Terminator Retrospective: Terminator 2: Judgment Day Review

In honor of Terminator Salvation, I will be taking a look back at the three Terminator films as this is a franchise I’ve known since I could crawl and love deeply. Each day we’ll bring you a review of all three films before capping it off with my full review of Terminator Salvation. Today is all about the film that redefined what it was to be a sequel, Terminator 2.

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY

I’m going to preface this by saying telling my now infamous Terminator story that this film inspired. While I barely remember the film being released in theaters, I do remember buying a bunch of the toys because my six-year old self became infatuated with the T-800. Three years after the theatrical release, Terminator 2 would finally make it’s way to my house via VHS. My brother and I huddled around the television and had our eyes glued to our big screen television as James Cameron’s epic wowed us. I don’t remember what day it was, but after that day a few things were certain; I had fallen in love and felt my calling in life was to make films. From that day, every minute in school felt like it was one too many before I could get home and watch Terminator 2 again with my brother. We knew every line, acted out every part, and would devote almost all of our time playing the SNES and Genesis games. It was official, we were Terminator junkies of the highest caliber. I couldn’t stop thinking about the film to where all the doodles on the side of my notebook paper in third grade consisted of some variation of myself as a T-800. I had even dressed as one that Halloween after my father found the make-up and did a stunning job making me look just like it (of course, later that night some woman undermined the look by commenting on my friends store bought Wolverine costume while saying “You’re just a cyborg” to me. Bitch.)

This would all lead to my first time dealing with rejection. Unlike most boys the ripe of age of ten, I had a crush on a girl who will be called Liz. To my ten year old self, I thought she was gorgeous and typically became a shell every time she walked by or was mentioned. My mentality of doing the coolest thing (or the thing I’m attached to the most) to try to impress a girl took over one day at the playground. Here came Liz, walking by wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. Typically, I ran as fast as I could to avoid her like a schoolgirl. Socially I was an outcast although I knew people who knew her. At this point I’m rummaging through the files in my brain, trying to think of something impressive to tell her. There it was, I had found my window into speaking to her. I grabbed a mutual acquaintance of ours and told her, “Tell Liz I’m a Terminator sent through time to kill her.” After getting one of the strangest looks a human being will ever receive, this person walked over to Liz and informed her. Moments later, both of them walked back up to me while that familiar red screen is starting to come up in my vision. “You’re a Terminator?” Liz asked me. “Yes, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101,” was my reply. She raised a brow and shook her head then began “And you’re supposed to kill me?” “Yes, but I can’t do it because I reprogrammed myself to not do that.” She walked away then shook her head, and I had sensed new data called rejection. Later at the lunch table, another girl asked me “You’re a Terminator?!” I nodded, causing her to ask “What’s the future like? Is it how it is in the movies?”

In case that last diatribe isn’t an indicator, Terminator 2 is on a very short list of films I’d consider my all-time favorite film. It was the first film I’d seen since RoboCop that had captivated me in such a way that justified my obsession with films. At that age, it was all about the awesomeness of Arnold’s character that made me love that film not to mention the menacing and all but indestructible T-1000. Yes, the ten year-old inside me goes ape-nuts whenever the T-800 makes that now legendary motorcycle jump racing after John Connor and I still find the way he cocks the shotgun to be the most awesome way to pump the weapon. You could even say the movie still has influence over me for when I play House of the Dead 3 or any other shotgun arcade game I pump the weapon like Sarah does at the end of the picture. Upon repeat viewings and growing a little less wiser than I was at ten, I’ve come to appreciate the movie as a film and still to this day feel the visual effects have been matched, but not outdone.

Much like Cameron did with Aliens and made it an all out war film as opposed to the darker, more horror-toned Alien, T2 doesn’t base the film around the fear of the T-1000. Instead the T-1000 is played as more of a slick, menacing villain that will stop at nothing. Yes, Arnold’s character is essentially all of that in The Terminator but that film is based on the fear of that character. Here, Cameron accepts that we’ve seen a Terminator plow through everyone and scare the living daylights out of Sarah Connor so he chooses to make the villain menacing rather than fearful. Where Arnold’s Terminator operated more as a brawler the T-1000 is more ninja-esque, dispatching his opponents quickly and silently. The marriage between CGI and character in this film is unparalleled and it’s safe to say without the T-1000 we wouldn’t have Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, and Transformers. Unlike the latter though, T2 builds a strong character around the T-1000 who is expertly played by Robert Patrick. None of the T-1000’s visuals feel as if they’re in there just to look cool or evoke a feeling of awesome just for the sake of it. The character relies on Patrick’s body actions as much as it does the stunning visual effects and he doesn’t disappoint. Patrick mimicked the movements of a bald eagle’s head for his portrayal of the iconic villain which shows. Again, this character is all about body language more than spoken dialogue and his interaction with characters. When unloading an entire clip into the T-800, the T-1000 doesn’t waste a moment pulling the trigger and has the next clip ready to roll. Patrick and Cameron understand this character isn’t about recreating Arnold’s icon, but giving us a new and sleeker character that in turn is just as memorable.

By this point, Arnold had become a bonafide action star and a pure one-line sprouting machine thanks to what Cameron did for him on the first picture. The evolution of the T-800 from hard-nosed killer to eventual surrogate father is nothing short of brilliant. The T-800 is the same at the start of the picture only working for the good guys, but as the movie charges forward he learns more about human life, leading into one of the movies themes. While it might be the simplest of developments as the character has no personality and eventually gains one, it plays expertly to what the movie is trying to say about human beings. From the first scene on, we see this is a slightly different T-800 than the one found in T1. He’s still a threatening presence, but he doesn’t kill aimlessly like he did before. This time he will stop at nothing to protect John Connor rather than make sure he doesn’t exist and executes it wonderfully when he tosses himself in front the onslaught of the S.W.A.T. Team. An even better example is when he sacrifices one of his limbs in order to destroy the T-1000 at the steel mill. His relationship with John Connor is a true treat to watch as the young boy teaches him how to become human.

Edward Furlong catches a lot of flack for being annoying but really he comes off as an intelligent, independent outcast. Compared to other child actors (here’s to you Jake Lloyd), Furlong acts as John like a true child with his past would behave. He doesn’t believe his psycho mother and looks to be doomed to a life of crime before the T-800 shows up and confirms his mother’s teachings. He really shines through in the smaller moments such as when he’s trying to teach the Terminator to give a high five. Furlong acts like a boy who’s just taught his dog a new trick and can’t contain himself. He accepts this machine that “will never leave him, never tell him he’s too tired, or beat him” because he’s never had that. Connor’s sadness and outright refusal to accept the Terminator’s destruction at the end embodies what every child who saw this film and fell in love with the T-800. It’s all handled well by Furlong who does a much better job than he gets credit for.

Linda Hamilton evolves the Sarah Connor character nicely, and in fact it was her idea to have Sarah be emotionally unstable and in a mental ward to begin the film. James Cameron pushed for her to get an Academy Award nomination and it’s tough to disagree with that. It’s fun to watch her be in hysterics in round one then to watch her be the ultimate badass in this installment. She knows what’s going to happen to humanity and Hamilton does little subtle touches to give Sarah that much more of a crazy edge. Her best work comes when she’s at the Dyson home and is close to murdering a man who gives birth to humankind’s ultimate demise. Sarah slowly calms herself down when she has Miles Dyson at gunpoint only to be in shock a moment later and it all feels natural and never overdone. Her rant later on about men like Dyson comes off as powerful and from the view of someone who hates the man with every fiber she has. It’s a truly wonderful portrayal and perfect evolution of a woman who’s lost so much and knows what she must do to prevent or get ready for the oncoming future.

One could make a case for the many side characters in T2 and it’s fun to see Dr. Silberman again and like the rest, his character has evolved very nicely. However, the one who seems to get lost in the shuffle is the one who represents something the film tries to convey. Miles Dyson is a workaholic machine which alienates his family so he can create the next big military weapon. Joe Morton is beautiful at capturing all of that and plays Dyson quietly. We first see him in Cyberdyne Systems admiring the first T-800’s arm and chip like a patron awing over the Mona Lisa. Thematically, he’s a poster boy for all those who invented weapons that wiped out a portion of humanity, while his will take us all out. In that sense he could be a villain as even the protagonist states “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” Certainly he doesn’t come off like a villain nor does Morton give him reason to be one, aside from neglecting his family but we’re speaking from a thematic point of view. Perhaps this is why Cameron chooses to end Dyson’s arc the way he does, as maybe he too saw him as an antagonist.

Now here’s where Terminator 2 separates itself from the pack and in some ways it’s predecessor. The film is about mankind’s ultimate doom and how we, not the machines, are responsible and how we can better ourselves to avoid it. ‘There is no fate but what we make for ourselves’ does not refer to John and Sarah Connor preventing Judgment Day, but human beings on the whole preventing it. With all of the Connors’ rampaging through Cybderdyne trying to prevent August 29th, 1997 from taking place, they can’t predict human nature. Ironically, a man made creation in the T-800 all but learns the value of human life. Here’s a robot who’s bred to murder and maim all of humanity and yet by the end he values it. Sarah’s final narration gives the viewer a sense that they should follow the T-800’s new outlook on human life and should try to create it rather than find new ways to destroy it.

Of course, the great acting, effects, directing, writing, and themes are topped off with action sequences that set the bar and are still being mimicked to this day. All of the action has a beginning, middle, and end and furthers the story along rather than act as a time out from it. Every sequence is a winner, so let’s start with the freeway chase at the end of the picture. In one of the greatest chases put on film, the T-1000 rockets his helicopter toward a S.W.A.T. van commandeered by the Connors and Terminator. Proving why he’s a master, Cameron not only gives an extra arm to the T-1000 and doesn’t fall into the trap of focusing on it, but he uses zero CGI for the sequence. It’s a marvel to beheld, as is the final showdown with the T-1000. Even when the liquid menace begins to malfunction, he never loses that sense of danger that make him a now easy target. By contrast, the T-800 gets whipped on so bad it’s a miracle he makes it through the fight. His final blow to the T-1000 may be quick but it’s a perfect conclusion to an otherwise thrilling fight. There are other sequences just as spectacular, such as the mall shootout and the motorcycle chase. While these do showcase the wonderful effects and are the best of their kind, they serve their purpose. Most action directors do cite this film as inspiration but you wonder how many of them actually understand why the action and effects work like they do.

Terminator 2 is the prime example of a film surpassing it’s original and while the bigger budget may have helped, it’s more so because it’s a better story on this go around. It also helped by this point James Cameron had improved as a director and such the character moments didn’t fall as flat as they might have in the first film. To this day, some still regard T2 as the summer blockbuster to surpass and that’s not wrong at all. It’s a true masterpiece in every sense of the word and it’s blemishes are hardly noticeable at all. Terminator 2: Judgment Day changed cinema and paved the way for many of the effect-driven films that populate cineplexes today. Effects aren’t the only reason this earned it’s reputation as it has great character development, one really solid story, truly memorable action scenes, and a perfect antagonist. T2 is a marriage of all the things a great film needs and creates on of the best films ever made.