Alternate versions

On the 'Ultimate Edition' DVD as well as the 'Skynet Edition' Blu-ray, there are three versions of the film, albeit only two at the menu, the Theatrical and Special Edition versions. However, highlighting the 'Special Edition' option and keying in '82997' (August 29, 1997), will open a Extended Special Edition Option, with the T-1000 searching John's room and an Alternate ending added on and replaced. Some DVD players may need to push ENTER between each digit.

Original theatrical prints have the standard 18-second Pegasus/horizon Tristar logo at the start, followed by the Carolco logo (blue Cs). Home video releases and the 2017 theatrical re-release omit the Tristar part, although the white line drawing is still part of the credits crawl. (The 2017 re-release replaces it with the StudioCanal logo).

The Ultimate Edition DVD accidentally omits part of the theatrical version: The first 23 seconds of Sarah's dream-recounting tape, which is all in a TV closeup. It starts that scene at the wide shot where Sarah says it's always the same. The more widely available Extreme DVD, which also uses branching, does not have this mistake. The original USA DVD from 1997 included the correct theatrical version as well.

Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese appears in the Special Edition, which was deleted in the theatrical version.

The 2017 theatrical re-release in the UK contains an exclusive intro from director James Cameron. He addresses "UK cinemas", celebrates the fact that younger generations who only saw it on video now have the chance to see it at the cinema and mentions the restoration process. After this, we're shown a notice about the 3D conversion from DMG and the BBFC black card before the film starts.

The 2017 re-release contains additional credits detailing the 4K restoration and 3D conversion. These play after the original credits.

When Terminator 2 was shown on BBC One in 1994, they broadcast the 1993 Special Edition version which was edited for violence and had all uses of the word 'Fuck' cut out.

The film has an alternate ending: Following the T-800's demise we cut to many years later we see an elderly Sarah sitting at a park watching an adult John playing with his daughter. Sarah mentions Judgment Day didn't happen and John became an American senator. After Sarah ties up her granddaughter's shoe laces, Sarah then mentions the T-800 and that if a Terminator could learn about the value of human life and hopes someday everyone will do too and the film ends.

The version aired on WGN Weekend Theater in February 2000 is rated TV-PG and has all of the swearing either muted or is garbled over and has some scenes removed such as when John is talking to the Terminator when he gets off his motorcycle is briefly cut, also some violence is cut also. This version was shown in full screen format.

The Special Edition runs about 16 minutes longer. Among the new/alternate scenes:

• The orderlies are shown forcing Sarah to take her medication.
• Sarah has a long nightmare, involving a visit from Kyle Reese in the hospital leading to a playground/bomb scene outside; this dream happens just before she is seen describing it on tape.
• The T-1000 steals a police car after John and the T-800 get away after the canal chase.
• The T-1000 realizes the dog is not named Wolfy and kills him, after the phone call from John.
• Instead of simply stating that the T-800 learns from humans, there is a longer scene in the garage where John and Sarah open him up to change his processor from read-only to learning; Sarah almost smashes the chip to end it all but John talks her out of it.
• John tries to teach the T-800 to smile at the gas/food stop.
• Dyson is seen at home working on the Skynet chip prototype. His wife comes in and reminds him he's promised to take the kids to Raging Waters. Dyson explains to his wife what a neural net processor is and how it will change mankind for the better. (This happens after Sarah asks about Dyson in the first place.)
• At Enrique's house, John and the T-800 are stacking up ammunition. They start to talk about emotions and fear of death. John describes his childhood and his feelings about his mother's previous lovers.
• At Dyson's home at night, a series of restored and rearranged shots show Sarah assembling her weapons (with an alternate line from Tarissa), thus building the tension of her stalking Dyson outside in his backyard.
• As John and the T-800 race after Sarah to prevent her from killing Dyson, John explains to him that killing is always wrong and life is important.
• At Cyberdyne, the gang destroys the lab; Dyson himself shatters a large scale model of the Skynet chip with an axe. There is a dialogue change as the police arrive, since the police radio dispatch is not continuous anymore. The theatrical edition mentions the 1984 police station shootout, and the special edition focuses more on a repeat/correction of the Cyberdyne address.
• In the factory after the T-1000 is shattered, we see that it's beginning to lose control of its morphing. Its hand takes on black and yellow stripes when it grabs a railing, and later its feet squish and morph into the steel floor pattern on each step. Several minutes later, when it morphs into Sarah Connor, John looks down and notices the T-1000's feet combining with the steel floor right before telling the real Sarah to shoot it.
• After the theatrical credits have run in their entirety, there are special edition credits.

The UK T-1000 Edition VHS release omits one scene from the theatrical version. In the original theatrical cut, during the Cyberdyne break-in sequence, Dyson and John are seen entering the security vault and smashing the glass cases to obtain the Terminator arm and CPU, with John then saying, "We've got Skynet by the balls now". In the T-1000 Edition, we only see Dyson and John using their keys to get inside the vault before the scene cuts away.

The version shown on ABC May 15, 1994, altered the following:

• Omission of the scene in the bar where the T-800 twists the man's arm and pins him to the pool table.
• The T-1000's nudity was obscured by strategically-placed silhouettes.
• Omission of the man who's shot by the T-1000's gunfire in the lobby.
• The orderly who licks Sarah was only hit with the night stick once in the TV version.
• The T-800 only shoots the guard outside the institution once in the legs.
• Omission of the shot showing the blade going through the foster father's mouth.
• Nearly all profanities (including "hell" and "damn") deleted or dubbed over.

The version shown on UPN deleted all explicit profanity. Also deleted were the shots of the T-1000's spike impaling the guard through the eye, the foster father's death (it simply cut to the shot where the blade is pulled out), the trucker getting impaled by the T-1000's blade, the biker getting the knife stabbed into him, the T-1000's nudity, and the guards do not spurt blood when shot in the knees. The version shown on the Sci-fi channel deleted the T-1000's nudity and edited out the profanity quite well. All though it left the spike impalement scenes in it deleted the scene where the T-800 stabs the biker and breaks his arm.

In the storyboards section on the Ultimate Edition DVD, there is evidence of an early scripted scene. Set right in the beginning of the movie, it shows various battle scenes of the war until in one of them, a terminator who is aiming his gun at a soldier suddenly shuts down (we see the red glow in his eye fading out), as do the others and the several hoverships and tanks. This early draft actually described soldiers penetrating skynet and destroying it, finding the terminator factory with many terminators in both skeleton and disguised form (Arnold's), and eventually sending both Kyle Reese and the reprogammed T-800 (good Arnold) back to the past.

The Australian theatrical release of T2 contained many of the scenes that would eventually make it onto the special edition. These included the dream sequence with Reese (but not Sarah being beaten up by the guards) and the malfunctioning of the T1000 in the steel works factory and even the alternate ending with Sarah as an older woman and John with a child of his own playing in the park. However the rental video release and subsequent home video releases were all the standard version.

The British Board of Film Classification initially requested some cuts before they could pass the film with a 15 certificate in the UK. For the cinema version, the following edits were made to what they deemed to be "heavy and realistic violence":

• The blows delivered to the security guard by Sarah with the wooden broom handle were reduced from four to one; the subsequent blows and shots of his bloodied face were removed.
• The beating of Silberman with a nightstick was reduced so that only the impact to his arm remained; the impact to the back of his legs was removed.

The initial VHS video versions (the 1992 theatrical cut and the 1997 'T-1000 edition') were cut by a further 18 seconds to reduce the following scenes:

• The biker being thrown onto the stove. In the uncut version, this happens in two shots. In the cut version, the start of each shot was shortened.
• The biker being stabbed in the shoulder. The shot of him lying on the table was shortened at the start to remove the impact (this is very subtle and difficult to notice).
• Sarah picking the lock on her door. The shot was shortened at the start to remove the insertion of the paperclips; what remained showed her wiggling the already-inserted paperclips in the lock.
• Lewis being stabbed in the face by the T-1000. The close-up showing him juddering in pain was shortened at the start, with the rest being slowed down to cover the missing footage (before this compromise, the BBFC initially requested that an alternate take be used, which didn't exist).
• The guard at the hospital gate being shot in the legs by the T-800 was reduced so that he's only shot once, instead of twice as per the uncut version. Both gunshots are contained in a single camera shot, which was shortened at the start in the cut version.
• During the rescue of Sarah, the warden having his face slammed against the wall by the T-800 was removed. The close-up showing him traveling towards and slamming into the wall was shortened at the end to remove the impact.
• The sight of the policeman having his face slammed into a concrete pillar by the T-800 was removed.
• The kneecapping of the S.W.A.T. team by the T-800 was reduced from seven shots to four, with the second, fourth and sixth impacts being removed.

The 1992 Laserdisc was (unusually for the time) passed uncut with an 18 certificate, and the cuts were fully waived or 15 in 2001. All UK releases from the Ultimate Edition DVD onward are uncut with a 15 certificate.