Lightstorm Entertainment

Background
Lightstorm Entertainment is the production company of writer/producer/director James Cameron, who co-founded it with Threshold Entertainment founder Lawrence Kasanoff.

1st Logo (1993, 2009)


Logo: Scrolling in the credits, we see the letter "A" above a stylized drawing of a man with a bow and a lightning bolt as an arrow. Below it is the stacked text "LIGHTSTORM", "ENTERTAINMENT" and "PRODUCTION" and the copyright disclaimer "© 1993 Carolco Pictures Inc./Pioneer LDC, Inc.".

Variant: A still version of the logo appears on the Nintendo DS port of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game.

Trivia: The bowman logo appears in the Entourage episode "The Boys are Back in Town", in which a plot point is Emily being hired by the Lightstorm company.

Technique: None, unless you count the scrolling of the credits.

Music/Sounds: Just the closing theme of the movie.

Availability: Ultra rare, appears at the end of the "Making of" feature on the Terminator 2: Judgement Day Special Edition laserdisc release.

2nd Logo (1994)
Logo: On a black background, we see the stylized bowman from the previous logo flash in, now in steel. As the bowman slowly zooms back, the words "LIGHTSTORM ENTERTAINMENT" flash in below.

Technique: The logo zooming out.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the trailer.

Availability: Rare. Only seen on the trailer for True Lies, as it was likely a placeholder logo used for the trailer.

3rd Logo (July 12, 1994-)
Logo: On a black background, several lasers, lights, and firework-esque explosions shoot upwards toward the camera above a steel structure. The structure zooms back slightly to reveal that it is the stylized bowman from before, then upwards and to the left. It eases out and as it shines, "LIGHTSTORM" flashes below the bowman, and "ENTERTAINMENT" appears below.

Variants:
 * The logo is still on Solaris and Alita: Battle Angel.
 * There's a short version that features the zoom out of the bowman and the name flashing below.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A quiet, but powerful orchestrated fanfare. There are violin sounds throughout. When "ENTERTAINMENT" appears, there is a chime that reverberates for the duration. A portion of the theme shows up in the climax of True Lies (the movie where this logo made its debut, along with the 1994 20th Century Fox logo). The music was composed by Brad Fiedel, best known for composing the music for the first two Terminator movies.

Availability: Seen on True Lies and Strange Days. The still variant can be seen at the beginning of Solaris and the end of Alita: Battle Angel. The short version is seen on trailers, including Avatar: The Way of Water (a new logo was introduced on the film proper), and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game. This logo doesn't appear on Titanic or the original Avatar.

Legacy: An amazingly well-animated logo for its time, it would've been more popular if more movies used this.

4th Logo (December 16, 2022-)
Logo: On a black background, we see a small streak of light pass by, which turns out to be reflecting off the stylized bowman from before as another light illuminates it. We ease out from the bowman where we see the "LIGHTSTORM" flash onscreen in a similar way as the previous logo, along with "ENTERTAINMENT" fading in below.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A short bombastic orchestral fanfare.

Availability: Brand new. Debuted on Avatar: The Way of Water.