Terminator 2: Judgement Day

"No fate but what we make"

I can still remember the anticipation surrounding the release of Terminator 2: Judgement Day prior to it's release in the Summer of 1991. Unlike the original film, whose reputation was built mostly by word of mouth over the years, this one had a powerhouse of promotion behind it along with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to one of his most iconic roles, albeit with a bit of a twist. Unlike some films, this one delivered on it's promise in a big way creating not only a superior sci-fi action film, but a bonafide pop culture landmark that would in many ways overshadow it's predecessor. 

Picking up ten years after the first film, John Connor (played by Edward Furlong) is a young boy living with foster parents. His mother, Sarah (played by Linda Hamilton), is committed to a mental hospital due to her repeated warnings about Judgement Day being mistaken for mental illness. John is an angry little juvenile delinquent, using the survival techniques he picked up from his mom to rip money off of stolen ATM cards so he can go play video games at the local arcade. He's accepted the fact that his mother is crazy and thinks she made up all the stuff about the Terminators. He's in for a big surprise when he encounters not one but two Terminators, both trying to find him. One, the T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), has been programmed to protect him. The other, the newer T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick), has been sent there to kill him.  

After escaping the clutches of the T-1000, John insists they break into the Mental Hospital and break out his mother, despite the fact that the T-800 advises John that the T-1000 would likely be headed there as well with the goal of re-acquiring John there. Of course, the T-800 turns out to be right, but they are able to rescue Sarah and get free of the T-1000, along with several Hospital guards and doctors. Sarah is understandably shocked at the sight of the T-800, which looks exactly like the Terminator that tried to kill her a decade prior. Once she accepts that it is there to protect her, she starts inquiring about the cause of Judgement Day and who started it. The T-800 is able to easily provide this information, pointing her to a company called Cyberdyne Systems and the creation of Skynet by a man named Miles Dyson (played by Joe Morton). She decides the only way to stop Judgement Day from happening is to take out Dyson. John and the T-800 stop her at the last minute but talk to Dyson and explains what he creations do. 

Dyson then takes Sarah, John and the T-800 to Cyberdyne systems. It turns out their company has been reverse engineering the destroyed Terminator's arm and microchip that remained from the first film. This sets up an interesting plot point in the series, if the original Terminator was never sent back by Skynet in the first film, it never would have existed in the first place. This also echoes the first film where if John had not sent Kyle Reese back to protect Sarah then he would not have existed either since Kyle winds up being John's father. It's a Predestination Paradox, that this how it was always supposed to go and ties into the theme of fate that runs through most of the series. Dyson, realizing what his research will bring about, agrees to help Sarah, John and the T-800 destroy all the research and the remaining bits of the original Terminator. Of course, that is easier said than done when not only the T-1000, but the bulk of the Los Angeles Police Department show up, responding to the alarms that were set off when Sarah, John, Dyson and the T-800 arrived at Cyberdyne in the middle of the night. 

Terminator 2 is in many ways the opposite of the first film. The first film was a much smaller and more intimate film whereas the second one is much larger in scope, with several car chases, explosions and thrills to spare. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way complaining. James Cameron returned to write and direct this film a brought us a sequel that was at least as good as the first film, if not better. It does a great job of broadening the scope of the first film while also deftly building on what came before leading up to a climax that was awe inspiring, thrilling and in the end surprisingly moving. 

This film also had a gigantic pop culture impact, especially Robert Patrick as the liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 appearing in a couple other films, including Wayne's World and in Schwarzenegger's own Last Action Hero. T2 was also referenced in the latter film by Schwarzenegger himself, except in that film's context the Terminator was played by Sylvester Stallone, even showing the film's iconic poster with Stallone in the place of Schwarzenegger.  

Terminator 2 remains the benchmark that each film that comes after it is inevitably rated against. For me, I think it's the best in the series with the first film in a very close second. Of course, that could be nostalgia talking as I saw the second film before I saw the first one. Either way, one thing is certain and that is that Terminator 2 is a superior piece of sci-fi action entertainment.