The steel mill is in Fontana CA, about 55 miles east of downtown LA (in real life.) It was a retired steel plant that actually served Los Angeles as “Kaiser Steel.” It is there because turning a desert into a livable place with giant buildings and roads took a lot of construction materials. Also- because Los Angeles along with San Diego and San Francisco and a bunch of other towns were once major centers of US military might. The US Navy and the Pacific fleet had major presences on the west coast and Kaiser Steel provided steel for the west coast ship yards especially in WW2. Changes later after ww2 led to downsizing of the military and base closures as well as specifically the downsizing of pacific theater response as we no longer faced major direct threat from that side of the ocean more or less. Now fun facts…
As most know where the actual place is and the supposed location in a film don’t always match. Cyberdyne HQ was in Fremont CA southeast across the bay from San Francisco, but the address given in the film over the radio by police calling for help would place it in a residential neighborhood in Compton California- so the fictional LA is a bit different from real life. There is no “Pescadero State asylum” and the building was closer to LA proper. The film is set all around Los Angeles and the valley and even other regions (pescadero is quite a ways north of LA- a few hundred miles and much closer to San Francisco.) But LA is full of industry and especially had a history of industry. Hidden all around the area in plain sight is the largest urban oil field and 7th largest oil producer in the US. They disguise the pumps as towers and buildings and such but they are all over the city even Down town!
Los Angeles and the Southern California regions around it have actually been major “blue collar” power houses for a long time and the surrounding areas are huge agricultural producers. Most people from outside the area or state just tend to think of Hollywood and all that stuff but most people in the area aren’t in that business, “average” residents have long been various trades and other labor. Industrial office parks like the “Cyberdyne hq” started to really spring up after the bases closed and alot of the manufacturing started to dry up or move. Often either in the large formerly undeveloped areas near these buildings or replacing them entirely. So it actually would make total sense and wouldn’t be TOO out of place in LA area to have a shiny office complex just down the freeway from a massive industrial plant. Though steel specifically had sort of dried up in the immediate area around the 1980’s or late 70’s, but if you were an adult when T2 was made the LA shown wouldn’t be exact…
.. but it would be reminiscent of what LA had been like.
Also fun fact- the presence of the steel plant isn’t the unrealistic thing (as stated- and there are still several steel plants following the Sacramento River/Delta and California Coast or costal rivers etc..) but the plant itself. While very cinematic, you wouldn’t be likely to encounter steel or most metals being heated in large open cars like that. Not only is it dangerous for obvious reasons like falling in or splashing molten metal- but it’s inefficient and would make controlling the temp and cooling rate if the metal very difficult. What’s more, the ambient temps would be so high that a human being couldn’t safely get near the cats splash danger asides.
Radiant heat from the vats- well.. the meme calls it a lava factory and in a sense that has some accuracy. The molten steel, much like lava, could cause burns and combustion of materials simply by being close to it. Standing on the rim, standing on the rim looking over- the Conners would kore likely fuse to the metal floor and rails like the T1000 did because of its “glitches.”
So indeed T2 was not a strictly accurate and believable film on the whole or in most details- but the steel works being there actually does make sense with some historical context and in the universe they’ve created where Fremont CA is LA CA and Cyberdyne is either on a made up street that doesn’t exist or in a small Compton residential neighborhood. Like many films the locations don’t line up on a map with the time spent traveling and supposed position of things relative to each other, but it isn’t internally inconsistent so much to the universe they built an alternate LA in.
Also fun fact- the presence of the steel plant isn’t the unrealistic thing (as stated- and there are still several steel plants following the Sacramento River/Delta and California Coast or costal rivers etc..) but the plant itself. While very cinematic, you wouldn’t be likely to encounter steel or most metals being heated in large open cars like that. Not only is it dangerous for obvious reasons like falling in or splashing molten metal- but it’s inefficient and would make controlling the temp and cooling rate if the metal very difficult. What’s more, the ambient temps would be so high that a human being couldn’t safely get near the cats splash danger asides.
So indeed T2 was not a strictly accurate and believable film on the whole or in most details- but the steel works being there actually does make sense with some historical context and in the universe they’ve created where Fremont CA is LA CA and Cyberdyne is either on a made up street that doesn’t exist or in a small Compton residential neighborhood. Like many films the locations don’t line up on a map with the time spent traveling and supposed position of things relative to each other, but it isn’t internally inconsistent so much to the universe they built an alternate LA in.