Thirty-five years ago, a 13-year-old Edward Furlong climbed onto a dirt bike, blasted Guns N’ Roses and became one of the most recognisable young stars of the 1990s. With no previous acting experience, Furlong was handed the role of John Connor in James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, joining Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Robert Patrick in a film that would redefine the action blockbuster.
What Furlong couldn’t have known was just how long John Connor would follow him. Now approaching 50, he still meets younger fans discovering T2 for the first time.
“God, dude, it’s wild,” Furlong tells Movieland. “I had no idea that I’d still be talking about this movie. I’m 49 years old, almost 50, and I still get kids who are huge fans and so excited about it.”
With Terminator 2 returning to cinemas for its 35th anniversary, Furlong admits he has come to accept that John Connor will probably always be part of his life. “If it’s lasted this long, I’ll probably still be talking Terminator till the day I die. I’m very proud to have been a part of that.”
MADE FOR THE BIG SCREEN
Looking back, Furlong gives much of the credit for John Connor’s effortless cool to director James Cameron, particularly when remembering the film’s legendary LA River chase.
“Jim Cameron made me look a lot cooler than I really was as a kid!” he laughs. “I don’t know how to fucking ride a dirt bike like that. I’m not hopping over things and running away from semi-trucks!”
The sequence took weeks to complete using a mixture of real riding, stunt work and clever filmmaking. Some shots even had Furlong positioned on the back of a pickup truck with makeshift handlebars, pretending to ride while the action unfolded around him. It wasn’t until he finally watched the completed film that the scale of what Cameron had created became clear.
“I remember seeing that chase scene down the river and my mind was blown. The editing, the music, everything. People throw around the word ‘genius’ a lot, but I think it really does apply to Jim Cameron.”
That commitment extended throughout the production. Long before computer-generated spectacle became commonplace, T2 was smashing real vehicles, blowing up buildings and sending helicopters underneath overpasses. Furlong vividly remembers watching the truck plunge from the bridge during the chase sequence. Hours were spent preparing a stunt that essentially had one opportunity to work. “They could only do one take on that. How many times can you do that? I don’t think they had more than one truck!”
For all its practical destruction, Terminator 2 was simultaneously pushing visual effects into the future through Robert Patrick’s liquid-metal T-1000. Patrick proved equally impressive without any visual effects. During one of the early takes of the famous shopping-centre pursuit, the athletic actor actually managed to catch Furlong.
“He caught me,” Furlong laughs. “So that would have ended the whole movie right there!”
For a teenager making his first movie, Furlong couldn’t have asked for more experienced teachers. Arnold Schwarzenegger was already one of the biggest movie stars in the world, something Furlong admits was intimidating at first. Behind the imposing Terminator exterior, however, he remembers someone funny, positive and remarkably professional.
“He could always get me to crack up. He was hilarious,” Furlong recalls. More importantly, Schwarzenegger demonstrated an attitude Furlong never forgot. “You would never see Arnold complain. You would never hear him say, ‘I’m tired,’ or ‘We’re doing too many takes.’ He was always on it and always positive.”
Linda Hamilton provided a different education. Watching her transform Sarah Connor into one of cinema’s most formidable characters gave the young actor an early lesson in dramatic performance. Furlong particularly remembers their emotional scenes at Miles Dyson’s home. “She’s crying, and she’s so beautiful and so good in that scene. It’s hard not to start crying and feeling it yourself. She’s such a good actress.”
For Furlong, Terminator 2 was effectively the world’s biggest acting school, and Cameron was a demanding teacher. Only later in his career did he realise how unusual his first filmmaking experience had been.
“The biggest lesson I learned actually came after working with him, and that was realising I was spoiled rotten by having a director like him,” Furlong says. “Jim Cameron knows exactly what he wants. You feel 100 per cent safe with him because you know it’s going to be good.”
TERMINATOR 2D NO FATE
The conversation took a nostalgic detour into Terminator video games, revealing that Furlong is still very much a gamer. When the original Terminator 2 arcade machine arrived, he remembers pumping it full of quarters until he finally beat it, while we brought out an original Nintendo copy of T2 that has survived in the collection since the ’90s. Furlong immediately remembered the notoriously difficult LJN movie tie-in games, laughing about just how punishing they could be.
But his gaming history with Terminator hasn’t remained in the past. Furlong has also jumped into the newer generation of games and was particularly enthusiastic about the latest retro-inspired Terminator experience Terminator 2D No Fate, loving the way it captures what those classic games felt like they were trying to achieve decades ago.
“It really did feel like how us as kids would have wanted the game to be,” Furlong told Movieland, praising its modern take on the classic 16-bit aesthetic. “It’s got the total Super Nintendo kind of graphics, but modern. I thought it was really cool. I plan on finishing it one of these days.”
That naturally led us to pitch an idea we’re sure plenty of fans would tune in for: Edward Furlong livestreaming himself playing Terminator games on Twitch, from the brutally difficult original Nintendo release through to the newest generation. It turns out we weren’t the first to suggest it.
“People tell me, ‘Dude, you can make money doing Twitch streams,’” Furlong laughed. “I play video games all the time. I love playing video games. I play video games just as much as I watch movies.”
John Connor taking on Skynet again, this time live on Twitch? We’d watch that.
LIFE AFTER JUDGMENT DAY
While John Connor became Furlong’s defining role, the years that followed produced several films that have developed devoted audiences of their own. One of the biggest is 1994’s Brainscan, a horror film built around a sinister interactive game that begins blurring virtual murder with reality. The movie struggled during its original cinema release, but home video gave it an entirely different life.
“People love Brainscan,” Furlong says. “I go to conventions and meet fans, and I’ve watched that cult following build over time.”
Looking back at its obsession with immersive technology and virtual reality, even Furlong admits the film may simply have arrived too early. “Sometimes it takes a while for a movie to hit. Sometimes it takes time for people to discover it. Sometimes it’s a little ahead of its time.”
Then came the considerably louder Detroit Rock City, a celebration of four teenage KISS fans desperately trying to reach a concert. Furlong remembers the production as one of the most enjoyable experiences of his career, particularly after Gene Simmons personally approached him about joining the film.
“Of course, when Gene Simmons reaches out to you, you answer!”
Between filming, hanging out with KISS and travelling to concerts, Furlong and his co-stars also became obsessed with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which had just been released.
“We’d go to set, come back and sit around for hours playing Ocarina of Time. We’d get flown on a jet to go see a KISS concert and hang out with KISS. It was a blast.”
We went on to pitch a sequel to Detroit Rock City, the same cast, older, still trying to see KISS – maybe to their last concert ever? With major roadblocks and hilarious side quests. Furlong didn’t hesitate “That would be great – I’d love that, we’d all be older, uglier and fatter”.
Among Furlong’s post-Terminator performances, few carry the weight of American History X. Playing Danny Vinyard opposite Edward Norton gave him one of the most challenging roles of his career and a film he remains particularly proud of.
“When you have a career, you get a handful of movies that you really love, and American History X is one of those for me.”
Furlong saw Danny as something more than simply the younger brother of Norton’s Derek Vinyard. To him, the character represented “the personification of innocence being tarnished and destroyed” by the actions and beliefs of the adults surrounding him.
Working opposite Norton helped push his own performance further. “Whenever you’re working with a great actor, it makes your job much easier. Acting becomes easier because you’re reacting off them. Ed Norton is an extremely talented actor.”
The result remains one of the most acclaimed films attached to Furlong’s career and, in his eyes, one whose message has lost none of its importance.
COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO REWATCH
For all the films that followed, there is no escaping the shadow, or legacy, of Terminator 2. Furlong doesn’t appear interested in escaping it anymore. For audiences who grew up with John Connor, the 35th anniversary is an opportunity to return to 1991. For younger fans who discovered the film through televisions and streaming, Furlong argues there is only one way to properly understand what Cameron created.
“It’s a movie that was made for the big screen.”
He still remembers sitting in a cinema and watching the opening moments, as the camera moved across the remains of humanity before a Terminator crushed a skull beneath its foot. “The sound effect was so loud that I literally jumped out of my seat,” he remembers. “From then on, it’s just awesome.”
Thirty-five years later, the machines haven’t stopped, the T-1000 still terrifies, Guns N’ Roses still blasts through the soundtrack and Edward Furlong is still John Connor to generations of movie fans.
His advice for the anniversary couldn’t be simpler:
“You have to see it on the big screen.”
