Terminator 2: Judgment Day opened on this day 35 years ago. The movie was, in every sense of the word, an absolute gamechanger. It is easily one of the most influential summer blockbusters ever made. Even though 1984’s The Terminator hadn’t made the biggest splash in theaters, it was a big enough success on home video to justify a sequel. You don’t need me to tell you it’s great, so let’s move on to some of the film’s “marketing”…

Yes, T2–which became more commonly used than its actual title–came from that delicate era when R=rated movies were heavily sold towards children. It might be what I call a “wholesome” R–the body count isn’t nearly as high as the far bloodier original–but it’s still surreal all the same. Terminator 2 had all of the bells and whistles, including action figures, video games, and…1-900 numbers. Yes, plural. As in more than one.

Let’s start with the one that was clearly targeted towards children, a “sweepstakes” where you would play a “game” which was really a means to get you to stay on the phone as long as possible in order to drive up the cost of the call. Don’t worry, I’m sure dad will approve so long as you win that Terminator 2 arcade cabinet that I genuinely wonder if anyone actually won. As I’ve said in the past when discussing this subject, finding information on these things is almost impossible. This shit ain’t archived at all, but I could find this apparent magazine ad, so that’s something.

Did anyone win any of this stuff? Was it a giant scam? I grew up in the era of such promotions, but can’t recall any of them involving these sleazy phone numbers. But hey, John Connor himself is recruiting me. I can’t let that little guy down. Not after what happened to him at the beginning of fucking Terminator: Dark Fate (IYKYK). Come to think of it, this does seem like the sort get-rich-quick scheme John would’ve come up with in the movie. You know, before his foster family got murdered. That was sort of a buzzkill (or not, since they kind of sucked).

But hey, if video games didn’t sound like a good prize to you (and they were LJN games, so maybe they wouldn’t), you could always try the other “sweepstakes” number to try to win the Terminator’s jacket. And his motorbike. And his sunglasses. And his boots. And his pants. And his underwear. And his condoms. You could win it all, by also playing a similar “game” to the John Connor one, except this commercial seems slightly more polished, maybe because an unknown blonde woman (everyone’s favorite character from the movie!) is really trying to coax me into dialing that phone number. But then again, it looks like she already won all that cool stuff, so why should I even bother? Also, it’s “all the real thing” from the movie. So…does that mean it’s the clothing Arnold himself wore? He’s kind of a big guy. I don’t think it would necessarily fit most people.

Have the power today, y’all!