Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the 1991 sequel to The Terminator. Also directed by James Cameron, the science fiction action blockbuster once again stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the iconic character, this time sent back to present day to protect the future leader of the Resistance from a new and more terrifying Terminator. Schwarzenegger would return in a starring role as the Terminator in a second sequel, 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and would also have a cameo via CGI in 2009's Terminator Salvation.
Upon arriving in the present (believed to be 1995 in the film), the Terminator Model T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) enters a biker bar and takes the clothes and firearm off a biker. As he prepares to leave on the biker's Harley Fatboy, the T-800 is confronted by the bar owner, who fires a warning shot from his sawed-off Winchester 1887. The Terminator coolly walks over and snatches the gun from his hand.
Three versions of the gun were used during filming. The first was the iconic "Rosebox Shotgun" with a sawed off barrel and stock and the trigger guard cut out. This is the gun seen through most of the film. The second version had a large lever loop so the gun could be flip cocked one-handed while riding a motorcycle (similar to the actions seen in True Grit and The Rifleman). James Cameron says in the commentary how Arnold accidentally picked up the wrong shotgun and tried to flip cock it and nearly broke three fingers. The third gun was the rubber prop gun for stunt work. The Terminator keeps the gun as his main weapon for a good portion of the film until he comes upon Sarah Connor's (Linda Hamilton) armory, where more superior weapons are at his disposal.
Since Winchester had stopped producing the Winchester 1887 shotgun before the film, the armorers had to find pristine condition guns which were no longer in production! The guns in the film are indeed genuine Winchester shotguns and not a foreign copy such as the Norinco YL1887L (which wasn't released until 2002) or any of the Aldo Uberti copies (they weren't producing an 1887 shotgun at the time). The report of the shotgun is said to be two cannons firing at once.
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Beretta 92FS
When the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) first enters the present, he kills an LAPD officer and takes his uniform and his standard issue Beretta 92FS. He is seen using this gun to shoot at John Connor (Edward Furlong) before losing it in the struggle with the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger). LAPD officers outside of the Cyberdyne building are also seen with their issued Berettas. Two kids outside the desert gas station can be seen playing with a pair of toy Berettas as well.
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Beretta 92FS Inox
Guards in the Cyberdyne lobby keep Beretta 92FS Inox pistols as their sidearms.
Browning Hi-Power
The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) takes a Browning Hi-Power Mklll off Lewis, the guard he kills in the mental hospital and uses it to shoot at Sarah, John, and the Terminator before discarding it when it runs dry.
MM1 grenade launcher
An MM1 grenade launcher is used by one of the SWAT officers inside the Cyberdyne building to fire gas canister grenades at Sarah, John and, the T-800. It is then picked up by the T-800 after incapacitating the officer using it and then used by him to fire CS grenades around the police blockade.
Colt Commando CAR-15 Variants
Sarah is seen using a Colt Commando CAR-15 carbine (in reality a Colt Sporter II carbine chopped down and mocked up as a Colt 629) out of the armory from the Mojave desert to attempt to assassinate Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) when she learns he started the project which lead to the machines being built. She removes the flash hider and adds a sound suppressor, along with a laser pointer and an ACOG scope. Later in the film during the scene in which Sarah, John, and the T-800 try to escape in a SWAT van as the T-1000 pursues in a police chopper, Sarah uses two CAR-15 rifles, one a mock Sporter II the other a slab-side AR-15 Sporter 1 carbine converted to look like a CAR-15 as well (like the guns in The Dogs of War). The last instance a CAR-15 is used is when the Terminator takes a Mock Sporter II and climbs onto the front of the liquid nitrogen truck the T-1000 is driving and fires it through the windshield. James Cameron commented how foolish this stunt was because it was done exactly as it is seen in the film, from a moving truck with no wires attached.
Detonics Custom 1911
Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) retrieves a Detonics 1911 custom gun from the armory in the Mohave desert and takes it with her on her mission to kill Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). Sarah manages to wound him with the gun before she realizes what she is doing and stops. The gun was custom built for the movie by Detonics off of their ServiceMaster model and features their signature forward mounted rear sight and a long slide. She later uses it to keep a SWAT team at bay during a shootout at the Cyberdyne building.According to biggerhammer.net, the gun was a Scoremaster frame with a Combatmaster slide and a comp'd barrel to make it look like a longslide as confirmed by a former Detonics employee. The same gun can be seen in Runaway with Tom Selleck.
Colt/Detonics M1911A1 Series 70 Hybrid
When the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) first arrives in the present, he enters a biker bar and asks The Cigar Smoking Biker (Robert Winley) to give him his clothes, his boots, and his motorcycle. After a fight breaks out, the Terminator throws the biker on a stove's hot burners and burns him badly. He then tries to draw his custom Colt/Detonics M1911A1 Series 70 Hybrid pistol built with a Colt Series 70 slide, a Detonics frame, an ambidextrous safety, with Pachmayr grips, and chambered in 9mm (because .45s don't cycle well as blanks) but is unable to chamber it and has the gun taken from him. Later when John and the T-800 break Sarah out of the mental hospital, she takes the M1911A1 and fires it at the T-1000 and keeps it as her sidearm until she retrieves her custom Detonics 1911. During the shootout at Cyberdyne, the T-800 uses the M1911A1 to wound all of the SWAT officers in the lobby before the gun goes empty and he tosses it away. Even though he is never seen picking it back up, he somehow has it tucked in his pants and ready to shoot the T-1000, frozen in liquid nitrogen, at the end of the film. In all scenes but one, the pistol is reloaded after every 8 rounds fired.
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M1911A1
The gate guard at the mental hospital tries to draw an M1911A1 with a nickel finish and pearl grips before he is shot in both kneecaps by the T-800. He then takes three magazines off of him, which are clearly loaded with .45 ACP rounds. This would make them useless in his 9mm M1911A1 but the viewer isn't supposed to know his gun is a 9mm.
M79 grenade launcher
The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) takes an M79 grenade launcher from Sarah's arsenal in the Mojave desert. During the assault on the Cyberdyne building, the T-800 uses the M79 grenade launcher, first to blast open a locked door, then to destroy several of the police cars assembled outside, then during the ensuing car chase when the T-1000 persues the protagonists in a comandeered tanker truck, the Terminator scoring a direct hit on the engine with the M79, though the truck miraculously continues running. He also tries to use it on the T-1000 during the fight in the steel mill, eventually using it to knock the T-1000 into the pit of molten steel. By this point, part of the launcher's stock has been shattered during the fight, but enough remains for the weapon to be usable. In reality, 40mm HE rounds have a safety mechanism in which they will not detonate until they have flown a certain distance. The more modern types arm after at least 14m. Earlier types, such as the M381, have a 2-3m arming range. However, in the film, rounds detonate as little as 3-5 feet from the user. The M79 presents a nightmare of continuity problems. The bandolier varies both in quantity of grenades and arrangement of remaining grenades as the movie heads toward its climax. At the end of the day the bandolier started with 11 rounds which somehow translated to firing 7 before running out of ammo.
Handheld GE M134 Minigun
In one of the more notable scenes of the film, the T-800 engages the police assembled outside the Cyberdyne building with a handheld GE M134 Minigun destroying the police cars while leaving the police themselves unharmed. Originally the Terminator was going to use a MAC-10 to shoot at the police but James Cameron decided to revisit the gun used in Predator. The gun in T2 used the same custom Y-frame as in Predator with some modifications. The modified M60 foregrip assembly was removed in its entirety. To replace it a "chainsaw" grip was mounted on the Y-frame and the M16-style carry handle was removed. This style of carry has become the "standard" for handheld Miniguns in movies and video games. The Y-frame still attaches to the weapons mounting lugs, though with no carry handle the weapon lost its sling attachment point forcing Arnold to carry all the weight of the weapon in his hands. In order to fire it, the Terminator carries a duffel bag full of ammo and possibly the batteries as well, as there are some shots that show what appear to be cables leading from the gun and into the duffel bag. It is also possible that the duffel bag was simply used to hide the fact that the cables trailed off set to the power supply and gun control unit.
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GE M134 Minigun
A GE M134 Minigun is mounted on the back of a truck in the future battle scene. A soldier next to the future John Connor (Michael Edwards) is also seen manning a Minigun. This is not the same Minigun as the handheld one, as some believe.
Franchi SPAS 15
A future resistance soldier is seen firing a Franchi SPAS-15 during the future battle scene.
FIM-92A Stinger
A future resistance fighter on the back of a truck takes out a Hunter-Killer with an FIM-92A Stinger missile launcher.
General Dynamics RSB-80 Plasma Gun
The heavy future General Dynamics RSB-80 Plasma Gun from the first Terminator film returns very briefly and is seen used to blow up a machine. It looks like it is built from a British Vickers gun (As a toggle lock is seen at one point in T1) or the Colt variant of the Browning M1917 machine gun hence the spade grips.
Ithaca 37
Ithaca 37 shotguns can be seen used by some of the police officers outside the Cyberdyne building.
Remington 870
Police outside the Cyberdyne building are seen with a couple of Remington 870 shotguns.
Remington 870 Police Combat with Folding Stock
Near the end of the film, Sarah Connor engages the T-1000 using a Remington 870 Police Combat with Folding Stock she took from a SWAT van, outfitted with a high-capacity magazine tube and a spare shotshell holder on the stock, each shot knocking her opponent progressively closer to the pit of molten steel in the mill, until running out of ammo, frustratingly close to knocking the T-1000 into the pit. One of the police officers outside Cyberdyne is also seen using one.
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Heckler & Koch SP89 (mocked up as MP5K)
While fleeing from the Cyberdyne building, the Connors and the T-800 find themselves being pursued by the T-1000 piloting a stolen police helicopter and brandishing an Heckler & Koch SP89, mocked up as an MP5K by adding an MP5K foregrip and converting it to full auto. A SWAT officer can also be seen using one. They are recognized as SP89s by their lack of a paddle magazine release behind the magazine and the lack of a push pin lower receiver.
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Heckler & Koch HK94A2/A3 (chopped and converted)
The SWAT teams that assaults Cyberdyne are mainly armed with Heckler & Koch HK94s with the 16" barrels chopped down and converted to full auto to resemble MP5A3s. The most notable ways to tell are the lack of the 3 barrel lugs, the lack of a paddle magazine release, and the lack of a push pin lower reciever. Some of these guns are the collapsing stock HK94A3s while others are the full stock HK94A2s.
Browning M2HB
Among the weapons seen in the hidden weapons cache in the Mojave Desert is a Browning M2HB heavy machine gun.
Westinghouse M95A1 Phased Plasma Rifle
The fictional Westinghouse M95A1 Phased Plasma Rifle is seen being used by the endoskeleton Terminators in the future scenes of the film. This weapon was built on the Calico M960 9mm submachine gun. These walking endoskeletons are among the most famous of Stan Winston's animatronics, right up there with the T-rex from Jurassic Park and the Alien Queen from Aliens.
Muzzelite MZ14 Bullpup
Human Resistance fighters during the Future War scenes are armed with Ruger Mini-14 rifles fitted into Muzzelite bullpup stocks with scopes.
Mossberg 590
Enrique (Castulo Guerra) is seen using a Mossberg 590 shotgun when Sarah, John, and the Terminator arrive at his home in the Mojave desert. Later on, a SWAT officer is seen firing a 590 at the SWAT van Sarah, John, and The Terminator use to escape from Cyberdyne in.
AKM
When going through the armory in the desert, John checks the chambers on several AKM rifles (extended edition only). Sarah can also be seen carrying one briefly.
M16A1
A number of M16A1 rifles can be seen on the armory wall.
MAC-10
John picks a MAC-10 submachine gun while the Terminator examines the M79.
Trivia: In the screenplay, the MAC-10 was supposed to be the weapon that the Terminator used during the shootout at the Cyberdyne Building, before James Cameron decided that the Terminator should use the handheld Minigun instead.
M60 machine gun
Three M60 machine guns can be seen inside the Mojave desert armory.
M72 LAW
A group of M72 LAW launchers can be seen when John and the Terminator first enter the armory.
Winchester 1300
Winchester 1300 shotguns with extended magazine tubes are seen in the Mojave Desert armory. The Terminator is seen carrying a few out.
Armalite AR-18
When the doctors at the mental hospital show Sarah pictures of the Terminator from surveillance cameras in the police station during 1984 (keep in mind that security cameras weren't installed in police stations at this time), the Terminator is seen wielding the two guns we saw him use in the first film. In his right hand, he is holding an Armalite AR-18.
Franchi SPAS-12
Also seen used by the Terminator from the first film in the surveillance footage is a Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun in his left hand.