10 Movie Scenes You Never Knew Used Body Doubles
1. The T-800's Chip Gets Switched - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Several years before La Haine fooled us all with its deceptively simple mirror trick, James Cameron pulled off his own similar-but-different feat of double trouble for Terminator 2, while filming a scene which ultimately ended up in the Extended Edition, where the T-800's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) chip is tinkered with.
The scene involves the T-800 being operated on by both Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her son John (Edward Furlong), taking place in front of a mirror yet, incredibly, not showing any sign of a camera in the reflection.
This version of the mirror trick is infinitely more complex than La Haine's given that it requires three actors to be doubled in the "reflection."
It all comes down to ingenious staging, though: the T-800 in the foreground is a prop while Schwarzenegger is actually acting in the reflection.
Edward Furlong is meanwhile in the foreground while a double appears in the reflection with the back of their head to the camera. But most stunningly of all, we see the mind-boggling sight of Linda Hamilton perfectly, seemingly impossibly reflected in the mirror.
Though you'd be forgiven for assuming this was a state-of-the-art visual effect, it was simply a result of Cameron learning that Hamilton had a twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, and having her mirror her sister's movements in the faux-reflection.
The end result is absolutely seamless, and the fact it wasn't included in the theatrical cut must've been a huge heartbreak to all who put so much into getting it right.
Hamilton's twin sister was also used as a double for another scene near the end of the movie, when two Sarahs appear on the screen at the same time after the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) impersonates her. Brilliant.