nothing there that’s not included on the Ultimate Edition, but both the audio and video were cleaned up a bit better on the Extreme DVD.
The full, “Oops” version, BTW, is only accessable through an easter egg, not as a main menu option. IIRC, you get to it by typing in the date of “Judgement Day” on your remote’s number pad, at the main menu. As you type in each number, the words “The Future Is Not Set” appear, one at a time, in red, on the side of the screen. When you get the whole phrase lit up, you press enter, and away you go.
From the Extreme DVD’s main menu, if you highlight the middle option, and press right on the directional control, the same phrase appears, in the same spot. This unlocks the original version of the flick, I think. (Which doesn’t make a lot of sense.) Haven’t had time to sit and watch it all the way through, yet, and see just what it is.
(The menus for the two sets are almost identical, which is what lead me to try that in the first place.)
And as for the two restored “oops” scenes:
[spoiler]The first is the bit with the T-1000 in John Connor’s room, doing his freaky ‘touch everything’ bit, which was removed because, IIRC, it made it look like he had X-Ray vision, and the second is the original ending of the flick, removed before theatrical release.
In this one, we see Sarah as an older woman, on a park bench, watching her grown up son, now a Senator, playing with his daughter, as she does a voice over about how Skynet and the terminators never existed.
This didn’t get put back into the Extreme “extended” version, since, well, T3’s coming out in a couple weeks, and, quite clearly, Skynet does still exist.
[/spoiler]
For eye-candy purposes, the Extreme extended is the best of the bunch. And the interactive mode used on that one is pretty damn spiffy, too.
But the Ultimate set’s second disk has a lot more goodies than the second disk of the Extreme set. If you’re only buying one, go for the Extreme DVD, and rent the Ultimate DVD just to look at all the extra, behind the scenes type stuff. Chances are you’ll rewatch the movie itself a lot more often than you will “the making of.”
Thanks very much Skeezix, that was a huge help.
De nada.
I wouldn’t have bought the thing m’self without waiting to rent it and compare the two. Just happened to be that I’d rented the UE a couple months back, and then got the EE as a gift t’other day.
Can’t say I’m disappointed in it. The neighbors, subjected to the stereo bass line of the explosions from the “future war” sequence in the beginning might not share my opinion, but hey… 