★★★★½
The opening scene of Terminator 2: Judgment Day presents the audience with a view of a collapsed highway filled with exploded cars, the skeletons of their drivers still sitting in the front seats.
As the camera pulls out to reveal a better look at this hellish landscape, block letters appear at the bottom of the screen: “LOS ANGELES 2029 A.D.” At the opening night of Australian music group Hear My Eyes’ concert experience for Terminator 2, an awkward, uncomfortable laugh ran through the room at the appearance of this subtitle.
For the unfamiliar, Terminator 2 picks up about ten years after the events of The Terminator. It follows a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) as he finds himself in the crosshairs of the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a robot assassin sent from the future to kill him.
With the help of the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), another future robot sent by his future self to protect him, John breaks his mother, Sarah (Linda Hamilton), out of prison. The trio set out to rewrite the future and defeat the seemingly unkillable T-1000.
For the last few years, Hear My Eyes has been collaborating with various artists across the globe to create new interpretive experiences for a diverse range of films. In the past, the films has been mostly niche cult classics, such as Chopper and Wake in Fright. A blockbuster like Terminator 2 feels like a bold and ambitious departure for the collective.
Hear My Eyes has teamed up with Belgian composer Peter Van Hoesen and Australian audio-visual maestro Robin Fox. Together, they bring a bold new synthesiser-driven sound and laser show to accompany James Cameron’s hit sci-fi classic.
Collaborating with the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS), Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a phenomenal experience for fans of the original film.
Terminator 2 is an all-time classic action flick. It is packed with iconic performances, boundary-pushing special effects, and killer action sequences. The whole thing is tied together with a narrative that may be even more relevant now than it was when it was released 35 years ago.
In the face of rapid developments in AI, it’s hard not to see right now as the perfect time to revisit Terminator 2. When John asks the T-800, “We’re not gonna make it, are we?” the T-800 responds, “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” That same awkward laughter from the start of the film ran through the crowd once again.
Hear My Eyes’ choice to take on Terminator 2 clearly isn’t just motivated by its Rotten Tomatoes score. It’s been taken on because, in the current moment, it is a movie that fans and newcomers should be seeing and thinking about.
It’s easy to imagine that it would be a challenging prospect to approach a movie this highly lauded by its fans. Fortunately, fans of Terminator 2 will be pleased to know that Hear My Eyes has produced a soundtrack that is very much additive to the experience of watching the original film.
Their performance is appropriately restrained; they know exactly when to let the film breathe and tell its own story. They consistently pick the right time to jump in with their thrilling synthetic beats, enhancing an action sequence and contributing a subtle low drone to punctuate tense dialogue.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a must-see experience for fans of the original film. It is running in Melbourne for a short season before touring to Sydney and Canberra.
Hear My Eyes – Terminator 2: Judgment Day A New Concert Experience runs to 28 February at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. 100 St Kilda Road Southbank Vic 3006.
It then runs in Sydney and Canberra, tour dates below.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://www.hearmyeyes.com.au/events/terminator-2-judgement-day-a-new-concert-experience/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/artscentremelbourne/ and https://www.instagram.com/hearmyeyes/
Photo credits: Simon Aubor
2026 Australian Tour Dates:
Melbourne 25 – 28 February, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre
Sydney 7 March, Sydney Recital Hall
Canberra 18 – 19 March, Canberra Theatre Centre
