Did the audience know Arnie was gonna be a good guy?

I remember when it came out (I was 11 so just a shade too young to catch it in the theater) but EVERYONE knew that Arnold was the good guy in it, from the marketing campaign alone ("come with me if you want to live") not to mention the arcade game hit at the same time (which all my friends played the hell out of). There was even a car commercial in my home town (Tip Top Chevrolet in Fairbanks, Alaska) that spoofed the line with "Come with me if you want a good deal!".

I saw it in its first release and it was a surprise to me. Yes it did look like two terminators against John in the mall. That scene was brilliantly shot and edited, like the Tech Noir scene in the first movie. Obviously the cop was a terminator of some sort but we had no idea he was liquid metal. Arnie had just attacked a bunch of bikies in the bar so there was no clue he was a good guy until he shielded John from the T-1000’s bullets.