Rating: * * * * *
Type: A “3-D Virtual Adventure”
Time: About 20 minutes
Kelly says: The best 3-D attraction in Orlando

Most attractions based on movies are created and developed by specialists at the parks. This time, Terminator 2 director James Cameron and Arnold (The Austrian Oak) Schwarzenegger figured they could do it better themselves. And, boy, did they ever! Reports are that $60 million was spent to create this show. You’ll get their money’s worth.

Given its location at the top of Hollywood Boulevard, near the Studio gates, T2 has become everyone’s first stop when entering the park (though not yours, if you follow my advice), so be prepared for long lines. Even if you don’t see lines outside, the huge interior queue can hold over 1,100 people, about a show and a half’s worth. On the other hand, the theater holds 700 people and the line moves fairly quickly.

Once you step off the street, you are in the newly rebuilt headquarters of Cyberdyne, the not so nice corporate giant of the T2 flick, which is out to refurbish its image and show off its latest technology. The pre-show warm-up, which takes place in a large anteroom to the theater itself, features a delicious parody of the “Vision of the Future” corporate videos and television commercials that are becoming increasingly common these days. The pre-show also gets the plot rolling: Sarah Connor and her son John have invaded Cyberdyne and commandeered the video screen to warn us against the new SkyNet project (which sounds remarkably like President Bush’s proposed National Missile Defense system). According to these “terrorists” (as the Cyberdyne people describe them), SkyNet will enslave us all. The Cyberdyne flack who is our host glosses over this “unfortunate interruption” and ushers us into the large auditorium. There we settle into deceptively normal looking theater seats, don our “protective glasses,” and the show begins.

And what a show it is. I don’t want to give too much away, but suffice it to say that it involves a spectacular three-screen 3-D movie starring Ah-nold himself, along with Linda Hamilton and Eddie Furlong (the kid from Terminator 2).

In one of the more inspired touches, the on-screen actors move from screen to stage and back again, Arnold aboard a roaring motorcycle. The film’s special effects are spectacular and the slam-bang, smoke-filled finale has people screaming and shrieking in their seats.

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